#rambles (non fandom)

[vintage-bentley]

It’s so hard for me to not feel devastated about the state of LGB acceptance.

I’m gen Z, so I was lucky to be raised with a positive attitude towards same sex attraction. I distinctly remember seeing those posters about how gay isn’t an insult, before I even knew what gay was. So by the time I was old enough to understand what sexuality was, I kind of just knew I was gay and was fine with it. I was supposed to be the lucky generation—the first to be raised in a world that generally felt positively towards same sex attraction.

And then in comes gender ideology and all of its rampant homophobia. And in a way, it feels like the world I was promised was ripped away from me. I used to think I’d be out and proud as a lesbian, but now I’m scared to even mention it to anybody because I know that I don’t have to just worry about the people who think same sex attraction = sin, but now I also have to worry about the people who hear “lesbian” and translate it to “evil terf bitch”. And the people who hear “I’m only attracted to women” and translate it to “transphobic and closed-minded”. And people who say “I’m gay too!” But actually aren’t.

I used to dream of going to pride events, but now I know it’s not for me. It’s for people who have built up entire identities that would crumble without their homophobic and misogynistic foundation. Every time pride month comes up, I feel almost a sense of grief. Because that was supposed to be my time to be with people like me. Now it’s for the people who’ve always hated us, and found a way to take over all of the minimal things we had just for us.

It’s lonely enough to be gay, especially a lesbian. And it’s just gotten worse. And it keeps getting worse as more people grow to at the best not give a shit about us, and at the worst hate us passionately and do everything they can to let it be known.

It really feels like the LGB positive future I thought I’d been born into was stolen. And the worst part of it all is that I can’t even talk about this without being dismissed as a bad person.

[deuce-agere]

[bizlybebo]

got bored n made a new tiny animatic ^_^

[spacecasehobbit]

After seeing yet another popular tumblr post with thousands of reblogs bemoaning the state of comments on fanfics these days - more specifically, the supposed lack of commenting these days, as opposed to The Good Old Days - I have decided that this is in fact a hill I am willing to die on. I'm making a separate post about it rather than reblogging the latest iteration, though. This is hardly the first time I've seen these types of discussions, and my issue is with the mindset in general, not any of the specific people who hold it.

In the most recent version, the entire post with all its various arguments and assertions was plenty frustrating across the board, but it included one line in particular that cut beautifully to the heart of my issue with this type of discussion. The line in question:

"fanfic authors now are treated like content mills, and not like valued members of a creative community who thrive on interaction."

Once I read this bit, I had to stop, take a few deep breaths, and then go make my own post before I imploded over the sheer level of NOPE this line inspired. And okay. The thing is... I want to say this as gently and kindly as I possibly can, but I need to be real blunt for a minute, too.

That line I quoted sounds like a wannabe social media influencer.

It sounds like a person who thinks fandom is - or should be - comprised of fanfiction writers, aka Valued Content Creators, and their respective communities of readers, aka Content Consumers, a strictly distinct group from fic writers, for whom they create fanfiction content and who in turn pay them back with attention and validation in the form of comments and praise.

It does not sound like a fanfiction author who enjoys the creative hobby of writing stories based on characters and worlds from existing stories, engaging in their hobby within a community of other likeminded creators of fan content.

Frankly, fandom has always been worst when it starts obsessing over Big Name Fans who wind up treated like elite fandom social influencers, instead of hobbyists engaging in a fun hobby together based on mutual interests. A shift towards the idea that every fanfic writer should be effectively a social media influencer whose community consists of fans reading the content they oh-so-lovingly create (but only if they get enough positive attention from passive consumers, presumably readers who don't write their own fic or expect comments back from the author in return) sounds like an absolutely awful direction for fandom to take.

I don't want fanfiction and fandom spaces to turn into another social media space full of Our Valued Content Creators, all fighting to build the largest "community" of passive consumers turned devoted followers.

Again, that sounds frankly fucking awful.

The people who only read fanfiction are not your fanfiction community, because they are not engaging in the shared community hobby of writing fanfiction. Your fanfiction community is, perhaps, the other people who are also writing their own fanfiction based on someone else's original work.

So perhaps if comments really are declining on fics these days, instead of asking why passive readers aren't heaping praise on every fic they read and making sure it all happens where the Valued Creator can hear it, you should ask yourself how many other fanfics you've commented on recently, and then go comment on another one if you're still feeling down about your own work.

Or, I dunno, find a fic author you admire and send them a message on tumblr, if you've already commented on all of their fics that you read and enjoyed.

Or start your own discord for likeminded fans, or find a way to set up your own fandom forums centered on your personal fandom interests and invite other fic authors to come join.

Or, like, anything that involves reaching out to the actual community of hobbyists you can reasonably consider to be a community you are actually a part of.

Aka, other fanfiction writers.

[alloverthegaf]

Hi friends,

Long time followers and friends will know Watson, my first baby, my little wrinkly man, my cute evil overlord. I don't live with him anymore, in fact I live 9 hours away, but I still get updates from my parents, and he still holds a very large chunk of my heart.

Mum told me today he's terminal. It could be anywhere from 6 to 18 months, and here's hoping for closer to the latter. She says for now he's fine, still full of love and spite and purring. But I wanted to say something here, where so many of you watched me fall in love with him, and then post about him daily, complete with non-stop photos. Pretty sure I have a special tag for him, if I can remember or find it.

I'll probably say more when the time comes. For now, I just wanted y'all to know, and remember him for a moment, and feel a little love his way. He was my rock at times, and at times he was my reason for living, and always he will be my evil little goblin.

I'm hoping to be able to see him again before he goes. If I do, I will make sure to spam your dash with photos.

I'm okay. I'm lucky enough to have Ron, and Ned, my second baby. But I'm sad, and when he goes it will be so hard. But I will still be okay.

Love and miss y'all <3

[cl0wn-tim3]

I love when people ship Harvey and shane

Both of my husbands 10/10 they should kiss and hold hands

[rweoutofthewoods]

I need need NEED people on TikTok to stop. I saw a TikTok where someone was like omg I want to befriend and track down x big author and x big author. WHERE IS THE TACT?? I CANT be the only one who thinks this is so odd.

If you actually wanted to be friends with someone you could go talk to them, you could be nice and normal instead of posting about wanting to befriend them for thousands of people to see. I’m sorry I’d never want to be friends with somebody who publicly announced an agenda just because the author is popular. Fic authors no matter how popular are literally just people and y’all are making it weird.

Like if you like someone’s work that’s great, and if u see a quality in them that you think you’d get along with AMAZING. Maybe u could actually be friends but when you just want it because they’re popular that’s so uncomfortable? It feels sleazy.

It irks me so much to see any author put up on a pedestal. Once you do that, and you remove them being seen as the same as everyone else it opens up a can of worms for things to turn bad. Because no one is perfect and someone will probably fuck up at some point and then it creates space to hate on fics or authors or be entitled because you don’t see them as real everyday people.

And I’m going to be so real, it doesn’t matter irl. Like the support and love online is wonderful but do u think anyone I talk to day to day gives a fuck that I have x hits on x number of fics? Or that I have x tumblr followers? NO it only matters in such a small context. That’s the difference between popular fandom people and celebs and influencers, their popularity is not something u can disconnect from them. While fic authors? Hell they could be the server you were rude to, or the person you cut off on the highway.

Come down to earth, treat people like people with respect and love not as their number of hits. Someone knock some sense into mtt I’m BEGGING.

[troubled-bog-witch]

Sphinx has a weird day at work

[littlelightfish]

I will scream at every non-romantic post I see about these guys. Writers be not afraid. I will love their non-romance fics. I'll blow up your coment section all alone if I have to. I will find you. Artists be not afraid. I will reach tag limit on your artpiece. If I see it at least. And if I don't, I will eventually. Or I'll try. Or @me so I won't fail you.

[dustykneed]

Hello! Random whipper snipper! Share a WIP of your work!

ooh, with pleasure. six the musical araleyn fanart? in the year 2k24? more likely than you think xDD

i realize this looks finished, but technically i'm still deciding whether to add a background or not lol. still, for the sake of sharing a proper WIP, here's a line or two from an araleyn brainworm WIP that i started reworking yesterday (mild tw for religious guilt and period-typical internalized homophobia from aragon's pov):

She remembers sharing her bed with Anne at Henry's behest, remembers the nights of tossing and turning and trying not to think about Anne asleep next to her-- remembers waking up to dark hair spilling across her pillow and the press of blood-warm bosoms against her own, softer than sin, as hot as the Devil, remembers lying still as death, mouthing prayers into the heat of Anne's neck like an act of penance.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

just graduated college guys 🎓😭

[vintage-bentley]

The whole concept of an “asexuality spectrum” is so stupid because you cannot have a spectrum of not having something. You either have it, or you don’t. The varying degrees of how much you have it…that’s the spectrum.

I think of it like sound volume. Your sound is either on or it isn’t. If it’s at a 1, it’s still making sound, it’s not on a spectrum of silence. 0 is the only “off” setting, while anything above that, even 1, is “on”.

It seems like a simple concept. Yet so many people are ignoring it all because they needed a way to feel special.

[bizlybebo]

not a mockingjay shipper but i support their beliefs cause everyone is so weird about them

[friendly-neighborhood-furry]

RESULTS FROM ROUND TWO!!!

this edition's contributors:

@h0dge-p0dge @wreckrinho @glitchadeli @atomicpirateperson @alkyuz @retrobluecat @larryzstars

by the way: if you contributed to this session, you're absolutely allowed to repost your art separately to your own blog or any other platform you post on! i only ask that if you share a whole canvas that you credit everybody mentioned above (including me, although my contributions this time around are negligible).

man this was so fun!! i loved getting to hang out and joke around with everybody. also somebody (i think it was h0dge-p0dge?) suggested we all play Gartic Phone together which i am SO on board with-

buuuuut i'm definitely gonna be taking break from stuff like this for a while > <"

nobody's fault! i'm just a bit burnt out and also i'm gonna be pretty swamped for the next few weeks/months. prom is next saturday, the musical i'm gonna be doing spotlights for is starting the week after that, and both my birthday AND graduation will be happening in May. in other words, pray for me 💀

if anyone else wants to take a turn organizing another event like this, go right on ahead! i think its so wonderful that we have this little community on here and getting to see everybody having fun together warms my cold, gamer heart. so go have fun and keep being kind to each other.

that is all! i am going to bed now :)

[alloverthegaf]

I know I'm never online anymore. I know I've lost all relevance. I know I don't carry the weight anymore to weigh in on current issues.

But I like to think, at times like this, we can all come together to just. Cringe in all possible ways to things like this:

[secret-tacos]

i've been seeing a lot of transmasc headcanons in art + fic lately, and that's great! but, as a trans man, i'm noticing that most scenarios involving these characters boils down to 1 of 3 scenarios:

coming out

suffering transphobic abuse

vaginal sex

and i'm not saying these things don't happen, or that there's never a case to be made for them, but i also find it kind of reductive? there's so much more to our experiences.

i want to see ftm characters who cant get or dont want top surgery, or who have bottom surgery. ftm characters training their voices, and learning from their cis friends how to shave and cut their hair and correct their body language. ftm characters who are embarrassed by their childhood pictures and hide them at all costs - or, alternatively, point and laugh at their old selves and go, can you BELIEVE i looked like that? ftm characters still getting a grasp on their own gender identity and presentation, who experience dysphoria and/or euphoria. ftm characters who have an identity beyond being created, being abused, and being fucked.

that's all i'm asking for.