#and an art history essay due at 5 that i’ve barely started on | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

i-write-newsies · 3 years

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(A/N): I decided to do some really simple and classic fluff after all the stuff in the last Oneshot. Hopefully, this one won't take me a literal MONTH. Hope y'all like it!! <33

AUs:

- Modern

- Coffee Shop

- College

Jack POV:

Jack is a hopeless romantic. A hidden one for the most part, but a hopeless romantic nonetheless.

Truth be told, he's never been in too many relationships, at least not ones that lasted long. He's liked a few girls before, boys too, and even dated a few. But they lasted 3 months, tops. His record for the quickest breakup was after 5 hours when the person found another person to dote on.

Despite bad experiences like that, Jack remains infatuated with love and the idea of soulmates. He listens to romantic songs on repeat, would always be ready to lend you a romcom, and daydreams about perfect dates with some fill-in-the-blank person when he's supposed to be studying Art History.

But lately, that blank template has been gaining more qualities of a certain boy from school. A certain boy with dark brown curly hair, with an adorable hooked nose, with olive-green eyes and a shy smile.

The moment his mind finally puts the pieces of the person together, he shoots up from laying down in his bed. He quickly pauses the music and struggles to unlock his phone out of a mix of confusion and excitement.

He scrolls through his contacts to the K section, clicking on Katherine's contact and pressing the facetime button. "Pick up, Kath..." he nervously mutters.

Suddenly, her face appears on the screen, "Hey, Jack! What's up?" she then notices the half vacant, half nervous expression his face is showing.

"You doin' okay?" Kath asks, brows furrowed.

"Huh? Yeah! I uhhhh..." Kath waits patiently, knowing his ADHD makes him lose his train of thought all too easily.

"Right! So, you're the only one who knows about me bein' kind of a hopeless romantic..." Jack looks down slightly, and Katherine giggles, knowing his embarrassment around loving love.

"What? Does big ole Jack Kelly have a crush?"

"I don't know!" he gives an exasperated sigh, "Maybe!"

"Okay, okay, calm down cowboy. Now which lucky person has caught your eye this time?" Jack mutters something incoherent below his breath. "What? I can't hear ya."

"Davey Jacobs."

Davey POV:

Davey sighs, taking a look at his computer.

A 2000 word essay on a topic of his choice for History due in 1 month. He knows how much time he has to finish this, and he knows that he could wait until a week until it's due to start it and still finish it on time perfectly, but no matter the assignment, there would always be a thought gnawing at the back of his brain telling him he NEEDS to get it done right now. And so he does. But he knows he needs coffee to do so.

Davey carefully slips his computer into his crammed backpack, as well as his wallet. He plans on going to his favorite cafe. The coffee there tastes like shit (though he would never admit it), but he knows the staff, and some of the baristas even attend his school. There was one that stood out to him, a certain Jack Kelly

Davey isn't sure what's so interesting about the creative student. It could be his heavy 'Hatten accent, or maybe it's his enthusiastic puppy dog energy about anything. It's kind of... adorable, I guess. He looks down at the ground while walking, trying his best to hide his red face. Davey doesn't swear much, but fuuuuuck.

He likes Jack Kelly. Jack Kelly of all people. The guy who accidentally SHARPENED HIS FINGER IN A PENCIL SHARPENER ONCE. Davey sighs, Jack may be an idiot, but no one can deny that it's charming in a way. He has tons of golden retriever energy.

Davey doesn't know what to do.

He sits down in a corner booth to avoid as much human contact as possible. He opens up his laptop and opens the tabs needed for his project. He slips on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and attempts to block out the thoughts of Jack Kelly. The essay is number one priority right now. Suddenly, Davey sees a looming figure out of the corner of his eye. He snaps his neck up to see...

Oh no.

Fudge.

"What can I get for ya, darlin'"

Jack POV:

Davey's face heats up. I don't really consider this a win, considering that's the way most people react when I call them darling. What can I say? It's a habit of mine.

"U-uhm..maybe-" he stutters quietly.

I speak up to help him out a bit, "I've seen you here before. You always order the hot chocolate with 2 pumps of espresso, right?" He squeaks out a yes.

"Comin right up, doll" his face lights up a bright red again.

Shit. Did I mess it up? Is he uncomfortable with those terms? I come from southern roots, which has pros and cons. The pros are: I'm really resilient, my tea is sweetened to PERFECTION, and I can smell when it's going to rain. Cons: The situation that just unfolded.

As I enter the kitchen area, I sigh. I come on way too strong. I quickly make Davey's order, after all, I did memorize it. I look at the plain hot chocolate. Needs a little something. He seems like the spicy sweet kinda guy, so I carefully add a good amount of whipped cream, and sprinkle some cinnamon on top. I really shouldn't be bringing favoritism into my work, but Dave should be an exception.

Being careful not to spill my masterpiece built out of hot chocolate and whipped cream, I bring it to Davey, who seems very deep in thought, staring at his computer. Trying not to disturb him, I set the drink gently down, then I lift one of his headphones.

"Whatcha doin' Dave?"

He jumps, turning red once AGAIN. "Jesus Christ, bud, got some sorta skin reddening condition?"

"Wh- I- You-" He sputters before regaining his composure, "One, none of your business, two, none of your business."

I feign a wound and put my hand over my chest, "Davey Jacobs! So rude!" I put my arm over my forehead and sigh dramatically, then sneak a peek at him. He's laughing a little. I grin, so he doesn't hate me! Whew!

A few hours,10 drink orders and slightly too loud joking and laughing later, Davey's still here, working on some big project. At this point I've stopped charging him and have just been paying for them myself. I make my way to his table once more.

I notice his cup is empty, "Refill?" I ask, he nods. That's when I notice the bags under his red eyes. I walk back a bit and lean on his table. "You need to sleep, Dave." He shakes his head as a response and I sigh.

I make my way to the kitchen and decide to not add caffeine in this. He needs it. My hands go on autopilot as I start to think about him. He's just so... pretty.

I bite my lip. Should I...? Ah, fuck it, I'm almost done with my shift. I grab a scrap of paper and a pen and scrawl my number, with the message

'Call me ;P'

Beside it. I take a deep breath and carefully balance the cup all the way to Davey's corner booth. The sight is adorable. Davey is laying down on the table, asleep, head tilted to one side, face illuminated by the computer screen. I smile gently.

All I think about for the rest of the night is that sight. As I sit in bed, drawing the scene, I hear a ding from my phone. I open texts and see from an unknown number:

Hey, Jack?

It's Davey.

The student from the coffee shop.

I grin.

Hey Dave :P

I quickly change his contact to <3 Dave <3 with my recent drawing of him as the profile picture.

Before I know it, we're talking about everything. It's honestly so much easier texting than actually interacting with people. My brain decides to peace out for a long minute, and my hands automatically do the typing. Bad decision. Why? Because I barely even notice when I hit send.

Do you wanna go on a date with me? I was thinking about getting froyo, and maybe watching a cheesy romcom. Whaddya say, Dave?

I can only watch, petrified, as I see...

<3 Dave <3 is typing...

~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~Ω~

(A/N):

Hope y'all like this! Pt. 2 will be their date!! btw no one has really interacted or requested fanfics, so if you could vote for this or request something, that would really make me happy.

~ Race

#newsies fanfiction #fic #fic writer #newsies #javid #javey #jack kelly #davey jacobs #coffee shop au #classic #oneshot #newsies oneshots #requests #romance #fanfiction #newsies fic #fansies #livesies

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skyprincesscommander · 4 years

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My thoughts on the William/Kara development and Supercorp

There’s a lot of upset people in the SG fandom right now, so I wanted to post my opinion on the recent romantic developments. To summarise: I think William is a bad love interest (at least at this point in time), but I do not harbor anger toward the writers concerning Supercorp. I realize I am in the minority for that second point, and if you disagree with my opinion, you are always welcome to discuss it with me. So. Thoughts.

William x Kara: Let’s start with what makes a good couple, or at the very least, what makes the most popular couples: Slow Burn, the progression from friendship to love that is witnessed on screen. It’s never as interesting to watch two people get together who already have a romantic history, or who are love at first sight. The audience wants to go on a journey with the characters, to see how they’ve grown closer together over time, and finally how they realize they can’t be without each other. They’ve barely established why Kara should be interested in William (a problem they had with Monel as well) and they are already throwing them together for a date. One of my personal favorite couples of all time, Lois and Clark from Smallville, spent four seasons bantering before ever admitting an attraction. Even Barry and Iris spent a couple of seasons playing the will they/won’t they game. This is a misstep that Supergirl has now made on almost every occasion. Kara crushed on James from the first meeting, started dating Monel within half a season, and even Alex and Kelly are acting like a couple who have been together for years rather than months. It seems like the writers have no interest in showing the little romantic moments and how two people fall in love.

William has barely shared scenes with Kara, nor established himself as a strong individual character. I did not write him off, nor did I have a problem with him as an eventual love interest, but I had hoped they would flesh him out before ever reaching this stage. I’m not surprised they jumped the gun. To be honest, there’s not much to even criticize about William. There’s barely anything to know about him, and yet I’m supposed to become invested in this romance.

The only positive aspect of this storyline so far is that William is not a Superhero. Whoever Kara’s inevitable LI is, I hope they are a civilian. That dynamic is just so much more interesting.

Thoughts on Supercorp and Accusations of Queerbaiting My absence of anger stems from a very simple fact - I never believed Supercorp would ever become canon. Although I have shipped these two since the relationship's inception, it has been clear to me they were only written as a beautiful friendship throughout their storyline (season 5 has a few hiccups in this regard, but I’ll get there). In my view, the romantic interpretations of supercorp were the sole ownership of fans like me and not in the text of the show, thus I was able to enjoy the ship stress-free. In many ways, I never want it to be canon. Writing (especially on CW shows) tends to screw with relationships I love, so staying in the friend-zone greatly reduces the chances of that happening, and I can stay in my little non-canon bubble with art, fanfiction, and headcanons, and never be upset. Other than good chemistry, there are 4 main reasons that a ship like Supercorp has so many fans. It’s these 4 factors that are shared by all most popular f/f ships, and it’s what all us lesbians are really waiting for: 1. The involvement of the show's protagonist. Not only does this give the ship superior importance, but due to the status of the protagonist, it makes it invincible. 2. A slow burn (See above for reasons). 3. An enemies to lovers OR forbidden romance trope. This gives the ship an ‘epic’ feeling and usually has the most potential for interesting storytelling (Kara and Lena should be enemies so I consider them an example of this trope). 4. Genre fiction (superheroes, fantasy, adventure). The constant life and death stakes of these shows also increase the epic quality of the ship. Swan Queen, Clexa, and Supercorp all have this in common (Clexa had all the marks of a slow burn if it wasn’t for ADC’s availability). Now, why do I mention this? Because personally, I love Kara and Lena for what they potentially could be as a romance, not the close friendship they are actually written as. When the day comes when my dreams come true and I am given the ship that actually ticks all these boxes, AND is written with this intention from the beginning, no one will ever be able to argue the validity of this pairing or say that they were thrown together because of fan pressure. For these reasons, I never considered Supercorp queerbaiting in any regard...until season 5. Again, I didn’t feel particularly baited by it (in fact I’ve been quite grateful for it), but I can understand how others did. Many scenes, mostly in 5x03 and 5x08, had me scratching my head wondering why they’d make such romantic choices. But after my experience with Clexa, I have learned it’s much better not to have expectations (In my view, Clexa will always be the ultimate example of queerbaiting, which is its own essay) and just enjoy the ride. That’s a hard lesson to learn though. All of this debate about queerbaiting would be solved if the writers were willing to just come out and say that they won’t put two characters together. “No, we don’t ever plan to make Kara and Lena romantic, but we do plan to always deeply explore that relationship and the complexities of female friendship”. This is what I believe the creators need to say. If they did so, they could layer any scene with the most romantic music they liked, and I wouldn’t consider it queerbaiting. However, they aren’t willing to do this because they think they will lose some of their audience, which is not a good enough reason. I will, however, say that writers are put in an impossible position for these types of couples. If they don’t give these two characters scenes, fans will complain that the show is boring and demand content. If they do, they will be accused of queerbaiting. Though I will criticize any writer for bad storytelling (like William and Kara), they shouldn’t be attacked for not giving fans what they want. Everyone has their own vision and should have the freedom to write it.

Even though I understand the disappointment of Supercorp never being canon, complex female friendships on television are fantastic to watch, and I will not begrudge the writers if they handle Kara x Lena well. The story of Kara and Lena has huge potential for deep and important storytelling. Regardless of their relationship status, they are two characters whose story will resonate in this show. In the end, they may even be considered the most important relationship, barring, of course, Alex and Kara. That’s all I ever wanted from them.

#be critical not hateful #supercorp #my thoughts #supergirl #kara danvers #lena luthor #william dey #this is mostly just me expressing my thoughts to a void because I have no one else to share them with #like i said i know many wont agree and thats okay #Ill still be watching the season of Kara and Lena #I just need their dynamic to start moving again

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thank-your-lucky-stars · 7 years

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The Roles of Fandom

Here is a little large guide to some of the roles people play within fandom.

[Note: I actually had the outline of this essay written for about a year, including most of the ‘roles’ listed in this post, but I have only now gotten around to writing this properly!]

I’ve been involved in several different fandoms since I first joined the World Wide Web back in 2002, with my first major fandom coming a few years later. As a result, this post is mainly based on my own experiences within fandom, although over the years I have had numerous conversations with numerous people who share my views about the mentality of fandom and the clear hierarchies, cliques and statuses, which have helped me broaden my mind and open my eyes to the reality of it all. It’s something I have always found fascinating, which is why I often analyse the goings on within fandoms to assess the clear roles most people often fall into.

I also feel I have the ability to see things from many different points of view, as I myself have been in several different roles in different fandoms over the years; I have been the new girl, I have been a popular blog with praise heaped upon me, I have been sucked into an unhealthy group (the Mean Girls - more later), I have entered an already established fandom and managed to climb up the ladder, I have watched a fandom fall apart due to trolls and bullies (which I also happened to be a victim of), and I have also been the lurker - the outsider looking in.

As a result of this, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the whole concept of fandom - any fandom - is a game. Everyone is playing, it’s just they may not realise it until they....stop playing. Hindsight can really open your eyes to your own behaviour - good or bad - and others’ behaviour too, and it can also teach you a lot about yourself. It has definitely taught me a lot about myself, and in order to write this post, I have had to look back at the certain roles that I myself have played since my first key fandom back in 2006. I have absolutely made mistakes and interacted with the wrong crowds, and there is a lot of stuff in my fandom history that makes me cringe on recollection, but it’s these experiences that have taught me what I know and are part of the reason why I find it all so fascinating; the mentality of it all, and what it can say about you and all of your peers who are generally just trying to bond over this thing you all love.

This post is looking at the specific roles you will find being played in each and every single fandom. It doesn’t matter if it’s a band’s fandom, a TV show, a film, a book - whatever it is, it is my belief that you will find these people (to varying degrees) in every single fandom.

Before I start, I want to clarify a few of things. First, (and I delve into this deeper at the end of the post), I know things aren’t always as black and white or as clear cut as they may appear when I’m talking about certain roles. For the purpose of this post, I’m not really discussing the grey-areas, as that would make this post about a million words longer and it’s long enough already!!

Secondly, there are absolutely “ranks” within each role I mention. There is definitely a scale from about 1-5 in each role, although I generally talk about the most “extreme” cases.

Finally, I want to clarify what I mean when I talk about “damaging behaviour”, as this will come up several times in this post and I want it to be clear exactly what I’m talking about.

Disrespectful/Inappropriate fandom behaviour:

Stealing content - I have seen this in every fandom, where people will save/repost someone else’s work (gifs mainly, but also scans, edits, art or sometimes even text) without crediting the creator. Usually this can be resolved; newer fandom members might not understand general fandom etiquette and I have personally spoken to people who’ve done this who have been horrified to realise what they have done. Other’s, meanwhile, do not care, and will continue to steal and take credit for other people’s work. This is something that is definitely unacceptable (I have experienced this also!!).

Disrespecting other fandom members - this can come in many different forms.

Debate and having a difference of opinion is fine until Person A runs off and starts writing indirect, catty little posts about everyone who doesn’t share the same views as them, often without having an adult discussion/debate with these people first.

These posts generally only serve to make certain corners of the fandom feel bad or even shamed about feeling how they feel or thinking what they think and it is a form of disrespect that can often get overlooked by a lot of fandom members as the content is not always explicit (ie. they’re not always calling people names, and it’s generally about groups of people instead of just one person, so it doesn’t feel as “personal”). As is often the case with posts like those, it’s not what is actually said but it’s how it is said that can be damaging to fandom morale, and while everyone can snap and write something catty now and then, when it becomes a consistent thing that certain blogs keep doing, regardless of how people react, I know for a fact that this sort of behaviour has made people scared to speak their minds and has even made people leave fandoms all together. Whether the author of these catty indirect posts means to be as damaging as they often are is usually a mystery, depending on what “role” this blog fits into (more later).

However, this can often escalate into more direct, personal and explicit disrespect which can later evolve into full-on trolling/bullying. For example, in a previous fandom I was involved in, Person A and Person B were having a discussion about a band member’s solo work. When Person B compared this band member’s solo work with some later tunes by the band he was once in, Person A called Person B a “dickhead” and blocked them before proceeding to write nasty bitch posts about how Person B was “fucking stupid” and “dumb” for comparing one piece of music to another.

These are just a few examples, so please bare that in mind or refer back to that when I mention “damaging behaviour*” during this post.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s start!

The Popular Blogs

This is a pretty clear one, although there are several different kinds of popular blog. Generally, to be popular, these blogs tend to have at least a couple of the following;

They have been around a long time - often longer than most.

They create a lot of quality content (art, fic, meta, in-depth text posts/analysis about the music/show/characters etc., memes, funny little text posts - you know the drill)

They have “connections” with the thing you love (ie. have met the band members/actors several times, have friends who work for or have connections to the people involved with the thing you love, etc etc.)

They use their voice and aren’t afraid to speak their mind.

The popular blogs tend to have quite big personalities, create content that gets widely spread, and are outspoken about anything and everything related to the thing you all love.

Climbing to the top of the fandom ladder isn’t always easy and can sometimes take a very long time to achieve depending on the size of the fandom. There are several different kinds of popular blogs, although the two most dominant seem to be those that are very approachable and express their views in a reasonable/respectful way, and those that don’t.

Certain blogs who rise through the fandom ranks quite quickly will get carried away with their new-found popularity. With the confidence their status gives them, they can often become a little careless with the way they put themselves across while their ego takes hold of them; confidence can swiftly turn into arrogance and this can sometimes make them an intimidating presence within the fandom and even a little unapproachable, although some fandom members will find this interesting or edgy - it becomes their USP (Unique Selling Point) that can differentiate them from other more down-to-earth popular blogs. You can generally spot these blogs by the way they engage and respond to people, and they often don’t bat an eyelid to praise or compliments. A lot of these people can slip into the “I am Better Than You” category.

For the most part though, popular blogs are generally pretty nice. As well as creating quality content or ticking any of the other boxes in the list above, a lot of popular blogs will be friendly and likeable. People may get intimidated by their status, which can be awkward for a friendly Popular Blog, as more often than not it’s other people that put them on such a high pedestal - even if they’re aware of their rank/popularity themselves.

This moves us onto the next category...

The “I Am Better Than You” Blogs

You know who they are. You may not know you know, but deep down....you know. The reasons people may think they are above you;

They have liked the thing longer than you

They’re already a well established/popular blog, and you may be a newbie

They have seen/met the band loads of times/have more merch than you

They have stalked met the actors/people connected with the show/movie

They create a lot of content which maybe you don’t. Or they believe their content is superior to yours/others.

There are also sub-categories within this as well;

“I am better than you because I have [insert one or more of the reasons above] and I won’t really associate with you because you’re not cool enough.”

“I am better than you because [insert reason] but I’m still a friendly person and I won’t talk down to you even though I am above you in the Fandom Ranks.”

Basically, there are people who sort of put themselves on a pedestal, or are indeed put on a pedestal by other people, but they can still be nice with it. I have personally encountered this many times. There are also those that are sort of unabashed with their “status”, and won’t really hide the fact that they think they’re above you. You can usually tell by seeing who else they interact with (people with equal or higher ranks), or by the way they respond to asks.

A lot of younger or maybe newer people in the fandom can often lavish praise onto these people. And note, not all of these people who feel this way also slip into the Popular Blog category (although a lot of them do) - some of these “I am Better Than You” blogs will actually isolate themselves to a small corner of the fandom in a way that makes them appear untouchable - people will come to them, but they will not go to anyone else. Because, you know, they’re too good for that.

I have also found that with a lot of these people, they will mainly receive anon’s instead of actually having people reveal themselves to them. I have strong reason to believe that many of the “anon” messages these people receive is actually them sending messages to themselves in order to boast about their most recent meeting with band member/actor/whoever, or their most recent purchase of expensive, hard-to-find merch. In one particular case in one fandom, there was a man who created multiple social media accounts to boost his own status/fan-page (which was a page mainly to show off his collection of [insert old 60s band] memorabilia), and I believe that this sort of thing happens to varying degrees across all social media. As this post is mainly focusing on fandom on tumblr, the anon option is definitely a tool a lot of these blogs use to help boost their status, by asking certain questions or heaping praise (or indeed hate, for attention) onto themselves to make them appear more popular than they actually are (if someone is constantly receiving hate and yet refuses to block/turn off anon, that is often a big red light).

Ultimately, there are the people that will never give much back to you even if you try really, really hard and praise them left right and centre, and there are those who will actually engage with you, be perfectly nice to you, and may even be friends with you - even though, ultimately, you know they do rank above you in the Fandom Hierarchy. Depending on how you view things, this can be totally fine. It’s just up the individual if they’re okay and comfortable with this. As I said at the start, Fandom is a game. If you can view it as such, then it can be easier to accept your lower “rank”. You’ve all seen the “I can’t believe [insert blog] follows me!” / “I still can’t believe [insert blog] knows who I am/talks to me!” posts. This speaks volumes and proves that it’s two-way street, and these posts help reinforce the Rank/Status mentality amongst fandom members - even if they don’t realise it.

The “I’m just here to have a good time” Blogs

These people can often be a blessing. They can even be pretty damn popular, if not the most popular blog in fandom, because they just go about their business, being funny or charming, posting memes, making people smile, regardless of whatever drama or intense discussion is happening within fandom at the time. They’re not as clueless as they may appear; they know what’s what and who’s who, they know who’s trouble and will probably avoid the Mean Girls, but they also Don’t Get Involved™ in any major discussion/debate that is happening. (at least not publicly!)

Then there are those who maybe aren’t aware of the current drama; they’re in their own little bubble just doing their thing, living in ignorant bliss. They can often be the light within the darkness, the sun peaking through the clouds. A blessing!!!

The Fence Sitters

There are several different degrees of Fence Sitter. For the most part, the Fence Sitter is against drama and will not engage in any major debate, even if they have strong opinions on the subject. Some more confident Fence Sitters will sometimes add their two-pennies worth as long as there isn’t a major divide between views, but they generally keep quiet if things get particularly heated.

Many Fence Sitters will also turn a blind eye to damaging behaviour* within fandom and continue to support these blogs - mainly because they have a need to be friends with everyone. Some Fence Sitters might be fully aware that someone is trouble; a Mean Girl, for example, and may even tell people privately they think such-and-such is horrible, but will still heap praise onto them publicly - even if this person has been unpleasant to the Fence Sitter too!

This is a prime example of the game playing that can go on within fandom, and shows just how fake a lot of it can be. For the most part, the Fence Sitters are generally middle-of-the-road blogs who don’t say anything too outrageous themselves, appear to be sweeter-than-sweet and create decent to really good content. They want to rank higher, they’re insecure, they want that praise and validation; not just from the more likeable people within fandom, but from everyone. But being friends with everyone isn’t always possible, and as a result they can often end up finding themselves alienated from both “sides” of the fandom.

A lot of the time though, many of the Fence Sitters are just too nice for their own good - whether calculated or not - and generally have good intentions. Even if they could do with toughening up a little.

This brings me on to the next category:

The “I don’t think this is that deep” Blogs

These are probably in the best position. They don’t read into fandom politics, they ignore the hierarchy, they don’t care about status or who’s right or wrong. They don’t pay attention, because they don’t give a fuck, and god-damn I envy them. They just go about their business, not really interacting with many people, staying in their lane....they just take everything for what it is on the surface and each post as it comes. They don’t keep mental notes of who has said what or who is cool and who isn’t. They just....don’t give a shit. It’s shallow and it’s awesome. They don’t care if Person A has been a bitch (as long as it’s not like....mega bitch...for the most part anyway....) - if this person creates decent content, the “I don’t think this is that deep” blog will reblog it. They probably haven’t even realised Person A was nasty one time, because they Don’t Give a Fuck. It’s all about the content, not the people behind it, and to be fair that can be a pretty good mentality to have as long as you’re not getting in too deep with anyone in the fandom - which these people generally don’t. These people don’t tend to rank very high, but they don’t even know that because, as their title suggests, they really don’t think things are this deep. The don’t see fandom as a game. Or, if they do, it’s just a fun game with no rules and no positions. It’s just all about reblogging groovy gifs or cute pictures. Nothing else matters beneath that, because, well, it’s really not that deep. These people can be annoying but they’re also so, so enviable.

The Reasonable Blogs

These people can be wordy, they like a good discussion/debate, but whatever their view, they are absolutely always reasonable, mature and polite with the way they express themselves. Even when dealing with more difficult fandom members who maybe aren’t being as friendly during the discussion as the Reasonable Blog, Reasonable Blog will still keep a level head, they won’t stoop down to the Troublemaker’s level, and they won’t resort to name calling or cheap tactics in order to get their point across - even if they’re being antagonised/provoked, the Reasonable Blog will rarely snap. They’re not afraid to speak their mind, and they’re generally not afraid to defend their friends, but they always do it with their head held high. They can be a rare breed, but they’re a blessing.

The Troublemakers

You know who they are. The shit stirrers. The ones who say things with a teeny tiny sting to it, voicing their opinion in a way that is provocative and will get people a little fired up. At the end of the day, it’s all about the wording; it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it that’s important.

The Troublemakers can also be split into two categories; generally, a lot of them just like firey debate about the thing you all love, and sometimes their honesty/brutality can be funny or admirable as it’s not usually about attacking or having a pop at anyone in the actual fandom. But there are also those that do want to antagonise people on a personal level, to varying degrees, and the more extreme of these Troublemakers fit into the next category...

The “Mean Girls”

There are mean guys too obviously, but generally they don’t seem to be as smart, or as bitchy, and they tend to roam alone. The Mean Girls on the other hand are all about their little clique. That’s not to say some of them don’t ride solo, but generally you’ll find a little group with the same kind of vibe, just spewing shit, causing trouble, and generally not being too pleasant.

Of course there are various levels of “bitchery”. Sometimes it can be quite subtle, just the odd catty post now and then that is obviously created to make certain corners of the fandom feel insecure. Sometimes it’s a case of once you see it, it becomes obvious. In other cases, it is extreme, it is blatant, and it is gross. That’s when it develops into something far, far worse....which I will get onto in just a sec.

The Mean Girls, in the more obvious cases, know what they are, and they strive to be it. They don’t give a fuck, and they love it. They know people don’t like them, but they also know a lot of people sort of envy them; being in a clique can be fun, at the end of the day, and usually when people act like they’re super cool, some people will be fooled into thinking that’s what they actually are.

This leads me onto the...

Queen Bitch™ Role.

In every single fandom I have ever been a part of, going right back to my forum days on the Newsround website from 2002(!!)-2004, there has always, always been a Queen Bitch. I even remember the screen name of the first Queen Bitch I encountered - it was DetroitDiva on the Newsround forums. It’s literally been about 14 years and I still remember her name.

These people strive to be a bitch. They wear their hideousness like a badge of honour. It becomes their brand. They will mix it up by being nice now and then to certain people, generally people who have bowed down to them first, just to make them seem more human. But by god....they love it. They love being disliked. And they will have their followers who love it too. It can almost be funny, unless you’re one of their victims. DetroitDiva used to attack people for liking the band Busted. I was a massive Busted fan (still am tbh lmao) and it used to hurt me to my very core when she’d go on and on and on about them, talking directly to their fans and mocking us for liking this band. And you know, she was smart with it - this was a kids forum after all, we were all in our early teens, and it was a moderated forum so no offensive language could be used. But it just made her smarter with her dialogue, and that way it hurt more. And god, she fucking loved it.

I still see people like this today. Actual adults. I have seen people like this, to various degrees, in every fandom since. They may not directly come at people (although they’re not afraid to), but they will still make damn sure they’re making someone somewhere feel crap about something or someone they like, or a certain opinion they have.

The Trolls

Ugh. There will always be one or two. On tumblr, people will always get anon hate from time to time. But sometimes, and this doesn’t necessarily happen in every fandom, but it can happen....you get full on, unabashed trolls who don’t hide behind anon, who use their main blogs to terrorise and bully the fandom.

I have only experienced this on an extreme level once, in a previous fandom. I watched a small group of girls who started off as the Mean Girls, led by the Queen Bitch™, escalate into full on trolls. I’m talking about writing call-out posts, calling people really gross names, telling people to block/unfollow certain blogs in the fandom (I was one of the targets) and telling people to steal our work - all because we were a little popular, and all because when they first started showing their damaging behaviour*, we tried to (politely) talk them out of it.

They used people’s real names, they stalked our blogs for months and months on end, they continuously wrote nasty posts about us for months after we blocked them and stopped interacting with them.

This is probably kinda rare, but it’s something that can escalate if people don’t react a certain way to certain behaviour. More often than not, trying to reason with these people by politely telling them the way they word things isn’t cool or whatever, isn’t going to help. They don’t care, and they don’t want to listen. Of course, not everyone who puts themselves across in a bad way is a bad person; some people can change, can check themselves, can stop and think “oh shit, I should probably be more careful how I say things”. But unfortunately, in most cases, reasoning doesn’t work.

In that particular case, we tried calling them out. A couple of people tried writing reasonable, rational posts warning others in the fandom about certain blogs and how they had started bullying people. This only spurred the Trolls on even more, they lapped up the attention, and that’s when their behaviour got even more extreme.

If you see a troll in your fandom, or you see negative behaviour which you realise is inappropriate, you are not obliged to confront these people or call them out. More often than not, the very best thing you can do is unfollow and/or block them, and don’t interact with their posts. Maybe warn your mates about them privately, but don’t make a song and dance about it. Let these people become invisible to you. Stop and look at who else might be associating themselves with these people. Protect yourself and other’s as much as you can by not giving these Trolls the validation they crave.

‘The Trolls’ is a rank. It goes Troublemakers > Mean Girls > Queen Bitch > Troll. I have literally watched people climb this ladder (or....slip down it, depending on which way you look at it). It is the perfect example of the negative ranking system within fandom.

The Peacekeepers

These are the ones that avoid drama, but at the same time they’re not afraid to acknowledge drama without getting directly involved. They will write a separate post telling people to cool it, to love and respect each other, when they see things may be getting a little heated. They just want an easy life and they want everyone to be friends. They generally turn away from the Mean Girls, or the Troublemakers, but at the same time they try to keep an open mind and will interact with those people if the Troublemaker/Mean Girl happens to reach out to them first (the less extreme levels of Mean Girl/Troublemaker, that is). These people tend to be relatively popular as they’re generally pretty nice people, even if they can maybe be a little too sensitive now and then.

The Others

There are more, of course. Not everyone can be fit into a box, or a role, or a rank - although generally most people will have traits from certain categories. This post isn’t about defining every single person that enters fandom, it’s just looking at some of the more prolific and dominating groups you tend to see.

----

After thoughts and some clarification;

A lot of people can fall into multiple categories, or switch from role to role as they establish themselves in the fandom, gain confidence and find their footing. Gaining confidence can be both a good and a bad thing, depending on how you use it.

I’m generally talking about the most extreme or at least the most common cases in each of these Roles. As I said at the start of this post, there are definitely ranks within each category.

For example, not everyone in the Mean Girls category is a total bitch. I should know; I was one (a Mean Girl, not a total bitch!). I was in that group once, in a small clique of girls who weren’t overly pleasant. They weren’t technically mean (at least....not to too many people), they just weren’t overly nice.

As I said at the start of this post, in order to write this in the first place I’ve had to look back and reflect on my own fandom behaviour/experiences, and to prove that I’m not a hypocrite I have written a separate post talking about the roles I myself have played within various fandoms in the past. You can read it here.

So I’m fully aware that things aren’t always as black and white as they may appear on the surface, and they’re not as black and white as I may have made them appear in this post when describing the roles of fandom. I know good people do bad things, say bad things, and get mixed up with bad people. This isn’t actually about shaming anyone or making anyone feel bad.

Ultimately, this post is just an assessment. There are grey areas of absolutely everything. I personally find this stuff fascinating, to take a step back and look at yourself, at your peers, and see if you can figure things out. You’ll be surprised by what you see when you look hard enough.

At the end of the day, you can learn a lot from fandom. It’s actually a fascinating social experiment, putting a bunch of people together from different walks of life, different ages, with one common interest. As I said, it has taught me so much about myself - and trust me, not all of it is good (which again, you can read in my separate post about my own personal experiences).

I have 100% made mistakes in every fandom I have been in, pretty much. I have been too harsh and I have been too nice but ultimately I will always give people three bits of advice when entering a fandom:

Be nice and respectful to others

Trust your instincts

Be honest

I’d also say “look out for your friends”, but I actually think you should look out for yourself first. Fandom can mess with your brain. It can give you a massive sense of validation one minute and make you feel like crap the next. Fandom is a revolving door, and most people are ultimately disposable. This stuff can be easy to forget if you’re having a good time, but when you’ve been around a while and have experienced some of the more unpleasant aspects, those things become frightfully clear. It’s the nature of fandom and it’s important to not take that stuff too personally, even if it can be really hard not to.

This post is actually just a bit of fun, it’s something I have discussed with many long-running members of various fandoms, and I’m certainly not alone in my assessment of fandom politics and hierarchies. At the same time though, people can take this as seriously as they want, and if it can open anyone’s eyes to the fascinating goings on of fandom politics then I hope you find it as interesting as I do!

#mine #essay #fandom #this is so LONG congratulations if you manage to read it all!!!#discussing the roles of fandom #based on my personal experiences #i mentioned the other day i wanted to write about fandom mentality #and a few people encouraged me to do it #and considering i started writing this post like a year ago i figured i should finish it #it literally took me two days to complete lmao #the only way i could figure out how to do it was to break it down to the specific roles #i mean i could've gone on for even longer #this is a highly edited version #but i have a habit of talking way too much about one subject #i could delve so much deeper #i had to be pretty black and white for the purpose of the post but i know not everything is always that clear cut #i hope i don't get hate for it i'm not actually having a go at anyone at all #i find it fascinating #and as i keep saying i know it's ultimately all just a game #and people are just playing whatever role they fall into either deliberately or naturally

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kulifefall2019 · 4 years

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Being an Art Major at Kutztown

Prologue:

Going to a larger school, the average student will be around art majors. Especially in a school like Kutztown that is known for its art program. (walking across campus, being curious about them, how a student will be living among them, see them in gen eds.)

Kutztown is a large school, and one of the most popular state schools in Pennsylvania. It has many different majors, and some programs its well known for. One of the things Kutztown is famous for its large art program. Whether or not a student is an art major, they’ll see these people all around campus. They share housing buildings, dining halls, and even some general education classes with other students. They’re fairly easy to spot, some of the major things they’re seen with are big portfolio cases, big sheets of paper, drawing on iPads or tablets plugged into a computer, or even just sketching ideas into sketchbooks. To get even more stereotypical, they’re also easy to spot since a lot of them dress differently, or “artsy.” The clothes, unnatural hair colors/styles, artistic makeup make them easy to spot a mile away.

Art majors may seem like a foreign species to non art majors, but a little bit of insight on what the experience of art majors are can make them seem a little more human. Even if a student at Kutztown isn’t an art major, it’s important to know a little bit more about the everyday life of an art major. It’s one of the things Kutztown is best known for. Today we’ll be discussing three acts of an art major at Kutztown with Act I: the cost of being an art major; Act II: Weekends in the Studios; and Act III: Scheduling the Nightmare to really understand the personal lives and struggles of art students.

Act I: The Cost of Being an Art Major

It’s common knowledge that the average college student should prepare to buy expensive textbooks for their courses at the start of their college career. Lately, more and more people buy used books or rent books to cut down the cost of expensive books. At the very least they can sell back their books at the end of the year. With the help of the internet, it’s gotten fairly easy to save money on books. All of this applies to the average Kutztown student. There is however, a group of majors that doesn’t have the luxury of saving money on the required materials for their classes: visual art majors. Visual art majors have to supply almost all of their own supplies for class, including but not limited to sketchbooks, paints, pencils, markers, brushes, printed posters, and the list goes on and on. These supplies are not cheap too, since students have to use something that's more on the professional side.

Every class has a list of supplies that’s needed for the class. Fine arts majors have to buy the physical materials like paints, canvases, papers, etc. from project to project. Communication Design and Applied Digital Arts majors usually have to cover their own printing costs for posters, illustrations, and 3D printing. The 300 credits that is reloaded every semester for black and white printing in the library does not cover color and/or poster printing at all. If students don’t want to have to rely on lab hours to use the school computers and/or would like to work on digital projects at their homes over the breaks throughout the semester, they would have to buy expensive programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, ToonBoom, etc. In addition to that, every single art major has to take the same studio classes their freshman year of college. I personally spent well over a couple hundred dollars on supplies over the course of my first year of college alone, and almost every other freshman has a similar experience.

Now that I’m a sophomore in college as an Applied Digital Arts major, most of the money I spend is on printing and digital supplies like programs, a tablet, a hard drive, etc. Right now I’m using a two month trial of photoshop on my own laptop that came with the hard drive I bought at the beginning of the semester, but once that expires there’s no way I’ll be able to afford keeping it, since it’s based on a monthly subscription fee. If I want my own tablet to use on the school computers without having to rely on continuously renting school tablets out, that’s around $200. And that’s just for my digital classes alone. Applied Digital Arts majors still have to take traditional media classes, like life drawing, painting, etc. Those classes will require a lot of money for supplies as well.

To see how a different art major has to spend their money, I interviewed Haley Wawrzynek, a sophomore in Communication Design. CD is a major that focuses on graphic design and illustration as well. I asked her if she had to print all of her digital projects, and her answer was yes, every single one so far. She said she has to print the most for her Typography class, and that each project costs about $5 to print. That doesn’t sound like much, but so far she’s done five projects and the semester isn’t over yet. She also told me that in her current art history class she had to print a large poster for that as well.

I asked her if she has to spend money in a different studio class, and she answered yes and started talking about her intro to illustration class. “Every two or three weeks he emails us a new list of supplies to buy for our next project,” she tells me. I asked her approximately how much each of these shopping trips costs, and she said it costs about $15 to $20 and that she has 7 projects this semester.

To finish the interview, I then asked how she felt about having to spend so much money as a whole, to which she said “I don’t like it. It’s not cool,” and we both laughed. She then said “spending all this money for college and it’s not going towards utility things that I need for my major.” She said that she wished the prepaid credit that goes towards black and white printing could count for art printing, even if it cost more credits. I agree with her on this, because as art majors we don’t take as many classes that require printed essays, reports, etc. so most of the library credits go unused and wasted.

Overall, the general consensus is that art majors spend a lot of money. A lot. For some single courses it seems that it costs even more than buying a textbook for a single course. Not only does being an art major require a lot of hard work, but it requires a lot of supplies, and therefore money.

-Casey Stoneback

Act II: Weekends In the Studios

Most students that are non art majors have 5 classes that are either 50 minutes or an hour and 20 minutes long. They can start class in the late morning and finish by the early afternoon for the most part, giving them a lot of time to do homework, study, and work on projects. This is not the case for visual arts majors. The average visual arts major has at least three 3 hour long studio classes that meet twice a week. That means that these majors spend approximately 18 hours a week in studio classes alone, on top of having general education classes. All together, that’s about 20 hours a week in classes alone.

Most studio classes often require spending hours in the studio/computer labs outside of class time, so that’s even more time taken out of the week spent on studio classes alone. Since studio classes are so long, usually studios are full of classes from 8 in the morning and don’t end until 9 at night, meaning the studios and labs won’t open up until after 9 (other than weekends). If a student has to work on a project during the week that requires a digital program that’s only on the school computers, or need the space of a painting/drawing studio, they have to wait until 9 and will often stay until 12 to 2 in the morning. Sometimes they stay that late even when they have a 3 hour studio class at 8 in the morning the next day.

All of this time spent in studio classes and the time spent on projects outside of class leave very little time for gen ed classes. I know I often fall behind in my gen ed classes because I simply do not have the time and energy to focus on them because I struggle so much to meet due dates for studio projects. In doing so, these studios make many art students suffer in their other classes because they barely manage to finish their projects for their main studios.

The amount of time and effort that is put in by art students is seen just by looking at the lab hour sign up sheets. It’s rare to see someone sign in to the programs for anything shorter than four hours approximately. These are just the experiences of APD majors. With other programs, many students in other programs stick after class to work on the many projects they are required to do. Such as Fine Arts majors, that spend their times in the painting studios to work such as Fine Arts Student, and sophomore, Dorie Penny whom I interviewed to get truly into the mind of an art student.

When I asked her, “What are your main struggles with time management as an art student?” She laughed nervously and responded “Since I’m in four studios so I feel like I don’t have any personal time. I can manage time for studios but it keeps away time for myself.” After she answered that question I then asked her “have you noticed that your time management has affected your mental health?” For a moment she didn’t know how to answer. She later told me it was because she didn’t really know how to answer it because she had so many feelings about the topic. She later responded “Yes, increasingly. My anxiety increased dramatically. That’s kinda a blanket term for it all though. I’ve have several panic attacks lately.”

She later in the evening mentioned that she wanted to input that “professors will tell you it’s just three out of class hours of work, but you end up having around three times the amount, and that’s just my painting class. I have no time.” And these are the experiences of one art student. We may be given the time to finish our projects but that leaves very little time for ourselves. As you can imagine that seriously takes a toll on your mental and even physical health. The studios drain students drastically and that’s not even half of the problem.

-Casey Stoneback & Gwyneth Trafford

Act III: Scheduling the Nightmare

As an Applied Digital Arts major, Life Drawing is a required class to graduate. There are over 200 students enrolled in the APD program in total. With only two classes available, taught by the same individual, that leaves only about 33 slots to enroll in. Not only do the APD students quickly enroll in, some Business major who needs a Gen Ed will also enter. Clearly, there is a problem here. Art students have to fight tooth and nail to enter a required class that should just be available to them in the first place. It took me three advisement meetings to eventually enroll in Life Drawing, which even then was just pure luck that someone dropped out as soon as we were looking at availability.

Overall, the programing and scheduling in the arts needs work. Some specific individual programs within the arts have some more luck, but overall the scheduling typically is very difficult. In Kutztown, many of the arts programs are understaffed. As such, classes required to graduate fill up quickly. Not only are there not enough classes to compensate for all of the enrolled art students, they also allow non-art majors to enroll in these classes.

Now what is the big problem here? What is the thing making all these students have breakdowns when they sign up for classes? Understaffed, and open classes for everyone. Only one person teaching Life Drawing is gonna leave many problems for scheduling. And that’s just my Life Drawing. I wasn’t the only person to struggle either. Many students, up to six, during my animation class also vocalized their struggles with signing up for classes, and those were the ones vocal about it.

Not only does scheduling affect the students, this also hurts the working teachers. Students flock to their teachers to help with their problems, and even their advisors. During my Animation class, 4 students enrolled during that class period and not a single student was able to get a full schedule of their requirements. Some students, such as myself, couldn't even get two. During our Animation class, many of the students tried to figure out their schedules. There were at least five students in that class who had these struggles, including me. We all asked our professor how on earth we could fix this problem, with her looking at with disappointment as she knew she couldn’t help us. I personally saw another student start to cry, and I even started to tear up. Not only does this take away a large amount of time that we could be working on projects, this also takes up the time and stresses out the teachers who help the students struggle. This puts intense pressure on the students, teachers, and advisors to deal with scheduling.

-Gwyneth Trafford

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