#and not think that there is anything inherently good about this awful awful website

[thatdogmagic]

Remember this smug as hell post?

Well, keep it in mind.

I'm going to give some people here the benefit of the doubt and go into this post with the assumption that they genuinely don't know how fucking awful the Tumblr """"porn filters"""" are for images deemed - or reported by users as - 'NSFW.'

This is a rehash of everything I wrote out before, but it's going over all of it in one big post, because this issue with community labels moves well beyond debates over what is and isn't NSFW. There are doublestandards within doublestandards, and no way at all for artists and creators to know for sure if their post is going to get blacklisted.

We're not merely talking about the fact that these filters exist. We're talking about the fact that they are wildly inconsistent, and that reported images aren't seen initially by a person so much as an extremely stupid algorithm. That's why there's the option to say 'this ruling was made in error.'

There are literally no set guidelines for what qualifies as NSFW, and what doesn't, when it comes to nudity, and to what characters those guidelines actually apply. Staff rulings do not match up to one another. They legitimately do not make sense. You cannot divine how a ruling is going to end up, and it is infuriating that staff is jerking us around like this when the platform very clearly wanted artists like us back.

Not only that, they were, yes: that fucking smug about it. In case you forgot, that 'cheater' picture is talking about people who fled the NSFW ban specifically.

Examples follow:

Both of these images were caught by the filters, and then appealed. The first one was (visibly, as you can see) downgraded to Everyone, in spite of the character showing more secondary sex characteristics than the first (breast, visible nipple).

Similarly, a male character showing a pube fluff was left alone, even in spite of being cited in my appeal on the second image.

Last, there is, as noted, this readily available image of Felicia, that you can find by searching 'darkstalkers Felicia' on the search bar. Did people forget that she's bottomless, and those aren't panties?

Using fluff to cover junk is an age-old trick for characters like this. And it clearly isn't a problem with the male character.

Further, you can go through just about any archive and see a ton of images that were not subject to community labels, many of which are much more racy, and much more legitimately "NSFW."

So, yes, beyond the disgust of Tumblr staff treating any body like mine as filthy and inherently sexual in nature, this is also about a system that is arbitrary, penalizes artists for no good reason, and has deeply opaque standards. You never know when a piece of yours is going to run afoul of a bot, or what a staff ruling will ultimately be, or why the ruling is there in the first place.

And that's bullshit. If you think it's anything other than bullshit, you're being a contrarian ass. Especially since a forced label absolutely WILL kill your visibility, where compared to implementing the label yourself. It is punitive, it is punishing, and I will say again: it is completely unnecessary to jerk us around like this when the platform very clearly wanted us back.

And now that we are, we're back to being treated like garbage, constantly having to guess what the rules actually mean, how they apply, and to which sorts of bodies they apply, all while watching our viewcounts on contested posts eat ten kinds of shit.

tl;dr, do not talk to me about 'following rules' when the rules are so ill-defined as to be quite literally useless, to me, and to every other artist on this website.

#tumblr #community labels #content filters #artists on tumblr

[tricktster]

hey wanna know a thing you can do that is free, requires essentially no effort and will make someone working a shitty job’s day/week/potentially life materially better?

Next time you encounter some kind of problem that requires you to call or chat a customer service line, if the person that you speak with resolves your issue, just send or say something along these lines:

look, i’ve worked at an inbound call center, and the job is rough on the good days - on the real bad ones, it fucking sucks. It’s inherent to the gig:

Every caller is annoyed and in a bad mood to some degree before they’ve even finished navagating the phone tree because something has already gone wrong enough that they need assistance from a remote customer service employee.

Depending on how bad the wait in the queue is, they’re gonna be angrier by the time they talk to an employee, and there is always a wait, because there’s always a queue, because there will always be fewer reps than there are callers, because if the employeer didn’t chronically understaff the call center, they might theoretically have to pay an employee for the odd 30 seconds of idle time between calls and that is unacceptable.

Meanwhile, the rep is having their clock watched by their supervisor, and they are supposed to make each call as brief as possible because there are so many people waiting in the queue. Their supervisor will monitor average call time and the worker may be disciplined if that number gets too high. The supervisor is also potentially recording any of the rep’s calls without any indication that they’re doing so.

This means that the gig becomes “dealing with an irate customer with a problem that might be incredibly complex as fast as humanly possible without making any errors or indicating anything but polite deference” in case the employer uses a recording of one of the worst calls to support your firing or justify your layoff. You must be constantly on.

Finally, because the whole experience is so unpleasant for everyone involved, compliments or thanks are vanishingly rare. That means you have very little to point as proof of your value to when you’re negotiating for a raise. But in my experience, when you routinely get customer feedback like this? It’s huge. It’s what keeps you employed when the economy takes a nosedive, it’s what gets you raises or promotions during the good times, it makes you less of an interchangeable cog in the machine as far as management is concerned - especially if the customer ensures to either speak to or message the supervisor and make sure they hear your feedback directly, and especially especially if you mention that bit about how you were going to take your business to a competitor but then this specific employee fixed it for you.

Also, you know, it can be the one bright moment in someone’s shitty workday, and trust me, sometimes those moments of kindness are everything.

It’s a shitty system because capitalism is a nightmare and the profit motive is so obviously the cause of just about everything that makes customer support gigs like this hell, but it’s a necessary, incredibly unappreciated job, and until the revolution comes, this is some wildly low effort praxis in furtherance of supporting our fellow workers.

One last note: I don’t think the users of this particular website are the target market for this instruction, but don’t do that shit where you start off by demanding to know where the employee helping you is physically located, we don’t treat people worse just because they aren’t from the same country, and if you’re speaking to them? They’re dealing with the same shit I outlined above whether they’re in Milwaukee or Mumbai. Probably goes without saying, butttttttt you wouldn’t believe how awful people get about that.

[severants]

Regarding the proship = pro-para post you made, I can genuinely say most proship people I’ve met are actually completely limited to fiction entirely, but every pro-para person is proship bc it helps blur the lines, unfortunately.

It’s like worms getting into a barrel of apples. You just gotta analyze it and you’ll see if there’s a worm in the one you’re holding lol

see you more or less understand what I’m trying to say? A lot of the time I don’t really like the terms or words affiliated with proship? It’s a tricky thing to explain.

see to me by normalizing this content and giving a gateway for Propara you open yourself to defending or standing by actual horrible people. I find it gross that propara is seen as the same as ‘oh we’re pro recovery!’ When that’s not the case? You’re giving paraphiliacs places to retreat too, to enable themselves. Uhm! Not good?? This can be seen with that one oddballs website, it exceeded far out from fiction. But plenty of proshippers lingered there, they’re normalized and the gap between fiction and reality overtime blurs to where it’s the same.

Proship has been used a scapegoat by propara, radqueers, and so many more I’ve noticed too. You’re standing by creeps.

I rather not have anything to do with it if this idealogy defends and actively enables propara. They’re biased. They enable. It’s gross I don’t like it? I’m very stubborn, my VEIW can be also seen as biased but a chance of perspective has generally changed so much since leaving. Dynamics and relationships were so normalized to me. I was ruined. And I hate how proshipper ignore and pretend as if this isn’t damaging. It’s so often to see proshippers ignore so many claims.

treat antis like they’re stupid and ignore genuinely good claims. I do understand some proshippers aren’t actual pedophiles..But over time it becomes a risky thing since it feels like a pipeline.

it’s not a good community, it depends who you interact with like you said I suppose, but generally it’s just not the best. I think a lot of the people in it are sick, I understand need an outlet but this ain’t it chief!!

I also understand the Apple analogy that but is it worth the risk? Why pick from the barrel? Why not the tree where you know it wouldn’t have any worms. But than again there will always be bad apples so if sucks???

It’s just, idk you’re grouping yourself with awful people. Why label yourself? Also Thanks for being sorta polite! A lot nicer than most I’ve met whoops. :p

It’s hard to explain my Point of veiw since, I’m vaguing very heavily about my own experiences, and what I’ve witnessed since I now associate with Antis. I often see people who are literally awful people get away with so much, they have people mutuals despite being horrible. They’re excused with the term ‘oh it’s fiction’ when it’s inherently biased. I’ve seen post about minors only for adults to get angry at the antis for not helping them and not doing as such themselves? I don’t like the hypocrisy of it all. To me these circles destroy me mentally anyway, might be different for others, but I cannot stand by those who do this. there’s a divide in my mind that has these thoughts still lingering and than the guilt fueled by it. I don’t know how anyone could do this.

it normalizes so much and I just resent that fact. I’ve met people who just are into feral porn. Self harm, guro, necro. It makes me feel sick I stand by the, disassociating myself was the best thing ever. My own morals are iffy. But it’s still y’know? It’s nice, you can just do whatever, not concern yourself with all of this.

but I do understand that I think you ACTUSLLY put the propara thing in better terms for me? Thank you!! sorry if this was so long I feel sorta obligated to explain myself. I don’t agree with the instant demonization of proshippers personally, I’m a sympathizer or I guess that’s how people would label me if they didn’t understand where I’m coming from. A lot of my old mutuals I still worry for, many just being victims, traumatized and just lost. I doubt those kids were pedos are future groomers, it’s gross. I don’t like antis or proshippers, but I’m an Anti I guess now?

I think a lot of the time I also see minors drawn to these communities because pro shippers give them the sense of security that they’re not fucked up for thinking this way, they feel seen. Which is again one of the reason I joined so maybe I’m projecting. I know it was the same for a few others.

it’s just not a good community, I don’t like it even if there are some people who aren’t crazy I guess bleh sorry if I repeat myself again I feel obligated 2 explain more :(

[theophagie]

Lots of awful things have made the news in succession lately and it's astounding how the average person still refuses to acknowledge that sexual assault, feminicide and the overall misogyny that goes on in this country aren't things the randomly happen but the result of cultural and institutional backwardness. Honor killing and matrimoni riparatori (I don't know if this expression has an English equivalent and I don't care to look it up atm) were outlawed in 1981, up until 1996 sexual violence wasn't an offence against someone, but against "public morality", stalking became a crime only in 2009, what happens in court isn't the accused having to prove that the violence didn't happen, but the victim having to prove that it did (with everything that comes with it). And so on. The people who grew up before then or during that time are the parents, the uncles and aunts, the grandparents, the teachers of everyone who's alive now, they're the ones educating them. And it's so painfully easy to see and feel. But whenever a woman is murdered by her violent partner or an ex that she had already reported, or is raped out in the streets without anyone intervening it's literally impossible to raise the bar and move the broad discussion from bullshit like "he had a violent raptus" to "the problem is that the average man in this country doesn't see women as human beings, and many women have internalised this as well"

If your molester touches you for less than ten seconds he won't be charged because that's too little time to count. Sure we can acknowledge that these two men raped you, but they didn't realise that they were raping you, so they won't be charged either. Seven men forced you to get drunk and then dragged you away to rape you, but we can't dare say anything about the environment they grew up in. This was just on them, at max on their parents as well, but not society. Never society nor culture, no no. But we can have a high-ranking military man publish a book where he goes on about how abnormal queer people are, how black people will never truly represent our country, and how awful and useless feminists are, and we can make it into a bestseller too! Wohoo! In the meantime, let's just pat ourselves in the back by saying that rapists and abusers and stalkers are just beasts or monsters or just mentally ill people and are thus inherently different from us. How dare you say that they're the direct result of something much bigger, how dare you say that even us Normal Men™ should do some self reflection and think about the "average" ways in which we in turn treat women like dirt, how dare you say that the two things are correlated 🤡

There's been so much talk about the chemical castration for rapists, so many calls to bring back the death penalty, but what would that do. What the fuck would that do lol. Good job, you've obtained your revenge and that one single man won't rape anyone else again (maybe) 👍 And then what? Are you doing anything else to change the world around you, to prevent it from happening again? Are you educating your sons any better? Holding Normal Men™ accountable for their casual misogyny any more? Demanding that judges be more responsible? Reinforcing networks to help victims? Ah, no? You just think that the prospect of more severe punishments will be enough of a deterrent. That if rapists are brought to prison other inmates will "take care" of them too, even. Right. Cool.

And now this is just a tangent but as I've been writing this some discourse that often pops up on this website but also in Progressive Spaces™ in general as a whole came to my mind and just. The patriarchy, rape culture, misogyny (whether it be against trans or cis women or against afab people who are just wrongly perceived as women even if they aren't), and so on are things that factually exist and that we have to grapple with. And for the love of all that is good on this Earth we cannot allow t/erfs and r/adfems to monopolise the discussion regarding them, we can't stop or hesitate to talk about feminist issues out of fear to be mistaken for one of them. We can't, for everyone's sake we really, really can't

#i'm just. angry and frustrated and feeling helpless beyond any limit #sorry. rant over #mytext #rl #italy

[astraltrickster]

Honestly Discourse about whether tumblr is a Good Platform or a Bad Platform drives me up a wall because...

Imo on the modern internet there IS no such thing as a Good Platform(TM), especially not at tumblr's scale or higher, BUT tumblr is the closest we have at this scale.

See, all these things can be simultaneously true:

1) Social media moderation has an ingrained right-wing bias, and this is likely to remain true even if the staff is somehow vetted to all be Educated Leftists, because of how it is structured and the ways right-wingers are wont to abuse that structure - they tend to stalk and report-spam people they dislike until either an automated system flags their target or their report lands on the desk of someone who's either sympathetic to their "cause", assuming that if something totally innocuous got reported there MUST be context that makes it Bad, just mindlessly clicking through their queue because whatever they get paid either way, or just having a moment where they might make a mistake; they spam their dogwhistles and propaganda posts with the same goal because even when they're manually moderated no one can catch them ALL (hence why you may see really egregiously awful Blazed posts - what you don't see is that someone likely tried 10+ times to get it to slip through the cracks), and they love to play the digital "I'm not touching you~ I'm not touching you~" game and harass people in ways that follow all the site rules to the letter but not the spirit and will fly under most moderators' radars until someone snaps back and...turns out that "how many times do I have to block you?? Go drink bleach and fuck a blender and get the fuck out of my inbox" is more obviously actionable than any of their posts. This is far from being exclusive to tumblr.

2) Tumblr operates on a skeleton crew and cannot afford to get bigger. Yes, they make about $60 million in REVENUE annually. Yes, all of that and more is consumed by their operating costs. Social media platforms are expensive as shit to run and the difference between revenue and profit is an important one!

3) A website that prides itself on having more queer users than any other general platform at its scale has a responsibility to try harder than those others to reduce queerphobic bias in moderation and the fact that they have a history of failing at that is legally documented...

4) ...and yet they're kind of in a catch-22 situation with that because of all the internet censorship bills and payment processor bans being proposed and even passed, such that the standard that declares depictions of queerness to be "sexually explicit" and "obscene" at the slightest hint of anything "spicier" than hand-holding is slowly becoming enshrined into actual literal law and de facto law enforced by payment processor near-monopolies; internet porn is becoming de facto illegal and all depictions of queerness are getting rolled into that because the US government hates sex workers and queer people and that is far bigger than tumblr and it should HORRIFY you...

5) ...and because of the budget issues they're limited in their ability to address the bias inherent to auto-mod software trained by queerphobic standards

6) Those previous two points do not make it okay to just do NOTHING and it would be really nice to have more transparency into what, if anything, they ARE doing to address this within the limitations they have

7) Stopping the bots is harder than you probably think because nearly every method that would reliably work would catch even more innocent real users than the ones they employ already do (and they already catch a lot) (it's starting to feel like getting mistakenly caught in a bot filter is becoming a tumblr rite of passage or some shit)

8) In light of the parenthetical above, whoever is in charge of wrongful account termination tickets needs to stop playing Candy Crush or whatever the fuck they're doing that makes those tickets only get addressed when someone complains on Twitter or Reddit (in all seriousness I suspect this is a problem with the support ticket software that needs to be addressed more than it is with who's running it but it's cathartic to say it that way)

9) Some of their "user-friendliness" updates are....extremely stupid and anything but user-friendly in practice (looking at the removal of the ability to visit a previous reblog JUST when we as a community more or less settled into a system for where "prev tags" does and does not fit in this ecosystem)...

10) ...but sometimes they actually are an improvement once you get used to them and immediate rage because They Changed It Now It Sucks actually makes it significantly harder to tell which ones are bad (remember how much we hated the update that put interaction controls at the bottom of a post when that first rolled out despite it being objectively better just because it fucked with our muscle memory?)

Tl;dr: Tumblr is...a website. It's honestly one of the best we've got, despite the...GLARING flaws. The bar is on the ground. They occasionally trip over it while gingerly stepping over it. How fucked up is the state of the internet in general for that to be true? Extremely.

#tumblr wank #serious tag #kinda

[lurafita]

It IS easy to kidnap Spiderman (If Peter Parker has to go to a board meeting)

This has also been posted at AO3, but I thought it might be good to have a back-up of the story on another website. Just in case.

Summary: Slightly crack-ish, not to be taken too seriously, mostly just written for fun. Peter has to go to an S.I. board meeting. Peter doesn’t want to go to an S.I. board meeting. Peter can’t come up with an excuse to not go to an S.I. board meeting. Peter needs a miracle. … Or, alternatively, a van full of kidnappers.

“I’m going to die!”

Peter whined as he, Ned and MJ crossed the street. Ned shot his best friend a somewhat sympathetic look, while the girl in the group rolled her eyes.

“You are not going to die because you have to sit through one measly big wig meeting.”

Peter ignored her.

“Goodbye oh cruel world. How heartlessly you rip me from existence.”

MJ folded her arms as they kept walking.

“You do realize that as the official heir to Stark Industries, you are going to have to deal with this stuff all the time, right?”

Peter dramatically gripped his chest, looking up into the sky.

“The lights… are fading… Limbs… growing cold… I see… a tunnel… Mother, is that… you?… Begging me.. to go… into the light?… Must. Move. Towards. The. Light! I am… going… Home… Goodbye cruel world! … Rose…bud.”

And then he gracelessly slumped against the store front to his left, slowly sliding down. Ned clapped politely, while Michelle kept frowning.

“Really? The possum from ‘Over the hedge’?”

Peter was up in an instant.

“Don’t diss the classics, MJ.”

And there went the eye roll again.

“My point stands. You are one day going to head one of the most, if not the most, successful and important enterprises in the world. You are going to need to learn how to do it. And like it or not, that includes sitting through board meetings.”

They stopped at an intersection, waiting for the light to turn green.

“But it’s gonna be so boring! They will be talking about market value and sales figures and the development of our sister companies and the possibilities of future trading partners, and I’m going to fall asleep, okay? I’m going to fall asleep right there, and then I will slide from the chair and crack my head open on the incredibly expensive meeting table, and then I will be bleeding out on the floor, - which is probably carpeted with imported, high quality, unicorn hair. And then everyone is going to look at me all judgmental like, and Pepper and Tony are gonna rethink leaving their billion dollar baby in the hands of a super spaz like me. And if I somehow survive bleeding to death on unicorn hair carpet, I will die of shame.”

The light finally turned and the three friends proceeded.

“Unicorn hair?” Ned questioned.

“It’s so soft!” Peter answered with huge, awe-filled eyes. “And you guys haven’t even heard the worst part! Pepper said I can’t bring Hope!”

Now his best male friend looked appropriately shocked by this absolute travesty, but his best female friend just continued to roll her eyes at him. Peter wondered if she ever got dizzy from it.

“Seriously? You are not allowed to bring your overly affectionate and enthusiastic dog to an important board meeting? What is the world coming to?”

Her sarcasm went right over the brunettes head.

“Right?”

Peter and Hope, his shelter rescue Pit Bull, had been pretty much inseparable ever since the teenager adopted the beautiful ball of barely contained love. The only times you would find one without the other was when Peter went out as Spiderman, or when he needed to go to school. He had actually tried sneaking Hope into school with him on the first day, after summer vacation had ended. Needless to say, that plan had been thwarted by the ever present eyes of Friday.

It was a bit of a miracle that Ned and MJ had been able to talk Peter into trying out that new diner that had opened up a few streets away from their school, without the other teenager running home first to bring his loyal follower with them. Though that had probably to do with Peter’s unwillingness to step foot in the tower until he absolutely had to. After all, there was always the chance that Pepper or Tony would just keep him there to further prep him for the upcoming meeting.

Ned nudged him playfully in the side.

“You know, most people would be fruit loops ecstatic about being gifted the inheritance of a multi-billion dollar company for their 17th birthday, instead of complaining about having to attend a meeting.”

Peter just loved that his best friend had picked up his way of swearing.

“I’m not trying to be ungrateful here, I just don’t see the point! After all, it’s not like I will be running any of those meetings once I take over.”

This statement was met with curious stares from both of his friends.

“And how do you figure that, loser?”

Said teen casually threw up his arms and intertwined his fingers behind his head.

“Well, I thought I would just hire you as the acting CEO, so, you know, you can completely dominate the business world and make everyone your little licorice. And everyone will of course include Ned here, who will be head of S.I. Robotics department by then, and yours truly, as I will be french frying around our biochemistry labs whenever I’m not 'on the web’.”

(Which was their extremely unoriginal code for Peter’s Spiderman activities.)

Peter was only slightly surprised by the twin slaps he received to both of his arms.

“The hell, Parker!”

“Dude, that’s not how you tell someone they have an amazing job waiting for them after university!”

To which he just shrugged his shoulders.

“What? It’s pretty much how Tony told me I was the god donuts heir to his and Peppers company. Well, actually he came into the kitchen on the morning of my birthday, while me and Hope were just enjoying breakfast after our early run, and dropped a stack of papers right before me. Then he waved a pen in front of my face and tapped it onto the bottom line on the paper on top of the stack and said: 'Sign here.’ So, naturally, I did, and as soon as I had finished signing, he snatched everything back and said: 'Congrats, kid. You are now the official heir to Stark Industries. Happy Birthday.’ And that was that.”

He immediately received another slap on his arm from MJ.

“You signed something without reading it first? What kind of a moron are you? That’s not how you run a freaking business!”

Peter pointed at her victoriously.

“See! This is exactly why I need you! You are already better at it than I am.”

He looked incredibly satisfied with his reasoning. Ned, who was still not completely over the shock of the metaphorical bomb their friend had just dropped on them, still couldn’t help but agree.

“He’s got a point, MJ. I mean, can you really imagine Pete here, sitting at the head of a table, filled with twenty suit wearing people, and telling them what to do? Face it, you are just way more intimidating than him.”

Peter was nodding along quite happily, though the girl only snorted.

“Please, a marshmallow stuffed cupcake is more intimidating than Parker.”

“Hey! I mean, that does sound ridiculously delicious so I’m kinda flattered, but still!… Do you think we can get that cupcake somewhere?”

Ned smirked. “Well, seeing as you are about to die a horribly pathetic death, I guess we can at least ask when we get to the diner. They are bound to have something overly sugary to satisfy your sweet tooth.”

And Peter slumped once more.

“Did you have to remind me of my impending doom? Why is there never an uprising of the mole people when you need it? Not that I want anyone to be in danger or anything, but a minor little catastrophe, to keep Spiderman occupied long enough to have a valid reason to miss the meeting, would be really, french fruit loops frying appreciated right now.”

And for once, it seemed like some higher power had heard and took pity on the spider-enhanced teenager. Because at exactly that moment, a black, large van was barreling down the street behind them, coming to a screeching halt right next to the three on the sidewalk. Peter instinctively took hold of both of his friends arms and drew them back behind himself, as the side door of the van slid open, and three masked men with guns in their hands emerged out of it. The other pedestrians on the street fled in a light panic at the sight of the armed men.

One of the men, apparently the leader of the group, pointed his gun right at Peter.

“You! Peter Parker! Get into the van, and no one is gonna get hurt!”

Peter looked at him with wide, stunned eyes.

“Are you… trying to kidnap me?”

The leader waved his gun impatiently.

“Not trying to. In the van! Now!”

And to the three kidnappers absolute astonishment (as well as their driver’s, who was still seated behind the wheel) the kid threw his hands up in the air, joyfully whooped, and then sprinted, actually fucking sprinted, right by them to leap into the vehicle. A timeless second went by, as everyone was trying to process what had just happened. (Well, not everyone. Michelle and Ned were simply sending their friend completely unimpressed glares)

Then the teen leaned slightly out of the car.

“Look, I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job or anything, but maybe we should get going? You know, before someone calls the cops? Just saying.”

That seemed to rouse the masked men from their confusion and spurred them into action. Before the door slid shut behind the last one, Peter pinned his two friends with a very serious look.

“Don’t call him! At least not before six o'clock!”

The meeting was scheduled for 18:30, and he was supposed to be at the tower no later than 18:15. He would never make it! With that gleeful thought, Peter relaxed into the backseat and faced the group leader.

“Do you think we can make a quick stop at a drive-thru or something? I was actually on my way to lunch, you know?”

And then Ned and Michelle were left in the figurative dust, as they watched the van speed away, transporting their friend to who knows where.

The inherently more worried Ned turned to his female companion.

“Should we… like call the police? Or Mr. Stark? Or the other Avengers?”

Michelle scoffed.

“Calm down, Leeds. The loser can handle himself. Besides, our future employer has given us strict instructions to not call anyone and report what happened just yet. We will shoot Stark a text at six. It’s not like he won’t find his idiot son in a heartbeat. Until then, let’s go to that diner, I’m starving. I’m also gonna have to research some meditation exercises or something. My future self is going to need all the patience in the world if I’m expected to deal with this kind of bullshit every time I have to drag Peter to a meeting.”

“Pep, Pepsi to my Coke, Pepperoni on my pizza, love of my life! Why do I have to go to the board meeting?”

Pepper ignored her fiance’s whining, something she had tremendous experience with, and instead held up another tie against the man’s white shirt, comparing it to the maroon one in her other hand.

“Because you thought it would be a good idea to announce the heir of Stark Industries on live television. And now the board wants to meet Peter.”

Deciding on the maroon tie, she laid the other one over the back of a nearby chair. Tony huffed as Pepper expertly bound a Windsor knot.

“Exactly. They want to meet the kid. Not me. They know me! Everyone knows me! My name is on the building.”

Having finished with the tie, Pepper grabbed the dark suit jacket next.

“It’s your own fault. If you had waited to reveal Peter as the heir to the company until he finished college, like you were supposed to, you wouldn’t have to deal with this now.”

Tony shrugged the jacket on and tried to look as innocent as possible when he countered with “I had no choice! Ellen totally tricked me into it.”

The flat stare his fiance shot him spoke volumes. “She asked you what exciting new surprises the next Expo held in store for everyone.”

To which the billionaire waved his hand dismissively. “Semantics.”

Pepper rolled her eyes.

“It will be a good experience for Pete. He pretty much knows all about the inner workings and procedures in the labs, but he needs to get to know the business side of things, too.”

“Which is what he has you for. Why do I have to be there?”

She adjusted the jacket, righted the tie and gave him a quick kiss.

“As moral support. And to set a good example. Which means no playing on your phone, no snorting or groaning noises when you get bored, and no rolling your eyes when Henderson brings up project 99.”

Tony groaned. “Henderson always brings up project 99. The guy is like a broken record. It was a bad idea the first time he proposed it, and it continues to be a bad idea now. Why is he even still on the board?”

“Because he is six months away from retirement and we wouldn’t be so cruel as to demote or fire him before then. And now stop whining and get ready. The meeting starts in twenty five minutes and Peter should be here any moment now.”

With an overly dramatic sigh, the man let himself fall backwards onto their king sized bed. Much to the displeasure of Hope, who had curled up on one of the pillows to mope until his favorite human came back again. “Sorry buddy.” Tony scratched the dog behind his ears in apology. Then he looked forlornly at the ceiling. “Why is there never an alien invasion when you need one?”

Which was, naturally, the perfect moment for Friday to announce “Incoming Video call from 'Boss Junior’.”

Pepper crossed her arms under her chest. “Oh, he better not try to get out of this meeting.”

Tony’s line of thought was similar. “He better have a damn good excuse for getting out of this meeting.”

The vid-link opened via the towers holographic screens, and the couples eyes immediately focused on Peter. Who was sitting in a badly lit room, empty of all furniture save for the chair the teen was tied to (with what looked like completely normal rope, which they knew Peter could snap like silly string), and behind him a tall, well muscled man, dressed completely in black, donning a black ski mask, and a hand gun pointed right at Peter’s head.

Now, a sight like this would usually propel Tony right into heart attack territory, - if it wasn’t for the big ass grin on the kid’s face.

“Hi Tony! Hi Pepper! So, as you can see, I have been kidnapped.” (Under his breath, Tony couldn’t help but concede “Damn, that’s a good excuse.”) “It was completely unavoidable and absolutely against my own will.” (Pepper groaned. “Are you kidding me?”) “I mean, of course it was against my will! Because who in their right minds would jump into a van full of armed kidnappers, when they have an important meeting to attend later that same day? Certainly not me!” (“That clever little shit!”)

By that point Hope had recognized his owners voice and was crawling all over Tony to get a better look at the holo screen, barking happily. Peter’s whole face lit up at the sight of his dog.

“Hey Hope. Yes, I miss you too. Are you a good boy for Tony and Pepper?”

And as Peter cooed at his dog, Tony tried to not have his nose constantly slapped by a wildly wagging tail, and Pepper was burying her face into her hands, the looming, dark figure behind Peter apparently decided that he had been patient enough with his 'victim’, and slightly nudgded the teen’s shoulder. Peter looked up at the man with a sheepish grin.

“Sorry, dude. Anyway, I’m supposed to tell you that if you want me to be returned in one piece, you need to transfer one million dollars-” Then Peter turned back to the man behind him. “Are you sure you only want a million? Think about it. You need to split this up between the four of you, which is only 250000$ for everyone. And you will have to withdraw the money pretty much right away, otherwise Mr. Stark will be able to follow the money trail right to you. Also, you will want to leave the country pretty quickly after this, cause, you know, that’s Iron Man you are dealing with here. But with that much cash in your possession, you can’t use a commercial flight, cause they check your bags and stuff and 250 grand would probably raise a few eyebrows. Which leaves you with the only option of paying someone to get you out under the radar, and that probably won’t be cheap… Have you really thought this through?”

The man looked at Peter (his posture had lost it’s threatening stance long ago), then at the person who was obviously holding Peter’s phone to record the video, then at Peter again, and then he made the universal sign to 'end the call’ at the camera and with that, the feed cut off.

Friday’s helpful: “The video call has been cut off, boss.”, was followed by “You have also received a text message from 'The Scary One’, which reads: 'FYI, your idiot son has let himself get kidnapped in order to avoid shameful death on unicorn hair.’ - End message.”

And while Tony had no idea what the part about unicorn hair could possibly be about, he had long since learned not to ask questions.

Pepper did not have to look up to know that her fiance was sporting a downright gleeful look right then.

“So… looks like the Spiderling needs rescuing.” He was edging off his seat on the bed (having deposited Hope from his lap earlier) and had already taken off his tie and suit jacket. “What terrible, terrible timing. And here I was so looking forward to talking about project 99 with good old Henderson. Such a shame.” He was halfway across the room, the Iron Man armor already forming around him. “Oh well, can’t be helped. Gotta go save Pete from his evil kidnappers now. Fri, locate his watch, please. Thanks, girl. Guess we will have to postpone this whole business meeting introduction thingy. Gotta get going before the kid accidentally teaches these guys how to be real criminals. Love you, Pep. Have fun at the meeting! Bye!”

Then the sound of the opening of one of the large windows, followed by the thrusters of the suit, and before Pepper even had time to wave him off, Iron Man was flying through the New York sky.

For reasons Pepper was quite comfortable never to examine, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Like Father, like Son. Both running from meetings whenever they can and leaving me to deal with it.”

A warm, furry body cuddled into her legs and she smiled as she lovingly pet the Pit Bulls head.

“You know what? Screw it. Peter is going to sneak you into one of those meetings sooner or later anyway. (And I will get him to attend one, he can’t get himself kidnapped every time). Better to get the board used to you. And if they can’t meet their future boss, they will at least meet his dog. What do you say, Hope, do you want to go to a boring board meeting with me?”

Her answer was an excited bark and a lot of tail wagging.

“Good boy.”

The End

I wasn’t actually sure how to end this one. There was always the option of following Tony to the hide-out the kidnappers had Peter at, just for him to burst in and see Peter (free of any kind of restraints), sitting in a circle with his kidnappers (all of whom had divested themselves of their ski masks), and explaining to them various ways on how to better plan their next heist. Or how to make money without using illegal means. Or giving them advice on going back to school/getting their GED (-that is what it is called, right?), or how volunteering at an animal shelter might help them with their parole officer later on…

But then I thought, nah, leave that to the imagination of the readers, or refer to it in a later part of the series if you want.

As I said in the beginning, this was basically written just for the fun of it. Never the less, I would be happy to know if you liked/enjoyed it.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

#peter parker #peter is a little shit #spider-man #spiderman #spider son #spiderson #tony stark #iron man #ironman #iron dad #irondad #pepper potts #pepper is a stressed mom #tony is a stressed dad #creative swearing #food as swear words #food swearing #domestic avengers #bamf peter #peter has a dog #crack #fun #fanfic #kidnapping #attempted kidnapping #confused bad guys #avengers #marvel #not infinity war compliant #not endgame compliant

[nancydrew65]

SKAM Austin Season 2 Episode 9 Thoughts

So, I thought this was the last episode, but then a clip was released today. I’m guessing there will be ten total episodes in this season. Like I said before, Daniel is officially canceled in my book, so if you don’t want to hear me ranting about what an asshole he is... maybe don’t read this.

Home

Grace had to drive out to Clay’s school just to talk to him. God, can she get a break?

Clay is trying to laugh things off, but Grace is serious AF.

And then that asshole calls Grace a slut. He is such a horrible human being. Why does Daniel believe him over Grace? I will never understand this storyline. He knows his brother is psycho, why would he believe anything he says?

Grace “apologizes” to Clay and he says: “It is a scary time to be a guy, you know?” I thought that was an especially good line to put in to SKAM Austin. Men in the United States say that all the time now that #MeToo is a thing. Heck, even our president says it. It is disgusting. I mean, you think it is scary to be a guy and be accused of sexual harassment? How about being a woman and experiencing sexual harassment. That is a hell of a lot scarier.

Then Grace goes off on him, exposing him for the terrible person he is. She is such a badass in this scene. I missed this beautiful, strong woman.

Clay rushes to assure Grace that he didn’t do anything to her, but it is hard to believe him. Grace just threatened to report him to the police. I am willing to bet he would lie to her, just to get her off his case.

But I have to say, my favorite part of the clip is when Grace walked away and Megan was waiting for her on the curb to drive her home. This brings up a small issue I have with Austin. It is not even really an issue, but something I would have liked to see. I wish we could have seen Megan and Grace’s relationship more this season. Last season, we didn’t really get much and we didn’t this season either. I think it is a problem with the remakes in general. The Eva character kind of gets sidelined in Noora’s season. The remake that portrays these girls’ friendship the best is SKAM NL in my opinion. I love seeing scenes of Isa and Liv together because they are just so close.

That being said, I adored this scene. I think it may be my favorite iteration of the confrontation scene yet.

Ready to Talk

Grace texts Daniel about everything, explaining that she might never know what happened, how terrifying the whole ordeal was, that she might have been drugged. Daniel starts texting back, but never sends anything.

This is the point of no return for me. Let me tell you a story. When I first watched SKAM Season 2, I didn’t find anything too inherently wrong with it. At this point in time, I wasn’t aware of the whole social media and text aspect of the series, so I was just watching the full episodes without any of the context of the instagram posts or text messages posted. Sure, I definitely felt uncomfortable about some parts of the storyline, like William constantly pressuring Noora to go out with him or come to his parties. Even when the scene came out where William confronted Noora about the Niko situation, despite how awfully he treated her, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought, “Well, he doesn’t know the whole story. Who knows what Niko told him and Noora really didn’t get a chance to explain herself.” I finished off the season with this mindset. It was only later that I learned about the text messages posted online. I learned that Noora had explained what happened to William, telling him that she had most probably been sexually assaulted. This is where the character of William lost any sympathy I might have had for him. Going back to SKAM Austin, Daniel disregards his girlfriend’s feelings when he has full knowledge that she might have been drugged and sexually assaulted. He treats her like shit after this, not texting her or talking to her. Nothing he does can ever redeem him in my eyes. Grace deserves better.

God is a Woman

The girls are all chilling, getting ready to go to Prom later. Kelsey waltzes in, looking gorgeous in her pale blue prom dress. She talks about she used to feel that she had to be skinny to be successful, but now she realizes otherwise. She pulls out a water bottle that is filled with alcohol.

Megan refuses a drink when Kelsey offers, saying she wants to take a break from drinking - and from Marlon.

Kelsey whole heartedly agrees, stating that they don’t need boys to validate them. This is one of the most flawed parts of Season 2 for me. Kelsey and Megan realize that they don’t need boys to have self-worth (which is such a great message for teenage girls), but Grace (the lead of this season) experiences the opposite of that. She is strong and confident without a man in the first season and the beginning of this season, but by the end she needs Daniel to be happy. There is so much disconnect between the two messages this season is trying to put forward.

Jo complains about her boy trouble with the guy she’s been talking to online and the girls assure her she doesn’t need him.

#Prom

OK, well this Prom is a hell of a lot nicer than the one my school offered. We actually had Prom on the exact same night, so…

Pen-Joe comes up to Jo and Grace, asking Jo for a dance. Like the boss lady that she is, Jo replies “I already have a boyfriend” in Spanish. That is right, Pen-Joe. You lost your chance with the beautiful woman that is Josefina Valencia.

Back inside the dance, Abby announces Daniel as Prom King, but apparently he didn’t show up. This reminds me of yet another awful thing Daniel did to Grace. He said they were going to Prom together, but then he never shows up. Dude.

Zoya wins Prom Queen!!!!! I wasn’t sure if we were going to get this scene, but we did and I am so damn happy for her. She deserves it.

Grace asks Pen-Joe where Daniel is, but he just says that “family stuff”. What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Out on the dance floor, Kelsey is dancing with a nice-looking dude, Zoya and Megan are dancing together, and Jo accepts Pen-Joe’s offer for a dance. You better make him apologize for the rude way he treated you, girl.

Aw, Grace posts a selfie of herself looking happy, but you can tell it is all a facade. She goes to join Megan and Zoya.

Welcome to My Life

It is the middle of the night and Grace gets a message on instagram from xxtrinity2121 about Clay.

A conversation ensues between the two girls. Apparently this mystery instagram girl is their version of Mari, telling Grace nothing happened between her and Clay. Obviously, this news is a great relief to Grace.

They also talk about how stressed they both are, with xxtrinity2121 confessing that she is very depressed and sometimes thinks about killing herself. Since this clip was posted, a chat was posted on SKAM Austin’s website between Grace and this girl which leads me to believe she has a more important role than just being the Mari stand-in. I have heard a lot of theories of who she is. A lot of people think she is Tyler, who is either trying to fool Grace or he was actually the person in bed with her and Clay. I don’t think the latter option is true because it looked like a girl in the bed to me when I re-watched that clip. Another interesting idea is that she is the Austin version of Even. I mean her username xxtrinity2121 has the number 21:21 in it. I really like this theory and hope it is true. That would be so interesting.

Usually Never Wrong

Zoya and Grace are walking down the hall, when Zoya pulls Abby over. She apologizes for not believing Abby about what a bad guy Hunter is. Abby tells her no problem and says she is really happy how everyone came together to support Zoya as Prom Queen, how it would have been racist if Zoya hadn’t won. Now, I don’t think Abby was trying to be mean. I genuinely think she was trying to be nice, but obviously it really hurt Zoya. She walks away. God, I feel so bad for Zoya. She deserved to win Prom Queen on her own merit, not because people think it would be racist for her not to. I think this is really gearing up to her season and I really hope she gets to have one.

Grace spots Daniel in the quad and rushes up to him, asking where he’s been. He says he’s been to see Clay. No elaboration. Then he tells her he’s going to New York for the summer. Well, I guess it’s not as bad as moving to London permanently like William was planning on doing.

Grace says she wants to talk and Daniel says “I’m done talking. It’s too much.” Too much? For you? Grace could have been sexually assaulted and this asshole has the nerve to claim it’s too much for him?God, I hate Daniel.

Grace runs after him, yelling her most iconic line yet. “Daniel, stop being a little bitch.” She tells him off. She says that a lot of stuff happened and it sucked. For her. I’m really glad they gave her that line. Because it is so damn true. Then she starts talking about how no one has loved her like Daniel has, blah, blah, blah. I wish we’d gotten more of Grace’s parents backstory because that would have given better context to this scene.

Daniel still gets in the car and drives away. As Grace is crying at the curb, we see him run back to her and they embrace.

She says she can explain everything, and he says she doesn’t need to. A lot of people were overjoyed at this line, but…. She already explained everything in the text she sent him and he ignored her and treated her like shit afterward when he finally saw her. This line makes no sense to me.

Whatever, I know a lot of people were happy they finally got together, but I can never fully forgive Daniel.

General Thoughts

This was a weird week because we got a bunch of clips on Saturday and then on one Monday and nothing else the entire week. I do think there were a lot of good parts of the clips, aside from Daniel drama. Also, the clip where Grace and Clay talk might be my favorite clip this season or for SKAM Austin in general. I think they executed it beautifully. See you next week for the last episode of this season!

#skam austin #skam remakes #skam reaction

[peachdoxie]

My official opinion of Ralph Breaks the Internet, with spoilers:

Ralph Breaks the Internet was an uninspired and predictable film whose attempts at originality failed to live up to the standards set by its predecessor and Disney's reputation. In short, I very much disliked it.

Before I begin, I will say that I did not expect much from this movie. Its trailers did not encourage me. And yet, somehow, Ralph Breaks the Internet was even less than I expected.

I will not say that Ralph Breaks the Internet was a bad movie. It had fairly decent animation, editing, cinematography, etc. Nothing spectacular, but nothing particularly horrible either, as I've come to expect from Walt Disney Animation Studios.

What made me dislike Ralph 2 was the fact that it was a conglomeration of cliches and stereotypes, none of which were handled well. Many of the jokes and plot elements relied on classism, ageism, cynicism, emotional immaturity, and/or unimaginative attempts at meta-analytical humor that ultimately fell flat. It attempted to be original and clever but instead felt like a low-budget Saturday morning cartoon by recycling the same jokes and plot devices instead of coming up with fresher and more creative ones.

Here are some of the many examples I am talking about and why I had an issue with them, in approximately chronological order:

After Sugar Rush is shut down, Felix and Calhoun take in the fifteen child racers. As soon as the racers are "adopted" by them, the racers instantly start wreaking havoc and breaking things, which is played for laughs. Instead of being grateful that they have a home after their game was unplugged, the racers were instead rude and destructive.

Later, in Tapper's bar, Felix comes across Ralph, who offers him Vanellope's root beer since she didn't show up. Felix claims that he has never drank root beer before, but decides to start because being a parent is too stressful. It's played for laughs, but the root beer is obviously a stand-in for actual alcohol. Normalizing alcohol and getting drunk as a solution to stressful parenting, anyone?

Any time a joke was made about Ralph's size could be taken as a metaphor for the world not being open to people whose bodies and accessibility issues fall outside the norm. However, since practically every instance of this was played for laughs, the movie instead presents Ralph's struggles with everything being too small as a thing to laugh at, instead of something to take as a serious issue.

The character of JP Spammly was subtly classist in presenting a lower class persona as inherently distrustworthy because they run a sketchy website.

During Vanellope and Shank's race, one of them brushes past a homeless man and knock his cup of coins out of his hand. This is, again, played for laughs, showing that we're supposed to find it funny that a(nother) misfortune fell a homeless person.

Practically all of the jokes about Ralph's lack of understanding regarding the internet were stereotypes of adults who don't understand the internet. This isn't really an issue like some of my other bullet points, but I'm just really sick of this stereotype, since there are many adults out there who understand the internet fine, of not better than young adults and teenagers currently.

The interaction between the male player of Slaughter Race and his offscreen grandmother is an ageist cliche. Two, actually: that the parent figure in the situation doesn't respect the teen's hobbies, and that the teen doesn't respect the parental figure's desires for family time.

Knowsmore was rude and condescending and unnecessarily so. Yes, I know he essentially works a customer service job, and it is canonically thankless. That does not give him the right to rudely badmouth customers after they are whisked away because they didn't thank him (they're computer avatars with limited communicability, so it seems) and it most certainly does NOT give him the right to condescendingly comment on a woman's weight. The customer in question was searching for size small tights and Knowsmore made a rude comment implying that she shouldn't be looking at small tights.

The scene with the princesses bothered me. Yes, it has been on the internet already and discussed at length. But it really frustrated me how it reduced all of the characters to basic stereotypes of themselves. I also figured out why the "does everyone assume that all your problems can be solved by a big, strong man?" comment has bothered me so much. It's inherently hypocritical: the way that it's presented is as a feminist statement that the princesses don't actually need a big strong man to save them, and yet that's what they're defined by, as everyone exclaims "she is a princess!" when Vanellope agrees with them.

Ralph finds the Buzztube comments, which are all extremely negative. I know it's a joke to not go on the comments on anything because they're always awful, but that's also not actually true. Most of the comments are just inane or showing support of something. It was obvious what was going to happen as soon as Ralph walked into the comments area. Yes, yes, the lesson of "don't get bogged down by the few bad things people say" could be relevant, but it wasn't presented that way because Yessss didn't point out any other comments or strongly try to encourage Ralph of the opposite. She just accepted that as fact.

There are more examples of this type of thing, these little moments that were ageist, classist, or just plain rude that made watching Ralph Breaks the Internet unenjoyable overall. The issue that I have with things like these are that they present small but harmful stereotypes as things to laugh at. People learn by example. That's basic human development stuff. And so if they see jokes in media that show harmful things as funny, they're going to replicate them and contribute to the same kinds of biases and hurtful behavior. The sheer number of these together make up one reason why I didn't like Ralph Breaks the Internet.

The second major reason why I didn't like Ralph 2 is that the entire emotional conflict between Ralph and Vanellope comes from a series of miscommunications that could have VERY EASILY been avoided if they had just TALKED TO EACH OTHER AND LISTENED. This is repeated multiple times in the movie. Ralph is afraid Vanellope will leave him for Slaughter Race and won't be his best friend anymore. Vanellope wants to find something new and exciting in her life but is afraid that Ralph will be upset. We also see the cliched trope of character A (Ralph) overhears character B (Vanellope) say something out of context that hurts character A's feelings. And here is the thing - instead of talking it out, both Ralph and Vanellope make assumptions about what the other wants and get upset and yell about it.

I. AM. SICK. AND. TIRED. OF. THIS. TROPE. All it does is show two emotionally immature people without good introspection skills hash out their problems in an unproductive and hurtful way. Yes, I am aware that Ralph in particular has insecurity issues, since they made an elaborate metaphor out of that as part of the film's climax. I'm not saying that's bad, necessarily. BUT. This type of thing happens over and over in media and it is, quite frankly, a lazy and unoriginal source of interpersonal conflict. Also, recall what I said earlier about humans mimicking behavior they see. Instead of showing problem solving after conflict based on miscommunication, why not just skip all the unnecessary drama and show the characters talking out their problems ahead of all that? It will save me the frustration and eye-rolling, that's for sure.

And my last major problem with the film is the ending. Vanellope abandons Sugar Rush for Slaughter Race. In what world is that a reasonable ending? Yes, there's the message about following your dreams and whatnot. But it is a very immature and selfish decision on Vanellope's part to abandon the game she came from, especially right after the game broke. It was expressed early on in the film that the players' favorite racer is Vanellope. What do you think they'll do when she's just suddenly not there? Do you think they'll play the game as much? Is pursuing your "dream" really worth risking your game being unplugged again, Vanellope? Is it worth it after all the pain and hardships Ralph went through to buy that replacement Sugar Rush steering wheel so that your game isn't unplugged? It was a lame ending that made an already frustrating movie thoroughly dislikeable.

I'm disappointed. I expect better from Disney, given their history of recent films. Frozen was better than Ralph Breaks the Internet. Heck, I like Moana better, and I was very critical of it. Honestly, Ralph Breaks the Internet suffered from the worst sequelitis I've ever seen and is not a worthy successor to Wreck-it Ralph in any way.

Also, if any of you come at me and say "it's just a movie calm down" I will block you because obviously you lack the critical thinking skills necessary to understand this post and I don't feel like being the one to educate you on something as basic as "media affects reality and human behavior".

#anecdotes by peachdoxie #ralph breaks the internet

[bimbonaparte]

Just thinking out loud about the ethics of dark fic, don’t mind me

*****TRIGGER WARNING*****

****Discussions of grooming and child abuse*****

A fic author I really enjoy made a post condemning anyone who supports a certain ship on the grounds that it’s promoting pedophilia (middle-aged man, teenage boy). They used their personal experience of being groomed when they were younger as evidence that this ship perpetuates actual harm and that anyone supporting it is a bad person.

It made me stop and think, honestly. I’ve always been of the opinion that everyone should write what they want to write, and that moral censorship is a bad business that gets real arbitrary real fast. People smarter than me have explained all the reasons someone might want to write dark!fic, so I won’t get into that. My philosophy is as simple as “don’t like, don’t read,” and keep moral judgement of authors squarely out of it. People often write about things they would never condone in real life; Gillian Flynn has never slit a man’s throat or framed anyone for murder, Haruki Murakami has never skinned anyone alive, and Shirley Jackson does not appear to have poisoned her whole family.

That said, this author clearly went through something horrific that they’re still grappling with to this day, and they put a lot of the blame for what happened to them on sexual fanfic/fanart portrayals of this relationship. That is enough to make me pause. It’s definitely enough to make me want to dig deeper into this, because if there is real risk then I maybe need to re-evaluate my long-held position on these things.

Having done some reading and organized my thoughts, here’s where I’ve landed:

What happened to this person was awful and traumatizing, and my heart absolutely goes out to them. I understand why they, personally, want nothing to do with this ship ever again. It is an intense trigger for them, and that is perfectly understandable.

Based on their description, what happened to them was also textbook grooming (link goes to a website called “protect young minds” that explains warning signs for parents, FYI).

Part of grooming behavior includes a) finding out a child’s interests and building trust by pretending to have those same interests and b) sexually desensitizing the victim through dirty jokes, talking about sex, casual touches, showing them pornography, etc.

This is the crux of the argument -- that fic/fanart depicting underage relationships is used in grooming to sexually desensitize victims. Evil people use it for evil purposes, and therefore it is Bad. And I cannot say this never happens. Clearly, it has happened.

But I’d argue that’s not because of anything inherently evil about fiction with dark themes. This list also includes several behaviors (dirty jokes, talking inappropriately about sex) that appear much more innocuous than outright porn, but that are being used for the same purpose.

The problem here is not the fact that explicit fanfic/fanart exists. The problem is not that dirty jokes exist, the problem is not that pornographic videos exist. The problem is that an adult is exposing a child to adult things that they are not ready to handle, with the goal of introducing and normalizing sexual contact.

Children are -- and should be -- generally protected against sexual or graphic content (though the advent of the internet has made that much more complicated). When you walk into the gas station, the porn magazines have opaque covers in front of them. It’s a broad societal expectation that you shouldn’t tell dirty jokes (or even just use curse words!) in front of a ten year old. Explicit websites require you to submit age verification before viewing content. In grooming, an abuser will circumvent these legal and societal protections to try and expose the victim to sex before they’re developmentally ready to deal with it. THAT is the problem, not the fact that an adult somewhere has written erotic fiction for other adults on the internet to read. 

I do believe that authors have a responsibility to tag their work and use appropriate warnings whenever possible. This is something we can do better as a community! This is not just for the sake of minors in fandom, but for those dealing with trauma who want to avoid certain topics (or even those with a particular interest in reading about those topics). Tags and warnings are good for everybody.

But I do not believe that people who write fiction depicting these ships are pedophiles or even morally bad people, and I do not believe that the fiction itself is Bad.

The really unfortunate truth is that predators will use whatever tools they have available to them to try and groom their victims. In this particular case, the tools were a child’s interest in superheros, the relative anonymity of the internet, and erotic fan creations. That breaks my heart, and would no doubt break the heart of any author/artist who learned that their work had been abused in this way.

But in another situation, the tools could be completely different -- two examples that have popped up multiple times in my reading are video games and tickling. There’s nothing inherently wrong or evil about either of these things, but a predator can twist them to make them part of the grooming and desensitization process. Similarly, here’s nothing inherently wrong or evil about erotic fiction, written for adults, tagged as explicit and/or “containing adult content.” And there is definitely nothing inherently wrong or evil about the people who create it.

The question of “do people act out the things they read in fiction” (i.e. if you read about pedophilia, is it more likely to make you a pedophile, and THAT’S why ships like this are bad??) is for another day. Yes, we are all undeniably influenced by fiction and media; no, I still haven’t tried to kill and eat anybody, despite having binge watched the entirety of Santa Clarita Diet inside of a week. On the flip side, Charles Manson used Helter Skelter of all things to justify some heinous god damn murders, so overall people are a grab bag. 

Sorry for the gigantic NOVEL here but I was really driven to sort out my own thought process on this. Will probably revisit later.

[bondsmagii]

re: all this gatekeeping bullshit and thinking about the tumblr mess right now:

tumblr does not exist in a vacuum and it’s a proven historical fact that when countries go off the shits they start targeting everything seen as “vulgar”. this can be anything from various imagery to policing people’s relationships to expanding the idea and definition of “vulgar” into ridiculous territory. this has certainly been happening both on and offline for some time.

but certain parts of this website have sure as hell contributed to what we’re dealing with now. it’s not just awful tumblr execs waging a war on fandom or whatever other cries for action yall have been coming out with. there’s a huge subculture on tumblr that is hell bent on policing other people’s morals, redrawing the lines of what’s “problematic” and “vulgar” to ridiculous lengths. the extent to which these people will jump through hoops and twist words to end up with a situation where something completely innocent or harmless is deemed to be some kind of awful -ist or -phobic or -philia is fucking insane. 

and these people have contributed to this mess. they’re so eager to be on their high horse that they’ll back tumblr’s war on anything “”vulgar”” because hey! people won’t be able to write, for example, dangerous, scary darkfic anymore, that’s apparently inherently triggering to read and means you’re a dangerous, abusive person or whatever if you write it. they do not care about whether or not something actually is vulgar, because in their minds and echochambers they have declared it as such. 

this attitude -- this all or nothing, black and white, good or evil rhetoric -- is partially why tumblr can get away with this. because for everyone saying hey, this really isn’t a good way to go about things, there’s people saying that it’s fine, because this content shouldn’t be allowed to exist because it offends their morals, which is the exact same right-wing Christian middle-aged suburban parents kind of thinking these people profess to hate in the same breath. I don’t like it, therefore it should not exist. that’s exactly what these people are saying, and here we are.

they don’t care that so many totally innocent creators are going to get wiped out by this, probably because they don’t see them as innocent, but even if they do, it’s a small price to pay to eradicate the problem, right? they don’t realise this is more an issue of their personal comfort and instead see it as a moral war -- one that any good person should be in favour of. and they see tumblr as fighting from that angle, too. it’s for the greater good and when wiping out such a huge problem there’s no perfect system to do it. there’s a war on against enemies! let there be no resentment if someone is bumped with an elbow!

tl;dr part of the reason tumblr is getting away with this shit is because of the sensitivity and morality policing that goes on within this garbage dump of a site and if yall didn’t all act like writing a darkfic is identical to going out and physically murdering a human being we wouldn’t be in this much of a mess

#.txt #and that is the FUCKING tea lads #i'm sure i'll get plenty of asks or comments about this that directly prove my point #when someone reads this and idk accuses me of being something or other

[fierceawakening]

1/? erinc1978/assholeanon again -- will try to respond to your questions as best I can. As a general point, I think I understand better now where you were coming from in terms of how you approached writing various parts of Steel and Promise, and I'm sorry for having been such a douche about it.

It’s Book Anon again. Cut for length, discussions of consent, some nonexplicit sexual content, and spoilers.

Re: 6/ – I think there were a few things that had me thinking Teran was saying that everything kind she’d done was purposeful manipulation. Some of this may well be incorrectly remembered through anxiety haze, but IIRC part of it was her general attitude during the conversation, that struck me as generally sort of triumphant and preening – along the lines of “ha, I got you to fall for me, aren’t I clever.” (cont’d)

Re:6/ contd - I think another was Cailyn saying something to the effect of “so what about the ‘you’re a jewel among stones’ business”, and Teran IIRC didn’t deny that was part of the manipulation. So I took it as being broader than the s/m. As we learn that Teran was trading torture to own Cailyn, that confirmed it for me emotionally – that she couldn’t have been sincere in her regret over upsetting Cailyn by merely wrecking her clothes if she had no qualms about buying her outright.

As a general note, I’m really sorry that my deactivating killed your archives of my asks. It didn’t occur to me that would happen. Should’ve sent everything as a message in the first place and then I wouldn’t have spammed your ask box. I didn’t remember there was another option until Tumblr cut me off and said, “Whoa, you need to wait an hour until you send any more asks.”

On the personal note - “safe” was a terrible choice of words for a complicated internal state that I was wrong to externalize, and I feel really bad for causing you more pain over this. I absolutely do NOT mean to suggest you are an Unsafe Person in any kind of general sense, and I give you my word that I will not say or imply to anyone, online or off, that you are not a safe person to be around.

As one last note - I understand why you feel jerked around, and I wish I could take back my actions and that I’d just discussed the book like a normal person in the first place instead of jumping to conclusions, but I can’t do anything more at this point than apologize. Just let me know when you want to be done with this interaction so that I don’t overstep your boundary (i.e. I give you a last response and then block). I found code to block websites via my OS, and when you’re done, I’m done.

Okay, so I don’t know if this helps at all, but I’ve been avoiding mentioning personal stuff because of the whole “safe/unsafe” deal which I didn’t want to feed into, but I feel a bit like I have to wade into it to make some of this make sense.

It’s true that some things about Teran are things I’ve experienced or are based on me. One of those things is that… when I joined the BDSM community around me at the tender young age of 21, I didn’t know too much about myself or where I fit in that bunch of overlapping letters. But I knew I was interested, specifically, in SM–I’d spent most of my young life fantasizing about people who liked pain, but I didn’t think they really existed, or thought they had some kind of Freudian complex that meant even if I knew what I was doing I’d harm them emotionally by enticing them into indulging in something that was bad for them. When I was a youngin you really couldn’t find much that positively portrayed people with pain fetishes.

But the thing was, when I got into the community? Intense masochists aren’t crazy or unhealthy and dating them doesn’t make you evil. BUT they’re rare. Most people are interested in sensation play but not really in intense SM stuff–and even more common than that is an interest in (usually mild/bedroom-only) D/s.

So finding partners, or at least finding partners that are actually complementary to me on that score? Is hard! They’re out there–there’s at least one in every community I’ve been in–but they’re relatively rare. 

In part because they’re rare, in my experience a lot of them were older, and actually a lot of them were in relationships. Of the “masochism was completely unacceptable when I married my wife, but I couldn’t stand it any more so I asked her to beat me, she said YIKES NOOOOO but eventually agreed I could go to play parties if I don’t actually side date anyone and hide the marks” sort.  (This is one reason I disagree with antis about age gaps. One of the first people I ever beat? Three times my age. Did he harm me? Well, I did end up hurting my shoulder by not realizing I was new to this and should have slowed down… SHIT SHIT SHIT THE ANTIS WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG!)

It’s kinda lonely, and is part of the reason I haven’t dated anyone since my last partner. They’re hard to find! At least if you actually want, you know, a relationship.

So that was the thing. Teran found one, he was actually single and interested, but he got sick and died. And she went back to the dark channels to look for another one, and couldn’t really find one, because as assholey as the nobles are, the dark channels are much more like… what most people were and what I wasn’t really looking for.

So Teran knows that almost anyone is gonna disappoint her, and either she can 1) keep having random dates with people hoping she chances on someone who is orientationally masochistic and be vaguely frustrated until she does or 2) try to see if she can train someone to become what she wants. (Especially someone who IS inherently submissive and wants to serve, which Cailyn is.)

So she does 2). Without making it clear what she’s doing, because she’s kind of a jerk. And because “oh, I’d like to alter your sexuality, you good with that?” is a big ask.

Doesn’t make it okay that she did that and wasn’t honest about it, and I’m not saying it is. Pushing someone’s soft limits can be okay–that’s why they’re soft limits–but not realizing someone might be just a little upset upon finding out that’s pretty much why they picked you? UH. TERAN NO.

From Teran’s perspective (which, again, TERAN NO) she expected Cailyn to figure it out. She never came out and said “this is an experiment,” but she talked often about how Cailyn’s experiences of pain and desires were shifting. So she thought Cailyn would figure it out, and assumed (again, TERAN NO) that Cailyn coming back over and over meant Cailyn was fundamentally okay with it. She knew she was being manipulative, but she didn’t realize how awful she was being. Which is why she was surprised when Cailyn was like “HOLY SHIT AM I AN EXPERIMENT?” as if this was 1) news and 2) bad news.

The other thing Teran does that is unquestionably horrible is the bargaining to own Cailyn. Whether it’s clear from the text or not (and I can’t really go back and reread in depth now to find out if I was too ambiguous about this), what I meant to say was that Teran wants Cailyn to freely consent to stay with her, and asks for it. When Cailyn says no, she initially respects it, but then the Councils (at the behest, of course, of Ben, who is the actual skin-crawlingly terrible person who gives no fucks whatever about consent so of course he would dream this crap up) basically say “you know if you do this for us you won’t have to worry about that cute girl running away from you *wink*” and… Teran goes for it, even though part of her knows she shouldn’t.

So again… I’m not trying to say I meant for what Teran did to be Okay Because She’s Lonely. It’s not okay. But I didn’t mean that she was a completely uncaring person. I meant that she was a very damaged person who gets what she wants through manipulation because why not when almost everyone despises you anyway, someone “liking” you means they want to rape you and force you to carry their kid, and the one guy who actually loved you was perfectly fine with heavy D/s… and died horribly anyway?

I appreciate you saying that you didn’t mean “safe” the way I took it. I just… if you actually think I am okay with real world dubious consent and was saying it’s fine, then… I actually deserve to have people warned about me. And the thing about it is… if you actually are a person who is abusive, or manipulative, or real-world wobbly on consent, you’re the last person to know it. Abusive and manipulative people make excuses for themselves to themselves, which is why it’s so hard for them to change.

So while my gut reaction to your comments is “I didn’t say that! I don’t endorse that! The thing I wrote isn’t that!” there’s part of me that feels that I can’t argue… because I’d always say/think that I’m safe even if I’m not. Which puts me in the awkward position of “That sounds wrong, and also insulting and hurtful! But that’s exactly what I would think if it was 100% correct!”

Which is where the scrupulosity spirals come from.

So the only thing I can really say and do is… again, give you as much of a platform as I can given the energy I have at any given time, and make sure people who aren’t me see it, and have the opportunity to decide for themselves whether I am accurately assessing myself as “someone who attempts to be positive and safe for friends and lovers” or not.

#steel and promise #spoilers #my writing #Anonymous

[your-jellyfish-senpai]

Rules: Answer these 85 questions and tag 20 people

Tagged by: @pinkfluffyunicorns426​ thank you!

Tagging: ​ @inkspillsnotebook @minisophia @kimievii or anyone else who reads this (but only if you want to!)

What was your last…

1. Drink: Water, believe it or not

2. Phone call:  Pops!

3. Text message:  Complaining about the vending machine being broken and then being assaulted by an elevator door.

4. Song you listened to: This Fire - Franz Ferdinand (side note: this was their closing song last night and it was ethereal. They had everyone in the audience get super low to the ground and toned the music down and then got intense again and it was WILD)

5. Time you cried: Not to be That Bitch but like i p much cry every night it’s not inherently a bad thing it’s more of a regular release of tension/emotional so it’s chill

Have you ever…

6. Dated someone twice: I have had one relationship so that is actually impossible xD

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: I have two responses. 1. If a kiss on the cheek in kindergarten counts, then yes. 2. The first time I did a stage kiss and it was not my fault it was awful because THE BOI. SWALLOWED MY FACE. THAT’S NOT HOW YOU DO IT.

8. Been cheated on: Nope

9. Lost someone special: Certainly

10. Been depressed: i have depression so ye

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: YEAH MORE THAN I’D LIKE TO HAVE ON MY RECORD (tbh it’s only.... two times actually, but there have been some close calls, too)

Fave colours

12. Black

13. Red

14. Blue

In the last year have you…

15. Made new friends: Yes!! Especially online! :D

16. Fallen out of love: I don’t think so? o.o

17. Laughed until you cried: Hell yeah

18. Found out someone was talking about you: nah i don’t do enough to warrant rumors or anything. 

19. Met someone who changed you: mmmm maybe?

20. Found out who your friends are: Yes and also people who AREN’T.

21. Kissed someone on your Facebook friends list: Yeah xD

General

22. How many your Facebook friends do you know irl: FB should be 100% people i know.

23. Do you have any pets: Two cats and a dog!! 

24. Do you want to change your name: Eh Idk. Sometimes I feel like my name doesnt suit me, but i dont have any other alternatives. ideally i’d like to be nameless but that doesn’t fly in society

25. What did you do for your last birthday: went to a winery, there was a reggae festival, drank a lot BUT NOT TOO MUCH and yeah

26. What time did you wake up today: 8am technically but also was woken up SO MANY TIMES. between 2am and 7am. so many.

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: winding down from the concert, getting ready for bed, watching diners, drive-ins, and dives

28. What is something you can’t wait for: when i finally finish and polish an original piece of writing and get something published!!

29. What is your favorite animal: oh man, love foxes and deer, also birds??? especially crows

30. What are you listening to right now: a distant country song courtesy of the dudebros on the volleyball court outside my room

31. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: YES ONE OF OUR VISITING WRITERS WAS TOM MCALLISTER AND HE’S A BLESSING AND YOU SHOULD READ HIS BOOK(S). I’ve only read How To Be Safe, but it was SO GOOD.

32. Something that’s getting on your nerves: Quite literally, my nerves. They’re getting wonky in my arm and also my neck is in a lot of pain today yay.

33. Most visited website: Unfortunately, this one.

34. Hair color: Uhhh..... i think my natural hair color is like... mousy/ash brown????? i have had dye in my hair since i was in eighth grade.... literally almost a decade lmfao

35. Long or short hair: i’ve got short hair!

36. Do you have a crush on someone: i dont... think so?... i’m so bad at emotions tho u gotta understand that i also get easily attached and dont understand myself Y I K E S

37. What do you like about yourself: i think i have a lot of kindness in me, even tho i’m also a total bitter bitch. i do try to make other people happy when i can

38. Want any piercings: i still want a septum piercing but i dont know if i’ll ever get it.

39. Blood type: uhhhh i think O+ but i’m not totally sure.

40. Nicknames: Other than Syd, Squid, and Squidney... I don’t think I have any. 

41. Relationship status: Single

42. Sign: Libra

43. Pronouns: she/her or they/them. i don’t care much.

44. Fave tv show: Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

45. Tattoos: I only have one :( it’s a paper airplane with a star trail. but i’m planning on getting “Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?” from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” after graduation, and i also want to get a lyric from a Franz Ferdinand song

46. Right or left handed: Right

47. Ever had surgery: I’ve gotten stitches and also got my wisdom teeth taken out. 

48. Piercings: Four in my ears. Had six but the two grew closed.

49. Sport: i like watching baseball xP

50. Vacation: god i want to travel everywhere, but first priorities are japan and italy

51. Trainers: what does this mean

More General

52. Eating: like right now? nothing

53. Drinking: also nothing

54. I’m about watch: myself procrastinate more by doing nothing

55. Waiting for: my motivation to return from the war

56. Want: to do what i need to do and earn my relaxation (wow what a theme)

57. Get married: it’d be cool someday maybe but i’m not super hung up on it

58. Career: man fuck if i know. but eventually i would like to teach literature & creative writing at a college level

Which is better

59. Hugs or kisses: both are good fuck this

60. Lips or eyes: both fuck im bad at this

61. Taller or shorter: shorter. taller people intimidate me.

62. Older or younger: older i guess???? idk what u want, question

63. Nice arms or stomach: literally do not care at all. legs tho? big fan of all legs.

64. Hookups or relationships: i dont think i have enough data to have an opinion

65. Troublemaker or hesitant: what are you asking me these are strange categories uh i guess hesitant???

Have you ever

66. Kissed a stranger: No

67. Drank hard liquor: Yeah

68. Turned someone down: Yeah actually but two of those times it was a joke anyway, two of the times the bois were very persistent and did... not really take no for an answer (i do not count these as relationships), and one... was more of a silence than an answer at all but DAMN am i glad i didn’t say anything that could have been construed positively at all, especially since he was drunk and sad and. nope im done thinking about this

69. Sex on first date: probably not but ??? idk??? circumstantial???

70. Broken someone’s heart: probably.

71. Had your heart broken: no i dont think so

72. Been arrested: nope

73. Cried when someone died: mmm see technically yes but it’s usually in reaction to something/someone else? it’s complicated

74. Fallen for a friend: Yep xD

Do you believe in

75. Yourself: trying to

76. Miracles: maybe?

77. Love at first sight: nah but i believe in infatuation at first sight xD speaking of which... so many cute girls in Philly........ that was not fair

78. Santa Claus: stopped believing in him when kevin accidentally ruined it by showing me a home movie xd

79. Angels: i love the concept of angels and use that sort of thing in fiction but like... there’s an answer for ya i guess

Misc

80. Eye color: Hazel! They’ve been looking greener lately which is neat.

81. Best friend’s name: I HAVE A LOT OF VERY GOOD FRIENDS ALL RIGHT THE THOUGHT OF NAMING THEM MAKES ME ANXIOUS SO IM NOT GONNA BUT KNOW THAT I LOVE MY FRIENDS VERY MUCH

82. Favorite movie: uhhhhhh black panther was really good, also princess bride, incredibles, and moulin rouge are on there???

83. Favorite actor: i dont have an answer i’m sorry

84. Favorite cartoon: oh wow uh... oh no it’s obvious, avatar: the last airbender lol

85. Favorite teacher’s name: Hodge was my favorite teacher in high school, but gotta say Holly is at the top of my list now. i’m gonna miss her when i graduate. 

#long post #thank you for tagging me! #about me

[rose-against-dersecest]

💢🐍💢

no offense but i hate every person on this website that has the fact that they’re a slytherin in their bio, because every time they turn out to be an abusive/shitty person!!! every time!!!!!!! i cringe when someone who has slytherin in their bio argues with me/on one of my posts that incest/pedophilia/abuse is okay, because im also a slytherin!!! fuck you!!!! this is why people hate us!!!!!!!!

YOU CANT USE YOUR FAKE FICTIONAL THEORETICAL MADE-UP HOGWARTS HOUSE ONLINE TO EXCUSE YOU BEING AN ASSHOLE TO OTHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fucking every time i think about telling other hp fans that im a slytherin im worried they’ll think im evil or that i excuse the actions of slytherins/bullying and harassment on the basis of family, wealth, or skin color, and fuckheads on this website love to prove them right!!! great job!!!! let’s just dismiss everybody’s opinion but our own shallow, privileged ones!!! fuck survivors and minorities am i right!!!

being a slytherin doesn’t mean you’re evil and allowed to be awful! it’s about being cunning, intelligent, loyal, ambitious, protective and a leader and quick-thinker, and there are good slytherins (slughorn, regulus black) just like there are evil gryffindors (peter fucking pettigrew), and you should be judged on your character, not on your /circumstances/family!!!! it’s never too late to become a good person and do kind things-- your own bitterness and unwillingness to change your perspective are holding you back!!!

i should also note that ive never met a good slytherin irl-- i had a friend who used her being a slytherin (and having been abused by her family) to justify her bullying/harassing others (including groping and smacking people) and literally stealing things from stores including on a goddamn class field trip where she paraded around a stolen plushie on her head like a trophy. like reading that as what a slytherin does is just so shallow, you’re just a bad person?? that’s it??

and another issue i have with slytherins being read as inherently evil is b/c slytherins were literally preyed upon by voldemort. with their senses of self-preservation and how the other houses ostracized them, they were easy targets to gain control of and manipulate. the founder of slytherin was evil/bigoted enough to only want pure-bloods in his school, but he didn’t want to kill them and create a reign of terror!! (also being a bigot and valuing blood isn’t a slytherin-exclusive trait) that was voldemort and the violence that he cultured!! and voldemort even killed/threatened slytherins that were most loyal to him (snape, lucius & narcissa)!! he tapped into/played with/supported slytherins’ ideals of blood purity, but he wasn’t above killing anyone that betrayed him, or pardoning anyone that supported him, because he was just evil and wanted death, destruction, and power. he was never on the slytherins’ side-- he used them! contrast that with horace slughorn, who loved lily (harry’s mother) because she was kind and brilliant & didn’t care about her blood purity, and you can see that slytherin doesn’t mean evil!! it’s just that voldemort brought out their darkest selves/desires and appealed to them until they’d do and believe anything that he’d say! they never knew that he’d betray them at a drop of a hat if he needed to!

voldemort couldn’t never have used the gryffindors-- too brash, loud, and goody-goody-- and not the hufflepuffs, either, because they accepted everyone. the ravenclaws were the second most likely candidate other than slytherin, actually. if not for slytherin’s history, the shrewdness and personally-detached, calculating aura of ravenclaw could have also been tainted/perverted into something evil. 

slytherin doesn’t equal a bad person, supporting voldemort and awful, discriminatory ideas does. advocating for violence upon others, and laughing at abuse/racism/homophobia/transphobia or anti-semitism/islam does. nobody is just like their parents, and nobody’s character should be based on labels they fit into-- rather what they do, say, and act like. fuck you. it’s human to be kind.

#rose whines about harry potter