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charcubed · 2 years

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I keep seeing posts that are like "interpretations of bi!Dean and gay!Dean are equally valid!" and I used to be like, sure, straight!Dean is definitely wrong but beyond that, see him how you want, who cares.

But now (esp after the Last Call script) I just don't understand the gay!Dean truthers? I follow quite a few on sm, and when I initially followed them I was like "they accept Dean is queer, that's good enough for me." But now they're really starting to get to me and it's not really worth arguing about to them, but I wanted to rant to you about it, cuz you get it.

The script literally included "gorgeous women" in the bar. Dean has canonically been sexually AND romantically attracted to women. He's based off THEE bisexual Neal Cassady.

Like I'm not really trying to defend m/w relationships (lol) but why do even queer ppl insist on erasing his identity when it's so clear? Why do they have to take that away?

Gay!Dean in AUs is one thing, but in the actual, textual canon of the show, Dean is bi. And no, gay!Dean and bi!Dean are NOT equally valid interpretations. And I don't think I'm an asshole for saying that 🤷🏼‍♀️

Sorry it took a few days to get to this. Work and life have kept me busy and tired!

Unironically and non-sarcastically, Anon, I'm glad you've seen the light and seem to understand this topic more now. You are, of course, entirely correct. And you're not an asshole for saying it either.

I'm going to take this opportunity to answer your (potentially rhetorical) questions, and also bounce off of you and lay some stuff out about this topic in general at length for the first time–despite the fact that it may turn me into public enemy #1 again. I am already hated for non-combatively voicing these facts on Twitter (this thread tends to be considered one of the "ground zeroes" of the nonexistent "debate" lol), but I have avoided being dog-piled on Tumblr so far, so... fingers crossed I can miraculously keep it that way!

My hope is that anyone who is predisposed to taking this topic very personally just moves on instead of attacking me (or subposting me?) for any of what I'm about to say. I'm also not forcing anyone to read this, before anyone's like "that's way too many words" or "it's not that serious lol."

I do think this topic is important. I've made the decision to publicly spell out why. And if anyone doesn't want to read it, that's their prerogative.

To your questions, Anon:

I think a lot of this comes down to a fandom-wide problem (all fandoms recently, not just SPN) of not understanding the difference between headcanon and canon, the dimensions as to why that distinction does have its uses and its necessity, and the value in both. I'll get into this later.

But in this fandom specifically, based on observation and lengthy conversations I've had with a dozen long-time fans who are my friends... I personally think it's maybe a new dimension of viewpoint that's branched out from a holdover of "all interpretations are valid" being the party line people have clung to a very long time. (That’s also true in other fandoms, but I think it’s especially true here.) It's a form of solace people don't want to deviate from. No one wants to be seen as or feel like the ~jerk~ who's ~invalidating another person's view of canon~ in response to someone else's knee-jerk reaction of hurt. This is a fandom with early-2000s cultural baggage and context, where people dealt with feeling like the "crazy fangirls" who shipped Destiel and dared to call out queer subtext. Misha's "You're not crazy" tweet exists for a reason. I do feel like a lot of well-meaning people–aside from misunderstanding or being ignorant to the analytical roots of this topic and why they absolutely matter–just know what it feels like to have their thoughts on queer content in a show feel "invalidated," and they don't want to be perceived as doing that to other people. And/or: they’ve felt invalidated before (in this fandom or others!), and so they’re hypersensitive to anything they perceive as doing that to them again, especially if they tied personal identity into the projections they’re making onto the media they enjoy.

I understand that people don’t want to seem ~mean~ or make waves. I also don't want to seem mean or be mean, which is why I try to be as clear as possible whenever I talk about this and I never go after people directly (or interact/reference any of the many subtweets from people who openly talk shit about me. haha). But the facts shouldn't be seen as "mean"; they are simply facts. And yes, they absolutely matter.

Because the thing is... none of the above has any bearing on the nuances of the topic at hand, the indisputable fact that Dean is bisexual in canon and that claiming otherwise is erasure, and the truth that none of this should be seen as a threat to people's headcanons.

These are all things that people should understand, and I will not apologize for knowing that and saying it. Misunderstanding this–making the false claim that “all interpretations of Dean’s sexually are equally valid as long as you see him as queer”–is an act of bisexual erasure in this context, and it often (unintentionally!) plays into biphobic talking points. And yeah, in my opinion, that’s something people should care about because it’s worthy of both personal and fandom examination. It is, in fact, why “representation” matters at all.

Let’s not kid ourselves: the bulk of this fandom-wide discourse is about Bi Dean vs Gay Dean. So, y’know, that’s the bulk of how I’m going to address it to just get it all out there.

Right out the gate, let me clarify this: I am not saying–now or ever–that those who are self-proclaimed “Gay Dean truthers” or argue that “Dean being gay in canon is a valid interpretation” are deliberately coming from a place of malice and the intent to contribute to bisexual erasure. By all means, I’m sure most aren’t! Nonetheless, intent does not equal impact. I’ve even seen people say “I’m a Gay Dean truther and I’m bisexual, so how could I possibly be contributing to bi erasure by arguing for Gay Dean?” But in this situation–as in any other–no one is immune from unwittingly perpetuating harm, even including bi people. And it’s important to understand why that is.

“Interpretations” are not opinions, not all are equal, and they do require some level of skill. This is not a personal attack, or a moral judgement on anyone, or somehow a threat to people’s enjoyment of a favorite character. It is just fact.

Gay Dean is not a valid possibility in canon. There is no lens that justifies an argument of it with canonical basis. I have to break down why, in order to sufficiently express why claiming otherwise is a harmful position to take, so bear with me.

(No, this is not an invitation for a Gay Dean truther to treat this like a “debate” with me or waste time writing out a counterargument. Please just exit the tab if you’re somehow here battling that urge.)

For someone to say that Dean is gay in canon, here is an incomplete list of what has to be erased, ignored, or explained away:

• His sexual attraction to, romantic love for, and relationship with Cassie.

• His sexual attraction to, romantic love for, and relationship with Lisa (whether or not one thinks she was ever the ~ultimate love of his life~, attraction and love were present.)

• His stash of and enjoyment of porn that includes women, which is referenced many times.

• The moments where he was seduced by a female-presenting monster.

• Each and every time he made a reference to or joke about his attraction to women.

• Any fling he ever had with a woman on screen, and the enjoyment he had in the process.

The man is canonically sexually and romantically attracted to women, and he has acted upon that and even enjoys that about himself in wildly diverse contexts. It is a blatant part of the text of the show. (The fact that we are at the point where this is somehow a main point of contention rather than his attraction to men does make me feel a tiny bit insane, to be honest.)

Now, in my experience (which I don’t claim is comprehensive!), the people who argue for Gay Dean tend to explain ALL of this away under some form of universal umbrella of Dean being “performative,” a variation on compulsive heterosexuality they ascribe to him. The claim or explanation tends to be that Dean was performing a mostly-faked attraction to women based on his father’s expectations and outward pressures he received in the culture of his life. Moments are often cherry-picked out of context to support this “reading.”

Who is Dean supposedly performing FOR, even in the moments where he acts on his attraction to women when he is alone? How does this explain his significant relationships with women like Cassie and/or the legitimate visible enjoyments he received from those interactions, as well as his flings with women throughout the show? How does this explain things like the Last Call script, where Dean is very clearly written as attracted to “gorgeous women,” a factoid that is not only very clear on screen but also (of course) written in literal black and white?

(There are no sufficient answers to these rhetorical questions. Once again: please do not waste time trying to give me any.)

And what evidence are Gay Dean people using for comphet or performative Dean? The “evidence” is often a misread of canon, pointing towards the consistent theme and false goal presented in the text of the show of characters’ efforts to strive for an “apple pie life,” aka a heteronormative ideal family. Gay Dean people misrepresent what this theme and through-line in the show is actually about, which is the totality of learning to accept your life rather than striving for something ill-fitting, that what you need and want need not be mutually exclusive (family life including fulfilling romance + hunting life can coexist), family is what you make of it and how you define it, and there are no true limitations on what all of this “should” be. While these themes are inherently queer, they are not about narrow performances of masculinity, femininity, or sexual identity, but about making space for ALL forms of all of the above–AND about identifying what it is that one wants and thinks they can’t have.

Namely, for Dean, that’s a version of settling down in a life that fulfills him in every direction, with an open and honest mutual relationship with the person he is in love with. This latter point would be true whether Cas was a man or a woman (though the fact that he is a man of course adds further dimension of interest to the story). Dean doesn’t think he can have a romantic relationship / family that lasts, and by later seasons that yearning is a key part of his character. The times it didn’t work out for him weren’t because those other people were women, but rather because the “lesson” he internalized from traumatic instances of loss is that hunters don’t get to do ~the love thing~ or get the settled down life. This is stated in the text of the show multiple times, and that’s also why Dean seeing examples of hunters who made any kind of balanced life work (especially masculine queer hunters like Jesse and Cesar) is pointed and purposeful. To say it’s about comphet instead (with no sufficient canon evidence that supports that) disregards a key point that’s central to Supernatural’s story, and in my opinion it disregards it to its detriment.

For Dean’s journey in particular, it is about freedom from limitations of structure, and knowing that he contains multitudes. The things he got from John–loving classic rock and loving his car, for example–are no less core joyful parts of Dean simply because they originated from his father. Dean can love classic rock and still occasionally love a Taylor Swift song, for example. He can love cowboy movies and manly movies, and also enjoy chick-flicks. It’s the idea of learning that there are no limitations, not that masculine interests are not inherently something he loves for himself or that aren’t important parts of his identity. It’s an expansion to openly include more, not a switch or a narrowing. The same applies to his sexual attraction and his queer identity. He can be attracted to cowboys and bikers, and also be attracted to gorgeous women. Him being attracted to / loving women does not mean he cannot and does not feel attraction and love for men; likewise, him being in love with a man does not mean he wasn’t and isn’t attracted to women.

(“Last Call,” as an episode, exists in part to drive the totality of these points home, and emphasize that Dean’s attraction to men is something he’s known about himself for most of his life and acted on previously. So is most of the queercoding and queer subtext applied to Dean–which is specifically coding him as bisexual. His attraction to men is sometimes established or made clear because it echoes his attraction to women, etc. etc. Dean’s canonical attraction to men is a whole other post.)

So here we come to why saying otherwise and trying to shoehorn a comphet narrative onto Dean in canon is harmful:

Aside from the fact that to claim Dean’s joyful attraction to women is performative is to cut out chunks of the story and is thus not supported by canon, and it relies on making assumptions about and projecting onto the text… unintentionally or not, the implication is that bisexuality is not queer enough, or that being gay is somehow “queerer” and thus more compelling and a preferred concept, and that attraction to different genders is a heterosexual / straight trait requiring removal. No one is queering a text in a more revolutionary way or unlocking a ~secret good Supernatural~ by making a bisexual man into a gay man. That’s simply not how this works.

“Preferring” an argument for Gay Dean in canon requires explaining away or misreading all of those moments Dean has with women, essentially replacing them with trauma or suffering or discomfort that–in my observations–also sometimes rely on stereotypes of gay men. It also involves potentially preferring to twist them into behaviors Dean must have universally put himself through not out of genuine joyful desire but at minimum because he felt like he “should” or at maximum in an attempt to “fix” his “gayness,” even when no one was watching. And it points to the pressures Dean experienced about living a life that fit him fully–pressures that exist not just in his world, but also in our patriarchal world and society–and it implies that queer people can’t authentically experience attraction or love to someone of a different gender, because maybe they’re actually just “performing” the heteronormative ideal. As in: a “visually queer” relationship is the end goal, right? For Dean, that’s an m/m relationship... so surely m/f matters less, or maybe it can’t be a genuine and significant part of a queer person’s life.

Once again: I do not think any of this is intentional on the part of Gay Dean truthers, nor do I think it’s done with malice. Nonetheless, these harmful biphobic viewpoints permeate these conversations and misconceptions when people say these arguments are valid.

There is no canonical basis for explaining away all of Dean’s moments with women, and the story does not provide or point to any kind of cohesive narrative reason to do so. YES, people absolutely experience comphet in real life, and those experiences are valid and exist. YES, real gay men can and do sleep with or have nuanced romantic relationships with women before realizing they’re gay later in life. No, that does not mean that’s how analysis of a fictional character in a fictional story always works, especially in regards to a story built over time like Supernatural’s unique approach and the way it was molded to place queerness and specifically bisexuality at the core of Dean’s story.

Ascribing comphet to Dean in canon–or making any other insufficient justification for explaining away his attraction to women–is personal projection. And yes, it is bisexual erasure.

This is not a position fueled by personal hurt for me, as I would say the same here whether or not I was personally bisexual. It is an acknowledgement that these conversations don’t exist in a vacuum, and that’s something everyone should care to understand. I know what comphet storylines look like in fiction, and I know they are worth defining as such, and in other fandoms I even defend that very loudly. This is not the case here, and to say it is requires mental acrobatics that are objectively unsupported by canon... and invariably insisting otherwise perpetuates one of these harmful biphobic viewpoints whether or not one realizes it.

To say Gay Dean is a legitimate read of canon–which it is not–supports people who are erasing his varied sexual and romantic attraction to a different gender simply because they’ve decided they want to ignore that. “I like the idea of Dean being gay” does not mean that he is gay in canon, and writing meta to that end is a problem. It’s not an invalidation of someone on a personal level or some weird variation of homophobia to say that, and I do think people should maybe examine why they seemingly like the idea of him being gay more than him being bi, or why they staunchly defend it (or any other “different queer reading”) as a possibility.

I understand there may be the urge to be like “is it that serious” or “this is just a CW show,” but to that I would say… then why are we all here?

Clearly, most people do still care about queer representation on some level and understand that queer subtext is present and acknowledge that Dean isn’t straight... hence the origin of this new prevalent concept of “as long as you say Dean’s queer then it’s fine.”

But in any piece of media, the text is the text is the text. The text can also be compelling, and fascinating, and contain value whether or not it’s an exact reflection of you personally as a fan and as a person. Sometimes there is arguably even greater value in being able to find reasons to relate to the humanity of a character or in a story even though elements differ from who you are personally. It is an exercise in empathy, and it is a pillar of why humans tells stories to each other to expand our viewpoints, and it sometimes results in examining the sources of that empathy. It’s why “representation matters”: not just so we can see ourselves, but so we can see others, and find reason to empathize despite differences. There’s unquantifiable power in that, and it’s also why the diversity of queer experiences and identities should be championed and acknowledged both in fiction and in reality, not turned into a monolith. Our solidarity amongst our individual queer differences and identities is our truest version of strength and authenticity. We are not all exactly the same, and that’s a good thing. When care is taken to specifically convey that in fiction, it is worth not only acknowledgement but also defense.

So: do we or do we not care about why representation is important, and why these sorts of conversations should exist at all? About censorship of queer storylines, and diversity in the queer community, and solidarity in differences? About bisexual men, a vastly underrepresented group in fiction, and the specific censorship that affected Dean’s bi story accordingly? And about how these viewpoints people can place onto fiction through fandom-wide conversation–like implying Dean is ~queerer~ if you say he’s gay, or that you’re somehow sticking it to the CW and “straight culture” if you suggest he’s gay–can influence biphobia that translates into ways people see bi people in real life?

In other situations even in this fandom, people understand the value of diverse queer experiences. No one would dare to say that “you can argue Charlie is bisexual in canon because as long as you say she’s queer it’s fine.” Charlie is a lesbian. It’s very, very clear, and she shows and states that she is only attracted to women. Dean’s attraction to women in canon is equally clear, and is part of his bisexuality. Why is erasing that defendable?

Look: it is people’s God-given right to write whatever fic they want about “what if” variations of Dean’s sexuality through a different lens. It is not their God-given right to make things up about canon and call it analysis.

It is a universal truth that fandom is always going to take canon and mold it into other versions that they love, for their own personal reasons and in ways that have value to them. That’s why transformative works like fic exist, and it’s why fandom is awesome, and I’m glad people use aspects of their favorite stories to tell other inspired stories that are of personal significance to them. But the word transformative is used for a reason: it’s an alteration of canon. It’s not a bad thing or a personal attack on people to say that.

There is a difference between understanding canon and writing actual meta / analysis of the show, and writing AUs for ones own enjoyment and fulfillment. (This is true on AO3 or on Tumblr/Twitter. I often see posts that are positioned as “meta,” but again, are just cherry-picked weirdness.) These differences are important, as is understanding how headcanons and fic affect surrounding conversations and fandom perceptions. And this fandom seems to have a very big problem with understanding the difference between these things, while taking it extremely personally in a negative way when people try to explain why the difference matters.

Confusing analysis and transformative fandom does a disservice to both, and denying the value in the former is not only a form of anti-intellectualism but also removes some of the beauty in the latter. If we can’t distinguish and differentiate between canon and headcanon, we can’t discuss the value in understanding the canon, nor adequately discuss the artistic value and power in creating derivative variations from it in personal ways. Both are different, both are equal, both are vital, and insisting the distinction is needless hampers conversation across every space. And nowhere is that more true than when one is discussing queer representation and queer censorship, like in the case of Supernatural. Again, why are we here? Why do we care? You cannot argue for and discuss the problems of censorship sufficiently if you don’t understand what was censored–and in Dean’s case, that was his love for Cas and his bisexuality.

I leave you with this (probably unneeded) analogy:

Imagine Dean’s a zebra.

(Sorry, EDS community; not that kind of zebra.)

People are trying to say “Dean is a black and white hoofed mammal <3″ and well, that’s accurate, but that doesn’t mean him being a zebra isn’t its own unique thing. A whole bunch of people are looking at him though and saying “well I prefer to say that Dean’s a black and white horse,” because they like that viewpoint better. Close enough, right? A black and white horse is basically a zebra, right? And then there’s the people who are like “I think Dean’s a cow!” and it’s like, okay, no idea where you came from, but whatever.

The point is that those are all entirely different fucking things. They’re different animals. Someone wanting Dean to be a black and white horse doesn’t make him less of a zebra. Pretending otherwise is absolute nonsense.

This debate/discussion/discourse is equally nonsensical. That is the logic (or illogic) that applies here.

Just because Dean is “queer” doesn’t mean any queer categorization underneath that umbrella suddenly equally applies.

Dean is bisexual. And he is “queer” because he’s bisexual.

Those are the facts.

And for the love of God, please... I really don’t think I’m an asshole for saying it.

So, to whoever made it this far: please do me the courtesy of not hating me for it or trying to bait me into a fight.

I’m tired. Thanks.

----

EDIT: Couple of good additions!

• @doctorprofessorsong added some good details about how some of these harmful biphobic concepts translate to real life, and real things that bi people struggle with.

• A lesbian anonymously sent in her perspective as someone who enjoys gay Dean headcanons/fic and agrees with this post, and agrees that the fact that Dean is bi in canon is important.

#dean winchester #supernatural #dean is bi #bisexual dean winchester #HAHA I TOLD MYSELF I WASN'T GOING TO PUT THIS IN THE OFFICIAL TAGS BUT THEN I SPENT HOURS WRITING IT SO FUCK IT #[slaps target on my back and cries] haha here we go #I'm not linking it on twitter though. I don't have that level of masochism in me. maybe this will fly under the radar on here a bit?#spn meta #I take a marijuana level of high road on twitter constantly but fun fact I'm not immune to knowing people hate me for daring to say this #doesn't change the facts though! and unfortunately I do actually give a fuck! even if few others do #maybe this is so long no one will read it #char writes things #also I did absolutely plagiarize myself in parts of this. what about it. ok I'm done goodbye.... screams #PS people CAN reblog this btw. I am being a little baby wincing at potential backlash preemptively but like #I wouldn't have posted it and left reblogs on if I didn't know and accept the risks <3 I will speak the truth idc idc someone's gotta do it #EDIT: I stopped being a coward and posted it on twitter :) because fuck it! I stand by my words etc etc it's all fine #me vs adding to the tags as if anyone's reading them lmfao

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callmearcturus · 1 year

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I feel like people find you intimidating because you're confident and because you have firm boundaries and will quickly block people for crossing them or being assholes? All of those are good things, but communicating online is hard and there's a lot of room for misunderstandings. I've seen people being frightened of people who interact with randos and first-offense block assholes, not because they intend to say anything assholish, but because they're afraid of accidentally saying something that reads differently than they expected and never having a chance to apologize or continue to interact.

Also so many people who interact with a lot of randos are entirely terrified of the people following them and that's extremely unhealthy but it's so much the norm that someone who isn't afraid of the opinions of their followers can stand out as some kind of iron-willed badass. That may also contribute.

I mean. That tracks, all of that is accurate. I've been on the internet for a long time and my boundaries are extremely well fortified at this point. Tumblr and fandom broadly are a huge part of my life, so imo the safety rails are necessary. I do recall being younger and less aware of that necessity, and it was much less fun.

But also, I cannot overstate how people cannot control my blocking, lmao. I think the last person I blocked was on one of my How To Read Whomstve posts talking about Well Actually The Epilogues Where Good And yadda yadda i blocked them, because funnily enough I don't think we need to interact further. XD I don't think I'd like their content and they wouldn't like mine.

The idea of being an iron-willed badass is fun but also a little sad. People who make you uncomfortable in fandom have no right to access to you, and once you start ignoring or blocking the folks who incite that reaction, you will be demonstrably happier.

All of these are not easy lessons. I had to go through a lot of fucking vicious harassment before I learned. Hell, the harassment I got from sw/amp wi/zard and their cronies last go-around shoved me back in the fucking closet. That ain't no joke and it sucked. So, we learn from that shit, hopefully. I just hope everyone else out there gets to learn it without the vaguely traumatic harassment campaigns. That'd be sweet.

One more thing: I know a lot of people feel more comfortable using anon to send messages. I leave it on for that reason. But I do want everyone to know that when you use anon, you are assuming the same greyface of every person who has sent me suicide baiting and threats and harassment. There is inherent baggage to hitting that 'anon' switch that you are opting into. I've said before that Anon Isn't. It isn't "anonymous," there is a collective identity to it. So I am more likely to nuke someone sending me a bad anon message.

On the flipside, when you sign the message and don't use anon, you both enable me to reply to you privately if that is more appropriate/comfortable to me, and you automatically get a cache of Good Faith that you absolutely do not get from being anon. I don't expect explaining this will cause ppl to collectively stop using anon, but I think it's important context to keep in mind.

#long post

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entropy-sea-system · 1 month

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This blog and our sideblogs will be on hiatus/inactive at least for a while.

I think being online may be a bit overwhelming for us, I don't feel like we got much out of it and its so easy for us to leave servers and block people when everything doesn't seem perfect, we don't have any actual attachment to anyone online so it's easy to just leave.

And this time at least w the discord servers I don't even feel very angry or upset, just maybe left out of anxiety and feeling like I need a change in the spaces Im in. I also wonder if in some cases I eventually get tired of a space or people and need to leave, Im not used to stability, and especially have no incentive to stay when I don't have a connection to someone.

I think currently I only feel that stability with my in sys partners, and sometimes Im still not used to that, I haven't cared about people that intensely for that long until having relationships with them.

We see a concerning amount of people hold views we can't agree with, and have been blocking these people as well as just ppl whose posts were not things we were interested in / may have been things we disliked or were triggered or repulsed by. We have blocked so many followers and unfollowed or blocked some ppl we followed because of these things, and its just better for us this way.

We haven't liked being in spaces mainly with minors, but maybe that was just the nature of online aro and apl spaces as of now, and some fandom spaces. But some discord servers geared towards adults seem to imply minors are 'annoying' and I don't agree with that, it feels antithetical to youth liberation and generally just respecting people.

I just prefer interacting with adults personally, and most of the system is this way since we are an adult. I feel like Ive been around minors like for so long (body has younger siblings and we were a minor until like 3-4 years ago) that I'm preferring to be around adults because I want to feel more like Im actually an adult, and don't feel like spaces with more minors are for us.

I think maybe I just got a bit tired of being around the age group of 'my age and younger' for so much of my life its like I don't want a repeat of that. I don't know anyone I really trust outside the system(not a priority to find this either), and I've never had an older adult mentor figure I could trust in my life, and I don't even know if I want that since some older adults may see me as 'like their child' and I'm afamilial. I'm also plato repulsed and it doesn't appeal to me to just hang out with people, I may be more plato repulsed than I thought (extending more into some things seen as friendship) which is really saying something.

This doesn't mean minors and youth are prone to always having views we disagree with (although we understand there are some reasons minors may be less likely to be informed about things or be influenced by the way the world has been, but that goes for any age group and/or culture in different ways) or that adults cannot interact in appropriate ways with minors, its just personal preference. I don't feel like on purpose interacting w minors in online spaces, and I don't even seek online interaction w anyone much to begin with. I think often, we just like talking about our interests and maybe like the attention we may get from people online.

There's nothing else we find positive about it, and the way online spaces can become very invested in discourse is.. irritating and like yeah I do talk about discourse and have opinions on it (not much posting abt on main, but used to a bit more in vent channels or other channels on discord servers) myself it's just maybe I want to avoid it for now since it doesn't seem like a good use of time or energy.

I want to avoid people who very obviously have opposing views to ours or make space for those who do for some topics at least, and I don't want people to target us for not agreeing with them. Frankly, I'm seeing a lot of harmful attitudes from so-called leftists and generally people in the mogai community, especially usamericans.

Anyways, all this is to say we will probably be taking a break from tumblr and discord or at least try it out for a bit, see if it feels better than being online a lot.

(-Rift)

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myjunkisyuzuruhanyu · 2 years

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Hi, how's your week so far? 🤗💕 I just wanted to ask you this for some time but I've decided just now 'cause I think is a complicated topic... Some people is calling Shouma a 'mysogenist" and I've read that he even harassed a japanese female skater... Is that true? What's your opinion? I trust your ethics and your points of view!!!

I'm sorry if this is a matter that upsets you. If that's the case just forget it!!! And thanks for your amazing posts!!!

My week is ok I guess. I mean a lot of good and bad stuff happen currently irl, but I am getting through the bad and try to concentrate on the positive sides. I'm ok. I get a lot of support, so it's fine. Thanks for asking!

The matter about Shoma is indeed a matter that upsets me, but probably not for the reasons ppl expect. I am sick and tired of this same story being told again and again and again and I have answered this from the start up until today. And I will adress it time and time again if I am asked even if I am not keen on talking about it, but at the same time I don't want to let these accusations stand without giving you the opportunity to get all the information.

I am honestly baffled what is made out of it by now. I assure you that the accusation of "Shoma having harassed a female Japanese skater" are completely made up. It's not true at all. It was reported in Japanese tabloid paper in January 2022 that Shoma was dating Marin Honda for 3 years (which isn't officially confirmed) and some other tabloid reported that an unnamed "official" saw Shoma pointing to himself when 12 year old Marin talked about dating. He was 16 years at this point and it's just a tale with no real source and proofed by fans that Shoma and Marin not even met at the occasion in question and generally if pointing at yourself is now harassing someone where will this discussion lead?

Shoma made one problematic comment in a gaming stream back in September 2019, which can be seen as misogynistic. The problematic sentence translates to "I hate girls my age as I see them too hard to impress boys". That's actually all. The channel wasn't officially tied to his name, so there is no confirmation it was Shoma (but admittedly the person sounded like Shoma) and for context at this point Shoma was without a coach and was close to quitting skating and hated everyone and everything and himself too, which he also said in the stream.

I think that while his comment is indeed something we can discuss as problematic, it's not something to make any final conclusions about Shoma's view on women or his personality. One sentence doesn't define a person, especially not when there was no other words or actions that ever have lead into that direction at all. imo calling Shoma a misogynist is trivializing mysogyny that really harms women on a daily basis.

For further information about the stream incident and Shoma's supposed relationship with Marin and the problems some ppl see in it, you can read under the cut. You will also find more of my feelings and view on the matter in some old replies that I link under the cut.

If you're interested in his full translated comment, you can read further here. You can also pm me for more translations. I have collected different translations at the time back when the matter was brought to attention back in November 2019. I think this explanation on the translation shared by this anon here is worth reading.

I have posted my opinion on it in the following reply, I don't want to repeat the full thing.

On the Marin and Shoma dating rumors and seen problems around it:

I think I have a lot more replies done on the matter over the course of the last 3 years and tbh at this point I am really just...whatever...the eagerness of some ppl who bring all of these accusations up again and again and again just to hate anything Shoma does is baffling. If you don't like him fine. If you think he is problematic, this is ok too. But there is no reason for name calling, trivializing real problems for the sake of fandom wokeness and making up blatant lies to make other ppl hate Shoma.

And even if Shoma would be the most horrible person on earth -which there is no indication for it, on the contrary I have met Shoma as a fan and have read so many interviews and interactions with him that I strongly believe he is one of the kindest celebrities out there - it still has nothing to do with his skating. He is a great skater and this fandom is about figure skating, not about who has the best personality.

I am tired of this topic, but I see that yet again that the topic hasn't died. I am sorry if I am being insensitive in a way at this point.

Still thank you for trusting me with this! I hope it helped!

#shoma uno #replies #marin honda #lil update: shoma and marin dating just confirmed after i wrote this reply

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bellamyblake · 2 years

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makes me sad how little bellarke fics are being made/updated nowadays :( I know it’s natural for fandoms to slow down once the show ends but tbh I didn’t expect it to be this bad, as an author yourself do you think it might be due to the terrible show ending or is there also lack of engagement from the readers?

I think a lot of people pulled away after the finale, that's true but there's also some who did that and after some time came back upon realizing that this final isn't *their* final. Of course that does play some role into it and I understand that people aren't like me, at least not most, I can just ignore it and keep doing what I love, writing fanfic and making gifs. I just love doing that. But others can't because of this and I get it. I've always been able to pull myself away from the narrative, even when the show was still going on. Also over the years I see some stuff differently and come to consider points I haven't before but most people don't do that.

I think part of it is also the culture we live in nowadays. When I first came on Tumblr someone having a multifandom blog was like nah, I won't follow that, I want one specific fandom or two not a whole bunch of them. Now things are different-almost everyone's multifandom and people jump from one thing to another in matter of weeks if not months. It's just the new culture, mostly inspired by the Netflix-and-the-alike providing content. The competition is to post major show after major show or remake something or to make a continuation or a prequel of something that people loved. but the idea is that people loved that one specific OLD thing and they go there because they are nostalgic.

Overall I think the generation changed, and younger folks but not just prefer to jump from one thing to the other without sticking to something. I personally and I know there's also others like me even if they're not a majority, like old stuff, the way things used to be, one episode every week, one or two major fandoms and other stuff they liked. I know that I am like that, I prefer rewatching older shows than watching anything new that doesn't really speak to me and move on to the next a month or two after. I still find more sense in shows that come weekly like All American, SEAL team and others that I follow aka cable shows, than any dragon stuff or period drama things or witch stuff that cast one or two famous names to get the major viewing and hook people up enough to watch their stuff, drop two seasons and then stop it. ( I also have interesting observations on the handmaid's tale and i make them only because I know bruce miller, the executive was the one who was in the writer's room for the 100 and he was the reason why the show got better over time but I find flaws in him too and I find some interesting conclusions there when I watch for myself, anyway that's not important)

I think it just depends on what people like nowadays. I know not as many post fics or headcanons or gifs about the show but I still love writing my fic every day and getting something out there. I love those characters, I love the actors who played them and follow their careers. Most people don't do that. And I think that's one reason why. Then again sometimes after a bad ending some time needs to pass before people can start creating for it again. Just to shake things off. I think the core remains that there's no other couple like bellarke in any other show I've watched. There's similarities and people find them in couples I don't and didn't even back when the 100 was still on (say like Math/ias and N/na from what is it now Sh/adow and bone when I remember the bellarke fandom hated that couple back when the books were out but somehow ppl compare them to bellarke now?? which super weird). I've seen some authors get inspired and write for them again but yes not as many do anymore.

With fanfic there's also that people tell you how to write your fic now. It's not like before in FF.net when you posted and there were no tags, no warnings nothing like that and if people didn't like something they didn't read it.

Simple as that.

For example I'm now afraid to post new chapters of my ark!AU cause I know what I've written and I'm certain people will yell at me about it and that just makes me not want to post it. Other's comments are just *update* and that does little for your motivation.

There's also the fact that there's no fanfic blog to promote writers in this fandom nowadays, even if they're not as many, there's just nothing to bring them together. I know of ppl on twitter who write who I don't see here but they post chapters. There's also no fanfic awards or anything like it to help promote those who write. They're not as few as we think. I believe ppl post and they post good stuff but no many know of them.

Then there's also the issue of smut. A bellarke fic with 90% smut that is posted now gets 10k hits. One that is modern AU or something else gets say 500 hits. So there's the issue of that too on a deeper level.

Overall, I know the fandom is smaller now but frankly, I enjoy that. I don't have the rush to compete with something (I always did better on hiatuses than on showdays) and I know it's something that it's over but I am content creating for it even for 20 people here and 50 on twitter and 30 on Ao3. I'm in no interest of following big netflix productions. I watch them but they do little for me. I just don't feel the soul in them. Maybe i'm old but that's just me.

#answered #sorry nonnie #i could've kept going i guess #but that's it #bellarke #bellarke fandom #bellarke fanfiction

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lexstellaris · 1 year

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ngl kinda glad I hadn't nuked my twitter accounts yet bc I wanted to make sure I could chase up contact info for everyone I care about, and now I get to see how quickly it's imploding holy fuck.

I am actually sad to see it die this quickly. I've been on there since 2009 when a bunch of my lj friends decided to join and follow each other. Those people are still the people I want to keep in touch with the most now that twitter is dying.

I've seen some ppl be like, you're overreacting! It's not gonna die! Well, maybe not tomorrow, or next week, but like, at a certain point, there just literally won't be enough staff with enough knowledge or skills to keep the business operating at any capacity. It's just a numbers game at that point. Maybe it'll be a week or two before something crashes and it can't be restored properly. But you can't gut like potentially 90% of the workforce and expect things to still function normally. There just aren't enough people left, and the implosion has been SO PUBLIC that they'll have a hard time recruiting for replacements. They're fucked.

Twitter was the only social media platform where it just worked for my brain in way facebook or insta or anywhere else never really did. tho I will say, tumblr didn't work for me the first time round bc I tried to do Religion on there and it's really, really not the platform for that at all. So I won't be doing any religious posting here. I'll save that for dreamwidth. Follow me over there if that's your kinda scene.

The weird thing is, I ended up following such a diverse range of people on twitter that deciding who I wanted to keep in touch with outside of twitter has proved an interesting decision. I'm surprising myself with who I care about enough to follow, and who I'm prepared to let go.

There are things I'm definitely not going to miss about twitter though, and even a few days off the site has freed my brain for so many other things. I think, much as I will miss it, that ultimately twitter had become bad for my brain and I needed to kick it to stop myself incessantly checking it every five minutes.

There is a lot I will miss though. It was a good place, when it wanted to be, in the right corners. There were so many people I found that I wouldn't have otherwise. It had a great sense of community for marginalised folks that's not really easy to replicate anywhere else, because it was such a central meeting place. Everyone is scattering now, and so are those communities.

Also one of the primary reasons I came here and not mastodon was the shitposting lmao. This place is just more me. And I don't feel anywhere near as much pressure to market and brand myself as I did on twitter. I can just be a feral fucko over here and that's perfectly fine. And I think coming back for fandom rather than religion has been a much better decision. I feel the culture and how I fit into it a lot better and it doesn't feel weird. It feels comfy, like I should have been here the whole time, but came for the wrong reasons and gave up on it.

Is tumblr perfect? No. Am I gonna disconnect myself from a bunch of ppl I got news from and kept up to date on important stuff? Yeah. But I realise now I don't actually need a constant flood of information into my head, and much as I'll miss twitter, it's much more peaceful in my head without it.

Besides, I've been through this kinda site migration so many times already that I'm not THAT sad about it, even though it does suck to lose contact with so many ppl. Ahh well. Time to rebuild communities again and enjoy going back to smaller niche spaces again where I don't feel so Publicly Perceived as I did on twitter.

#rip twitter #i'll miss the bird site #but not really #i will miss the shitposting tho

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odysseusnostos · 4 years

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a psa

while im happy to interact with each and every one of the people i’m following, and i’m always open for AUs and such, please know that i have absolutely no idea what ‘lore olympus’ is and i’m not familiar at all with the ‘percy jackson’ lore, or ‘hadestown’ (?).

i specify this in my rules and state what my characters are based on in their respective pages (in general: homer, aeschylus, euripides, etc), for reference.

#{ baby look at all that shines ;; ooc }#psa #for no reason i've just seen many ppl from these fandoms following me #and i dont want them to be disappointed #when my replies make no sense for their verses #i dont usually follow back if they only have THOSE verses as canon #anyway i always try to check w muns when i reply to open starters #but just in case i slipped

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technoblade-updates · 2 years

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Techno did some more lore discussion in Discord! (Read Bottom to Top)

[Image ID:

4 cropped screenshots of Discord messages by Techno. They read as follows:

In reply to fishinnit.png saying “on the topic of c!techno someone (i wont say who + if you know them dont attack this is for the sake of discussion) compared his mindset of exploding lmanberg to exploding a car because he wanted a parking spot and its just not clicking for me”, Techno said “listen. the car tried to run me over”

In reply to Yarking saying “But fr, I was thinking about fandom perception of techno and it's really just suffering from success. If you don't watch his pov, you only see the W and not the stress and thought that went into it”, Techno said “ye i've seen a lot of takes along the lines of "c!techno literally never has anything bad happen to him, this writing is terrible" which imo shows that they haven't been watching my character's POV/forgot most of it and only understand it through the lens of someone else's POV. though i can hardly blame them since watching a full POV takes like 50 hours and much of the lore was so long ago that even I'm starting to forget it; perhaps it'd be good to make a Lore Recap video of some kind”.

Techno: ppl see doomsday as proof that my character can solo the entire server and then apply that to every situation. my view is more: "my character spent weeks preparing and then brought ~50 withers, 200 wolves, tricks like invis pots/levitation potions to stall and confuse, allied with phil and dream (one of the strongest guys in the lore). and still almost got killed by sapnap a lot of preparation went into making this all possible; a good comparison to look at would be the prison break, where after watching my disciple and good friend get murdered in front of me i manage to kill zero people because i didnt have the tools to fight that many people (lack of inventory space meant i couldnt bring the Big Guns to the prison break because i needed to bring MILK)”.

Techno: “that and i think fundy stole all of lmanburgs combat items like one hour before the fight for some reason”.

In reply to bloprime saying “i think hbomb also switched sides towards the end and started dropping tnt??”, Techno said “that's why they call him hBOMB”.

In reply to Corn1fer saying “You did that joke 12 months ago smh /lh”, Techno said “why come up with new jokes when you've already achieved the peak of comedy”.

End ID]

#technoblade #mcyt #dream smp #dsmp #image id #no id in alt text

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haleigh-sloth · 2 years

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What do you think of ppl saying MHA recently 'fell off' and the story's going in a 'less interesting direction'? I seen some say Hori is either rushing the story or reiterating story points that have already been established, when those exact same people want to dehumanize the LOV and relegate the villains to 'psychopaths who can't be saved so they need to be put down'. It's just funny to me that people say the story fell off when this was ALWAYS the direction the manga was going like??

Sigh

Well I'm gonna be very very general here and completely ignore the reality of the fandom and only explain what I've seen myself, and divide the fandom into three broad categories:

People who just read for fun and are just along for the ride, taking whatever comes as it may, and don't particularly care about what happens

People who read the story and analyze the fuck out of it trying to deep dive into the art and dialogue and figure out what's going to happen next and what certain things mean, AND care very deeply about the direction the story is taking

And then people who read the story and follow it closely, AND care very deeply about the direction the story takes, BUT don't bother to think very hard about what they're reading because they expect it to be spoon fed to them

You can probably tell which category I'm about to talk shit about lol

The only people I have seen say that the writing has taken a downturn or "fell off" are people who either are finding out that their takes and predictions are wildly wrong and canon has not upheld their theories, opinions of the characters, and the themes, OR people who focused on certain parts of the story and are upset that those parts aren't getting focus here in the final stretch.

I included that last sentence because I've seen some blogs that I used to typically agree with on many fronts (and some not, but still have decent takes on occasion) be very upset with the story as of late. And to each their own! Everyone is of course entitled to their opinion! But based on the people I'm referring to who are saying these things, I'm honestly not sure what their reasons could be for saying that about the story aside from.....they just aren't getting focus where they want it. Idk.

But the obvious group of readers that I think are saying this shit are the people who were so hellbent on having a basic bitch story (which btw, BNHA is kind of basic as it entails every typical shounen trope in existence almost) that doesn't explore complicated, complex, morally grey areas and just focused on fights, badass moves and action scenes, and having a power fantasy character lead the way to the ending. I don't have a presence on twitter (for a reason) but the people I see say this crap are primarily the people on twitter who say some of the most outlandish things that I wonder if they're actually even looking at the same manga panels that I am lol.

Basically, TL;DR: People who were so sure that the story would take a certain direction are now finding that their takes were wrong and are mad about it, so they have to defend their past opinions by saying that the "writing is bad". When in actuality, many many people called the current state of the story from a million miles away (I literally.....thought ALL of this shit would happen the second I saw the mall scene, literally), and therefore I'd say it's hard to call it bad writing when everything necessary in the story for the current chapters has BEEN THERE the whole time. And many, many people called it.

Yeah that's my salty rant lol

#bnha #bnha asks #anonymous #bnha 349 #the writing isn't bad y'all just didn't pay attention #i mean i guess you can still call it bad if you just genuinely think the story is shit #nobody can stop you #but for those who say it's bad in order to defend their past takes that have been proven wrong #we all know #we saw #don't try to lie #lol

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anapologethicc · 2 years

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happy diwali💛💖 i let out my inner louis😌

those not wanting to read abt my feelings pls scroll to the bottom:)

i'm in bed and all diwali celebrations are finally over and i just spent like 15 minutes just sobbing in bed🙈 firstly because i don't think i've ever felt so happy and comfortable with myself as i did this diwali🥺🥰

i didn't need to wear a ghagra (long heavy skirts not that i hate them) or sth frilly or a fricking blouse of any sort. i got to wear clothes which were so so comfortable and so so gender affirming (idk if that's a term lmao). i've worn similar stuff before and never realized why i had felt so happy in them and i don't think i really understood how much this would mean to me and my gender to be wearing clothes that felt so ME.

i got to be whoever i wanted to be. i got a chance to embrace my own gender and i'm still cuddled up in bed sobbing at how wonderful i felt these past two days.😭😭😭💖💖💖

for once i wore sth for myself and dressed up for myself and MYSELF only. i didn't care that i got told i look too chubby or that my clothes were "boy" clothes or that i should've kept my hair long becuz short hair doesn't suit me or that short hair and traditional clothes don't go tgt (BITCH HAVE U SEEN HOW BOMB I LOOK?!?! HOTTEST NB LESBIAN IN TOWN!!😂 more like only lesbian in town lmfao)or judged for the fact that i changed nail polish colours so many times in like 2 days (i think my nails are abt to disintegrate)

i didn't fucking care this year because i was so happy to finally feel good in my skin (tpwk ref👅). i've always had so many issues with myself and with my mental health. it's taken me such a while to get to where i am and accept myself for the way i am.

i still struggle daily with my relationship with my body, my relationship with food, my relationship with painkillers, my relationship with my adhd my depression or my anxiety, my relationship with school with friends with family with myself. i wake up everyday and just try to grow and be a better person for myself to be someone worthy💕

i just wanted to take this moment to thank everyone for any and all interactions they may have directly or indirectly had with me🥺. becuz i don't really follow a lot of people nor am i good at making any new friends (i suck at it becuz ppl find my personality over the top cuz i'm loud and flamboyant and so fking talkative and i feel like i'm never enough :/) BUT i made a resolution this year that if i couldn't get myself to interact with real life people becuz i find ppl generally really fking annoying😂 that i'd at least finally try and make some online becuz i've been in this fandom and on this site for wayy too long now😌😌

i know i'm just some person in your phone you just made u read a rubbish emo essay all abt myself😂 but i just wanted to let you know that every single interaction has made me feel happy and validated and i just wanna say thank you for somedays being my reason to want to live to see another day🥺💖 thank you for creating a safe space for me knowingly or unknowingly and thank you for being absolutely fantastic human beings😚😚❤❤

i'm sending all the love❤, happiness😂, kindness🥰 and gender joy🥳 in the world that i possible have in me to every single one of you🥺💖

so here's to everyone who has talked to me, liked my tags or post i've made/rbed, rbed sth from me, tagged me in sth or answered/sent an ask💖 and whatever else we get up to on this hellsite😂💕

because every single one of you has made me smile on days i didn't wanna get out of bed or felt like absolute fucking shit🙈💕 i'm so so grateful and so so thankful and just so overwhelmed with love😭💖 i love you❤ (every single one of you)

so thank you my most wonderful mutuals🥺😚 @littlegenderbean emme💕 @quickpauseinconversations cande 💕@mamaharry eli💕 @littlespoongf mehar💕@grimmpitch moon💕 @louisandharry yuktha💕 @casuallycrruell arrow💕 @justmehernthemoon kaitlyn💕 @heartshaped-lou gio💕 @dorothyharry rachel💕 @1800louis sab💕 @swimmingleo leo💕 @holyshit kay💕 @ladychlo chay💕 @rainbowparadisebht kaw💕 @laurelier meg💕 @stylinsuns adheera💕 @softlouve debbie💕 (hopefully i got everyone's name right and didn't miss anyone😳)

for anyone who ever wants to talk /cry/ scream/ infodump to a non-stop oversharing chatterbox / human embodiment of an over excited puppy my dms are always open and i'm always ready to talk😂😂😚😚 you know where to find me!! HAPPY DIWALI💛💖

#hi everyone #so i got a little too emotional and i'm still all red in the face and sniffly #just whatever u do pls don't be mean to me (i'm very sensitive)#anyways this has been a wonderful 2 days and i'm just so so content and just happy🥰#i thought i'd share some love and joy🥺❤#hopefully i don't regret this tmr morning😂#once again #SENDING ALL OF YOU SO SO SO MUCH LOVE AND THE BIGGEST HUG AND LOTS OF KISSES😚😚😚💖💖💖💖#tis the season of diwali so here's to wishing all your dreams and wishes come truee and something very special happens for you💕#ok love you byee❤🙈#good night💕#diwali

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king-maven-calore · 2 years

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annie just so yknow... i would eat up your 10k essays on ANYTHING about rq (actually i should write one when i'm free and reread the series again)

i'm not really on booktok, booktube or booktwt but when i am, oh boy it makes me wish i never delved into them in the first place bc... the amount of rq hate is just disheartening, esp from someone who went through a difficult time and learned to heal bc of the series (it makes me biased but whatever). there are ppl who haven't read the books at all or gone past the first book which is so 😶🤧

like i've heard ppl say it's boring and predictable, esp the latter, and i'm like hm... i haven't read thg or s&b at all so maybe that's why i don't get it?? i also went into rq fully knowing the plot twist and i still enjoyed it so???

sighhh honestly i'm glad that i still have this side of the fandom bc i definitely would've questioned myself and my taste in books bc of what i've seen. if i didn't have a few ppl loving about rq, i probably would've shut up about it forever so i don't get blasted 💀

I guess that bc I follow VA on tiktok, I'm on the RQ appreciation side of it so I don't get negative reviews or hate 🤔. After all, it's a matter of perspective. From what I gather based on the notes on tumblr posts when the series was being published, it did receive a lot of love from bookblr in its time. Don't question your taste in books so harshly 👏

other popular book series such as THG resist the test of time and criticism to an extent bc they were quite revolutionary in terms of themes and being genre-defining. S&B persisted bc it's in a world that still to this day gets new books, and now bc of the show, not bc of story quality (In my personal opinion, the S*x of Crows' good fame rubs on the underserving S&B shitshow of a story). The RQ world is quite formulaic and follows these other two footsteps, especially in the beginning, but that can be said about literally any piece of media.

For me, that's the fun part of media criticism: learning to identify as many components of a story as you can, finding patterns and deviations, and finally seeing how it all works together, while also identifying what parts tickle your fancy, and which ones are negative to you. The reason that makes me love Glass Sword, is the same reason that made my sister hate it. It's fine.

Ultimately, you can defend the books you like if it's like an interesting discussion with another reader, and y'all are being respectful, but at some point, we need to be able to acknowledge that sometimes we like crap. That's also ok 😂.

#ask #RQ discussion

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destinyc1020 · 3 years

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Ok look im not saying z stans aren't bad its just that they're not as bad as toms. Yes there are a few really bad ones here and there but overall toms fans are so much worse. Making literal hate pages just to shit on z, im sorry but unless u can name a z stan that has done that, toms fans are worse. (im a stan of both btw this is just the difference i noticed between the 2)

Yea I haven't seen any Z stans making hate pages dedicated to Tom, or even calling Tomdaya "PR" honestly. Aside from the Jacdaya fans in the past, I haven't even seen any large Zendaya fandoms recently routinely putting Tom down or calling him names. If anyone has receipts of this, by all means being it to my attention so that I can retract my statement lol.

Look, I'll be honest.....there's definitely a segment of Z's fandom who just wants to see Zendaya date a black man (or maybe even date a woman), or who don't trust white male fandoms that are super popular (because of the typical racism that most woc in these rlshps unfortunately get). I'm just being downright honest about how some fans have felt.

This is precisely why a lot of Z stans were "OKAY" with Jacob (even though he's also white), but not okay with Tom. It's not really about Tom per se, but more so about how many of Z's stans perceived Tom's fans to treat Z for years while they were dating. 🤷🏾‍♀️ I think that's why some fans were happy (and relieved) with Z dating a guy like JE (even despite his shady record🙄) who was a lot less famous than her honestly. It might also be the reason why some of Tom's stans would prefer that he date a woman who's not as popular as Zendaya. Sometimes it might not even be a race thing. Sometimes it's just that SOME of these fandoms that are really huge get super possessive and weird, and some fans don't want to see their faves dating someone from a large fandom because they're afraid they'll get hate/racism/bullying from that person's respective fandom. It's sad, but it's true.

But imo, that's an issue with the fandom, NOT with the two individuals themselves. Instead of hating on the ship, or the two ppl being together (esp when they both really love each other), the disappointment should be focused on the segments of the fandoms who are rude, racist, mean, intolerant, and toxic imo. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Not on Tom and Zendaya as people.

It's funny cuz I've received angry asks from Z stans in my inbox claiming that I hate her, and then the other day I got angry asks from Tom fans claiming that I hate him! So, apparently I must hate them both equally if I'm getting the same complaint lol 😆 🤷 🤣

I just think that some fans go way too hard in the paint at times for no good reason. Take a deep breath lol.... Get some fresh air.... 🌥

Anyone who reads my blog thoroughly will know that I love Tom and Zendaya. I just don't suck up to any celebrity, nor do I worship them. I'm honest (sometimes brutally so) about how I feel on certain matters. It doesn't mean I love the person any less. I'm just not looking at ppl from rose-colored glasses all the time. I can recognize that the person I stan is a wonderful, flawed human being, just like the REST of us (myself included), so I'm never expecting perfection from anyone.

I just take a very objective view on things. If that makes me a "hater", then oh well.... 🤷🏾‍♀️

This "who's fandom is worse" discussion is ridiculous because neither fandom is really awful imo. I've seen WORSE tbh lol 😆 😅

And anyone who follows me knows that I don't like comparing or pitting one fandom over the other. That's exhausting.... 😓

Can't we all just get along??? 🥴

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hellmry · 4 years

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What do you think of this whole "ppl shipping SessRin are basically supporting paedophilia” on tumblr? I've seen lots of japapense fans on twitter and they're all basically happy for the huge possibility of having Rin as Sesshomaru's wife and the mother of Towa and Setsuna, and then I go to tumblr and see all these SessRin bashing, saying that their bond should have kept platonic, the "real" sesshomaru will not behave romantically with Rin, etc. Idk what to think? :/ What are your thoughts?

oh goody, this is going to be a long one.

it’s so ridiculous 🙄 I’ve seen this “paedophilia” argument so many times and it’s triggering how they misuse this term so much. Especially as a law student (pet peeve: people misusing technical terms and making very serious (false) accusations).

Paedophilia tends to be the umbrella term for everything with a big age gap or when one party of the couple knew the other party as a child, which shows how uneducated they are with their try hard activism. Paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder, when an adult is primary or exclusively sexually attracted to prepubescent children.

No one in their right mind ships Sesshomaru with Rin while she was still a kid, I’ve yet to see someone who actively ships them in a romantic setting with her still being a kid. All the shippers I’ve come across and fanworks made, are her being a young adult or adult.

The other term they’re throwing around is “grooming”, while thinking it means he groomed her into his wife, which is also false and a misuse of the term. Grooming happens, when an adult is befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child in order to lower the child’s inhibitions with the object of sexual abuse. Sessh didn’t approach her with any sexual intentions in mind, he tolerated her following him out of pity, which turned into being her protector after a while. As I see it, Jaken was more of a father figure for her than Sessh was. He ignored her most of the times, just watching over her and made sure she was safe (i mean, like a dog...a guard dog). And he certainly didn’t “groom” her into being his wife, that dude did not show any signs of romantic interest while she was a child. Heck, he was pretty stoic most of the times.

The fact, that people who saw Sessh as a father figure for Rin exist, is actually our strongest argument against their paedophilia accusation. They wouldn’t have been able to perceive their relationship as such in the first place, if there were ANY romantic advances or signs while she was a child. Wanna see and read about a real pedophile story/relationship? Go read Lolita by Vladimir Nobakov, it’s disturbing.

Another form of grooming happens, when someone is manipulated until they’re isolated, dependent and more vulnerable to exploitation (can also happen with adults). Though it was only a filler episode, in episode 162 (Forever with Lord Sesshomaru), Sessh even gave her the free choice to either stay with humans or follow him (with his trademark line “do as you please”). In the Manga she was staying with Kaede in the end. And she was friends with Kohaku. She mostly fended for herself (with Jaken), foraging for food in the wild or secretly on farms. Rin was certainly not isolated or dependent. I’m not even digging into the exploitation point, because there is nothing to say.

I admit, they way SessRin developed is not completely unproblematic and the biggest factor is, that he met her while she was still a child. I can agree with that, but most SessRin shippers do not ship them because he knew her as a child, but because she was the first one who he cared for. If you break it down, it’s pretty much the cold-emotionless-bad boy-falls-for-a-girl-after-being-shown-kindness-for-the-first-time trope. SessRin shippers would’ve also shipped them if Rin was the same age as Kagome the first time they’ve met. Rin being a child when they met is not the base of this ship, it’s their relationship and how she broke through Sessh’s walls and that she was the first (human) being he ever cared for. She was also the reason Sessh slowly began to accept Tenseiga as his sword.

People who are saying Sessh went out of character and should’ve stayed on platonic terms with Rin, clearly have no idea about storytelling and character development. Sessh is a dog demon. Inuyasha is a dog demon. Inu no Taisho was a dog demon. Rin is a human, Kikyo was a human, Kagome is a human, Izayoi was a human. Basically, dogs love humans and create very strong bonds with them. Even staying loyal when their owner mistreats or abuses them. The whole series builds up on this dog-human dynamic. Basically every romantic interest involving a dog demon ended up being a dog-human pair. What’s not clicking?

I also find it quite funny, how some of those people can also ship Kagome and Inuyasha while preaching their (false) paedophilia speech in the same sentence. Kagome was 15 when she met 200 year old Inuyasha. 15. That’s a teenager. I’m 26 and when I see 15 year olds, they look like toddlers to me. I don’t see anyone advocating for Kagome’s minor rights. The whole world flipped when Drake was dating a 18 year old but the fandom is still pretty silent about the fact, that Kagome was also 18 when she was married to 203 y/o Inuyasha in the epilogue. InuKag and SessKag shippers don’t get the same criticism as SessRin shippers, even though Kagome is also still a minor and that’s where you see the hypocrisy.

They can ship her because her design looks older and it’s easier to forget that she’s 15/18. Usagi from Sailor Moon was 14 when she met and began a romantic relationship with Mamoru, who was 17. Even though both are considered minors, 14 is a lot different than 17 but nobody bat an eye for that either. Probably it’s because Usagi doesn’t look like a 14 year old. Kagome doesn’t look like a 15 year old. But Rin looks her age, she looks like an 8 year old when they first met, evoking a different perception in people of being a minor, the age gap and her vulnerability. That’s the only reason I can think of, why people are fine with InuKag, SessKag, KogaKag and whatever, even though it’s essentially almost the same setting as with SessRin. Rin is a minor, Kagome is a minor, they both are protected by their stronger and much older demon travel partners. And its hypocritical to try and argue a difference because grooming and abuse of an 8 year old is such as horrific as of an 15 year old. If one of them is a victim, then both are.

I’m not trying to shit on InuKag or other Kagome ships btw., I love Kagome and InuKag, I’m just trying to show the hypocrisy in their fake activism, because it’s not based on facts and information but rather on subjective feelings and perception. It’s fine and legitimate to not like SessRin because of said reasons, but it is wrong to judge others for shipping it and accuse them of supporting paedophilia. People who are triggered by SessRin, should stay away from it but leave those alone, who enjoy it.

Oh and before someone runs their mouth at me and use personal history as an argument, I’ve been a victim of paedophilia and grooming myself. I was touched and molested by my private tutor for years between 5th and 7th grade. But I’ve overcome my trauma, educated myself and I’m able to tell fiction from reality. Nobody watches Inuyasha for relationship and dating advice. Misusing terms is actually harming the ones involved and projecting one own’s traumas and struggles onto others, by shaming them for shipping something is not helping anyone and doesn’t make a difference at all.

Lastly, no SessRin shipper is condoning real life child/adult relationships. We are able to ship them because fictional stories are less dimensional than real life situations are. Fictional relationships have less nuances, cherry picked dynamics and moments that make us perceive them in a specific way. It is man made. What seems romantic in a fictional story (even between two adults) may be littered with red flags or less exciting and boring in a real life setting. People consume fiction mainly for entertainment, not for real life and dating advice.

Remember, this is just a fictional story, just chill the f out.

#ask #sessrin #Anonymous

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seoafin · 2 years

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Hi Morgan, what do you think about this post? I try to support writers on here as much as I can by reblogging but sometimes I forget and it makes me feel bad when I see these posts :/

anon i don't think op is trying to guilt trip you or anything, i think they're more or less stating an actual point that readers have been rebloging and liking posts less and less while demanding more content, which is a big reason as to why a lot of writers have been leaving. instead of thinking of it as a personal attack, you should take the feelings of a lot of writers on here into consideration and try to understand them.

as to the main point, yes i agree with op but i’m pretty much undecided on the rest of it haha

I understand op wanting to distinguish between different types of posts but I don’t think I completely agree with not including prompts/headcanons/drabbles in the x reader tag. Those posts ARE x reader...unless op is saying that the only posts that should be in the x reader tag should be fics but also I've been tagging all of the aforementioned as x reader for years and I've seen them being tagged as so by others for years so I don't quite understand where this idea came from that it shouldn't be. i think there’s more of an issue in ppl mass spamming different character tags on their posts than i think there’s a problem in ppl tagging their nonfics as x reader. i get it means less exposure, but you also can’t really force people to read one’s long fic either whether or not it stays at the top of the tags for long...

but also i think my perspective is pretty much limited as to what the fandom’s general consensus on what tagging should be bc i don’t interact with fandom as much, but the lack of interaction (and yeah i think it’s more of a lack of interaction rather than exposure that’s the problem tbh they’re related but not necessarily correlated) that a lot of long fics receive is a problem and warrants a discussion or two.

I think another reason as to why i’m kinda confused is because I thought 'imagines' and 'x reader' are pretty much synonymous when it comes to tagging reader inserts on tumblr. it’s been so long since i’ve been actively searching for fics in the tags but op could might be referring to the one or two sentence "imagine your favorite character..." blurbs that i've seen floating around here or there. also i've also seen prompts turned into fully fleshed out fics, and headcanons have always been in the x reader tag too so?? 😭 maybe my idea of drabbles/prompts/hcs are different from other people’s who knows

I understand op’s point that a lot of ppl have capitalized on so called ‘short fics’ most of which utilize the following formula: short, usually headcanon-like, and nsfw to gather as much as notes as possible but those are STILL x readers unless op and the fandom want to redefine the entire established x reader tagging system? granted, it’s a good idea but it’s also an idea that not everyone is going to adhere to. just look at how much DC in the tags are unproperly tagged

honestly, i think it’s an injustice that a couple of sentences can get 4K notes while one of the most stunning long fics I've ever read gets maybe 50 but I feel like at this point no amount of complaining and venting is ever going to spur people into reblogging and liking, or even reading the fic. this isn’t me saying that writers don’t deserve to be upset that something they put their heart and soul into isn't getting notes, i just think there’s a fundamental problem with the way ppl interact with fics and take them for granted in general. i’m just resigned atp to cringing every time I see my couple hundred nsfw get more notes any other thing ive written rip

also to me a reader insert has always been a character in of itself. like there is absolutely no way to make a reader so vague so the many people reading it can imagine themselves as the reader. literally just no way. i think the in the end the goal with any reader insert is that your readers can project onto and connect with the mc whether that be their worries or insecurities or joy, etc. i think one of the benefits of writing a reader insert is that it’s more flexible. instead of projecting onto and making a canon character OOC to write them in a ship, you can just write a x reader or even an OC. i personally have never envisioned myself as a reader. to me, the reader is just another character. that’s why ultimately, i believe that everything and anything written in the second person format is a reader insert. that’s the conclusion i came to after spending my time on quizilla, quotev, and lunaescence anyway lolllllll it’s also why i prefer named mc’s when reading reader inserts tbh. i dislike (y/n) because i don’t like inserting my name into anything. i just replace it with some some generic name instead

ANYWAY!!

i definitely rambled in this one, it’s just interesting to see everyone’s perspective on fandom and tagging culture. long fics really do deserve attention and exposure. some ppl write 40k+ words!! for free!!! make sure you let your favorite writers know you appreciate their hard work!! even a few words in the askbox can make their day and it doesn’t even take long. i feel like that’s the least ppl can do!!!

#it's interesting to map out the trajectory of fandom because it's constantly changing #mb this is just my opinion but i appreciate asks and comments much more than i do likes and reblogs #haha this was long......is this discourse?#i just finished reading like 80 pages of dense ass theory my eyes are spinning #sorry if this doesn't make sense #oh oh!!! I also think it's interesting how we've started to see this trend of making detailed reader inserts rather recently #I rmb when it was either making the mc as neutral as possible /only outwardly fleshing them out / going all in with the detail #though the last one wasn't as prolific in older fandom spaces #when I was on Luna (rip) a lot of ppl did drabble fics with different prompts #and that setup allowed them to write easily integratable mc's for a single chapter w/o rlly elaborating on them #discourse

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