#reblog if you agree (non-mandatory) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zeroducks-2 · 10 months

Note

To give a serious response to your last reblog, I think most people (maybe not the VOCAL majority) like to exclude tags they don't want to see, and then if something is tagged incorrectly you do just scroll past or stop reading the fic when something comes up. I know there are people who complain about it like it's the end of the world but yeah it is a common thing among most of my internet people to be like "aw man I didn't know [thing] was gonna be in this fic, I guess I'm gonna go read something else now" and I don't really see any problem with that. (As long as they aren't like harassing the author about it or anything obviously, which again I'm sure some people do and that's not cool)

Fair warning, this was supposed to be a quick response and it turned into a long ass ramble about purity culture and anti behavior, sorry about that. It is a long post so feel free to just skip to the TL:DR.

I agree with you, and as I mentioned I really really like the tagging system and the culture of putting content warnings and trigger warnings over content to help people avoid what they dislike and/or actively harms them. I like it in general, not just on AO3.

For what concerns AO3 I know that most people don't cause any kind of issue about it. I too had a situation where an anonymous guest commented to ask me to tag something in my fic. I hadn't thought about it because it was kind of just a vague mention but to them it seemed to be a big deal, so I apologized and added the tag (and they were really nice and polite about it anyway) and that was it. I don't mind people asking me to tag stuff. As an author I'm not omniscient and I don't have a team or even just an advisor to give a second opinion on my stuff, and tell me what I might have missed in the tags. So by all means do say it if you prefer this or that tag being added to my stories. I might have come off as someone who has issues with the tagging system and the culture around it, and I understand that it might be the case since my reblog was worded a bit harshly. I am sorry about that.

What I really was complaining about is people adopting anti or anti-ish behavior around fanfictions and fanfiction writers, acting like the fact that they come across content they dislike is the poster's fault when they're unable to curate their own online experience, and/or take responsibility as grown adults over the possibility of coming across something they dislike. At the same time holding fanfiction writers to absurd standards when it comes to laying out what their fics contain before someone engages with it, while it would be considered absurd to demand something like this from a novel, a movie, a videogame or anything non-transformative really. And not only there's the exclusion system on AO3 that helps people filter content they don't like, but also I want to highlight the fact that someone who is writing a fanfiction does not owe anyone anything in terms of tagging their stories. Tagging by itself is a form of courtesy that is not mandatory for most kind of content except the so called Archive Warnings, and even then you can avoid tagging anything by simply using "Creator chose not to use warnings" - which I'm sure you know means "this story contains potentially upsetting themes, proceed at your own risk". Most people will just politely ask to add tags, and most people will just tag their stories anyway. I very rarely ever came across a fic which was severely untagged to the point of making me wonder if the OP actually knew tags existed, and how they worked in the first place. I think it happened maybe twice and I've been reading fanfictions since AO3 didn't even exist. But there also are people who will harass the author if they didn't tag their fic "properly", and by properly it often times means that a character mentioned something the reader dislikes, or maybe a character they hate makes a very brief appearance, or there is a random OC created for a specific situation. Or anything that doesn't suit their tastes really, and that they demanded was laid out in front of them so they could avoid the gigantic effort of clicking on a story, read the first chapter and deciding by themselves if they liked it or not. These people are the ones who act like fanfiction writers and content in general should cater explicitly to them. Just check the comments of that post, you'll see an array of folks complaining that "authors do this on purpose!" and that who doesn't tag their fic properly is a terrible person.

There's this one saying that it's "so frustrating" and "really inconsiderate" on the author's part, referring to a fanfiction which has one of the characters genderswapped. Now I really, really dislike genderswap (nothing against it or against who likes it, but it really is not my cup of tea both in fics and in fanarts) and I generally stay away from it. But realistically, how long is it going to take me to realize that a fic has been written with one or more genderswapped characters? A couple of sentences? Maybe an entire paragraph? How "frustrating" is it gonna be to spend something like 3 minutes figuring that this story is not for me, and move on with my life?

It's not frustrating, and it's not inconsiderate on anyone's part. Sure I too would prefer it to be tagged, but it's a Me problem if I can't accept that I might end up seeing something I dislike on the internet, and it's not not a random fanfic author's responsibility to make sure I don't encounter something that makes me turn up my nose.

There is in general a lot of pressure on fanfic authors, in some fandoms more than others, and the whole "you have to absolutely nail the tags" conversation is another layer of said pressure. I know people that won't post longfics because they're unsure about the tags, especially of the fact that tags might change over time, and end up not posting at all. People deleting their entire fics over these kinds of demands because they can't meet them, because they don't know how their fic is going to change from here to the 15th chapter. People having to disable or moderate comments, take hiatuses, abandon fics - sure maybe the comment insinuating they were a bad person for not tagging "there's a random policeman OC in your detective AU" is not the main reason why they abandoned the fic, but it surely did not help.

This also leads to another phenomenon, which is that of over-tagging. Of people tagging rape/noncon "just to be safe", or tagging underage because "this character is 18 but there still is a big age gap", and the likes. That's not how tags work, that's actually how the tagging system gets bloated and becomes useless, because after the 4th fic which is tagged Rape and the rape doesn't happen, what often occurs is that the reader finds another fic tagged Rape and doesn't take it seriously. But in that one case the rape does happen and they get triggered, and it's an awful experience both for the reader and for the writer in case they get harassed over it (and this specific instance happened to me personally, because apparently the Rape warning on my story wasn't enough since the rape actually happened).

It's part of the reason why the Dead Dove: Do Not Eat tag exists and got so popular. If your story has some background/minor/past/mentioned/implied/referenced Thing happening, and you tag it as a Major Thing that happens, people who write stories which actually have Thing as a major topic don't know what to do, and end up using the Dead Dove tag which per se doesn't mean anything, it's just a way to say "MIND THE DAMN TAGS AND DON'T COME AT ME!". No one should feel forced to use the Dead Dove tag by the way. The Archive Warnings and the tagging system in general exist for a reason. If you're reading this and you've been harassed, just block the fuckers and ignore them.

So anyway, while I tend to be really irked by over-taggers especially when I'm looking for a specific kink, I don't really blame them. Purity culture kills artistic expression by making artists afraid of harassment if they post their work, among other things. I prefer an over-tagged fanfiction (or an under-tagged one) over no fanfiction at all.

TL;DR - I agree with you anon, I'm just mad at people who harass authors over tags. I don't think there's anything wrong with politely asking someone to tag their fanfiction, and if they repeatedly don't do it over major stuff that needs to be tagged, just block them and/or report them to the AO3 TOS.

#this is all purity culture's fault btw #tags have always been a courtesy and are not by any means mandatory (except Archive Warnings but even then there's the orange one)#people who cannot handle this are not able to handle fanfictions in general #I'm sorry but if you feel so upset if you find a tiny thing that you don't like in a fanfiction that is YOUR problem not the author's #you're free and capable of clicking away from that fanfiction no one is stopping you #and if you end up harassing the author instead of clicking away or politely ask to add a tag you're a fucking asshole #ramblings #my asks #fandom things #long post

4 notes · View notes

the-haunted-office · 11 months

Text

WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN INTERACTING WITH MY BLOG - Customizable Edition

BASICS !

Name / Alias: Thursday

Pronouns: She/Her, but any are fine

Type of muses:canon | OCs | both | other (specify)

GENERALITIES !

Triggers people MUST tag: Child abuse. I'm not too picky with much else.

Interest tracker / checker: I have it and it's mandatory | I have it, it's not mandatory but I'm more likely to follow back / interact with the people who fill it | I have one and I prefer it if people fill it in | I have it but it's to people whether to fill it or not | I don't have one | other (specify)

3-5 ESSENTIAL RULES PEOPLE HAVE TO RESPECT

No godmodding or metagaming. Basically don't control my muse and don't have your muse read my muse's mind (unless your muse can read minds and/or it's info obtained from a qualifying ask meme).

Don't pressure me into NSFW. I don't mind that other people rp NSFW, but I am uncomfortable with it myself. We can talk about things and whatnot, but not actually roleplay it (as long as you're 18+ of course).

Don't use me or my muses as stepping stones. I've had this happen multiple times in the past where people have dragged me into their plots without asking, used my muse to accomplish something, then dumped all interactions with me and tell me that I'm not "owed" any further interactions. If you do need to use my muse for something, the key is asking first.

Please don't pester me for replies. I am a mother and I also babysit my baby nephew during the week, so sometimes I may be slower replying. I try to reply within 1-2 days, and if you think I've missed your reply please do tell me. But don't ask me multiple times.

Remember that the Mun does not equal the Muse. Some of my muses can be rude or short-tempered or even violent. This is nothing against you personally.

Another one: Excessive violence towards child muses. I don't mind if there's abuse in the muse's past or little things like scraped knees and such, but actual rp threads that involve real-time violence towards children or manipulating children, or hurting or harming or abusing them in any way I am not comfortable with portraying. If you have any questions, please let me know.

3-5 IMPORTANT PET PEEVES TO KEEP IN MIND

Using my muses without asking, as outlined above. It really, really bothers me and I'm likely to stop rping with you altogether if it's a repeated thing.

Being overly critical over certain things in an intentionally mean way. Basically bullying. Do not bully me for the way I play my muses.

Going along with that, taking my ideas (like entire plots) and then saying you did them better. Yes, this has happened to me, and it's super shitty. Don't do this. Everybody is going to have something similar at some point, but you can tell if it's something that's been lifted straight from someone else.

2-5 THINGS THAT WILL LEAD TO INSTANT(SOFT) HARD BLOCKING

I changed it to hard blocking. I do NOT soft block. I either unfollow or hard block. Unfollow = We can still RP together, it's just that your content on your blog bothers me. Hard block = I will no longer talk / RP with you. (I kept this from the person I borrowed this from because I agree.)

I haven't really had to block anybody yet, but I will instantly block anyone who is hateful towards any LGBTQ+ folks; racism; pedophilia; and excessive hate OOC.

People I just don't vibe with. If you give me bad vibes, I'll block you.

2-5 THINGS THAT LEAD ME TO UNFOLLOW A MUTUAL / SOMEONE I INTERACT WITH

If we haven't interacted in months despite there being no clear reason for it. I understand being busy with life - I get busy too - but when I see my mutuals rping plenty with other people and ignoring my threads with with them and asks from me, that really bothers me over time. I will unfollow so I don't have to see all your interactions with everyone else so I won't feel so left out and probably stop trying to interact with you so much. *I want to clarify on this. I don't mean if we just generally haven't interacted in a while because we have nothing going on - what I mean is if we do have plots and things going, but it's all being ignored while you seem to have no issue keeping up with everyone else for a prolonged period of time. Basically, if we have interacted before and you don't want to anymore because you don't like our threads or find them boring, please tell me instead of ignoring me.

Excessive violence on your blog. I rp horror on mine, so there will be occasional blood and violence and dark and upsetting material; but when it's constant, it bothers me. Especially if it involves children. Same with NSFW. If I follow you and all I see are posts/rp threads with sex and violence and that's it, I'll most likely unfollow.

2-5 REASON YOU DON'T FOLLOW (BACK) SOMEONE

If you post excessive OOC things. We're talking like, I never see you actually roleplaying anything, it's reblogging things unrelated to rp.

If you post too frequently to the point where it floods my feed. For this I mean, posting like 20 things per minute.

Either you aren't an rp blog or I can't tell if you are or not.

tagged by: I yoinked from @un-chained :3 Tagging: Anybody!

#ooc #the author

3 notes · View notes

geniusdonkey · 10 months

Text

WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN INTERACTING WITH MY BLOG - Customizable Edition

BASICS !

Name / Alias: Suri

Pronouns: she/her

Type of muses: canon | OCs | both | other (specify)

GENERALITIES !

Triggers people MUST tag: Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, terror, horror, NSFW, suggestive, etc.

3-5 ESSENTIAL RULES PEOPLE HAVE TO RESPECT

No godmodding, metagaming, etc.

The fact that I only ship my muse with girls.

That I don't interact with horror characters.

3-5 IMPORTANT PET PEEVES TO KEEP IN MIND

Please don't do super short replies when I try to do elaborated replies in our threads. And I'm talking about replies of one word or two.

Don't reblog RP threads where you aren't involved, please.

I don't know.

2-5 THINGS THAT WILL LEAD TO INSTANT (SOFT)BLOCKING

If you start controlling my muse or inserting/assuming stuff we didn't agree beforehand that have to do with the relationship with my muse.

If you force ships on me.

If you don't respect me and push me over replies too many times.

If you force stories on me without even plotting them with me, like if I was just a character for you to use for your stories.

2-5 THINGS THAT LEAD ME TO UNFOLLOW / SOFTBLOCK A MUTUAL / SOMEONE I INTERACT WITH

If I feel uncomfortable with their muse as the threads keep going.

If I feel our muses just don't connect or we simply don't interact since we followed each others or since the last time we interacted.

2-5 REASON YOU DON'T TO FOLLOW (BACK) SOMEONE

If they have NSFW/dark content or reblog constantly that kind of stuff.

If I know nothing from their muse and I don't think our muses can actually interact.

When they have muses that are creepy or include gore and dark themes, stuff that makes me feel uncomfortable.

tagged by: stole it tagging: steal it?

#| dash games ❛ ooc ❜ |

0 notes

themagnuswriters · 4 years

Text

Writing a Muslim Character

The Mods of the Magnus Writers discord server and community are putting together a variety of resources for Magnus Archives fan creators; these have been collated from articles on the topics, our own experiences, and the experiences of the members of the Magnus Writers discord. These are definitely not comprehensive or the only viewpoints out there, and are by no means meant as a way to police fanworks, but as a way to support and inspire fan creators in creating thoughtful and diverse works. Please note that external links will be added in a reblog to outsmart tumblr’s terrible tagging system, so make sure to check those out as well!

This resource in particular was put together by Mod Jasmine: hi, all!

While there are no canonically Muslim characters in TMA, Muslim headcanons are common in fanworks—particularly for Basira, and sometimes Jon (which I love to see!). I have cobbled together this post from my own experiences to help support and inform fans in these areas, and as part of my diabolical plan to get more Muslim!Basira and Muslim!Jon fics to shove into my brain.

First, two gigantic caveats:

I was raised Sunni Muslim in Egypt, which is a majority Sunni Muslim country, and still live there. This means my experience will be very different from someone raised in a majority Christian country like the UK, and different again if they are not Sunni and not Arab.

I am currently ex-Muslim. This does not mean I bear any ill will towards Islam or Muslims, just that it wasn’t for me, and I felt it was important to be upfront about that. I’ll be linking to resources by practicing Muslims in the reblog to this post, whether to add to my opinions and experiences or provide you with a different opinion. I am not here to put my voice over that of Muslims, just to do some of the work so they don’t have to. Obviously, if any Muslims have any additions or suggestions for this post, I’m happy to accommodate them.

Alright. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started with the basics of writing a Muslim character.

(Warning: this is absurdly, absurdly long)

Basics:

Muslims follow two main sources of religious instruction: Quran and Hadith.

The Quran is the holy book, considered to be dictated by the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Mohammed, who then relayed what he was told to his followers. It is composed of surahs, or chapters, which have individual ayat, or verses. There are no varying versions of the Quran, later additions, or anything considered lost in translation. Any Arabic Quran is considered to be the same text that the Prophet Mohammed relayed, unchanged. As a result, while Muslims can debate interpretations of the Quran (although that’s often still left to the scholars), none debate the actual words of the text.

Hadith, meanwhile, are the sayings or teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. Their validity can be disputed, as they were written by his followers after his death, and mainly depend on having several witnesses for a specific saying or situation. The more witnesses there were, the more valid the hadith is considered to be.

When in doubt or should there be any contradiction between the Quran and Hadith, Muslims will always refer to the Quran first and foremost.

Denominations:

The bigggest (but not only!) divisions of Islam are Sunni and Shia, and both of those have separate madhabs, which are the separate thoughts and stances of specific Imams. When writing a Muslim character, a good first step would be to decide where your character’s family might have come from, as that could help inform which denomination your character might belong to. This will in turn inform things like the beliefs they grew up with, how they pray, their holy holidays, and so on. Obviously, all denominations fall under the bigger umbrella of Muslim, but can vary in practice.

Background:

The intersection of culture and religion affects a character beyond which denomination they likely belong to, such as whether they call prayer salah or namaz, the foods they might associate with Ramadan or Eid, and their community’s stance on things like hijab and alcohol.

One thing to keep in mind is that being Muslim is not synonymous with being Arab and vice versa. Not all Arabs are Muslim, not all Muslims are Arab or even Middle Eastern. In fact, the largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia. That said, depending on your character’s race and backround, there is the potential they may have faced Arab elitism or other strands of racism within Muslim circles. Please see the reblog of this post for an article about one Black British Muslim woman’s experience with racism.

And, of course, your character and their family do not need to have been immigrants at all. They or their family may have been converts instead. According to most Muslim schools of thought, all that’s required for a person to be Muslim is stating the shahada in Arabic, honestly and with intent. It goes, “Ashhadu an la ilah illa Allah, wa an Mohammadan rasul Allah,” which translates as “I bear witness that there is no god but God, and that Mohammed is His prophet.” Shia Muslims, I believe, have an additional section, but otherwise that’s it. Recite that in front of witnesses with sincere belief and that’s all you need to be Muslim.

Pillars of Islam:

These are the duties or cornerstones of a Muslim’s faith and considered to be acts every Muslim should strive for. What the pillars are can, I think, differ between denominations, with Shia Muslims having additional ancillaries as well (any Shia readers, please feel free to correct me!) but both denominations agree that the following are important:

Salah—prayer

Sawm—fasting during Ramadan

Zakat—giving a certain percentage of income to charity or the community

Hajj—pilgrimage to Mecca

In all cases, these are considered mandatory only for those who are able. A person who cannot perform hajj, whether due to not being physically able to or lacking the funds to travel, is under no obligation.

Prayer:

Prayer is performed five times a day while facing the Qibla, which is the direction of Mecca. Prayer is formed of units, called rak’at, which consists of a set of actions done in a specific order. The “How to Pray Salah, Step by Step” article linked in the reblog of this post provides fairly good prayer instructions for beginners, so check it out for details! These include bowing, prostrating, and reciting some surahs.

Each of the five daily prayers has a different number of rak’at, as well as its own name and allotted time of day, as follows:

Fajr, which means Dawn and can be performed at any point until the sun rises (two rak’at).

Dhuhr, which means Noon (four rak’at)

Asr, performed in the afternoon (four rak’at)

Maghreb, which means sunset and can be performed at any point until it’s dark (three rak’at)

Isha, performed at night and can be done at any point until dawn (four rak’at)

The specific time of prayer will differ day to day and place to place, according to the sun, but those are the rough timeframes for each. It’s generally preferred that a Muslim does their prayer on time, but in practice some Muslims find it difficult to wake up for Fajr, for instance, and just try to make sure they get a morning prayer in before noon.

On Friday, there is a congregational Friday prayer at Dhuhr in a mosque called the Jumu’a prayer (which, fun fact, literally means gathering and is also the Arabic name for Friday!). Only men are required to take part in the congregation, however.

In Muslim majority countries, the time for prayer is announced by the adhaan, the call to prayer, from mosques and in media. This won’t be the case in the UK, and the character will likely have to rely on an adhaan app or looking up what time prayer should be.

There are various requirements for a prayer to be correct, chief of which is facing the Qibla and purity. Before performing prayer, a Muslim must purify themself by performing wudu, or ablutions, which basically involves washing the hands, arms, nostrils, face, head, and feet a specific number of times using clean water. The way I was taught these must be performed in a certain order, and the person shouldn’t speak during or after until their prayer is finished. This may be different for others.

Wudu is considered valid until nullified by bodily functions such as urinating, defecating, vomiting, flatulence, or any sexual activity. For Sunni Muslims, it’s also invalidated by going to sleep. If none of these have happened, a Muslim can perform more than one prayer using the same wudu.

Notably, a Muslim cannot pray if they’re on their period, as they’re considered in a state of impurity.

Another important requirement is that a Muslim be dressed modestly for prayer. The general guideline is that Muslim men should cover the area between their navel and knees with loose, non-revealing clothing, and that during prayer it’s preferred that they cover their chests as well Muslim women should cover everything except their face, hands, and feet. This means that a woman who isn’t hijabi would still wrap a hijab for prayer. For nonbinary Muslims, I don’t think there are specific guidelines yet, although please feel free to correct me.

If praying at home, a family may choose to pray together. In this case, the male head of the household usually stands at the front and acts as Imam, leading the prayer. Other men will tend to be in front of or beside women, as generally women should not pray in front of a man. This is the case even, especially, if he is not praying.

Children aren’t required to pray, as they’re considered innocent and have no obligations, but may want to take part early on or may be encouraged to practice.

Praying is one area you’ll find denominational differences. For example, while Sunnis fold their arms in prayer, Shia keep their arms to their side, and while Shia Muslims make sure their foreheads touch a piece of clay or earth when they prostrate, Sunnis do not. If you write your character praying, keep these details in mind.

Fasting:

During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from Fajr (dawn) until Maghreb (sunset) every day. This means they abstain from consuming anything—yes, even water, cigarettes, and medicine. They should also abstain from sexual activities and cursing. Most importantly, they must have the intention to be fasting. This means that not eating and drinking because they were asleep for that entire period of time or just lost track and forgot does not count as fasting.

Generally, the idea is more to try to be more pious and avoid sin throughout the month. It’s thought that the shaytan (or devil) is chained up during Ramadan, so any temptation or sinning is a person’s own doing. The way I was raised, I was taught that sawm/fasting is invalidated by sexual thoughts and raising your voice as well. Many people also try to dress more modestly during Ramadan, with some women opting for looser clothing or a headscarf. Many Muslims will try to read the whole Quran during Ramadan.

After Maghreb, Muslims break their fast with Iftar (which means breakfast, hah) and have a late night meal called Suhour. Since the Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar, Ramadan is 11 days earlier every year. Depending on when Ramadan falls in the year, there can be barely any time between iftar and suhour in certain parts of the world, as the sun is up for so much of the day.

Given the length of time and difficulty involved, there are exceptions and allowances for fasting. A person is not required to fast if they are:

A child (up to puberty)

Ill or has a medical condition such as diabetes

Pregnant

Travelling

On their period

In fact, if they are on their period it will not be counted, even if they do fast. That said, sometimes people choose to fast while travelling anyway, as travel is less strenuous now than it used to be. If they’re crossing time zones they will have to consider which time zone they’re breaking their fast to. As far as I remember, it’s based on the time zone of the place they just left or started their fast in.

If an obstacle to fasting is temporary, such as their period, they’re expected to make those days up with additional fasting before next Ramadan. Otherwise, they are allowed to make up for the lost fast in another way, such as by donating money or feeding fasting people. Whether due to societal pressure (which is formidable in Muslim-majority countries) or out of consideration for others who are fasting, those who are not fasting for whatever reason may often choose to hide this and only eat in secret.

If a person forgets they were fasting or accidentally consumes something, it does not invalidate the fast , and as soon as they remember or realise the mistake they can have the intention to fast again and continue with their day.

While children are exempt, many families will start them off by fasting for half a day so they can build up to a full day when they hit puberty.

Ramadan traditions vary wildly from country to country and culture to culture, but generally it’s a time for family gathering and celebration. Often there are special Ramadan-specific food, drink, and decorations, and it ends with Eid ul-Fitr which has its own specific foods and celebrations. Basically, imagine if Christmas lasted a month. That’s how big a deal Ramadan is.

In my experience, the first few days are usually the hardest. Water is what I tended to miss the most, even if I managed to stay up long enough or set an alarm to wake up to drink just before fajr, followed closely by swearing. Anyone who drinks caffeine or smokes cigarettes will likely find abstaining from those more difficult than water. By the end of the month, though, it gets much easier and I often got to the point where I barely noticed. I will say, however, that the longest I’ve had to fast has been maybe 16 hours. A summer Ramadan in the UK would be more difficult due to the much later sunsets.

Halal and Haram:

Halal means “permissible,” while haram means “forbidden.” You might have heard these words in passing before, such as halal food, but they are used for many areas of life.

Things that are considered haram include:

Consuming, serving, or trading in intoxicants, such as alcohol

Consuming improperly slaughtered meat or meat from forbidden animals, such as pork

Extramarital sex

Tattoos

Gambling

Men wearing silk or gold

A Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim man (although it’s fine for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman)

Being immodest

Modesty is expected of all genders, including men. If you’ll recall from the section on prayer, the general guideline for male modesty is that they should cover the area between their navel and knees with loose, non-revealing clothing. Note that for women, modesty does not necessarily involve wearing a hijab. There is actually a ton of controversy as to whether the hijab is a fard (requirement) or not, as described in the following section.

The Hijab:

To be hijabi takes more than just throwing on a headscarf. As a word, hijab means “barrier” or “veil,” and a hijabi person would be expected to cover everything except their face and the palms of their hands, and to ensure that their clothes are loose and non-revealing. It all comes from an interpretation of two verses in the Quran that many scholars nowadays agree to mean the hijab is required, and that some say actually call for a face covering as well, which is called a niqab.

This wasn’t always the case, however, and these days there is still the occasional controversial scholar (I remember a few kerfuffles coming out of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque recently) saying it isn’t and has never been required at all. At least in the Arab world, this is largely due to the wave of Wahhabism (which is a specifically fundamentalist interpretation of Islam) that’s taken over the region in the past half a century. Before that, the idea of a hijab being a religious requirement was less widespread.

I’m not here to argue who’s right or wrong, just to make you aware that the hijab as we know it today hasn’t always been considered a requirement for a Muslim woman. Most of the women of my family never wore any form of head covering, but more and more they are an exception rather than the norm.

The choice of whether to wear a hijab can mean very different things, depending on the surrounding culture. For instance, my grandmother, the strictest woman I have ever known, got married in a very cute sleeveless dress that went just under the knees, and when she grew older she wore a head-covering more as a cultural indication of age rather than any religious reason. In my generation, in a country with a Muslim majority, lack of visible signs of devoutness have become almost a class marker, with some upper-class women using their lack of head-covering as a sign that they are “more Westernized” or “modern.” And again, I want to emphasize that this is the case for my country only.

This will be completely different for Muslim minorities, where the hijab can become a symbol of pride and unity.

I will say that it’s very rare for women to be forced into getting veiled, whether in Muslim minority or majority countries. I’m not saying it never happens, just that it’s not the “oppressive tool of the patriarchy” outsiders sometimes think it is. Women may face some societal pressure, but by and large it is considered a choice and often an empowering one. In fact, I have friends whose families discouraged them from wearing a hijab too young and emphasized only taking the decision when they were sure they wanted to. If writing a Muslim character when you’re non-Muslim, I strongly suggest not trying to tackle the story of someone forced into a hijab, as there’s a lot of nuance there and it’s very easy to fall into harmful stereotypes. The hijabi woman who gets “liberated” and takes off her hijab is also overdone and harmful. Please don’t.

Everyday Life:

Muslims are not a monolithic entity, and some will be more devout or religious than others. There are those who will pray their five a day and others who only pray during Ramadan or Eid, some who don’t drink and some who do, hijabis who dress only in loose clothing and those who wear tight trousers or show some of their hair, some who have tattoos, and some who may date or even have sex before marriage. However, this isn’t a carte-blanche not to do research when writing a Muslim character, because even if they break a rule of Islam, they will be conscious of it, may be concerned about their community’s response to it, and in any case will be affected by it.

For instance, I know many Muslims who drink alcohol. Some interpret the text differently, saying that since the sin is getting drunk then they won’t drink enough to get drunk, just buzzed. Some only do it on special occasions or on vacation, saying they know it’s a sin but it’s fine on occasion and they’ll repent later. All of them would probably dive under a table if they thought their family was nearby.

For more opinions on Muslims and dealing with alcohol, take a look at the “Islam and Alcohol” article linked in the reblog of this post.

Here are things that a character who is a practicing Muslim might do or be concerned about in their day to day life:

Checking ingredients to make sure they’re all halal. This goes for things like food, drink, medicine, anything consumable. Things like gelatine capsules are only halal if the source of the gelatine is itself halal, for instance.

Keeping up with their prayers. With five prayers a day, some will inevitably happen while they’re out of the house. Some Muslims prefer to just group their prayers when they get home, but since it’s preferable to do prayers on time, others may try to pray while out and about This means considering the following:

Finding a bathroom for wudu. Part of wudu involves washing feet and the head, which isn’t feasible in a public location or if the person is hijabi and doesn’t want to unwrap and rewrap their hijab. In that case, they can generally wipe a wet hand over their socks and top of their head covering.

They may carry a prayer carpet or have one stashed in a convenient location, but it’s not a must.

Finding a clean and secluded place to pray. Generally, it’s not done to pray in a place where someone will pass in front of you, and a woman must also take care to pray away from men’s eyes.

Figuring out where the Qibla is. Luckily, there are apps for that.

If a woman is not hijabi, she would have to carry a veil and, depending on her clothes, something to cover up so she can pray.

If they’re hijabi, they’ll probably have to adjust or re-wrap their hijab throughout the day, depending on the material and their activities. This would typically happen in bathrooms or any other space that doesn’t include men, as they can’t reveal themselves to any men who aren’t of their immediate family. For more on the hijab, and the day to day realities of wearing and wrapping one, take a look at the links provided in the reblog of this post.

A Muslim woman may choose not to accept handshakes from men who aren’t family. She has probably considered how to deal with that potential awkwardness.

If they’re fasting, they might carry some dates or biscuits or something in case they need to break their fast while on the go.

If making plans, they might say, “Insha’allah” which means “God willing.” I was always admonished to do so to acknowledge the future is entirely within God’s hands.

If asked how they are, they might reply with “Alhamdullilah” which means “Thanks be to God.”

When starting to eat, they may say, “Bismillah,” which means “In the name of God” and when done eating may say “Alhamdullilah.” These can also be invoked silently.

As you might have noticed, Allah’s name is invoked pretty often. While it’s not preferable to swear using God’s name just to make a point (“Wallahi”), there’s nothing against it, really.

Fundamentally, an important thing to remember is that Islam is a religion of ease and not hardship. This is an actual Quranic quote. What this means is, it may seem like there are a lot of rules to keep in mind, but there are also a ton of allowances for when those rules aren’t feasible, just like the case for fasting above. Other allowances include how an elderly or disabled person who may not be able to perform the motions of prayer can pray while sitting in a chair or even lying in bed. If there isn’t any clean water to purify before prayer or if using the water would mean lack of drinking water, a Muslim can use dust or sand to purify, and if no dust or sand is available then they don’t need to purify at all and can simply pray.

This means that, say, if your Muslim Jon wants to pray while kidnapped by the circus, he can, even without being able to perform wudu, even without knowing where the Qibla is, even without being able to move or say anything at all.

For more day-to-day tidbits, check out the “More on writing Muslim characters” link in the reblog of this post.

LGBTQ Muslims:

Needless to say, Queer Muslims absolutely do exist, and their being Muslim doesn’t cancel out their queerness or vice versa. While there are Quranic verses that have been interpreted as condemning homosexuality, there are also other interpretations, and queerness has existed in Muslim societies for ages. There was a ton of homoerotic imagery among Abbasid poets during the Golden Age of Islam, for example.

However, modern-day attitudes can be difficult to get around, and queer Muslims may have difficulty finding their place in both Muslim spaces and queer spaces, the latter which often expect them to reject religiosity.

Although I am queer myself, I don’t feel it’s my place to speak for queer Muslims and their relationships with their communities beyond this, so I’ll let some queer practicing Muslims speak for themselves. Please see the reblog of this post for valuable contributions from queer Muslims about their experiences.

Miscellaneous:

This is mostly for all the random tidbits I thought up while writing this that didn’t fit anywhere else and also because I don’t know when to quit apparently, SO!

Allah is just Arabic for God. Muslims can and do use these terms interchangeably, such as saying “God willing,” instead of “Inshallah,” even in an Arabic-speaking country.

Also, God has 99 names! Just a fun fact for you there.

The Devil in Islam is pretty different from his Christian counterpart. Referred to as Iblis or Shaytan, among other names, he is not a fallen angel and there is no great revolt story, nor is he considered a root of all evil. Instead, he is a djinn made of smokeless flame who refused to bow down to Adam, as he felt he was made of superior stuff and not about to bow to a creature made of mud. His disdain for humanity is what has caused him and other shayateen/demons to try and tempt humans.

A person’s right hand is considered purer than their left, so it’s encouraged to always eat with your right hand. Unfortunately, this does mean left-handed people face something of a stigma—or at least that’s the case here in Egypt. My cousins, both lefties, both eat with their right hand, though they do everything else with their left.

Similarly, it is considered better to enter spaces with your right foot, though only the most devout are likely to think of this all the time. This is especially considered for entering a mosque or new home.

A Muslim might say or write “Peace be Upon Him” whenever the Prophet Mohammed is mentioned, written as (PBUH), and “Subhanuh wa Taala” when mentioning Allah, written as (SWT).

The Evil Eye is mentioned in the Quran as “hasad,” and considered to be a very real thing. This jealous or envious energy is considered able to ruin good things in your life, even if the jealous person didn’t intend to. There are some surahs that are considered good to ward against it, as well as incense, the colour blue, the number five, and the symbols of the nazar (which is a round, blue-ringed eye) and the khamsa (an open five-fingered palm, also known as the Hand of Fatima). The nazar, khamsa, and belief in the evil eye aren’t unique to Islam at all. What is unique to Islam is that a Muslim might preface a compliment with “Masha’allah” which means “As God wills it,” to ward off their own evil eye.

Much of the Quran in Arabic rhymes and is very poetic, which can make surahs easy to memorise by rhythm. It can also make recitations by a skilled reader very lovely.

#the magnus archives #tma #writing resources #muslim characters

3K notes · View notes

campdigimonth · 2 years

Text

Camp Digimonth Event, Discord, and Create-in Rules

Hi Chosen campers! This post corrals all of the campdigimonth2022 rules in one place, along with the create-in structure, so folks who might want to attend have an idea of what to expect.

By vote, create-ins are on Saturdays, starting at 7 pm EST. The first official create-in is on 1/8/22.

More beneath the cut.

Campdigimonth Event Rules:

1.) All content must be original (no reposting/content theft) and created during January 2022

2.) Submissions are accepted

3.) OCs are welcome (human and fakemon)

4.) Character bashing/ship bashing/season or game bashing is not allowed

5.) Tag any potentially triggering content. Please know that Tumblr has blocked many tags often used for this purpose. People seem to be circumventing this by adding a period at the end of tags (ie, to indicate a trigger warning of blood, they tag “tw blood.” instead of “tw blood”

6.) Shipping/romance is welcome as long as it is work safe and obeys all other guidelines

7.) This blog and the Discord chat are FAMILY FRIENDLY. The mods have no way to know how old everyone is, so to prevent any issues, all content reblogged on the official Camp Digimonth Tumblr and discussed/shared in the Discord must be fit for general audiences. Sample topics that will not be reblogged/will result in a Discord ban include, but are not limited to: sexually explicit content, violently graphic content, incest, human x digimon romance pairings, highly dark themes (drugs/torture/non-consensual actions/etc), pedophilia.

Discord Rules

1.) All general event rules apply

2.) Be kind and respectful, no hateful language or trolling

3.) Please post content in the appropriate server; feel free to ask in the general channel if you are unsure where something goes.

4.) Self-harm, suicide, and mental health issues are serious and heavy topics. Due to the mixed-age audience of this server, these topics are not appropriate for discussion here, even if intended as humor. Here are some resources for anyone struggling with self harm/suicide and/or mental health issues. Please seek qualified help if needed and take care of yourself.

5.) Protect your identity in Discord. Be discrete about your name, where you live, and any identifying particulars of your life.

6.) Participation in the Discord indicates that you have read, understood, and agreed to all event/Discord/Create-in rules.

Create-In Rules

1.) All event and Discord rules apply

2.) If you do not wish to speak, that is fine. You can listen and respond via the “text response for vc” text channel.

3.) Do not record create-ins or any voice channels.

4.) The main purpose of create-ins is to share our project progress and request help/opinions, if desired. Please wait for the free form section of create-ins to discuss general topics. All general topics must obey the event and Discord rules.

5.) If another participant currently has the floor during a create-in, do not draw attention away from their project.

6.) Participation in create-ins indicates that you have read, understood, and agreed to all event/Discord/Create-in rules.

7.) Create-in attendance is optional, not mandatory.

Create-In Structure

I am going to try out a structure for our create ins! If folks like it, we’ll keep using it. Here’s how it will work:

1.) Moderator Opening: I’ll provide a brief opening and refresh everyone on the rules/explain the event format.

2.) Intros: At the start of a create-in, we will all have the floor to briefly introduce ourselves and our project. It should go something like: “Hi, I’m Hidden, I’m ahiddenpath on Tumblr, I post Digimon Adventure/02 fanfics on AO3 and FFN under that name. I am working on Puits d’Amour, a Sorato royalty/bakery AU.” So: what to call you, your Tumblr name, where to find your work, and what you’re working on.

3.) Having the floor: We will rotate every participant having the floor. Session length will vary based on the number of participants present, but we will try 15 minutes first. Whoever has the floor can stream or just talk about their project. This is the perfect time to share your progress and ask for opinions- Do you think it’s in character for x character to do y? What do you think is a more interesting plot point, this or that? Do you think this pose or that pose is better? Whoever has the floor will lead the discussion at that time; do not pull attention away from their project. All create-in attendants are free to pass on their floor time, if preferred, or to end their floor time early.

4.) Free form: After everyone has had the chance to have the floor (or pass), we can either swing back to anyone who would like more floor time or switch to a more free form discussion. Free form discussions must obey the event and Discord rules.

5.) If someone joins in the middle of a create-in, they will have an opportunity to introduce themselves after the current floor session ends. They will then be added to the end of the queue for floor sessions. If we are in free form when they join, they will be offered a 15 minute floor session, which they are free to use or pass on.

All rules and event structures are subject to change/development.

#campdigimonth2022 #campdigimonth rules #campdigimonth create-ins

2 notes · View notes

sparklingdisneyprincess · 3 years

Text

Having Amber know for weeks affected fans view of her and why it was not done well.

In the tags on a reblog of one of my posts, someone mentioned that the scene where Amber tells Mark she knew he was a hero was bad writing and I low-key agree. I plan on doing an analysis on that specific scene later, but today I wanted to get into why the way the writes handled that situation just wasn’t great.

Keeping in mind the context of who the writers are can somewhat explain the thought process behind the decision. The creators of the comic book said themselves that's the comic book very often pokes fun at superhero stereotypes and tropes. One of the main stereotypes in superhero comic books is the main non-super female love interest being upset with the male superhero love interest for constantly flaking on her/being unavailable trope. In this trope the conflict is typically resolved when the female love interest is told or discovers in the moment usually by so accident that the male love interest was the superhero the whole time and the revelation is suddenly supposed to negate all the negative emotions that the female love interest was put through and everything just ends up fine.

In today's time it wouldn't matter if he was a superhero or not. He still made her feel terrible, he still lied. I do think women today wouldn’t allow that to excuse all the hero’s behavior especially when it was evident that said behavior was hurting them.

We know the writers like to poke fun at stereotypical superhero comic book tropes and plot points, and a good way to do that it to utilize trope subversion.

Trope subversion definition:

A subversion has two mandatory segments. First, the expectation is set up that something we have seen plenty of times before is coming, then that set-up is paid off with something else entirely. The set-up is a trope; the "something else" is the subversion.

Pure trope subversion vs Partial trope subversion:

Executing a “Pure trope subversion” means to follow the blueprint for “Trope subversion” to a tee. The writer sets up the story with essentially no hints that the outcome will be anything but traditional, and then proceeds to suddenly turn the outcome on it’s head in a way that was unanticipated. In the case of the “Partial trope subversion” it’s the opposite. The writer will drop subtle hints and clues teasing that the outcome will not be traditional for the trope. The hints must be subtle because the writers goal is still to trick the reader into believing that the traditional outcome will occur.

The main problem with them writing it as a pure trope subversion is that Amber ends up looking really bad and that people already didn’t like her as they wanted Eve to end up with Mark.

The set-up of the secret identity relationship trope leads us to believe that the female was mostly if not completely unaware that their male love interest is a hero. They often times are suspicious, but the dots don’t usually get the chance to connect before it’s all revealed. Going with that type of trope set-up leads the audience to believe that it’ll end like it always does. The girl will feel sorry for her actions and completely forgive the hero (even though I don’t find think that’s realistic), so instead of it going in that direction they subvert it. They have the female love interest (Amber) figure it out herself and silently not be in the dark for a period of time till it’s revealed that she knew. This is fine unless it’s written as a pure trope subversion because the traditional trope buildup includes anger over canceled plans, late arrivals, and feelings of neglect. That anger makes the female love interest look completely irrational in the case that she knew! (Though perhaps she was not truly angry over those things after she discovered the truth, but she was angry with him lying and couldn’t tell him that without saying she knew, so she expressed her anger through those situations instead of the main reason??? Hmm, I just thought of that and that’s an interesting theory for another time.) Anyways...

I found that the trope subversion making Amber look so bad to be a glaring issue that should have been weeded out in the writing room. They had to have known how it would be perceived. There’s no way they wouldn’t. The only logical reason they’d do this is if they plan to go through with what I suspected was happening at the beginning of the show, which would be that the writers are telling us that Amber is not Mark’s endgame and that she’s just taking up space until Mark and Eve eventually get together. The only problem with that theory is that they had Mark and Amber get back together at the end of the season which is another trope subversion. In the usual love triangle bait-and-switch trope the first female love interest the male superhero chooses gets booted out to make room for the second girl in the love triangle who he was apparently supposed to be with the whole time, however the writers didn’t got through with that trope. They instead subverted it (whether purposely or not) by having the original couple get back together and setting it up in a way that shows the couple potentially growing stronger, rather than him staying single and eventually ending up with female love interest number 2. The writers even took the subversion a step further by setting the outcome up in a way that showed potential for female love interests 1 and 2 to actually start a beautiful friendship instead of a rivalry.

I’m honestly confused by what the writers wanted us to perceive. If they wanted us to root for Amber and Mark why set them up like that? To prove that they can move past it? But who will support the relationship after everybody now hates Amber? It is contradictory, so I’m very confused. I did write another post speculating that though Amber knew Mark was a hero, she did not know he was Invincible. The theory does shed more light on the situation and it resolves a lot of issues, but it still doesn’t negate the fact that the use of a pure trope subversion in this instance made Amber look really bad. Especially when people would sooner find ways to cancel her, rather than attempt to understand why she did it. To understand someone does not mean to agree with or support them, but it reminds you to humanize the other person, a value we are all owed.

If the writers had not done a pure trope subversion and instead decided upon a partial trope subversion the fallout would not have been nearly as bad. If they had done a partial trope subversion they could’ve allowed Amber to be more patient in some of the later scenes, while showing that even though she’s patient, she’s also very upset. It would show more understanding on her part, however I think Amber was actually already understanding of his situation. What she did not understand was the lying and how it seemed that he didn’t even care enough to lie well. She was hurt that he didn’t trust her and during their relationship she was constantly questioning whether or not he was serious and if he actually cared about her and honestly we questioned it too as an audience! Imagine how frustrated she must’ve been those 5 months out of 6 when she didn’t know why he was lying to her.

Amber and Mark didn’t have any relationship issues that I noticed aside from his secret identity. Their dynamic was interesting to watch in my opinion because Mark wasn’t phased by Ambers weird sense of humor and her having essentially no filter, in fact he embraced it and was also snarky in return. He liked that she has strong core beliefs and clearly enjoyed spending time with her. Even though Amber is sarcastic and pokes fun at Mark she finds his enthusiasm to be endearing and often laughs with and smiles at him. Heck, she even approached him first! They’re just two teenagers dating and it’s nothing too exciting like it’s usually portrayed in media. They text, go on dates, make out, enjoy the others presence without really needing to talk, it’s just nice normal dating stuff and it’s realistic and lowkey, and I really liked seeing it. Upon my first watch of the show I liked Amber and Mark together, but I didn’t see the chemistry. I think it’s because everything about their relationship needed to happen in the span of 8 episodes, but also that the reasons why their attracted to each other are very subtle. They don’t shove it in our faces, they just place it there and if you caught then you caught it, if you didn’t then you didn’t. It took me re-watching the episodes a second time to realize why Mark and Amber enjoy being with each other. The body language speaks volumes when you also pay attention to the little things that go on between them. I’ll probably make a whole other post about it because I think it’s something to talk about, but yeah.

In conclusion either the writers truly didn’t realize the outcome of their choice, the writers knew the outcome and did it on purpose to set the audience up to root for Eve and Mark, the writers knew and set it up in order to later on grow/redeem Amber and strengthen her and Mark’s relationship by having them over come it, or they didn’t think it’d be a big deal due to assuming that the trope subversion would take everyone by surprise and that we’d like it.

(If you made it to the end, I’m impressed cause this was long. Also, shoutout to the person who first brought up this topic in the tags. I didn’t realize I felt some kind of way until I started typing and couldn’t stop. It was honestly kind of cathartic😄 I didn’t tag you cause I didn’t know if you’d like that but, thanks for unintentionally giving me the motivation to write this!)

#Aark #Amber Bennett #Mark Grayson #Mark x Amber #Invincible #SDP reviews #SDP thoughts

13 notes · View notes

the-more-you-kn0w · 5 years

Text

Trump’s Government Shutdown And The Border Wall.

If you haven’t seen the news, the US government is in the middle of its longest shutdown in history at the moment, affecting millions of people along the way. As someone who isn’t American, (I’m from Australia), I don’t really understand what’s going on (As far as I know this isn’t even possible for my government) so I’ve done some digging and come up with this post which I hope explains it for all of you out there who might be struggling like me.

Where do we start?

We’re going to start back a little way with the Midterm Elections, the ones Taylor Swift and other high profile people of all persuasions were encouraging US citizens to vote in because unlike in my country, voting is not mandatory. The result of these various state-by-state elections saw people elected to Congress, made up of the Senate and House of Representatives. There are 100 Senators and 435 Representatives. This TED Education video does a really great job of explaining the make up of power in the US government. The hope held by basically all non-Trump specific supporters, even some lifelong Republicans was that the House and Senate would fall into a blue (Democratic) majority, meaning every law Trump tries to pass, has to get through the Democrats, making his quest for fascist dictatorship a little harder... Unfortunately the Senate stayed at a Republican majority but the House of Representatives is held by the Democrats and on another note, this Congress is the most diverse in US history so the resistance won a little.

What does this have to do with the shutdown?

That was just some necessary context on Congress and the way the US government works because Congress are the ones with all the power right now. See, according to Time Magazine, a government shutdown is defined as a process that happens when Congress can’t agree on elements of the federal budget, basically how much money goes to who or what. A shutdown is then declared meaning non-essential government services stop and workers get furloughed or sent home with reduced or non-existent pay.

What can’t they agree on?

The government has shut down because of division over Trump’s controversial project to build a wall at the US-Mexico border, something that will cost in excess of 5 BILLLION DOLLARS (that’s the amount of funding he’s asked the government for.) The Democrats are refusing to approve that funding, not only for practical fiscal reasons - the wall is a huge waste of money and a highly ineffective measure but more importantly for the cruelty and inhumane attitude it represents. Trump has argued the US is facing a security and humanitarian crisis, the wall in his eyes is a protective measure against so called ‘terrorists who steal jobs and offer nothing but evil.’ To my mind, it’s a wall of cowardice and bigotry, protection for entitled white supremacists against a flood of people who historically are the very backbone of the nation. Without immigrants, the farming and food production industries, childcare and domestic service industries would wither and die. These are all services I can guarantee Trump has relied in on the past and would struggle painfully without.

According to this Al Jazeera investigation, the number of undocumented immigrants in 2016 was 10.7 million, the lowest in a decade. Experts agree that with the number rapidly declining from the height it attained in the early 2000′s at 12.2 million and above, this is hardly grounds for the calling of a state of emergency or humanitarian crisis. More likely to fit that criteria is the forced deportation of thousands of individuals, the separation of families and children at the border, the use of teargas by armed and protected border officials against innocent unarmed women and children and the placement of children and others in cages by ICE officials.

Finally, who is affected?

800,000 government workers are currently living without pay. There is no guarantee they’ll be reimbursed once the government reopens. This obviously affects their ability to pay rent, which will no doubt lead to issues with landlords, buy food and pay for other essentials as well as medical bills and mortgages. This has affected Homeland Security, Justice, The Treasury and many other government departments.

Food stamps for the month of February are likely to be cut meaning those who live in the lowest socio-economic echelons of American society will go without food, leading to an increase in malnutrition, starvation and other medical issues. Thousands of airport security workers, many who screen passengers and baggage are not working, putting everyone at greater risk of disease and danger. National Parks are closed suffering environmentally from the toll of visitors. Three people have died since the shutdown because of a lack of staff and ability to access resources/carry out medical help efficiently. Vital research and grant money which is often time-sensitive have stopped. Inspections of chemical factories, power plants, oil refineries, water treatment plants, and thousands of other industrial sites have stopped, putting workers and the environment in danger.The Food and Drug Administration has stopped its routine inspections of seafood, fruits, vegetables and other foods at high risk of contamination.Food, medicine and pay for Native Americans at the federal level has also been suspended. These are just a few of the effects.

After all this research, whilst I understand what the shutdown is and what it means, I also can’t believe that this has been going on since December 22nd and that millions of people have suffered these dramatic consequences for almost a month.

In fact because of that if you, your family or someone you know has been affected by the shutdown and you’re willing to share, please reblog with your story. I want people who believe in the wall and in Trump to see the human consequence and cost of his racist bigoted ego. You have all our love and support xxx. If any of you know of initiatives where we can help, please share those as well!

Hannah (:

#themoreyoukn0w #government shutdown #us politics #border wall #us-mexico border #trump #fuck trump #impeach him #please share #hannah

50 notes · View notes

sabotajuu-a · 5 years

Text

SHIP INFO !

TAGGED BY : nobody because my grubby little fingers stole it from @nomither so ty bb <3 TAGGING : everybody with at least one working kidney RULES : answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog. REPOST, don’t reblog. Who’s ready for me to go into detail when nobody fucking asked me to???

WHAT’S YOUR OTP FAVORITE SHIPS FOR YOUR MUSE ?

I won’t lie, I actually abhor the term OTP because it feels like it’s closing off any potential shipping plots with other muses and characters. To answer this question, I’ll be highlighting my favored dynamics, because I’m a lawless heathen and I spit on your rules.

Let’s get killers over with first. Trapper and Jake has been a long-standing ship of mine, and it’s for obvious reasons. They likely have a long-standing feud of Trapper and Saboteur, and I do love hate-ships. Another favorite dynamic of mine is Doctor and Jake, just because of the machinery Jake can fuck with outside of game mechanics. He may despise Lery’s and all that comes with it, but I do enjoy the thought of him weaponizing some of that medical and electrical equipment against Carter, and it’s entirely Guud_Night’s fault that I even got into Doctor and that one fucking suit of his. Jake... loves a man in uniform, and a man in a suit, and Carter just so happens to check both marks. We don’t talk about the secret cursed ship, thanks. I already told you about my semi-secret guilty pleasure, so hush.

As for survivors, and get ready because this is a complete shocker ( he lied ), but I ship Jake with literally any man that is outlandish, loud, confident, cocky, and / or doesn’t seem to know the meaning of silence or personal space. So you’re looking at Ace, David, and Ash for those particular choices. Jeff is in the middle ground. So why those particular three? Jake absolutely abhors them on first meeting. Their personality types do not mesh well with his own, though he warms up to Ace the quickest, and Ash... let’s just say he still considers introducing that man’s jaw to the floor even after he warms up to Ash. David would probably be that middle-ground because he isn’t as bad as Ash, but he’s not easy to get along with like Ace either.

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RP WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPS ?

Literally anything, so long as it’s not the obvious incest, pedophilia, non-con brigade. I’m also not willing to write ships with Dwight, Meg, Claudette, or Nea because Jake sees them as family, whether or not there is a pre-established dynamic or not. This is non-negotiable since it is my personal headcanon. With that aside, I’m down for pretty much anything so long as my writing partner is comfortable with the content. I only state that specifically, despite it being an obvious requirement to ship, because I am someone who enjoys exploring some DARK SHIT, but can understand most of that content isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Like full on gore and things like that. I just want people to have some damn fun, y’know?

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE ?

I don’t quite have many age gap issues, aside from Jake being with anyone under 23. It’s a personal comfort, and Jake would much prefer people around his own age or older. As for older, I guess the age cap would be... 60s? I really don’t have much of an issue with older characters because it’s two legal, consenting adults entering a relationship, so... whatever. Older people need love too.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WITH SHIPPING ?

LMAO fuck no. I’m always down to clown with suffering because that’s what you’re going to get from me. Suffering and random soft shit. I literally love seeing everyone’s characterizations of their muse, and I want to explore all of them. Though I will, at times, have ship exclusives, but the requirements for that to happen are strenuous and I don’t like to limit myself to shipping with 1 person when i can ship with 9283429 people.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS GO BEFORE THEY’RE CONSIDERED NSFW ?

Honestly, intercourse itself. Or, depending on the content, when things dabble into the gorier aspects. Like I said, I’m fine with writing some fucked up shit, so I’ll likely start putting that SFW to NSFW threshold pretty low to avoid complications with other people. I hope that’s blunt enough.

WHAT ARE OTHER MUSES YOU SHIP YOUR MUSE WITH ?

Out of the fandom, you are free to drop kick your way into my DMs and hit me with that good shit, because wow I love to explore every aspect of potential shipping dynamics.

As for Dead by Daylight, I personally want to explore ships with Frank, Joey, Quentin, Tapp, Adam, and Jeff. I know I mentioned Jeff in that one question above, but I’m going to state him here too since I did say he was more of a middle-man option. I’m still a little ??? on the dynamic itself.

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU ?

I mean... how else are you going to ship with me? I don’t like people forcing their ships onto me, and I’d prefer screaming at you about our goblins rather than it being entirely one-sided. I promise you that 99% of the time, just outright kicking me in the head and yelling I WANT OUR BOYS TO KISS will get me to agree and discuss the ship further.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP ?

I honestly do love shipping, but I don’t need to ship to enjoy writing a character. It’s definitely something that can easily be explored, but it isn’t mandatory. I get that Jake isn’t the easiest person to ship with anyway considering he literally hates everyone except, like, four people, and is a feral little creature. But sincerely, I do like to ship whenever the fuck I feel like it.

ARE YOU MULTISHIP ?

Hell yeah. I remember the days singleship was the in, and I honestly felt so restrained. Give me all of your boys and let me love them all, thanks.

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS ?

I wouldn’t say I’m either. I basically just ship as chemistry blossoms and discussions are made, so long as the other person is down to clown. So for this question, I’m a big ol’ middle finger that’s been spray painted by the funky little jester that jingles miserably beneath the dirt.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT FAVOURITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM ?

OH, GEE SCOOB WHERE DO I START? JAKE PARK AND GROWING UP WITH A DECENT FATHER. JAKE PARK AND HAPPINESS. JAKE PARK AND SELF-HELP. JAKE PARK AND LITERALLY ANY POSITIVE OPTION THAT I’VE CONVENIENTLY FORGOTTEN ABOUT WHEN WRITING HIS CHARACTER. If you’re looking for a serious answer, you’re looking in the wrong place. I don’t have a favorite ship, so eat rocks.

HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU ?

LITERALLY JUST HIT ME WITH IT. Hit me as hard as you probably smash your Dead Hard key in a stressful situation, only for it to not go off, so you rotate furiously on the ground until the killer picks you up. Just fucking message me and water my crops with your ship, because there is a 99% chance that I either ship it already myself, or that we can work things out. If I can make a viable crossover relationship between a League of Legends champion and a SMITE God with a friend, or an Evil Within 2 character and a TF2 merc with a friend, we can make this work too, probably.

#heeeere's this ???? ? ?? ? ? ? ?#sure #「STUDY」ʰᵉ ᵗᵃˢᵗᵉᵈ ᵒᶠ ᵇˡᵒᵒᵈ ᵃᶰᵈ ᵍᵘᶰᵐᵉᵗᵃˡ ; ᵒᶠ ᵃˢʰᵉˢ ᵃᶰᵈ ˢᵗᵉᵉˡ #「MUN」ᵒᶠᶠᶤᶜᵉʳ ᵇᵒᵒᵗʸ ʳᵉᵖᵒʳᵗᶤᶰᵍ ᶠᵒʳ ᵈᵘᵗʸ #「OOC」ᵒᶠ ᶠᶤᵉʳᶜᵉ ᵛᶤᵒˡᵉᶰᶜᵉ ᵘᶰʷᵒᵘᶰᵈ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵍᵉᶰᵗˡᵉ ˡᶤˡᶤᵉˢ

1 note · View note

freedom-of-fanfic · 7 years

Note

What advice do you have about tagging? Cause I feel like that courtesy is starting to turn into another Holy War too and I don't like it. (Ie: if you didn't choose to warn for every aspect of the content you created, it's now Open Season on you and your fic. It's okay for Antis to come for you bc you were a Mean Evil Person who didn't Use Enough Tags.) What happened to Choose Not To Warn as a valid warning??

This is an interesting topic tbh, and it’s getting more heated because on tumblr, post tags also function as community spaces. (I’m not really going to address the ‘do you tag the ship if it’s a negative depiction’ debate here, but I have other asks about that.)

let’s be real: anti-shippers have absolutely noticed that non-antis advocate heavily for fic warnings. They personally would rather that content that needs warnings not exist at all, but because many people who don’t agree with antis do agree with warnings, they will exploit that. two easy ways to antis exploit warning systems:

going into a warning tag and harassing the creators of works in the tag, ie going into the ‘noncon’ tag and messaging the creators to tell them their work contains and normalizes rape.

going after creators for not using the 'right’ warnings, ie: two characters have sex while drunk & no regrets. The creator tags it 'dubcon’ to be safe, but someone starts a dogpile because the warning should have been for 'noncon’.

It’s very much a 'damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ situation. You can never win with antis: they will only be satisfied if your content ceases to exist entirely. (don’t bother to try to make them happy.)

What happened to Choose Not To Warn as a valid warning??

so for those who don’t use AO3: Archive of our Own has one mandatory tag and several options for it. we’re only concerned with the last two:

Major Character Death: one of the main characters of this story dies.

Underage: underage characters doing nsfw things.

Rape/Noncon: sexual acts are committed with someone whose consent is questionable, not given, or denied. (imho, this is a warning I would also use on dubcon. your mileage may vary.)

Graphic Depictions of Violence: graphic depictions of physical violence may make for distrubing imagery.

No Archive Warnings Apply: if your fic doesn’t contain a main character death, underage characters engaging in sexual acts, rape/noncon/dubcon, or graphic depictions of violence, you can indicate it by checking this tag.

Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings: this fic may contain character death, underage sex, noncon, or graphic violence, or it may not. the creator has elected to not warn for this content, so the reader proceeds at their own risk.

If you click on a fic with 'no archive warnings apply’, you can be sure the fic won’t have character death, underage sex, rape, or severe violence. if you click on a fic with 'choose not to warn’, you can’t be sure the fic won’t have any of the above potentially upsetting content.

Unfortunately, many people either don’t realize there’s a difference or choose to ignore it.

'why even have the option to not warn, though?’ because there are some reasons why a writer might want you to proceed with caution but not want to give specifics:

a warning would give away a major plot point of the story/they don’t want to spoil any part of the fic with a warning

they would rather the fic not appear in the warning tags

they would prefer to warn in their own words in the author’s note or summary

they’re not sure if archive warnings apply but want to be on the safe side

they just don’t want to warn

(fun fact corner~!: tagging fics with content warnings more specific than 'contains slash’ or '18+ only’ is more or less a post-internet fandom expectation. It wasn’t until 1999-ish that readers seemed to expect warnings for upsetting content and we’ve been wanking about them ever since. (for funsies, here’s a timeline of fandom meta about warnings; the earliest content is from an alt.tv usenet archive, posted in 1997.) tagging/warning is a fairly ubiquitous practice now, and I am of the opinion it’s better to warn than not, but warnings are still optional and AO3 honors that.)

That said: I personally think that 'choosing not to warn’ on tumblr is rude and/or potentially dangerous because tumblr doesn’t function well as a content archive. Unlike AO3, tumblr is terrible at content filtering. tumblr mobile doesn’t honor readmores (except in reblogs) and you can only search one tag at a time under most circumstances: therefore, things that are likely to be upsetting to a percentage of people should be warned for so that blacklists can catch it.

if you would prefer to not warn for content on tumblr, I’d recommend some of the following as possible workarounds:

flag the post as 'adult’ if appropriate, even if you choose to not include a warning.

explicitly mention that the work may have violence/abuse/noncon/etc but you’re choosing to not specify either way.

if possible, host the content off-site and provide a link.

alternatively, post your unwarned work to a blog that you’ve flagged as unsearchable, and therefore won’t show up in the 'search’ function.

another long post (should I give up on trying for brevity?), but here’s the short version:

tl;dr 1: antis often act in bad faith and it’s impossible to please them. tagging is just another excuse for coming after works they don’t like. tag at your own discretion and weigh negative feedback on its merits, not its emotion.

and tl;dr 2: choosing to not warn is still a valid option but people forget it’s a thing and get burned by it, so it’s best to be really clear about it (and if you’re a consumer, pay attention if someone says they’re abstaining from warnings!)

final note: please enjoy this 2006 LJ post explaining that fiction doesn’t have to be moral, depiction does not condone real behavior, nobody is harmed in the making of a fanwork and censorship is not the answer. 11 years of the same wank! some of the participants in today’s discourse were literally still in diapers.

#in defense of tagging #tagging discourse #rape mention #noncon mention #anti shipping #damned if you tag damned if you dont #fandom history

142 notes · View notes