#thinking about how skewed it can be in mainstream media like | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

reasonsforhope · 6 months

Note

Do you have any advice for dealing with election anxiety?

I think/hope so!

First, a couple caveats:

I'm from the US, so US perspective, and about US 2024 elections

I know more about politics/follow them more than like, at least 85% of US Americans? But I am not an expert.

Environment/climate news and climate hope are science-based and can be measured/predicted empirically wayyyyy more than politics can, because People

I'm not getting into the trenches around Democrats vs. the Left vs. Liberals vs. Progressives. In this post, we're all in one big venn diagram of mostly interchangeable terms

So, first off, maybe my biggest piece of advice is this: The antidote to anxiety is action.

Find something you can do to help - anything. Anxiety is like fear - it's part of your brain's alarm system. It's part of your brain's mechanism for telling you that you need to do something

So if you listen to that alarm and do something, your brain won't feel the same need to desperately escalate the alarm system

You can look up and sign up for actions, protests, petitions, letter-writing campaigns, phone banking, canvassing, and more for candidates near you at Mobilize.us (no Repubs on here I promise). They also work with Swing Left a lot - a group that helps voters look up and focus on helping the nearest race that is actually competitive (because most of them aren't!)

Again, that's Mobilize.us and Swing Left as two of the best places to find out how and where to help, and sign up to do so

Other than that, I don't have advice specifically so much as I have "some useful and more hopeful ways to think about the coming US election" and to a lesser extent democracy in general

1. The media is going to underreport how well the Left and/or Democrats are doing, basically no matter what.

So, although we can't get cocky about it, this is something absolutely worth remembering when you see just about any polling or predictions about the 2024 elections.

Here's why:

Poling is weird and often inaccurate and skews in a lot of ways and is inherently biased, and it's less accurate the further you are from an election. Also, the electoral college is a huge complication here

This skewing is built into both the interpretation of the poll and the design of the poll itself - how many people do they sample? Demographic spread? Polls try to go for "likely voters," but how well can you predict that, especially as voting rates for young people and marginalized groups are rising, often dramatically?

Right now, those biases are all skewing most to all polls and predictions to the right. Including from basically all pollsters, as well as left-wing media and news outlets.

Now, THAT'S NOT INHERENTLY A BAD THING. It's not because they don't want the Left to win. It's because in 2016, basically all mainstream media, including left-leaning media, said that there was a very low chance Trump was going to win. They said that Hillary Clinton had it in the bag. So they're all correcting for the huge inaccuracy in the 2016 (and 2020 and 2022 tbh) elections

Not only were they catastrophically and humiliatingly wrong about that, they then had to deal with the fact that that very reporting was part of why Clinton lost in 2016 - voters heard she was probably going to win, so they felt safe staying home instead of voting

And then the 2020 election polls were also super wrong, mostly in the other direction

Polling as a field is undergoing a massive shakeup around this, trying to figure out how to not fuck up that badly again, but they haven't figured it out yet, so right now they're skewing things to compensate

That's for the sake of both their own credibility and, you know, the part where just about no one in either left-wing or mainstream media or mainstream polling orgs wants Trump to win

So they're going to underreport Democratic chances on purpose to a) compensate for the bias skewing things toward Democrats in their models, and b) to make sure that they don't accidentally help Trump win again

Sources: x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x

Reasons the Republicans are in more trouble than a lot of people think

Democrats are largely closing ranks hard around Biden, because no matter what they think of Biden, they know a Repub victory would be a thousand times worse

Republicans, however, are absolutely NOT unifying around a candidate. And they're also the ones who go around saying a ton of awful and offensive and wildly untrue things about their opponents. Meaning that the Republican primary is about to get fucking messy, and probably all of their candidates will be tarred in the process

So, basically, the Republican candidates are all going to be busy smearing the fuck out of each other - while Biden mostly doesn't have to deal with that level of negative campaigning against him for months and months

As studies show, in politics, "a negative frame is much more persistent, or “stickier,” than a positive one. If you come at an issue negatively, but are later reminded of the policy's positive aspects, you will still think it's a bust."

Also, Biden is gonna get basically all presidential-race left-wing big-name donor money, while the Right will have that money split a bunch of ways and blow through it hard on infighting, creating a probable funding gap

Trump's campaign contributions are all going to pay his legal fees. Like, to the extent that last month, his main PAC had just $4 million in cash on hand - because they siphoned over $101 million to pay his legal fees (muahahaha)

Sources: x, x, x, x, x, x, x

Other hopeful things to consider

Yes, Trump's indictments and trials are, unfortunately, boosting his numbers among his supporters. However, that's only with the hard right wing - and you can't win a general election with just the far right. He needs to appeal to independent voters and moderate Repubs - and every indictment and trial hurts his chances with them. x, x

In 2022, literally everyone was predicting a "red tsunami." And they were wrong: it never happened. Instead, Democrats picked up a seat in the senate, lost a third or less of the seats in the House that they were expected to, and won a number of statewide races. x, x, x, x, x

DeSantis's decision to go to war with Disney stands to do him a lot of fucking hard. Disney isn't just powerful in general - it's an unbelievably powerful force and employer in DeSantis's home state of Florida. Disney has already pulled a $1 billion project from Florida due to the feud, is responsible for "half" of FL's tourism industry, and and is branding DeSantis as "anti-corporation" and "anti-business" - dangerous charges in the right wing. x, x, x, x, x, x

Abortion is an issue that gets voters to the polls. This is an issue on which politicians are wildly out of step with voters: Numbers change depending on how you break it down, but generally 60% to 70% of Americans think abortion should be legal - which is, in election terms, is a landslide. For years, that momentum has been with Republicans. Well, now it's with us, and so far pro-choice candidates and ballot propositions have done way better than expected. To quote Vox, in 2022, "abortion rights won in all six states with abortion ballot measures, including in red states like Kentucky and Montana that otherwise elected Republican lawmakers." x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x

146 notes · View notes

buryyourdoves · 1 year

Text

Writing Jewish Characters (what not to do, according to one jewish gal on discord) (a probably incomplete list):

(For reference, because I say it a few times: goyische = not Jewish, or relating to non-Jewish things/culture/etc)

Preface:

Many of these are things that some Jews do irl for various personal reasons, and that is 1000% valid and fine!! This is in no way dragging any Jew’s life choices whatsoever. When it comes to representation, there is a huge skew in one direction: the Jew-ish, bacon cheeseburger-loving, Xmas-celebrating, modern Jew whose nagging, kvetching Jewish family comes up for a special holiday or life event episode and is never heard from again. The implication is that Jewish traditions don’t fit modern people/society and that a non-Jewish audience can’t connect with a Jewish character who remains close to their cultural roots. All that to say, this piece is all about representation, not necessarily irl accuracy.

Primer:

Jewish characters don’t have to be “religious,” and definitely not in the way you might conceive of a religious Xtian character. But being an irreligious Jew doesn't inherently mean they won't follow any Jewish rituals or holidays. It’s a culture as much as it is a religion, and there are a million reasons an atheist Jew (not an oxymoron!) might follow any of these rituals/rules, including but not limited to cultural heritage, community, and religious family/friends <3

Eating treif (aka never-kosher food like pork and shellfish):

They don’t have to keep kosher (altho that would be a very welcome change just one (1) time ksdjg), just don’t make them actively not kosher. I know it feels super innocuous to talk about Erik Lensherr grabbing a bacon egg and cheese from the bodega, but it sticks out to me every time because it is, in itself, a statement. If that's a statement you want to be making, think about why. What are you trying to add to this Jewish character by giving him bacon, or shrimp, or a cheeseburger, etc etc. And is it something you think is a positive addition, or is the implication just that not eating bacon is silly, or outdated, or only something super duper religious Jews could ever want to do? If so, maybe skip the shrimp. It’s a tiny thing that can really make a big difference.

True bonus points: actively have the character keep a semblance of kosher. A simple, 2-second choice for a character to turn down a bite of their coworker’s pork fried rice because they’re Jewish feels SO NICE to read in an ocean of Jewish characters eating treif.

A lot of media codes Jewish characters by drawing attention to the fact that they’re eating bacon, even though they “shouldn’t.” Very little media codes Jews by having them leave the cheese off their burger.

(And if you do write them eating non-kosher, a friendly reminder that Jews who don’t keep kosher don’t think about how disappointed their mother would be everytime they bite into a piece of bacon. They just eat it lol.)

Interfaith parents/“half-Jews”:

I feel it necessary to reassure with this one in particular that there is nothing wrong with this, and both matrilineal and patrilineal Jews deserve representation. This is common enough irl and if they identify with the Jewish side of their heritage to consider themselves Jewish, that’s great! Variety is the spice of life. Once again, I want to emphasize that I am not making any judgments on irl Jews in any of these complaints.

This is only up for representation discussion because this feels like another trend in media and fandom, where it seems like one parent is Certified Not Jewish™️ almost as an excuse to…have Jewish characters not have to be Jewish except in name. Interfaith families are almost always shown mainly celebrating Xtian holidays, with a tiny nod to Judaism: agiant Xmas tree with a menorah to the side, or an Easter episode with a throwaway mention of Passover (if anything). Mainstream media especially will do either this, or have both parents be Jewish and the main character be such a ~disappointment~ to their parents for being less so, and of course falling into lots of icky stereotypes along the way.

Basically just, don’t not write interfaith characters, but be careful with them. Please don’t use interfaith characters as your reason excuse to let them do the Goyische Stuff, like celebrating Xmas. And speaking of…

Christmas (derogatory):

My opinion on Jewish characters celebrating Xmas, my prayer hands and shameless begging, is just…please don’t do it. I get it, plenty of irl Jews participate in Xmas activities or even celebrate it with their friends and extended families, that’s fine, absolutely no judgment. But without getting into the whole shebang of christian hegemony and the myth of secular Christmas, that’s already EVERYWHERE. Almost every tv show, every movie that has Xmas in it, if there’s a Jewish character, there’s a solid 98% chance they celebrate Xmas too. Maybe even LOVE it. Maybe there’s even a confused goyische friend going, “aren’t you Jewish?” and the Xmas-loving Jew happily informs them why that doesn’t matter, or how actually only their dad is Jewish (and he loves Xmas too so woo!) so they get to do the whole Xmas shebang and maybe have a lil menorah off to the side for the token representation.

Jews who participate in or celebrate Xmas exist, but this is a reminder that those who don’t also exist, and they are not remotely uncommon. And we don’t feel deprived for not having had Xmas, I promise. Go against the grain! For lols you can even have your Jewish character be half clueless about Xmas traditions because he never had them! Ben Grimm who has no idea what a garland is and at this point he’s too afraid to ask. There’s so much you can do with it and have fun with in a way that still keeps your Jewish blorbo unassimilated <3

There Was Only One Jew:

Most content has one (1) Jew and that’s that. It’s almost like there’s a rule that there can only be one (1) Jew per friend group. If you have more than one Jewish character, then slay! More Jews are always welcome, and the more you have, the more leeway there is, imo. It feels less egregious for, e.g., a Jewish character to loooooove shrimp if you’ve got another in the story who’s never touched it in his life and never plans to. (Although, when deciding which characters to do this with, consider making the more observant one your main, instead of relegating them to the background and/or parental characters.)

In Summary…

Thanks for reading!! There’s no one way to write Jewish characters, but I hope this helped give you something to think about! I’m always happy to answer questions if you want to learn more. You can also check out the Jewish and Judaism tags on the Writing With Color blog if you want to hear opinions from other Jews. (Not affiliated, just love their blog, haha!) These are just my thoughts on these things after reading a lot of Jewish characters (canon or headcanoned) in fic. 😊

B’hatzlacha! <3

#writing tips #jewish representation #writing jewish characters #jumblr #judaism #writblr #writing #representation #writing resource #jewish characters

647 notes · View notes

darlingofdots · 9 months

Note

Hello as someone who did half of a thesis on trans romance novels before realising academia wasn't entirely compatible with my health, I am still VERY excited by romance academia and romance academics. Would you like to talk more about your PhD?

Academia is barely compatible with life, I feel you xD

Basically I'm very interested in interrogating and dismantling the standard hero/heroine language because I don't think that it serves us anymore. The genre has evolved so much that it feels really reductive to say 'this is the hero because it's a man' and vice versa, and that's even before you start considering queer and same sex romance novels. I do believe that the protagonists of a romance novel have different narrative roles! They're just not rooted in gender, or at least not just. For example, it used to be that heroines were always young women who were sexually naive and heroes were older, sexually experienced and aggressive men, and that is demonstrably not true anymore. I'm investigating the functions of the romance protagonists in the romance narrative with the goal of proposing a different classification, so we can finally talk about different relationship constellations within romances with accurate language and understand the actual roles they play better. Figuring out how stories work is one of my favourite things to do both as a writer and an academic, because I love finding the patterns and traditions inherent in storytelling--what does this building block do and where does it come from? Why does it look like that? What happens if you take it away?

Romance scholarship is super fun because there's so much material to discuss and not that many people who are discussing it, but it's also difficult because a lot of the discussion has been trying to defend the genre and scholarship thereof against stereotypes and misogynist dismissals from other fields, so there's not as much foundational material as you often hope. There are so many exciting things happening in the community though! I recently attended the 2023 conference by the International Association for the Scholarship of Popular Romance and had an absolute blast both because the presentations were fascinating and because everybody there was just so bloody lovely. It was so wonderful to be in a room full of people very seriously discussing possessiveness in sports romance or the folkloric themes in KJ Charles novels and never have to justify your interests or preferences.

Popular romance is such a staggeringly wide field and yet so many people have absolutely no idea about how the genre works. Mainstream media and scholarship are so outrightly dismissive of it that the majority of people, even voracious readers!, have such a skewed idea of it that they refuse to interrogate because the image of the white, straight, cis bodice ripper is so ingrained in their head and it never occurs to them that that might be an incomplete picture. It's especially egregious to hear this stuff repeated by fanfiction readers because the line that separates shippy fanfic from romance novels is so thin it's practically imaginary. If somebody only read Game of Thrones and then went on a rant that all fantasy books are horrible and stupid and anyone who reads them must be intellectually inferior, they'd rightfully be called a dick, but people say these things about romance novels all the damn time. Get off your high horse! Acknowledge that women are people and things enjoyed by women have merit! Broaden your horizons! Ask a romance reader for some recommendations and maybe you'll even end up enjoying yourself!

#dottie rambles #romance on main #dottie replies #romance novels #academia #romance scholarship #sorry about the rant (i am not sorry)#very abridged summary of my project but i'm still in the exploratory stage

54 notes · View notes

donnerpartyofone · 8 months

Text

I just saw this poll that was apparently the product of a debate among non-Americans as to whether or not summer camp is real. Americans were supposed to select one of several answers describing how real it actually is and what their direct experience is with it (like "I've been to one" or "I've heard of them but never known anyone who went"), as if to prove their claim. One option suggested it was only for rich people. Never in my life did it occur to me that the reality of summer camp was up for debate, but I also never thought about the economics of it. As a kid I was just glad I didn't have to go; forced-fun is really hard on me still, I hate even friendly competitions because I am literally incompetent, and I couldn't imagine being in a situation where I wouldn't ever be alone for days or weeks at a time. We had to go to band camp, which was just a day thing at school for a month or so, and I'm sure that was a combination of our parents just wanting to get rid of us and also wanting us to have extracurriculars on our record. But it never occurred to me that proper sleepaway summer camp was out of our price range, probably because wealthiness was not part of the cliche of summer camp.

Like, the 1980s was the era of a film subgenre called snobs versus slobs, a prime example of which is the movie MEATBALLS, which pits kids at a working class summer camp against the rich jerks at a much ritzier camp nearby; the stereotypical vision was that summer camp is for everyone, but the rich people versions are less wholesome, farther away from the American-as-apple-pie camp experience god intended. I also recall a Saturday morning cartoon called Camp Candy, in which John Candy was the beloved counselor of an earnest little camp that was under threat from a rich developer--again here, money is the enemy of the salt of the earth, egalitarian decency of summer camp. ERNEST GOES TO CAMP involves scrappy juvenile delinquents at a camp that is antagonized by a greedy strip mining corporation, so money is only a theme insofar as "camp" represents something common and honest that is antithetical to contaminating wealth. The standard summer camp narrative is most often about underdogs trying to save something they love, and not about rich people either finding their souls or getting their comeuppance (unless they're the bad guys who are generally not "real", sincere campers). Personally, my closer cultural connections are with FRIDAY THE 13TH and SLEEPAWAY CAMP, which take place in rural New Jersey; nowhere is there the idea that Jason Voorhees' mom was rich, and although there's evidence of wealth regarding the first family you meet in SLEEPAWAY CAMP, the prevailing image is not of snotty prep school students, but of regular, somewhat coarse suburban kids who don't mind skinning their knees and getting their hands dirty and eating cafeteria slop dished out by a filthy pervert.

I do get the idea (just now, from searching the internet) that summer camp is exorbitantly expensive nowadays due to inflation (and probably escalating greed, just like with everything else), but even though it can involve room and board etc for days or weeks, I never acquired the prejudice that camp in general was only for the upper crust, like I'd assume about ski school or uh sailing lessons or I don't know what. And I mean there's a lot of stuff like that in mainstream media, where e.g. blue collar families have homes and possessions that are WAY too nice, or something like that. It's just something film and TV creators do to make things more inviting and less depressing, I think, and that can skew popular conceptions of how expensive certain things actually are. But I'm looking at a Reddit right now confirming my perception that versions of summer camp were available to middle class Americans in the 1960s-80s, and that the idea that the price tag of it would compete with college tuition is pretty recent. But it's still funny to me how often I see people on here assuming that if they've never personally experienced something, no matter how often they've heard of it, then it's probably not real. That's some protagonist syndrome shit right there. Just because you've seen an artificially enhanced version of something on TV doesn't mean it's a fake idea contrived to make an idiot out of you. You can do that all by yourself.

#ive seen tons of movies from other countries depicting experiences ive never had #it never occurred to me that like european media is specifically trying to trick american viewers into believing in fake things #where does this attitude come from like youre already on the internet look it up!

33 notes · View notes

canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 8 months

Note

Have the submissions made you reconsider your views on how widespread misogyny in mainstream media/our culture is? I mean you obviously were aware about this before — that's why you've arranged the poll but did you have a "I didn't know things are THIS fucked up" moment?

I don't think there was a specific moment, but cumulatively… yeah, honestly, which shocks me because I knew this already! I was well aware! AND FUCKING YET! It's seeing it across cultures and times, just never changing, really. I can draw a direct comparison between a character from War and Peace, a 19th century Russian novel, to a character from Death Note, a 21st century Japanese anime, and a direct line between a character from The A-Team, a 1970s American tv show, and Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, a 2010s Japanese anime, and in neither case is it because they're different. I shouldn't be able to do that. You would think there would be improvements! And, to be fair, there's a bias here, because I'm not asking for good treatment of female characters to go along with it, am I? It skews the data. I also read a lot of instances of misogyny over a very short period of time, so it might have just overwhelmed my brain. idk, man, it's like... you know when you're going down the stairs and you misjudge how many steps there are and have to scramble to not fall on your face because there's one more step than you expected? It's kinda like that.

I do think, however, that the real surprise won't come until the tournament organized by works, not characters, comes. I can feel in my bones that one will leave me reeling.

#asks #not polls

39 notes · View notes

owlbelly · 1 month

Text

@winkingvoid said:

femmes can be venomous; i'm glad folks are finally talking about it more. it's gotten so harmful how much it's tainted the public queer/trans narrative it's still somewhat rare to see any non-femmes represented for more than a token I'd like to think times will change for the better <3

i mean. just to be clear my issue is not with people who consider themselves "femmes" (who, in my experience, are shitty in exactly the same numbers as people who consider themselves any other flavor of gender. some people are just shitty)

it's with the weird seesaw thing that continues to happen in queer/trans cultural spaces - having been out for almost 25 years i've seen it rock back & forth multiple times - where different gender groups go through periods of feeling underrepresented or unfairly treated within their communities & there's usually a big push for "centering" and "uplifting voices" then a period where that's like. the only people it's cool to hear from or talk about. followed usually by a backlash & a swing in the other direction! femmes vs. butches/mascs, trans men vs. trans women, etc. it's exhausting. & it's not as though it's not a real thing happening or like people don't have real reasons to be upset about who's "represented" or has social power, it's just that it's a miserable repeating cycle rather than a real examination of power dynamics with any nuance.

also imo it very rarely maps onto whatever's going on in mainstream culture/media with regard to queer & trans people. like it's always been hilarious to me that the standby is "butch lesbians are the cultural stereotype so we need femme lesbians in movies/tv/etc." but if i asked you to point to an actual butch on a big screen, lmfao. or the thing where most trans-focused mainstream media is still only ever about trans women, but in actual queer/trans spaces & orgs it's often heavily skewed towards trans men & transmasc folks now (which is a change that i also saw juuuust begin to happen in the mid-to-late 00s). ofc "representation" & "visibility" are double edged too & don't make people safe.

anyway as an extremely agender person who still can't escape getting shoved to one side by cis & trans people alike, i would love to see this shit even out eventually & i would love even more for people to just let go of the whole "war of the sexes" divisive nonsense, we literally do not have to reproduce that cishet dynamic in a "progressive" way :')

#gender war bullshit. i'm over it

9 notes · View notes

monstersinthecosmos · 2 years

Note

Anne Rice's books are filled with morally dubious concepts and toxic relationships, I thought everyone that is fan would be so because of that. But scrolling through the tag I find people claiming to be fans but only of the wholesome parts, which are almost nothing?? Anne Rice is not wholesome in the slightest. I don't know, it feels lonely. And also I see the TV show isn't willing to engage with the horror and complexity of these books neither, which, makes me see the vampire chronicles isn't really meant to be brought to this medium. I don't know why I am dumping this on you but I feel like you would understand somehow. Please ignore if not, I don't want to offend you.

Lmao I’m not offended, hello! I am, however, about to talk way too much bc I haven't changed in the years since I've haunted tunglr dot com so I apologize for that

TLDR: Be a freak, don't let anyone make you feel bad, I hope the show isn't too wholesome.

I’ve been in and out of this fandom for like, literally twenty years 👵🏻 so being completely honest I have always seen a wide range of fans on the spectrum of HAPPILY ENJOYING IN BLISS to ONLY INTERESTED IN CRITICISM and like that’s such a personal, subjective choice of whatever everyone finds fun in their free time. I’ve also, in twenty years, been on both ends of the spectrum, and I even fully swore AR off for a few years at one point bc I was so mad at her lol, but IM BACK BAYBEE and to me idk it’s not fun to take things so seriously all the time. That’s just me though!

I do think there’s been a huge shift in fandom culture (particularly on Tumblr) in the last 10 years or so that prioritizes moral critiques of canon; it’s not just VC, I see this in a lot of fandoms, and I think it’s been more amplified since the Adult Content Ban bc, surprise!, a lot of adults left the site lol. I think we’re living in a culture right now that’s very focused on respectability politics and there’s obviously a huge push in the mainstream to censor and control transgressive media (especially queer fiction), and it doesn’t surprise me that this has influenced younger fans because it’s a culture we are steeped in at all times, even when they try to identify as progressive. But don’t think that the broader wave of censorship right now isn’t connected to the way conservatives are beginning to skew the conversations in fandom spaces, too. Fandom is a microcosm of what’s happening outside! And there are all types of ideas and stigmas that we get inundated with in the world, without our consent, because it’s the space we all occupy.

Having said all that LOL. All these types of fans exist and sometimes you have to just read the room and find your people. Some people’s enjoyment of the books is conditional, ie: cherrypicking what we liked about them and celebrating just those parts. Especially because I think so many of us read the books young and didn’t think too hard about it; we can agree that Anne’s writing was seductive and we were all probably baby queer weirdos who felt seen or w/e. And I think it’s normal that a lot of us have grown up and looked back at some of the stuff in the books like “oh yikes lol”

But everyone has different ways to navigate those feelings. I personally don’t have a problem compartmentalizing and just enjoying myself. I don’t take fiction morals very seriously and I enjoy the thought exercise of putting myself in imaginary dark places. Not everyone can flip that on and off and separate fiction from reality so easily, so ur milage may vary. I’m also someone who supports the idea of using fiction as a staging area for sexuality, and using fiction imo is a great way to play. Not everybody feels that way and for some people, the fun of playing in fandom is to play with the canon in a transformative way to see how to “fix” it or to rearrange it in a way that is less nauseating. I think there’s a culture in spaces like Tumblr to feel you need to repent for your fiction sins, and not everyone can sit with the guilt of accidentally enjoying amorality in fiction. And like I’m sure there are fans who read IWTV at 13 and Loustat is just so deeply embedded in them that they simply cannot exit the train at this point, and they're doing what they can with the scraps to ease that discomfort.

And I mean, good for them, if it helps them enjoy their time on this fucking germy ass planet!!!!!! That’s very fun, happy 4 u guys lol.

There is also 1000000% Nothing Wrong with blissfully enjoying all the evil and trash. It is perfectly safe and extremely normal. You just need to find your people, and sometimes it is hard and it does feel lonely. I'm with you, though. I'm here to enjoy the evil bullshit and revel in it LOL. There's literally nothing in the series that is wholesome except for Mojo.

To be honest, I’m not into Loustat at all. And not in a morally superior way—they don’t really do it for me but also Lestat reminds me waaaaaaaay too much of my abuser and Louis reminds me way too much of myself when I was stuck in that relationship. It isn’t fun for me to engage with Loustat content because I tend to only see the manipulation and gaslighting when I look at it, and for me personally it’s juuuuuuust a bit too close to the reality I lived through. I would argue that my OTP Armand/Daniel is the most toxic ship in VC but I was never kidnapped by a vampire or stalked across the globe while being literally addicted to his body fluid so yknow, that don’t bother me. =P But it’s 100% normal to look at canon toxic ships and play in the sandbox to either “fix” them or to like, take control of the narrative and allow yourself some catharsis by digging into it in a safe imaginary space. When I have the chance I like to mAkE thEM WORSE

So it’s been occurring to me when I see the enthusiasm of these fans for the show that perhaps they don’t particularly like canon to begin with? So changing it this drastically isn’t an issue to them? I’m sure everyone has their own reasons and I don’t want to generalize. On the issue of Claudia, for example: I think she is an intrinsic part of the plot and drives very profound feminist messages in the book, and I think her being a small child is absolutely essential to that story. I recognize that there are morally reprehensible moments in text regarding her and to me I’m like GOOD, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GROSS. It’s supposed to be gross!!!! It’s a horror novel!!!!!! And Anne Rice was a writer who wanted to always talk about the full spectrum of human emotion, including sexual emotion, so having sexual themes intertwined with the horror was completely on purpose!

Then you see some people who ONLY see that it’s gross and can’t connect with the full scope of her story because it’s too uncomfortable. And like, you do you bestie! Curate that experience for yourself! Have boundaries and love yourself enough to stay safe!!! But I do think it’s wild the amount of complaints I’ve seen about Claudia, for example, which strike me as particularly ironic because it’s almost meta in the way they’ve embodied the entire reason her character is tragic. People infantilizing Claudia as a character, unable to engage with the topic of her at all, is exactly the reason she’s a tragedy in canon, because she can be as old as she wants and people will always see her as a child. D:

As far as the TV show goes lol.

Being fair, I don’t think we know enough yet to know how evil & problematic they’re going to be. LMAO. I hope it’s like unhinged gaslighting abusive romance bc like, WHAT ARE YOU WASTING OUR TIME FOR IF NOT? But I always have found it funny when you see people who seem to otherwise hate everything problematic in VC somehow cape for Loustat as if it’s any different from the other ships. 😂

My concerns at this moment are that the way they changed Claudia is a huge red flag to me about whether or not they will engage in the problematic elements, and I’m not thrilled that RJ says the rest of the books give you a better picture of Lestat than just IWTV, because I disagree. Like, hearing from his own voice definitely allows us to know his sense of humor and we can see he’s a bi disaster, but he’s already CHARMING in IWTV. Louis falls for his shit because he’s charming. So I don’t think we need to know that he considers himself faultless for him to have a fuller portrayal on the show.

Like, I hope the show portrays them as being an abusive ship and shows all the nuance that it deserves, but RJ’s comments reminded me of the binary we see over and over in VC fandom about trying to get to the bottom about WHICH ONE OF THEM WAS LYING. (And it was Lestat, imo LOL he’s told on himself many many times.) So claiming IWTV is an incomplete portrayal of him makes me wonder if RJ comprehended that Lestat is a charming manipulator who abuses everyone in his life LOL. And ESPECIALLY with the time shift + age difference I think this puts them in a very different context. A Lestat who is turned in his 30s with a fully baked prefrontal cortex is going to have a very different temperament from canon Lestat, and even moreso when we understand he’s not a traumatized, freshly-bereaved fledgling anymore but like OVER A CENTURY OLD LMAO so like, he’s had time to calm down and gain some wisdom and that would have to make such a huge difference on the level of coercion. (That’s another red flag for me too is that RJ goes “no no we just changed a couple little things !” and the things he changed are like HUGE??????? So him saying that makes me skeptical again about the nuance of the abuse here.)

I also have some concerns bc some of the show’s team has worked on other titles that were about toxic male antiheros and there are definitely moments in those shows where you can’t tell if the writers are aware of themselves. IE: Tony Soprano is a racist bad guy who kills people and cheats on his wife, and yet there are still occasional narratives on The Sopranos that show the creators also had some of those same biases, and you must wonder if some of Tony’s actions or behavior weren’t intended to be catalogued in the ways he’s very evil.

So looking at the way they’re speaking about Lestat’s characterization, that they’re referring to it as a romance, and some of the patterns in their other work I do have concerns about how the abuse will be portrayed. I also worry about how the abuse will play on screen now that there is an added racial element, and if it will be too cruel or edge into messages that feel too real and hurtful to the audience. And, to circle back lmao, I’m not uncomfortable with objectionable morals in my fiction, but, some nuance would be good.

Don’t get me wrong like I hope the ship on the TV show is like ABUSIVE and SEXY and I hope Louis is like HORNY and TRAPPED because he knows he should leave but he CANNOT! And I want there to be some steamy frustrated hatesex! And huge fights and makeup sex! LOL. But yeah I mean, pretending that Loustat is wholesome is a complete joke, and I really really hope that the show doesn’t misunderstand Loustat to a point where they aren’t aware of what they’re really portraying. LET THE STORY BE ABUSIVE BUT PLEASE BE AWARE OF YOURSELF!

(Anne could have used this advice too in the second half of the series LMAO whoops but I think having that nuance would ultimately make these stories even richer. HERE I AM COMPLAINING ABOUT CANON NONCOMPLIANCE EXCEPT MAKING AN EXTREMELY UNAWARE PORTRAYAL OF ABUSE IS COMPLETELY CANON, my bad.)

And basically like. If it’s not going to be those things I’m just back to wondering why they wanted to adapt this book? So far the only thing in common with canon is like… New Orleans???? An interview of some type will take place? They have the same names?

So it’s hard to hear the team talk about how respectful they are of the book when…. They’re not keeping anything from the book? LOL. What exactly did you see in this story that you wanted to express? I don’t get it. 😂 And I would hate for a book about morally dubious characters and abusive romances to be like, a campy vampire romance without any of those questions and themes.

I’m not saying any of this to nitpick or be needlessly negative; I’m saying it to say it’s some of the things I’ve been wondering and some of the clues I’ve been looking for during the past year to see what exactly is going on with this show LOL. Again, I don’t think the trailer told us enough to know. I’ve been critical and looking for these things and genuinely don’t have a solid opinion yet because I haven’t gotten enough information. Lestat is certainly being extremely predatory and he looks unhinged as fuck so that’s a good sign LMAO. Louis even refers to it in the voiceover as being “hunted”, so it’s nice to know that he feels that way with 100 years of perspective. But we’ll have to wait and see!

I think at this point I’m really hoping for like HANNIBAL LEVEL fuckery and like that type of unhinged gaslighting and manipulation LOL and I think Hannibal was about as far from canon as VCTV looks so far. I’m just doing my best to compartmentalize and be fair about the show while also acknowledging my extremely deep disappointment that we waited 5 years for WOLFKILLER STUFF AND NICKI only to be given an AU fanfic lol. And like, I give Hannibal a bit of a pass because by the time that show came out there had already been like 5 movies made of that franchise and they were mostly faithful so like at that point the idea had already been explored and it was time to remix. I don’t feel VC has ever gotten that shot yet so it’s sad that they went straight for a remix :(

anyway sorry, I disappeared off tumblr for years but I apparently still answer anons with exceedingly meandering essays, I have no idea if this answered what you were asking but LOL YOLO ✌️

#having slept on this #i also want to add that in case this wasn't clear:#TLDR there is room for everyone #be kind and find your people #fandom is not a finite space #it's like Clifford #it wlil get bigger and bigger if you keep loving it!!!!! LOL #make stuff!!!!

73 notes · View notes

feral-radfem · 1 year

Note

Hi, I'm the anon before who asked about written erotica. Thank you for answering my ask. It was a long response and I'm sure it took a little bit of time, so I'm grateful for that.

As I said I'm new to radical feminism so I haven't had the chance yet to delve too deeply into anti-pornography, just mainly about how women in porn are treated and how it skews men's view of women. So that was why I wanted to ask about erotica. I always saw it as a creative outlet, esp. for women writers since so much of written erotica is... well, you know. But that it rots your brain like any other pornography does make sense actually.

I was quite young when I first got on the internet and I think I may have also been influenced by what you said. And how it kind of fucks with your sexuality. That erotica can also be an addiction never occurred to me, but again, it makes sense.

I've got a lot to think about! I hope you have a nice day.

Thank you for reaching back out. I like knowing that the people I write the responses to do get to see them at some point. Sometimes it feels like answering anons is just screaming into the void, so this was nice.

There is no shame in trying to learn or being new to the subject you're trying to learn. It's good to ask questions. I can definitely see how you came to the conclusion that written erotica is a creative release for women, though. In an era where choice feminism is the dominant strain of feminism all women's choices were framed as a feminist choice. However, things women choose to do, even if they do individually benefit them, cannot be considered feminist if it is detrimental to other women and girls. It's just individualism and women can be just as self-centered as men when they want to be. That's a human condition, unfortunately.

You are not alone in having been young and entering internet spaces that made no effort of regulating this material around the children they knew were there. A lot of them actively encouraged young girls to read it because 5-10 years ago began the revival of the free love movement. Porn, and erotica for women, were equated with masturbation and sexual healthy development. Falsely equated but they were in mainstream media regardless.

It was seen as puritan to try to shame children from engaging in pornography because they hit puberty of course they want to be sexually curious. That was a mass grooming of children being done during the early 2010s on the internet. Now, we have a whole generation of young girls who were pressured or shamed by being told that they were vanilla and to engage with media that continued this pressuring and shaming into their adulthood that they should treat their expressions of sexuality as a performance for others.

Much like Dworkin suggested, we have entered a period in which girls are being convinced that porn is good for them and it's being encouraged by women who have already internalized this message as children. It's our job as radical feminist to make it very clear that pornography of any type has nothing to do with the natural sexual curiosity that comes with puberty nor does it need to be involved in any of your sexuality as you grow older. It never becomes healthy, it is always detrimental, in all its iterations.

Hope you have a great day. Thanks for the follow-up message. :)

#lily responds #radical feminism #radfems please touch #terfs please interact #ask #radical feminists please touch #radical feminist #radical feminist theory #radfem lesbian

10 notes · View notes

rollercoasterwords · 1 year

Note

hey rae, i’m experiencing a bit of a moral dilemma (ish) bc like… i’ve always more or less had this view that its wrong on some level to like “police” people on the kind of media they are creating, even mainstream tbh and now… well… let’s just say a little bee flew in rather aggressively into my eardrums and it won’t stop buzzing about the moral implications and suddenly the pretty stable ground that i was standing on is slowing crumbling beneath my feet but like… that’s okay??? i’m accepting the fall bc i’m actually always thrilled to free fall. that is to say, i love the way things around me can make me question my own ideas of what i believe to be true sometimes like i love love love it. i love looking at smth ekth a new lens and more information and then yk, rebuilding thag ground with more stable material. anyways, sry i’m rambling, but you see, everything this bee was buzzing abt started to increasingly make more sense and like, i started to rly think about it in the way of like… evaluating the consequences right? like if a specific media trope has very real contributions to a stigma abt a certain group and manifests in the society in multiple ways, then rly, why can’t i condemn it? bc the way i used to look at it was like “well yes, the media is harmful, but like, i also don’t think we have the right to dictate other people’s liberties when it come to art”. but now… especially considering that this “art” is mainstream and like reaches millions of people, why tf not? bc when you rly put it on the scale, what has more weight, ppl being mad/annoyed that engaging with this is “bad” and they shouldn’t/ being limited in creating it or ppl suffering the real life implications of this. and to make myself a little clearer, the specific thing thag kinda made me realize this more was how media a lot of the times portrays certain mental illness in an overly negative and harmful way, and how in thrn, society discriminates against those individuals in part bc of the skewed perception thag media has portrayed about them. and i feel like this kinda of made me like… think more about this view that i used to defend strongly, and kinda of go, wait, hold up… and i’m still a little like… conflicted bc as much as like i say this, i don’t think there are any viable means of like combatting this issue bc at the end of the day, what creators for mainstream media want is money and these things get them money and so it’s never rly gonna stop, and i still am a little iffy on the idea thag it’s essentially like… an objective moral no no, but like i can see the other side more clearly and it’s just… man it’s so frustrating in a way. and like as much as some ppl may engage with their media critically and liek recognize these stereotypes and shit, a majority of ppl don’t and it’s so frustrating to see itttt. but yeah, idk im still like… gathering materials before fully building this floor, but like, what are your thoughts on this if any? (i’m literally going to everyone with this i an truly a menace, i need to talkkkk abt it like the way this brings me so much joy) (unfortunately i don’t have many ppl in my life that care or are willing to talk to me abt these things) (enter: rae)

hello!! interesting questions!! love that u are embracing the freefall of having a core belief challenged + opening urself to new ways of thinking rather than growing defensive + closing urself off!!

so, what i wanna start off by saying here is this: there is a very broad middle ground between "this art is bad and shouldn't exist/shouldn't be interacted with at all" versus "everyone should just create whatever they want with disregard for the consequences."

because different forms of art are going to be doing different things, reaching different audiences, and sending different messages. and there are plenty of ways that art/literature/media/etc can be harmful. for example, this recent open letter to the new york times is a great example of a critique on the way in which the nytimes' coverage of trans "issues" causes real-life harm to trans people. in this sort of instance, it's not okay for the nytimes to just continue writing as they have, however they want, because they have certain journalistic responsibilites which include not promoting/perpetuating harm against marginalized groups (not that they have an especially great track record in that regard, but i digress). part of critically evaluating media is evaluating whether that media has harmful real-life implications, and, if it does, figuring out whether/how to engage with that media in a way that does not perpetuate that harm.

so like--with the example you're talking about, portrayals of mental illness that contribute to stigma. part of evaluating those portrayals is going to start with asking what kind of media you're looking at, who it's reaching, and what it's trying to do. for example--a movie made by a large hollywood studio that's profiting off a stigmatizing portrayal of mental illness, reaching a broad audience, and contributing to widespread misconceptions is tangibly harmful, and it makes sense to vocally critique that portrayal or perhaps even encourage people not to engage with the movie at all, as it is profiting off something harmful. additionally, hollywood movies are invested in perpetuating a capitalist system such that they will often have an underlying goal of spreading messages/ideas that support that capitalist system, so there is much more to be wary of there in the intent of the media.

a fanfiction on the internet written by an individual that contains a stigmatizing portrayal of mental illness is something that is not accruing profit, not reaching a broad audience, and not harmful in the same way. an individual writing fanfiction on the internet is also not invested in perpetuating broader systems of capitalistic power in the same way a hollywood movie studio is, so the intent of their art is likely different. a better route here is probably to reach out to the individual, who probably wrote this portrayal out of ignorance and would most likely be open to educating themself and avoiding such portrayals in the future. this is a better response than trying to "cancel" the person completely, because it works to build community and has a much more direct impact in breaking the stigma around mental illness by educating an individual who previously internalized those stigmatized views.

when you're trying to critically evaluate a piece of media that contains something you view as potentially harmful, here are some important questions to ask:

who is making this? why are they making it? what is the stated goal of the creator(s) in creating this specific piece of media? are there any other goals that the creator is leaving unsaid?

who is the intended audience of this media? how large is that audience? in what ways is this media catered to appeal to that audience? what responsibilities does the creator hold towards that audience? will the audience response be monolithic, or is there room for varied impact amongst members of the same audience?

is this media a lecture or a conversation? is this media presenting a moral truth that i am expected to accept? or is it presenting moral questions and encouraging me to draw my own conclusions?

what role does profit play in the creation + distribution of this media? what systems of power is this media invested in upholding, if any? what institutions is this media invested in upholding, if any?

these are all questions which, depending on the answers, are going to change your evaluation on the media. this post kind of sums up what i mean, and i talk more here about when art becomes truly harmful. but also, i want to emphasize--engaging with media critically and coming to the conclusion that something is harmful is not the same thing as policing media, at least in my opinion. policing implies reinforcing set rules for how someone can or cannot create/engage with media, which doesn't allow for the necessary flexibility needed for actual critical thought. i think it's also important to note that policing typically says "if this media is Bad, you must destroy it/ignore it completely." but critically engaging with media means acknowledging harmful media when it exists, and analyzing why it exists + what it's trying to do. it also means acknowledging that not all media is going to fit cleanly into the harmful/harmless dichotomy. sometimes media will contain harmful stereotypes or stigmatizing portrayals in one sense, and really important representation or progressive ideas in another sense. other times, a portrayal that feels stigmatizing to one person will feel like representation to another. part of engaging critically with media means evaluating what it's doing as a whole and accounting for both the good and the bad. at the end of the day, we can't solve problems by refusing to engage with them at all, y'know?

#ask #ranting and raving

12 notes · View notes

roobylavender · 2 years

Text

i feel like as time goes by the more anti childhood friends to lovers i become bc like it’s crazy to look at two people who are literally minors and be like yeah they’re destined to spend the rest of their lives together of this we are absolutely, 100% sure, they are never going to change their minds about each other ever. like it’s one thing if two people grow up together and you can tell that when they’re adults they’ll end up together bc that’s where their shared experiences and growth independent of each other have ultimately taken them (e.g., ed and winry, anne and gilbert) but i find it more and more hard to believe that two people are ready to commit to permanency when they’re, say.. sixteen years old. i think i value more the stories that can acknowledge that when we’re minors we’re incredibly young and we have certain skewed perceptions of how life works and thus love at that age is no real guarantee and we have a whole life ahead of us to figure ourselves out before we really need to commit to a person and we need to be okay with the chance that things will not work out even if we think we love someone in this moment. i don’t want to read about stories where two minors decide they’re destined for each other and it’s perfect and that’s it like idk that just sounds delusional and if i really want to go the full mile with this in many cases it just feels like it’s trying to validate the presence and practice of heterosexuality and the pursuit of the nuclear family model in mainstream media

#sry this is all prompted by me bingeing the amazon series about the wasian girl in utter horror #you know the one. by that author. sorry i’m being cryptic i just don’t want to give that monstrosity more fuel for the fodder #personal essays

35 notes · View notes

mysmorgasbordoffantabulosa · 1 year

Note

In his recent live, Jin talks about the delay in their enlistment due to various reasons and thereby the hate comments they have been receiving. The comments online around this are so ridiculous -

1. BTS sacrificed for the Army and endured hate comments - BTS is my favourite band and I love them to bits but nothing they do is purely only for love. Everything, and I repeat, every single thing they do has a commercial angle to it. Nothing was a sacrifice. It was purely an analysis of what will get them through the enlistment period with least financial impact to them and the company. While no one deserves the hate they get, I wish the fandom would stop painting them as saints and treat them as the extremely talented musicians yet human that they are!!

2. BH forced them to delay - As on date BTS is a far bigger brand than BH. Just the word 'hiatus' had wiped out 30 % of their market cap overnight. While BTS has a little skin in the game, BH will be at a much bigger loss, were they to separate from BTS as on date. That is why there has been repeated messaging from everyone about this not being their last concert and they have years to come. BTS certainly has the upper hand in negotiation. Any company across the world would be open to sign them individually or as a group given the cash machines they are!! No way BH can force anything they do not absolutely want to do against their will.

3. Free 'xyz' from BH - Again these guys have no clue how the real world works. BTS are not kids needing protection, they are all well functioning fairly smart adults. They also have access to the best legal and financial advisory money can buy. They can protect themselves much better than any social media warrior can protect them.

As much as I hate Corden I don't think he was wrong when he said most of the fans were teenagers ( at least by the maturity level they seem to be )

The more we start treating them as humans and adults the freer they will be. As of now the critics alternate between trying fight wars that BTS themselves have no interest in fighting or hating them for the smallest deviations from prescribed behaviour.

While this is true for most of K-media it is more so for BTS given they are under microscopic lens.

Sorry about long rant post! Unfortunately went on Quora out of boredom today. This is the result 😌

We all occasionally need to rant it's therapeutic!

Just to add / comment on you some of your thoughts...

Regarding ARMY being teens (or at least mentally so), I think you have to understand most ARMY don't comment negatively, most tend to stay positive and be proactively supportive.

Twitter ARMY is a whole different beast to Mainstream ARMY, they are the ones quick to draw conclusions, will fight with each other over their stan/ship, there are always some who are just constantly negative. I think Twitter hold a lot fo the blame for how the wider K-Pop and likes of Corden perceive ARMY, and because Twitter tends to skew young, it's easy to equate ARMY as being young.

I do agree about how we see them and treat them is gonna have to change, and with military enlistment there is a good possibility that, that could happen. It will weed out the wheat from the chaff in ARMY and hopefu people will become more mature and enough to let them be themselves.

I hope it comes quickly.

#my asks #bts

9 notes · View notes

raziraphale · 1 year

Text

can't find it rn but I'm thinking about that post that was going around recently that pointed out that claiming anime is uniquely sexist or sexual and attributing that to japanese culture is racist as hell. that post is correct -- this isn't to dispute that but to add onto it -- and I think a part of that perception is how "anime" has been shaped into this weird consumer category by corporations, where it gets treated more like a genre than a medium (animation) of a particular style and context.

what comes to mind when we think of "anime" in the english-speaking world largely depends on what shows get licensed, translated, dubbed, and merchandised outside of japan. fan translations and bootlegs have always existed, but sanctioned releases from large companies bring larger audiences, so companies dictate to a certain extent what gets popular, and therefore the popular perception of "anime" as a category.

a lot of cool and unique things make their way over here, but do you know what a lot of it is? shounen. light novel adaptations about increasingly specific male power fantasies. action series. a lot of it is stuff made with teenage boys as the target demographic in mind. again, a lot of other anime exist, but when you think of the "blockbuster" series every season, it definitely skews more towards one gender.

if my exposure to american media was mostly limited to its most juvenile action movies and the lobbies of popular online shooters, I would also conclude that america is uniquely horny and has an issue with women. the only difference between america and japan in this respect is that, for whatever reason, the U.S. has largely relegated mainstream 2D animation to the kids' table outside of specific adult cartoons. there just really isn't a good american equivalent to the kind of shows people are most likely to think of when they think of "anime"

like this doesn't mean that popular anime don't have these issues with them -- you can (and should) critique media no matter where they come from. it also doesn't mean that attitudes and beliefs don't vary between countries and cultures. but the instinct to attribute the issues with (your idea of) anime to the country it came from first rather than considering the target audience of the specific show you're watching and comparing it to similar media in other parts of the world is definitely rooted in racism

you are sitting on your laptop watching the shounen anime du jour and thinking "wow, this is a country with no respect for women" while your younger brother is in the other room running over hookers in gta. maybe broaden your perspective of the issue beyond national borders

#sorry if this is incoherent it's 2AM and i'm trying to articulate a Thought #like the american anime licensing industry #is just the maturation of the bootleg anime fandom of the early internet #and most of it is made up of nerd boys and men #this isn't a value judgement just an observation #and these people decide what media to dedicate their resources to sharing more widely #and so the anime that's available inevitable reflects their tastes to a certain extent #very niche example but i remember being big into anime yt circles when sgrs was released #and it's a really good show and it was rightfully praised and recommended by the type of people who watch most seasonal anime #but it was always with the caveat (said either explicitly or implied) that it was good *for a show marketed to adult women*#like 'oh it's not what you think it's really good'#because female fans are expected to watch a lot of 'classics' and look past any questionable content #but shows for women have just a few series that get a stamp of approval for being 'not too girly that men can't enjoy'#as if that's the ultimate mark of quality #we should start gatekeeping male anime fans and tell them they're not real fans if they didn't watch [some random shoujo]#reilly.txt #making non-rebloggable just bc i'm not sure if this will end up in any searched tags and don't want randos #i'm open to discussion and criticisms but like... smaller circle than that lol #long post

8 notes · View notes

seasaltbaptism · 1 year

Note

may i ask when it comes to marvel comics who are your favorite characters? do you have a preference for marvel or dc comics? if you had to rank your top 5 comicbook characters who would they be and why? what is something you think people misunderstand about your favorite character and/or team? <3

hi jojo! i went to go play so viddy games but i’m back! you may indeed ask!! when it comes to preference it’s probably a close tie? i do enjoy some marvel characters more than some dc characters ( see magneto, kurt , kitty, emma , deadpool, the punisher, daredevil ect. ) you ask such nice questions let’s see if i can give you succinct answers !!

top five favorite comic book characters, in no particular order.

1. magneto / erik : this man tops a lot of people’s lists i’m sure, however i really do love his core character traits and what he stood for & stands for. mainstream media demonizes erik because in my eyes they don’t want the public to realize that activism and toppling current oppressive world orders IS POSSIBLE with effort and willingness of people ( think about the inception that was the hunger games trilogy movies, how they strategically butchered it in a way where it’s core message was skewed and used as marketing , eerily similar to messages in the books ) . originally erik survived the holocaust and i like the message his original jewish creators wanted to send when making him. he is someone who never wants to see his people or any people violently oppressed and killed & movies don’t quite capture it too well ( besides some of the older original x-men movies actually ) but i resonate with him. through love and compassion and a firm hand against oppressors, uniting with people to help formulate and continue to form a better world for everyone is always worth it to me. what people misunderstand about him? portrayals have made him cruel & i think that in ways he is, he’s cold and weirdly detached but he’s also driven by love , intense love & i really wish people would remember that.

2. spider man / peter parker : once again , jewish , poor , for the people , down to earth. peter parker is a light hearted character despite who and what he’s always up against ( i’m not looking at the mcu , i’m looking a little bit at TASM and the original spider man movies. i’m peeking at them ) but i do just love how he doesn’t let the world beat him down, though it’s interesting to look at points in his comics where he IS taken to his limits. he makes me feel safe, i know he’s not real. i’d leave cool things out on my fire escape for him, he has so much genuine kindness and heart, i really adore this character and a lot of his variations ( see spider man 2099 / miles morales / spider gwen / esp 2099 ……. mmm miguel ANYWAYS ) also like parallels with venom too , love venom but imma put him in with pete bc i haven’t read too many of his comics. the mcu has misunderstood this dude a whole lot, but people tend to make him a bit too serious lately, and i enjoy diving into that side of him, but i think peter is genuinely really good at seeing the good in people / seeing ways their lives could be better if nudged onto the right path. also he doesn’t like billionaires.

3. the punisher / frank castle : i’m not a fan of a lot of his cartoon appearances and portrayals to be a cold hearted military man , as he hates cops and the military & the gov. i like his netflix show , i really enjoyed that actually. frank castle lost everyone he cares about and the media surrounding him usually never focuses on how his code makes solid differences / protects people ( except the show. god. i’m emotional. ) anyways i have a thing for characters who are emotionally destroyed but still do good bc that’s the only fucked up way they feel they can still do good. EVERYONE THINKS HES PRO COP OR PRO MILITARY OR ANTI LGBT? HES NOT? HES WITH THE LGBTS , THE GAYS , THE MINORITIES! HES NOT A RACIST EITHER! HE HATES RACISTS HE’LL MURDER RACISTS!

4. comic book scarlett witch / wanda maximoff : romani representation that’s mostly done nicely , i really actually relate to this character a lot , and find catharsis in her. she suffers greatly, probably too much, but she works her way through it, she’s powerful and kind and vengeful and angry and beautiful. she’s wise and confident and loses that and regains it, she reminds me of the wheel of fortune card in my deck, constantly embodying things that should have killed her. once again, i know she isn’t real, but i do relate to her and love to see her happy and winning, she’s brave and strong and i hate her MCU portrayal , truly, but i love her comic book self! god ok. people misunderstand her a lot, esp mcu …….she’s not ‘ i’m tired of being good >:) i wanna be a bag guy now! she’s more ‘ i loved very deeply and i cling to that because i cannot imagine who i will be if i acknowledge that what i loved is gone and i cannot get it back ‘ vs ‘ i can remake myself over and over if i need to , i contain all i need ‘

5. night crawler / kurt wagner: god. ok. his design fucks so severely i want that man to give me a hug , pick me up and spin me around , ok? did you jot that down? we got that? i know he smells nice , i know he does. his smile is so sweet to me , very playful. i enjoy how hard he works to be a good person, how he doesn’t take short cuts or let his past dictate him ( idk what the fuck was going on with his movie portrayal in those early x men movies i watched as a kid ) but in some of the animated shows and def the comics i have fallen hard for this man , i know he’s not real. i know. shh. but yes! the way he has quips too, idk i really enjoy him overcoming odds and projected bullshit he has to face, you and i just 🤝 gotta shake hands here ok we are shaking hands. hm. people think he’s naive or an idiot, they misunderstand his hope and warmth, it comes from a place of understanding hatred and choosing to rise above that, so.

( bonus!! ) 6. lanterns: i dont have a favorite lantern ( i’m lying it’s razor , hal & guy. ) but i love all my mutuals who make the lanterns more interesting than anything dc has done recently. i miss GLTAS , i miss when hal wasn’t reduced to a total dickhead , i love the headcanons that GLS are weirdly ageless and have wonky fashion sense , i love all my mutuals art and stuff i just love it. i loe space adventures i love fucked up shit going on out there in the big old galaxy. i love razor bc of GLTAS and his development, i miss him and IO and i hope he’s doing ok. but yes! this subgroup of heroes ( i also miss when dc didn’t make them a weird military thing and i love reminding people it’s an honor based volunteer service only given to those as highest honor. lol ) omg ppl stop saying they’re the military shut the fuck up theyre gays in space!

#what about you jo jo 💞 🎤 top five favorite characters? and why? maybe if you want 👉🏽👈🏽 fav moments in any comics you know?#me: hhaahahaha i don’t have a marvel bias!#me : lists all marvel comics characters #me: ah shit #i love the titans esp the old cartoon as i haven’t read much of their stuff!#however i love them as a concept .#anyways ! pls! your turn your turn your turn!#no we don’t have time to talk about how all the listed characters above have themes centered on renewal / death / anger / grief & hope #HAHAHAHAHAH ( coughs and looks into the camera nervously )#* answered #tmema

9 notes · View notes

radicalfemimist · 1 year

Text

Hi. Here’s a little introduction.

You can call me Mimmy! I’m 20, female and got the ‘tism. I’m also a TERF-in-training. Or just a TEF. I don’t think I have the radical part down quite yet.

These are some of my interests, and things I might talk about:

Stranger Things + Byler! I also like Elmax, platonic or romantic.

Spy X Family

Inuyasha

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Azula deserved better.)

Harry Potter (don’t love the fatphobia, but I get what J.K was going for.)

Infinity Train 🥲

Gravity Falls (I’m basically a Stan stan.)

The Legend of Zelda! So far I’ve only finished BOTW and TOTK, both of which I have 100%’d. I’m a female Link Truther, and about halfway or more into OoT.

TV shows like New Girl, The Office & Raising Hope.

Video Games (Stardew Valley, Steamworld Dig, Pokémon, etc)

Writing

Other:

I like animals, fun facts and uuuuh feminism.

My favourite insects are moths. I like the luna moth most.

I am an anti, which means I am against pro-shipping. I clarify because people will often try to skew the definition.

I draw/write as a hobby, and as far as either of them go, I am self-taught, which is also the case for most things as my brain is very specific about how it learns. Thanks, autism.

I, in no way, claim that any media I like is completely unflawed.

I mostly listen to indie/independent/smaller artists & bands with female singers. I tend to stay away from mainstream/more popular music/artists because I do not want my Spotify recommendations full of them. The algorithm will EAT my preferences and I bet it won’t even use a fricking bib.

And as a disclaimer: I know being a TERF is considered insanely unpopular. I’m not here to start drama. I’m not here to ooooo take away your rIgHtS. I’m here to take away your lefts I’m here to enjoy things. I don’t particularly enjoy hiding my opinions, and if they upset you then I’m sorry to tell you it’s not my responsibility to fit into whatever box makes you the most comfortable.

As an experienced internet user, as upset as it might make you, there are thousands upon thousands of takes infinitely worse than mine. Don’t waste your life trying to debate them. I am an ex-Trans ally, so I have heard and made all the arguments before, and making them to me is a waste of my time and your own.

#about

3 notes · View notes

beautifulpersonpeach · 1 year

Note

BPP HI!

I know you've written about Collective Guilt on your old blog when talking about fandom perception, responsibility and punishment. I found your point of view to be a very uncommon one so I read up more about it and was shocked. To learn that grouping the fandom as a collective is not only unethical, it is actually malicious, to learn that ideas about Collective Guilt is what led to the Holocau*st, shocked me to my core. No wonder discourse about BTS and Armys become toxic so quickly. Since reading more about it it's made me see even my local politics in a new light.

But here's my question - when the fandom responds to news or scandals, do you think it is possible to determine Armys' collective response to things? Do you think it is possible on a strictly practical basis to do that?

Hi Anon,

I'll talk about two hallmarks of our current online culture.

The most extreme views are often the loudest because of how algorithms are designed for engagement, ergo profit.

Very few people are capable of thinking beyond generalizations online. It's just easier to speak generally about things online, whether you're talking about the trans community's response to de-transitioners, the disabled 'community's' response to Beyonce, black women in k-pop fandoms, or whatever. But in certain situations and especially when dealing with inherently diverse groups, doing this will lead to skewed perceptions. It creates the danger of a single story.

The way things work on social media is that the most extreme factions are the loudest. Nearly all algorithms on social media, from the ones on Twitter to Facebook to Quora and even on Tumblr, nearly all of it is designed to promote things that evoke strong emotions. More anger = more engagement = more profit. We're living in the outrage economy, because with everyone online, outrage is the easiest way to capture attention. Even regular media prioritizes sensational news/headlines over substance because unlike any other time in history, to survive, mainstream media has only your attention to rely on. This is true everywhere, including on ARMY twitter.

And I'm mentioning ARMY twitter, because anon I assume that's what you're referring to when you ask about a fandom's collective response. I mean, in terms of scale ARMY twitter isn't a representative sample of the fandom, but I think there's merit to the theory that opinions on ARMY twitter are the most consequential for the fandom at large. And so, I think yes, if you know the collective response of ARMYs on twitter, you can generally determine the fandom's 'collective response' to something. And that’s very broadly speaking.

The problem is, there are still a fuck tonne of ARMYs on Twitter.

Even if you assumed Twitter ARMYs are the most active and engaged fans in the fandom, the people who drive things in a sense, they'd be about 5 million in total - at the minimum. So even if you saw 50,000 ARMYs saying one thing, that's not even 2% of the fandom and so can't be used to represent what the fandom thinks. 500,000 people thinking the same thing would still only be 10% of the fandom, at most. For anybody this side of the internet to know what the fandom's collective response is, they'd have to be talking to a lot of ARMYs on Twitter. And since (generally speaking here, my opinion), many people on Tumblr have a superiority complex to people on Twitter, my guess is anyone saying that here is even less likely to have a big sample size. Same for platforms like Twitter vs. Reddit, Reddit vs. Quora, Twitter vs. Facebook, etc.

I've been in the fandom for a long while and so I've had the time to make my way through various factions of the fandom, and I can tell you that outside of a few commonly held views that center on basic human decency, outside of those there is incredible diversity of thought. Many ARMYs believe things that I personally find far-fetched, gross even, and if you're reading this I'm sure you don't even have to think beyond a friend/moot you know to confirm this.

So I guess what I'm saying is, no. I don't think it's possible on a practical basis to determine that, but since when has that ever stopped anyone? It certainly has not stopped me. Lol.

#army fandom #bts fandom #bts army #fandom behavior #kpop fandom #bts

4 notes · View notes