#Like I don't actively go looking for fights/discourse

[pastel-starr-bitch]

Idk how much clearer I have to be with Tumblr's algorithm but I enjoy AA. Stop showing me random posts of people bitching about AA. I am very obviously into AA. Stop it.

[poseiben]

at this point i'm gonna piss off more of the trans community than transphobes and that makes me so incredibly sad

[neroushalvaus]

Tumblr in the 60s

☮ monkeewholock follow

🎉🎉CONGRATULATIONS UNITED KINGDOM 🎊🎊🎉🎉🎉🎉BYE BYE GROSS INDECENCY!!!!🌈🌈🌈 62 countries have now legalized sexual activities between men🌈🌈🌈

🐞 homophilespock follow

SPIRK CAN FINALLY FUCK

🚀 starrfleet follow

They are American, not British... But I'm pretty sure spirk has always been able to fuck since the show is set in the future.

📻 lesbianbobdylan follow

Christ, this is not about your cutesy uwu yaoi otp, go outside and smoke some grass

10,8 t. notes

🌻 flowerpower follow

Politicians are not your friends but damn Kennedy is fine, I look at one (1) picture of him and my head literally explodes

🌻 flowerpower follow

...i just woke up, why is my askbox full

🌻 flowerpower follow

WHY IS HE TRENDING I'M SCARED

🌻 flowerpower follow

guys stop reblogging this it's been like five years i've changed

290,9 t. notes

🎹 nixonsafascist follow

do you think they call him little richard because he has a little. Richard

🎹 nixonsafascist follow

easy website

58,1 t. notes

🇻🇳 shirellesofficial follow

Being the only lesbian in your friend group sucks so bad. "beatles or stones??" i will kill you

🗣 lavendermenaceisreal-deactivated72537262

Disrespecting female social groups for male validation? Typical lesbian behaviour.

🇻🇳 shirellesofficial follow

Mike Jacker isnt gonna fuck you

🇻🇳 shirellesofficial follow

Oh no I think she couldn't handle that

77 notes

✌ draftdodgerdyke

DM me for the addresses of my Swedish and Canadian friends. Do not put your personal information in the reblogs.

🙍‍♀️ silvermilk follow

You should be ashamed of yourself.

✌ draftdodgerdyke

huh??

🙍‍♀️ silvermilk follow

I said, you should be ashamed of yourself. You disgust me. I assure you, when the commies attack us, you will not find your silly little post "groovy" anymore.

✌ draftdodgerdyke

Jesus, don't flip your wig

🙍‍♀️ silvermilk follow

My father fought in ww2 for you ungrateful degenerate.

✌ draftdodgerdyke

Don't see what your daddy's unsexiness has to do with me and my lads taking a sexy sexy trip to Sweden.

#anyway only hot guys dodge the draft

587 notes

🪕 prostitutesandlesbians follow

in every interview i watch of the beatles they are so DONE and trolling everybody, these fucking annoying BITCHES, i need them inside me so badly

🪕 prostitutesandlesbians follow

#this but not john lennon #i just can't forget the heinous things he said about jesus

idk I actually think it was very sexy of him, stop trying to cancel john in my post

✝️ jesusrevolution follow

The reading comprehension on this website is piss poor. John literally didn't mean he was greater than Jesus or better than Jesus, he was just trying to make a point about the world becoming more secular. Cancel culture has gone too far.

🚷 to-hell-with-the-beatles follow

How dare you say we piss on the poor?? Jesus died for Mr Lennon's sins and it's not "cancelling" to send him a few respectably worded death threats to remind him of that. He cancelled our Lord first!

✝️ jesusrevolution follow

Girl Jesus literally said it's cool, I dropped acid yesterday and saw Him and He told me.

🪕 prostitutesandlesbians follow

help the girls (christians) are fighting in my beatles thirst post

6,008 notes

🛼 donovandyke follow

I will be glued to the tv today. If you don't want to hear about it, just blacklist #moonlanding !!

0 notes

🗣 claudeberger4ever-deactivated98975287

Hi I'm new to the Hair musical fandom so I'm not super invested in the whole discourse, but I just felt like this needed to be said: Friendly reminder that not being against the war in Vietnam does not make you a bad person!

🥁 ringoforpresident follow

it literally does tho

✌ draftdodgerdyke

Another win for us hot guys

17,2 t. notes

[sloanout]

The bad rap Taash and veilguard as a whole get remains equal parts confusing and frustrating to me. It's one thing to see culture war chuds seething over woke or whatever, but really I expected better from Tumblr of all places. Whether or not you enjoyed DA:tV, it is objectively an incredibly inclusive game that did a lot more for representation across the board than most titles, and trying to debate that fact or tear it down because it didn't do its representation exactly to the letter of how you wanted it is, straightforwardly, poisonous to the fight for diversity in gaming as a whole. Call me dramatic, but every time you act like a spoiled child and pitch a bitch fit over a nonbinary or trans character not being exactly what you wanted, you are actively hurting your own cause. You don't have to like Taash, but if you care about the community it's the least you can do to restrain yourself from posting freezing cold, Steven Universe discourse level takes about how they are actually "harmful" or would have "put you back in the closet".

Here's the tough truth about portraying nonbinary and trans perspectives in media: these identities are not a monolith. Nonbinary, as a whole, is not a secret third gender with its own set of trappings, it's a wide, wide label that means many different things to many different people. That you can look at an nb character written by a nb person and say "they did it wrong" with your whole chest speaks more to your own limited viewpoint and disconnection from the greater queer community than it does to the actual quality of the character.

The impossible challenge that creators face when their writing hits fandom spaces is that people want many different things from art. I've seen people adamant that the correct and most helpful way to do rep is to have a character turn directly to the camera and say "I am transgender" and then have that part of their identity explored for the next 300 pages. I have also seen people, just as adamant and righteous as the first, claim that representation is best and most correctly done when queerness is an incidental background detail in the same vein as hair color or favorite food. The truth is that neither of these perspectives, nor any in-between is inherently more or less correct than the other. Different people will want different things, because at the end of the day different people have different experiences with their queerness and would like to see that reflected in the things they love.

The only real way to be incorrect here is to malign and defame a story for daring to depict something outside of your particular experience - as I see many people do with Taash. I had to read with my own eyes a post about how their romance with Harding is predatory or some shit and that it reflects poorly on the nb community. Quick question: could you please go do your moral crusade about 50 Shades of Grey or some other piece of work so I don't have to see it? You help no one with this hyperbolic bullshit. The only thing you're doing is handing the worst people in this world further unsubstantiated ammo for casting genderqueer people as inherently sexually abusive. Think for a second about who and what you sound like for the love of God. Taash and Harding are both into what happens on screen, your weird moral panic is your own problem. Once again, you don't have to like it, but please do not try to frame something as ontologically evil and harmful to the community because it doesn't suit your tastes.

Taash is fine nonbinary rep. As a nonbinary person, especially one who is afab and spent most of my life feeling a bit out of place and uncomfortable with what the world expected of me, I think it's just right. They managed to represent me. Sorry that it didn't get to be your experience that got put in the game, but it's impossible to tell every single queer story at once. If you really give a shit about the community, celebrate the wins of your fellows, not just your own.

And the sad thing is, I see two big 'critiques' about Taash's questline - either that it's all about their gender identity, or that it doesn't explore their gender identity enough. Sometimes I see these takes in the same post and I can only imagine what sort of doublethink Koolaid the culture war nonsense has gotten you to drink. Taash's gender is front and center, and that's great! But it's a part of a larger story - a story about a difficult family relationship. Taash's story is about the ebb and flow of their relationship with their mother more than anything else, and to be honest? It's one of the best in the series.

Family drama has been a mainstay of Dragon Age - you have Hawke's personal tragedy in DA2, Dorian's alienation over his identity and beliefs in Inquisition, and hell, Morrigan throughout the series tends to be more tied up with family dynamics than anything else. Taash is the continuation of that tradition, and I love what they have. The binary choice at the end is pretty weak and downright misunderstands the experience of being mixed race, but the dynamic between Taash and Shathann is fantastic. It's pained and restrained in such a realistic way, two people struggling with the old and new who dearly care about each other but can never seem to see eye to eye, and end up falling back on their worst vices - anger for Taash, and discipline for Shathann.

Veilguard has a tendency to pull its punches and make everyone a bit too chipper and chill, that's a legitimate criticism given the series' history, but I was deeply struck by how unforgiving Shathann's death was. It was really, unrelentingly realistic - life happened, and Taash never got the chance to sort out their relationship with her. They didn't get to reconcile or ever see eye to eye. Despite spending most of their screen time together bitter and simmering, Taash is so devastated by their mother's death that you have to pull them out of certain death. It was cathartic and brutal for me, a nb person who has had a really really poor relationship with my mother in the past, it made me go plan a lunch with her because I was so grateful that things didn't end like that for us, that I did get the time to work through it.

And sure, you can accuse me of going easy on Taash because their story resonated with me - but isn't that what a story is supposed to do? Reflect the real and sincere, evoke emotion in the audience and crystalize experience and feeling on the stage? Isn't that proof of its value?

At the end of the day, representation has no single golden standard. The only real end goal is to be represented at all - not only by shining heroes and perfectly squeaky clean moralists, but also by characters who are just as human and fallible as the real life people they draw from. Taash succeeds there, and I think they deserve a lot more love and grace than many in the fandom want to show them. If you still want to slander Taash as harmful or bad, why don't you call me that too? Why not call every non binary person who fails to meet your rigid standards evil and degenerate while you're at it? See how much of a community you're left with, and who the ghouls cheering for you actually are.

[nothorses]

i can't be the only one noticing that bi women are being used as a punching bag for the wider queer community, most noticeably by lesbians.. it's concerning to say the very least.

I think this has been going on for a very, very long time, unfortunately. Gold Star Lesbians are not a new concept, and the whole idea very much directly targets bi women specifically.

The queer community is unique in that it's a marginalized group that doesn't really have family ancestry, and we have to actively seek out community elders, where most other marginalized communities are usually raised with some connection to their history (not always! and this isn't exclusive to us! but it's significant as a widely shared experience)

Which means not only are we often repeating arguments that have happened before, but we're also very frequently completely unaware that these fights have already been fought. There's a sense of discontinuity & often a feeling that things are only getting worse and worse over time, especially in online spaces, where queer people trend young and are less likely to be active in real-life queer community.

Like, as an example: I started talking about transandrophobia in 2020, five years ago now. At the time, I saw posts floating around from trans men who were glad to see the conversation resurfacing since they'd last seen anyone try to talk about it, 5-ish years prior to that. If you read We Both Laughed in Pleasure, Lou Sullivan's diaries, you can see some echoes of the exact same conversation happening in the 1980's-90's. Stone Butch Blues has more from the 1960's-80's.

And lately, I've started seeing old posts of mine from 2020-2022 circulate again with tags and comments remarking on how "old" those posts are, like I was ahead of the times. But I wasn't! That's just how long we've been having this current version of the same conversation we've been coming back to for decades now.

Idk. I think any time we assume a target of queer exclusionary discourse is brand new and has never been targeted before, we're going to feel isolated and helpless when we don't need to. It's important to look back in our history and try to understand when this has happened before, why, and how that has influenced our community and the conversations we're having about that issue (and others) today. If for no other reason than to give ourselves the comfort of knowing we have allies, and we always have.

[beifong-brainrot]

I've honestly always loved the scene between Zuko and Katara in the Crystal Caves during the Crossroads of Destiny, even though it's been kinda diluted by shipping discourse.

I love how this scene showcases how far Zuko's story has come, but that it still has a ways to go. It's also a great moment from Katara, showing off her compassion and kindness, despite her rightful anger at Zuko. And this moment of "reaching across the aisle" between two children who were forced into something much bigger and crueler than they could ever be apways makes me quite emotional.

But I'm kinda tired of seeing this scene in just that vacuum, when looking at it in relation to two other scenes makes it so much more interesting.

The first scene we can compare this interaction to is pretty obvious, since it's basically "the other half" of Katara and Zuko's moment. It's Iroh and Aang's conversation in the tunnel.

I adore this scene it's just such a vibe I too would like to walk through a tunnel with a nice old man who gives me good advice (even if said nice old man is a war criminal)

Of course the first obvious parallel between these two converastions is a member of the Gaang (two members who have been most affected by the fire nations actions btw) having a genuine, deep conversation with a banished member of the Fire Nation royal family.

I also think this conversation contrasts Katara and Zuko's conversation very well. It juxtaposes Iroh and Zuko, showing us how far Iroh has come and how far Zuko still has to go.

I think it's very symbolic that Katara and Zuko connect mainly on their pasts, while Iroh and Aang do about the present and future.

Two quotes in this conversation stand out to me particularly.

Iroh: Perfection and power are overrated. I think you were very wise to choose happiness and love.

It not only relates to Aang's current predicament, but it also foreshadows Zuko's dissatisfaction with his life after he returns to the Fire Nation at Azula's side. After Zuko helps "kill" Aang and take over Ba Sing Se, he has acheived what he believed would be his version of perfection, while also getting back the power he was born into. But he is miserable. He's dissatisfied, wracked with guilt and constantly second guessing himself and the world around him. He even says this: During the meeting, I was a perfect prince... the son my father wanted. But I wasn't me.

But Zuko was also unable to fully choose a simple life of peace and happiness in Ba Sing Se, choosing to fight Azula when she attacks him and Iroh. Because he still subconciously was searching for that feeling of power and wasn't ready to allow himself to prioritise things other than his honour. He wanted to fight Azula and prove himself, but he just eneded up allowing himself to be captured by the overwhelming force of the Dai Li.

While Iroh has learnt to see the merit in a simple life and actively rejects the power (for better or for worse) that comes with his status as a member of the royal family.

Iroh: I don't know the answer. Sometimes, life is like this dark tunnel. You can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, [Aang earthbends the rocks away one last time. Iroh's fire blows out. He smiles.] you will come to a better place.

Of course, this quote could relate to many things, including just the whole story of the show, but it also obviously relates to Zuko's redemption arc. Zuko's story is the epitome of continuing to slowlu crawl through a dark tunnel until you reach a better place. He stagnates and stumbles occasionally, but he keeps goingm and eventually gets there.

He reaches his better place.

It's interesting to see the contrast between Zuko and Katara's interaction and that of Iroh and Aang.

I think the scene in which Aang and Katara split off from Zuko and Iroh.

Aang and Iroh maintain eye contact, and Aang even gives a respectful bow. While Katara tries to make eye contact with Zuko, but he turns his gaze away, as if ashamed of his moment of weakness. Eye contact is very important is ATLA's visual storytelling, as I've spoken before in my post analysing the mutuality of Kataang's gaze.

I believe this scene foreshadows Zuko siding with Azula and Iroh siding with the Gaang at the end of the episode. Iroh and Aang have reached an understanding, and therefore, they are represented as facing each other and parting on good, respectful terms.

While in Katara and Zuko's case, Katara tries to make a similar connection with Zuko, however he rejects that connection. Ultimately this forces Katara to turn her back on him too, which may foreshadow her rightful anger at him in B3.

Ok, so the first interaction I want to metion gives us a bit of insight to Zuko, but what about Katara?

For that we have to go all the way back to B1, to an episode that I don't really see talked about in relation to Katara's story. Jeong Jeong is only the second friendly firebender Katara has encountered in probably her entire life, the first being Shayu, with whom she had very little interaction. Of course, I think this would at least give her pause.

Jeong Jeong and Katara's conversation is very short, but I think it had a great impact on Katara.

Jeong Jeong : You have healing abilities. The great benders of the Water Tribe sometimes have this ability. I've always wished I were blessed like you - free from this burning curse. Katara: But you're a great master. You have powers that I will never know. Jeong Jeong: Water brings healing and life. But fire brings only destruction and pain. It forces those of us burdened with its care to walk a razor's edge between humanity and savagery. Eventually, we are torn apart.

Jeong Jeong is the polar opposite of the firebender archetype Katara had in her head. He's thoughtful, disciplined and very careful with his firebending. Jeong Jeong's hatred of his own firebending also stands as a contrast to Katara considering her waterbending a vital and beautiful part of who she is as a person.

I always found it interesting that outside of Aang, Jeong Jeong was one of the first people in the series to respect Katara as a waterbender and see her potential, as he even connects her abilities to great waterbenders. It's especially a stark difference to how he treated Aang, the literal Avatar.

The way Jeong Jeong talks about firebending also reflects what Katara has seen herself of it.

Yet she pushes back at his self depreciation, showing that she still sees the value of his abilities. This foreshadows Katara's compassion for the people of the Fire Nation, especially when paired with Sokka's distrust of them.

I also think it's quite interesting that healing is often involved in Katara's attempts to connect with Fire Nation people. Her first connection is with Jeong Jeong, then she offers to heal Iroh, later Zuko's scar, she heals people in the village during the Painted Lady incident. Finally, the crowning jewel of this series of events is her healing Zuko after the Agni Kai.

This is especially poignant in the story of her and Zuko's relationship, with Katara offering her healing services to him twice, but being either rejected or interrupted. And finally she does heal him at the very end of the show, after he took lightning for her, symbolising a "bridging the gap", so to speak.

I think Katara and Zuko's conversation ties back to Katara's interaction with Jeong Jeong for a few reasons. Firstly, there's the obvious of Katara having a moment with a firebender with a facial scar. Also Katara's wording when she offers to heal Zuko's scar: instead of saying that she's a healer, she says "I have healing abilities ", which is exactly how Jeong Jeong described her power.

Ans once again, Jeong Jeong is the one to protect Katara and buy her time to escape, ehile Zuko betrays her. This once again just shows how far Zuko has yet to go before B3.

I've always thought that the way ceratain Avatar scenes intertwine with themes and similarities is very fascinating and fun to pick apart.

The scene between Zuko and Katara is profound, but I think it's often viewed in isolation, be it due to people wearing ship goggles or it just standing our more. But I think one of the reasons it's so wonderful is that it interweaves into so many other events of "reaching across the isle", of our protagonists connacting with firebenders. It's not just a good character moment for Zuko and Katara, it's a mark that connection and peace with the Fire Nation is possible, that it can be acheived, that it slowly is being acheived. Every one of these interactions is unique, but they all form a good foundation for B3, when we really get into humanising the Fire Nation civillians.

The scene between Zuko and Katara is beautiful not only because of what it is, but also because of what it symbolises: the hope of peace.

Ok this was "stating the obvious", once again brought to you by Quill in their pretentious humanistics student hat. I like to vomit words and some of you like to read them! So thank you if you have read them

[offsidetracked]

I've been thinking about how I'd go about byler in S5

When I got hooked on byler it was the same way I got hooked on every other ship;

It's heavily supported by subtext, regardless of if it's confirmed by the text later on or not.

Sasunaru, reylo, bkdk... all are ships that have intricate and beautifully woven subtext that made us fans speculate for years. In some cases discourse is still ongoing. That's a hallmark of some great writing as far as I'm concerned (all of these ships crashed and burned in different ways but until they did the writing was truly stellar).

Omg they were rivals.

Stranger Things and byler are in the same league.

I just believe that this time the outcome will be a lot more satisfying. So how do we get the GA to root for it when it happens? I'm not the Duffers but I know some things I would do to help it along:

▪️DIAL UP THE HOMOPHOBIA. When byler becomes canon there can be absolutely no question; the bad guys of this show are the bigoted close-minded homophobes. It must be explicitly shown how mindlessly cruel this specific type of hate is and that it's incompatible with viewing yourself as a hero or good guy.

I'd continue to spin the thread from last season and have the town blame pretty much all that goes wrong in Hawkins on our resident nerds, outcasts and misfits. Mix that with the aids crisis and the Reagan administration and next season is gonna be brutal.

But it needs to be to drive home:

In Stranger Things, if you're a (homophobic) bully, you're the monster.

👎 to all of you.

▪️MAKE THE SUBTEXT HORNIER. One of the things I adore about Rian Johnson and Masashi Kishimoto is how they do subtext, particularly sexual subtext. Funnily enough dudebros in both the Star Wars and Naruto fandom, just like a lot of Milevens, didn't pick up on any of it.

The Last Jedi is filled with Freudian sexual imagery. From Rey falling onto a hairy seaweed-filled cave hole to Kylo's light sabre design, yoni-shapped doorways and their joint fight towards the end—all sexually loaded and masterfully tongue-in-cheek.

Naruto had a much longer run and was consequently more parsed out with it's subtexual imagery. Still, it's not hard to find if you know how to look (there are some really excellent accounts on here if you wanna dive into that rabbit hole).

Stranger Things has the beautiful benefit of being horror; a genre that excels at showing our suppressed desires in grotesque and weirdly relatable ways. Phallic monsters, fluids everywhere, exposed scratched up and damaged skin, tending to wounds in intense and intimate ways, grime and dirt, panting, moaning, grunting through pain...

Is that a knife in your hand or are you just happy to see me?

It's up to the Duffers how in the face they wanna be about it. But it would be a missed opportunity if they don't crank up this type of imagery at least a little. Also, I want to see Mike suffer. Let him sweat and have a nervous breakdown over allegory.

▪️SHOW THAT REPRESSION = IMPOTENCE + HARM. Freud, no matter what you think of the guy, is all over horror. This quote of his sums it up pretty neatly:

"Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways".

Well bitches, now is later and it's time for the subconscious to come out of the closet and ruin everyone's day. Will is gonna be stuck in the victim part of the final girl trope until he fully embraces his queerness by having his feelings reciprocated by Mike.

Yearning won't save either of you, no matter how cinematic.

Mike, on the other hand, will probably actively find himself and the people closest to him in dangerous and harmful situations as a direct consequence of all the shame, fear and desire he's bottled up. Until he too, embraces his queer self by confessing his feelings to Will. Poetic cinema.

However the Duffers go about it, the lesson everyone watching S5 needs to leave with is that

Forced conformity is harmful and there is no greater horror than the horror we subject ourselves to when we deny and repress the truth of who we are.

Well there you have it, this is what I would do to promote byler, get the GA on board and tie together this wild, wonderful, nerve-wracking ride we've been on for the last ten years. Godspeed to all of you, however it goes.

[spinosacha]

OK I'm sorry I didn't intend this to be a mini essay but it became one

I think the person who's going on about moral purity to you isn't aware that one of the major aspects of media literacy is being able to identify propaganda within media.

I'm not saying that arcane is propaganda, not intentionally anyway, but that you need to be aware of how things are portrayed, and that's a major part of identifying propaganda, writer intention, and even how your own internal bias effects how you interpret things. Depiction isn't endorcement, but positive portrayal is. It's not a case of moral purity, its understanding what the show is trying to tell us by how the characters actions are portrayed.

Yes Silcos death is a pretty clear cut sign that the writers dont think he's the good guy, so let's go for singed instead, singed gets the happiest ending in the show but nobody believes he is meant to be taken as the good guy. Why? He does bad things for a righteous reason (his daughter) so what's the difference between him and how caitlyn is seen?

I'd argue its the fact that the writers don't commit to caits bad actions. Cait uses a chemical weapon on the undercity, but the writers intend you to believe she doesn't harm any civilians in the process. The logistics of that don't really match up, realistically civilians would be harmed, but the show portrays it so that they were not. What's the reason for this difference between how chemical weapons act in real life, and how they act in the show? Well, if the gray was like real chemical weapons, caitlyn would have more blood on her hands, why are the writers actively avoiding that?

Then she is manipulated into becoming the Head of martial law- but even then, she's still shown to be the one in the right, she criticises Ambessas methods at every turn, is willing to betray her the soonest opportunity she gets. Police violence? She's very against that!

So you get this character who should by all means be truely morally gray, she is using a chemical weapon, she is a dictator, for what she sees as a good cause-but she's somehow still as blameless as she possibly could be. This creates the feeling that the writers aren't trying to portray her actions as all that bad. She has tbe aesthetic of a morally gray character without the backing of one.

Compare that to singed. He does horrible experiments, there's a reason for that that is arguably noble (saving his daughter), but there isn't a "but". You can't say "singed created shimmer, but actually nobody got hurt by shimmer!" Like you can say "cait gassed the undercity, but nobody got hurt by it! (Who didn't deserve it)"

Without this distinction how do we differentiate between depiction that IS endorcement and depiction that isn't? How do you identify that a piece of media is condemning far right ideology or promoting it? This has nothing to do with puritanical thinking, and disregarding how things are portrayed is textbook poor media literacy, unfortunately.

(As is not being able to convey your thoughts in a civil and responsible manner funnily enough, which looking at her blog.. she doesn't excel at that one.)

Anyway! Sorry for the essay lol, the weird moral highground people are taking over media literacy when not even understanding what it entails has been bothering me and her response to you and others embodies that so much I had to say something haha. Hope you don't mind :)

You put it really nicely! I tried to add to your take but I think you explained it really well, it’s def the propeganda aspect that I also wish more people would be aware of and how to be critical of the ways things are depicted in media and what bias that could reveal.

But yeah, most of the time I don’t engage in discourse fights but I was feeling a bit feisty yesterday lol. I think Arcane lents itself well to talk about morality in a very interesting way but I think we in the fandom could stand to speak in a bit nicer tone to each other but I get that people are passionate.

[toyhousedramas]

aha I might have not worded myself correctly. I apologise for that! Maybe I can clear myself up?

When I mean "morally black" I mean things that are incest, childxadult, or animalxhuman. I do not know how you as the admin of this blog feel about those ships, but people who ship those things are what the focus of that thread is about. The thread has mostly become a place for people to ask for a list to be privately sent to them of people who actively are making that type of content (like feral porn, grooming art, and incest art) and posting it either on toyhouse or off the platform.

Again, I do not support harassment towards these people who make that content. I just want to know who they are so I can block them and move on. The issue is when those people decide to make nsfw art work of someone's feral sona and send it to them because of the thread.

Nobody, from what I know, has harassed anyone. If they did, then I wouldn't like them and wouldn't want to associate with them either. Harassment is only going to make them do it more. Harassment does not prevent anything. Harassment only makes things worse for both parties. Harassment makes the people who are being harassed the victims. The only way to talk with people you disagree with is in a civil manner, and if you can not do that, block them. If you harrass someone , it only makes your points look bad in the same vein as the people you are harassing are.

I'm not trying to say that those two things are on the same level either. One is , quite obviously, worse. (the feral porn as revenge is worst) I was just trying to give context of the thread being made. Mostly because of what you would call "proshippers" or "darkshippers" (I don't know what to call them anymore, which is why I said 'morally black') being on the platform, which worries a lot of users. Also yes people are VERY upset that the person was sent feral porn of their sona, but you know people on toyhouse, they can't focus on that for long. Which sucks! Because it would be better if we concentrate on THAT more than what other blabber they are talking about in that thread.

Feel free to disagree with me in any way though! I understand that everyone has different opinions of the content they consume online and how they feel about fiction. I don't feel as if people who have a different opinion about fiction are evil at all. I am not trying to fight with you either just note that! Also I know I am rambling at this point so I will stop. Also feel free to flame me lol. Im poking the fire so I there is a possibility I'll get burnt. Sorry for the essay as well.

You can respond if you would like, but I understand if you do end up throwing this ask away as to prevent fighting. Have a good day/night! :]

I know what you meant. it's just that I think you're a dipshit for thinking it.

This is a proship blog. Run by someone who is 'proship' anti censorship, anti-anti, anti protofash, anti fandom frollo, anti dumb fucking baby idiot who thinks their feelings matter more than expression.

This blog is in support of people making whatever fucked up fictional underage feral incest noncon pornography they want forever, without turning it into a moral panic or pretending that drawing something makes you a criminal or justifies being put on a public list.

I am not neutral. I’m not trying to hide that. You’re not accidentally talking incorrectly to someone sympathetic to your position you’re speaking directly to someone who believes fiction is fiction, and that it is deeply harmful to conflate it with real-world abuse. I need you to understand: I think you're an idiot, and I think you're more dangerous than any artist making porn you don't like.

I think that you are better than the person sending feral porn to people against their will. But only marginally.

I mean that, I think you are a bad dangerous person.

The core of your mistake here isn’t tone. It’s the fact that you think you can repackage tired, decades-old purity discourse in a slightly softer voice and that’ll make it a valid stance. You’ve said the same thing everyone in this discourse says:

“I’m not trying to harass anyone, I just want to know who to block!"

That’s always the first line. And then comes the list-making. The guilt-by-association. The "we're just quietly organizing a list of disgusting sexual deviants so we can block them" rhetoric that always, always becomes social exile, harassment, smear campaigns, and reputational destruction. You want plausible deniability while participating in a witch hunt.

You say “morally black” as if your subjective discomfort constitutes an objective ethical absolute. It doesn’t. The things you’ve listed, fictional incest, fictional age gaps, fictional zoophilia, feral characters, etc. are concepts in fiction. They are not crimes. They are not equivalent to abuse. They are not "morally black". You feeling weird about a fictional piece of art does not create a real-world harm, no matter how many times you try to emotionally frame it that way. I genuinely could not care less about your emotions if I had a gun to my head when it comes to censorship and making lists of people who haven't done anything other than make icky porn.

You say people are just asking for a list “privately,” but the act of compiling that list in the first place is a targeted action against a group of people based on their fictional preferences, and that’s not neutral. You don’t want to just block people. You want to know who they are. You want to make decisions about them based on what content they make, not what actions they take. That’s not protective behavior. That’s controlling behavior disguised as community safety.

I consider you and everyone like you a proto-facist and I will talk to you and think of you accordingly, the same way I think of any other kind of culturally christian rightwing purity obsessed terminal loser.

You seem to think your personal revulsion makes your viewpoint special. It doesn’t. It isn't. Most people on this blog and in the circles it’s part of have at some point in their lives had to stare down something that made them uncomfortable and ask themselves, “Does this harm me? Is this real? Or is this just a drawing? A story? A fictional space where taboos can be explored without consequence?”

You aren’t doing that. You’re moralizing. You’re pathologizing. You’re cloaking that impulse in polite language, but it’s the same harmful mindset that has gotten queer artists banned, people doxxed, and survivors told that their coping mechanisms make them dangerous.

And let me say this clearly: I don’t cede ground to people who are “just politely compiling a list of degenerates.” We’ve seen how that plays out. We know what that’s code for. We’re not new.

So yeah. You’re welcome to block, mute, filter, curate, unfollow. But don’t pretend you’re neutral, or kind, or thoughtful for choosing to organize or support the organization of people into a blacklist based on your feelings about the drawings they post. And don’t act surprised when you wade into a proship space, announce your intentions, and get told to fuck yourself hard for it.

Piss off. I am actively hostile to you and yours.

[screamting]

what r ur thoughts on reconciliation between jason and bruce. is it really possible? what would it take? what would it look like? seen some stuff on my dash lately about that particularly thorny issue and would love to get your perspective. (hopefully this is the kind of ask ur looking for)

(you are FINE this is going to be the bane of my fandom career) 

So realistically we're not going to see Jason reconcile with Bruce because a) everybody loves angst b) no one is talking about the ISSUE. 

The ISSUE is not the murder thing. Like. The murder thing doesn't help but it isn't the root; killing people is something Jason decided to start doing because it was something Bruce is extremely firm on. He stands by the 'no murder' thing even when his own life and the lives of others are in danger. He stands SO firmly by it, that if you break that rule maybe you can break the entire foundation of Batman, which is that things are never so far gone they can't be redeemed. Gotham is never so far gone it isn't worth trying to repair. We are not cutting the rot away we are building an environment which no longer collapses into rot around us, even if it is gross, demeaning, dangerous work. 

If Bruce killed the Joker in Under the Red Hood I think Jason would have been lost forever. Because it would've been proof that Bruce's most fervent beliefs meant nothing. If Bruce's hardest promise, that he would not kill, was broken so easily, then what does that mean about all his other promises? All the promises that he loved Jason and would never send him away? If his hardest promise can be broken, do those easy promises even stand a chance? 

I think the issue is and always will be: Did you love me? Do you love me still? 

All those posts about coming back wrong and unlovable, and what if I was unlovable the whole time and it was just that I can't even be bothered to pretend anymore? That's Jason Todd. He crawled his way out of his own grave an open wound and he is trying to convince himself that he's doing fine while actively bleeding. I feel insane reading some of the discourse because it's talking about Jason from the pov of his disenfranchisement and that as driving him in Red Hood and like. No! Jason is disenfranchised, he was failed by the systems, absolutely; I do not fucking believe he is doing any of this for people like him. He is saying things that validate his pain because he cannot deal with the enormous amount of pain he is in. He died and came back to life. He did it in a way people don't know or understand, or via Lazarus pit, which people condemn. I think to resolve things they'd need a god damn religious discussion to even start with, to ask Jason if he thinks anything that has died and come back to life can ever be good, or if it's just him. 

I think he must have had self-loathing and insecurity built up before his death and it Exploded when he came back to life several years later and saw from the out side people attempting to move on. This is not a victim blame because of course he had self-loathing and insecurity, he was a kid with a difficult childhood and you need at least five years to a decade to start feeling like someone else, who maybe has confidence and certainty. I think being Robin let him borrow confidence, and so like, probably did feel great! He had a script and a role to fill and he was given a lot of practice to do it!

I think part of the problem is that post-resurrection is Jason has to figure out who he is for the first time again, even older now. He lost some of his teen years in figuring things out. He has the life experiences of a 14 year old and then training under assassins and then like. Drug lord?? For a bit?? 

Jason is not fighting for the disenfranchised. He is trying to figure out who the hell he is and is bouncing around so many teams and timelines and shit that all already know him and know him as the dead kid that I think for him and Bruce to make up, like. He probably needs to have a job?

Not for money necessarily, because like. The Wayne fortune is right there. But I think he needs to go somewhere, with a schedule, for like at least six months in a row, and have something low stakes dependent on him. Like a dog or something. Maybe get involved in local theater. Take the dog to dog training twice a week and teach small children acting in the afternoons. 

And once a week or whenever they feel like it Bruce and Jason can have a phone call, and Jason can bring up what's happening at the theater and how the dog is, and Bruce can talk about Wayne Corp shit. 

And if Jason learns from dog time about someone who is mistreating an animal or a partner then like maybe he goes and steals a dog or tells someone to come stay over at his house for a while and gives them some cash. And after he does something rash he still needs to come back to his apartment and feed the dog and show up to the theater the next day. 

I think he needs to see the world around him when it ISN'T homelessness and assassins guilds and running out into the streets at night looking for trouble. 

'but you haven't addressed anything for bruce to do' for Bruce to have to do anything we first need to get jason at the table. 'bruce beat jason in x comic/brainwashed him into an overactive fear response/almost certainly also something else' 

1. i'm choosing to say besides the throat thing that people hate (bc I get that. Bruce needs to say 'yes I was panicking and my writer was being dramatic I'm sorry' ) bruce doesn't beat his kids or any rogues in general once they're at a point they're no longer trying to kill/hurt anyone either. 

2. tbh I think the anxiety brainwashing is facinating and definitely something Bruce might have thought about but making it and using it is fully in 'I was also having a 3 day long mental breakdown' territory. However since Jason put a lot of heads in a duffle bag during HIS mental breakdown I think this might again be within 'yeah that was fucked up I'm sorry about that' territory.

Honestly I wish that Jason had gone to Bruce after the Selina 'making thieves pay 15% to charity' thing and they had just had the BIGGEST bitching fest about it with each other.  I think that, faster than literally any amount of relaxation and therapy, would have gotten them back on the same side. They need to get in a room together and just. Bitch about it. Jason saw the WORST adaptation the other day. Bruce is dealing with the MOST stuck up prick at the board meeting. 

Before they can fix anything they need to remember why they even loved each other. If they feel it again maybe they'll work to save it. But no one is going to fix a relationship where it feels like an obligation for a feeling you aren't sure even exists anymore.

[lesmisshippingshowdown]

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!!!

Hello everybody! I just wanted to say a massive thank you for the love for, and enthusiastic participation in, the Les Mis Shipping Showdown so far. It's been incredible to see so many people get on board with my silly little gag and I'm so excited for the tournament to continue playing out

HOWEVER - currently we are lacking in two very important things that only you guys out on the frontlines (on the barricade???) can help with.

1) PROPAGANDA

In 2009, Cheryl Cole dropped her debut solo single and changed lives by reminding us all that we've gotta fight, fight, fight, fight, fight for this love. I need you all to be more like Cheryl. Don't be discouraged if your OTP is currently losing - and don't become complacent if they're currently winning by a landslide. We're not even halfway through the round of 32 yet, and you - yes YOU 🫵 - can help turn the tides of battle by telling the world, in an easily shareable format, why your preferred Les Amis pair the spare combo deserves to take victory in this noble contest.

Examples of things you could submit as propaganda include: fanart, fanfiction, AMVs, clips or gifs from your favourite screen adaptation or grainy bootleg that prove your blorbos' love, well-researched meta with supporting quotations from the Brick, completely unresearched rants based entirely on vibes, etc.

Ways you can share your propaganda with the world include: appending it in a comment reblog (not whispering in the tags!) of the relevant poll, sending asks to this blog, submitting posts to this blog, or making an original post and tagging it #les mis shipping showdown. (<- please use this specific tag. we're not checking any others. if you just put it in the generic les mis tag or ship tag with no reference to the poll we won't know it's for us)

2) FANART AND/OR EDITS

As much as I loved trawling through Tumblr tags and Google Images (and editing a few really stupid stock photo memes) to find visual references for every ship in the Round of 32, this was a) very time consuming and b) not as collaborative a process as I'd like for a fandom wide enrichment activity, especially for a bracket that's SO chock full of fanon-based shipping.

So, in preparation for future rounds, we would LOVE to receive submissions of fanart and edits for your favourite ship(s) to be used - with credit, of course - in polls.

We are looking for submissions for ANY AND ALL SHIPS INCLUDED IN THE BRACKET, regardless of their popularity, the amount of canonical visual content (like screencaps and production photos), or how likely you think your ship is to make the round of 16. As I've already said, we're only partway through this round and anything can change, plus I have a little surprise planned for the eliminated ships anyway that could still use your artistic contributions ;)

Here's a reminder of the current bracket so that you know which ships we're looking for artwork for:

As a bonus, if you send your art to this blog or tag it as #les mis shipping showdown, it also counts as free propaganda for your ship!

FURTHER RULES FOR FANART & EDITS:

No AI-generated content. Not going to get into the discourse on this one, I just don't want to see it.

No NSFW art, including artistic nudity. This is a theoretically all-ages contest, plus random polls getting flagged as mature will just make sharing that specific match up a complete mare.

Please ensure any art/edits are formatted so that they can be added to the poll as one single photo.

If you prefer to be credited by a different pseudonym to the URL you're using to submit your artwork, please make this clear to us at the time of submission!

Again, if you're posting art with the specific intention of having us use it, make sure you specify that either in the caption or by tagging it #les mis shipping showdown. We won't know it's for us if it just appears with no comment in the general tags!

To keep it simple & avoid any suggestions of favouritism etc., fanart, as long as it abides by the other rules, will be used on a "first seen by mods, first served" basis. We'll make an effort to reshare all art that isn't able to be used in a poll proper either because you got there too late or because your ship got eliminated before we could get round to using it.

Thanks in advance and happy propaganda-ing! 💋

[lunar-years]

The horrifying fandom takes and theories it's generated aside, one of things I really love about Ted Lasso is the way it handles motherhood/babies/the future for its two main female characters. Like, on the one hand is Rebecca who so obviously and vocally has always wanted to be a mother, but married someone who didn't feel the same way and put her own desires aside for his, then had that fact thrown back in her face years later after he's abused and divorced her and gotten another woman pregnant.

A big part of Rebecca's arc is the constant frustration of having to accept the hand life's dealt her even when it's the opposite of everything she'd always wanted for herself. She's someone who wanted to be a wife and wanted to be mother and then finds herself in middle age as neither of those things. Then she makes the decision to pursue it on her own (which was awesome, I love that they showed her going to the fertility clinic and inquiring about whether pregnancy was a possibility for her! there's not way to become a mother!) and then she has to face her inability to get pregnant. And it sucks! but as sad as that is, it's also very...real? And the show doesn't miraculously let her have a miracle pregnancy anyway (like stupider shows would do, tbh), but instead has Rebecca come to terms with herself and her life under its new circumstances. She finds purpose outside of the things she once thought she would be and the roles her younger self assumed she would play as an adult. By the final episode, she's calling Richmond her family! She's realized what she wants most is the stay at the Club. She's come into her own. And then, yeah, there's the little ambiguous opening of Matthijs and his daughter and her possible future there with them--but importantly it isn't the end all to her happiness, anymore. It's a sign that she still has opportunities, just maybe not in the way she first envisioned, that no doors have closed forever and that what she's been looking for might come from unexpected places. there's no timeline!

And then you have Keeley, who's in her 30s and focused on her career and still figuring out how she wants that to look and who she wants to be. And yeah she's dating, and she has a serious onscreen relationship, but the topic of children (or marriage for that matter) never even once comes up! It's not made some big arc about how she doesn't want those things, and it's not some big fight with Roy or a goofy "really, you've never thought about babies?' conversation with Rebecca, it's just never something that's made relevant to her character nor her growth! She's a whole person without those things and she's clearly not actively pursuing them. And these two women with very different goals and wants are completely supportive of one another--it's never even a question :)

I thought both of their storylines in that sense were very refreshing to see on TV and like, comforting? If anything, the discourse it's spawned has been very...eye-opening...about how conditioned people have become to expect traditional marriage and babies storylines from every single female character. But the show doesn't give in to that mentality and instead shows that there's not one way a family has to look and not one way to be a mother and there isn't a set timeline for any of this stuff even if later you change your mind. And then if things don't turn out how you think, it doesn't mean you aren't going to end up with a good life! that was such a good message.

[vro0m]

I was going to ask what's the discourse about, but I never go on the main tag, so... I wouldn't inflict that on you.

And yeah, that thing you said about each driver's fanbase is true. I realise that there are two sides. On one hand, you have those who like the driver, support him, and that's all. You won't see them in the trenches of fandoms war because they do not care.

Then, on the other hand, you have those who are "hardcore" fans. They know everything about the driver. To the family members to the strological chart. They know everything. Everything good must happen to their fave driver while the others can just lick hot lava. If the driver encounters any form of hardship, it's "They are treating him unfairly" or "That person should have done this or that, so that we could have [insert desired outcome for the driver]."

I do not even know if there is a middle ground.

Well regarding both the discourse and your ask, I've seen a few posts go by about black and white thinking and that's what prompted me to go to the tag in the first place.

I think it was @formulahs who said yesterday that people have the wrong expectations for what a career in f1 is supposed to look like because we've gone from one unheard of period of dominance with the Lewis/Merc combo to another with Max/RB and now some people seem to think that's what F1 is :

You either win all the time or you're a bad driver.

That's not actually true. These are two outliers back to back somehow, but normal F1 careers don't look like that. It's also due to modern F1 regs and how they tend to maintain one team that gets it right from the start at the top for a long time until others may or may not catch up. The fact is that these prolonged periods of dominance are precisely what F1 and the FIA have been actively fighting with things such as the cost cap, frequent new regs, and the wind tunnel allocation rules.

The fact that people have these unrealistic expectations for their favorite drivers I believe is in part what drives them to these extremes. They expect him to be perfect (on and off track btw but that's a different conversation) and he can't because that's not a thing. So they have to find reasons why, to make sense of it, to preserve the narrative that he is a Good Driver.

For me it all ties back once again into not seeing F1 as a sport but as a TV show and not seeing drivers as athletes or even just people but as characters.

A driver is not a Hero, a Main Character, a Protagonist. A driver is a guy trying to do his job.

There's no foreshadowing or hints of a conspiracy or a plot twist coming because there's no plot, there's just life. There's also no redemption arc or punitive saga because there's no arc or saga, there's just life.

Anyway I don't think it rests on whether the person knows a lot about the driver or not. I know a lot about Lewis by now but if anything it humanized him more in my eyes.

I'm gonna go full psychologist on everyone as usual because what else can I do : seeing your favorite driver as an object is not about him, it's about yourself, and your own ability to 1) step back 2) manage your emotions 3) accept reality including in its difficult aspects of frustration and uncertainty

[dollypopup]

We need to talk about misogyny in the lukola fandom, and how it originated in the rampant misogyny in the Polin fandom and just continued to grow, because unfortunately, the two deeply intersect, and there's been such a lack of nuance in so many discussions

interestingly enough, this is actually being exhibited in a lot of Luke Newton discourse. Not toward him necessarily, but to the women around him, in comparison to him, for better or worse, including Nicola. There's been a lot of discourse especially around Luke being 'jobless' in contrast to Nicola being 'booked and busy'. and even in rejection of that discussion, the defense becomes that she is an exception, because she is exceptional, and that of course others look less ambitious in comparison. And at first, I'm sure this LOOKS like it's praising a woman for her hard work and dunking on a man for what we imagine isn't.

but has anyone ever asked why Nicola is booked and busy, especially? does she want to be? or does she *have* to be?

I want you to think about just how many women over the age of 40 are getting major roles. How many love scenes you've seen that feature more mature women. How in Queen Charlotte, the focus was on a younger actress, how Violet's and Danbury's and Portia's and QCs actresses don't even have a kiss scripted.

How much of that is by design in the entertainment industry

Nicola, in many ways, is creating a recipe for burn out, but she works alongside wonderful actresses who are incredibly talented- and do not get the opportunities they SHOULD. Roles in the entertainment industry are largely written for young women in their 20s, young, conventional women. And Nicola KNOWS this. She's a businesswoman, and her craft IS her business. The clock is, unfortunately, ticking. This is a very insidious aspect of the misogynistic entertainment machine. Yes, Nicola is booked and busy right now- she's building her brand and trying to break out of the awful cycle of female actors getting a few big roles, and then get relegated to side characters or mum number 3. Should the entertainment industry write more roles for women over 40? YES!!! They should be major roles with poignant narratives!! But it isn't the reality we live in. She is actively fighting against the sexism of the industry she is living in, she cannot take a vacation.

Luke Newton, however, *can*. He has privilege as a man to take his time. Whilst Nicola's career is in danger of a downswing, Luke's is, by most statistics? Just beginning. Men continue to get major roles deep into their 30s, 40s, 50s. In fact, I think MOST male actors only build notoriety as they age. So Luke Newton has the privilege of TIME.

And let me very clear: I'm happy he can. And I wish Nicola could, too. Grinding ourselves to dust in the pursuit of the perfect capitalistic darling is only going to breed misery. The fandom is SO caught up in saying 'oh, look at how great it is that xyz has this role!' and 'booo he's unemployed and jobless etc. etc.' that we don't take the time to ask. . .why is it NECESSARY and in fact praise worthy to lick clean the boot of grind culture? Are we not all tired? Do we not all want downtime? Holiday? Vacation?

Luke Newton is doing what is healthy: he's pushing away from Social Media, didn't spend too much time promoting, disengaged from the fandom in online spaces but is still generous with his time in person, poured himself into his craft, did a hell of a promotion tour, and in the time between fitting and costumes and learning lines for Bridgerton Season 4? He's resting.

As. He. Should.

As *Nicola* should. Because she also pushed to continue engaging with a fanbase who she hopes will act as security for her as she ages out of the roles writers are pushing into the world. Nicola SHOULD BE ALLOWED HER REST!!! She should NOT be booked and busy!! She should NOT be grinding herself to dust for the sake of keeping herself in good light to become one of the few women who continue to be big names beyond her 40s.

She, however, can't. Not because of anything Luke Newton has done, he is not, as many people want to believe, a problem. He benefits from the system ALL his male coworkers do, and does his best to uplift the women around him, likely understanding the struggles of such having been raised surrounded by so many women, but he is not perpetuating the system or creating it. Instead of directing our criticism on Luke Newton, we SHOULD be directing it to the entertainment industry. So Luke Newton is on a break from a serial successful production he has a guaranteed role for: so what? He is afforded that privilege. Having downtime is not the death knell of his career as doomsayers are insisting.

The average age of an Academy Award Winner who is an actor is almost 50. The average age of an Academy Award Winner who is an actress is 37. (source)

Should we be mad? Yes.

Is this something to be mad at Luke Newton for specifically? NO. Many male actors take breaks and time in their career trajectory, because they know they have longevity. The discussion in this fandom is misplaced, and the root of that misplacement is twofold: sexism and capitalist worship. It isn't that Luke Newton lacks ambition and should be working harder- I argue he's doing what is best for him and most people in the long term. This is self care, and it's important.

No, the discussion is that Nicola is forced to work in a pressure pot because of the industry, and the fandom continues to praise her for it, all whilst turning noses up at those who don't or do not have to, and continuing to uphold the narrative that women must be a beacon of exceptionalism in order to curry respect. They continue to uphold her grind as a virtue- look how great it is that she's constantly posting, constantly engaging with the fandom, always auditioning, booked and busy- have you not asked if she would LIKE a vacation? she deserves one, same as Luke Newton.

What you're mad at is NOT Luke himself- but the patriarchy. What you're mad at is that women must be held to standards of near unreachable excellence. But instead of working together as women and having any actual discussion about it that's meaningful, it turns into a crock of shit that then shoves everyone in the backspray, especially other women.

The slutshaming misogyny that has been directed at Luke Newton's girlfriend- *yikes*.

Oh, A is a hanger on. She's 'poptart', she's portrayed with an ant emoji, she's 'toilet twerker', she's 'controlling him' or HE should control HER, she 'should be reigned in', she's jobless, she's an infant who needs her big strong boyfriend to take her social media away, she's not been 'claimed' (like luggage, like a THING), look at him, he doesn't feel ANYTHING toward her- not like Nicola.

Our good, darling Nicola versus that awful whore Antonia/Jade/Any Woman in Luke Newton's Circle.

This sexism is deep and pervasive- being angry he's dating her 'because she's thin'. Insisting she's a villain and everything she does is to 'rile up the fandom' or 'stir up trouble' or that she 'hates Nicola'.

You all do NOT know this woman. And I don't either!!! Maybe she IS a shit stirrer, maybe she is thriving in the drama.

But aren't most of y'all, too?

Polin fandom built so much off of putting down other women to uphold Penelope: Marina is a bitch who was TRICKING Colin and Penelope was just doing what she had to do!!! Of course she kept her secret from him, she was SCARED!!! Eloise is a privileged brat breaking the rules and putting herself in danger but Penelope is a rebel who is building her own success off of taking necessary risks!!!

Our good, Darling Penelope versus that evil whore Marina/Eloise/Cressida/Any Other Woman.

This fandom is predominately female. Most of us identify as women. And a lot of us are *mean* to other women. We uphold sexism in our fandoms, uncontested, as often as we please. But we frame it in criticism of a man and so that's okay- as if that in and of itself is somehow uplifting women, being tied to a feminist cause- but putting down other women in conspiracy theories and bullying them, as occurred to Jade, under the guise of 'oh I'm just criticizing Luke!' is disingenuous. It's an excuse. 'I'm mad at him for-' not being your fantasy.

And Nicola isn't, either.

The truth is, the people in this fandom don't have respect for EITHER of them, just in different ways. A pedestal is a pedestal is a pedestal, and no matter what, any human being will fall from it eventually. And this fandom has proven that when that happens, it will NOT be met with empathy.

Now think about who that will actually hurt in the long term.

A lot of people in this fandom have soul searching to do.

[clownshifting]

I usually do this with reblogs so posts don't go kaput.

This is a response to @abyssal-werewolf's anti-pshifter post. This post includes additional links, so you're lucky!

____

As I said in a post before this, we usually have this conversation over shifters every 4 months and it gets tiring to see the same rhetoric. Usually, I just block, but right now I'd like to talk - no fighting because I'm too old for that. Okay? Okay …

by @/thefirstfamilypack: "We are not people with lycanthropy [CLCZ], we are actual physical shifters. This is a totally different community than those who have clinical lycanthropy or mentally "identify" with someone that's not "human" such as otherkins. We never claimed to be that, that's a whole different thing." "If you don't have the genes for it then sorry you're not a shifter." by @/h-micideinthemirror (apparently deactivated, found a reblog of a post by them): "I'm so fucking tired of seeing therians talk shit about actual nonhumans […] I'm not delusional […] I'm just a person, who happens to be a wolf." by @/harloqui: "However, I 100% agree with the message towards delusional alterhumans. […] What shifters can do you cannot […]"

Let's start with this. I took all three quotes, why not, you quoted one of my friends and I think that's silly but it's okay, because you left out the multiple times shifters and CLCZs themselves have spoken about the correlation.

Harloqui, P-shifting vs. Delusions, https://www.tumblr.com/harloqui/715717991189315584

Harloqui, On the whole debacle, since it's revving up, https://www.tumblr.com/harloqui/739653834144661504/jfc-let-me-touch-this-before-some-weird-conspiracy

Bearwithme, Answering an Anon, https://www.tumblr.com/bearwithmeshifting/697488181905473536/skeptic-here-much-of-the-explained-process-for

Minkewhale, Ahoj Aethetikins, https://www.tumblr.com/a-minke-whales-tale/773746753742749696/ahoj-aethetikins-i-can-to-some-extent-at-least

Minkewhale, CLCZ and P-shifters, https://www.tumblr.com/a-minke-whales-tale/764242117170167808/clcz-and-p-shifters

Endelculture, Those who physically shift, https://www.tumblr.com/endelculture/775140278272245760/endel-culture-is-wishing-there-were-more-love

Evrymori, What is a p-shifter, and whats the difference?, https://www.tumblr.com/evyrmori/762891873865121792/what-is-a-p-shifter-and-whats-the-difference

Bubblerings, Part of my identity, https://www.tumblr.com/bubble--rings/775789174481682432/physically-shifting-and-transforming-is-a-huge

Yorkiegregg, I guess discourse is inevitable, https://www.tumblr.com/yorkiegregg/779773684507394048/i-guess-discourse-is-inevitable-online-but-i-want

Whenever this correlation is brought up (delusions and shifters), there is a 100% chance that everyone immediately says "we are not the same," not because they see delusions are inherently bad or lesser or weaker but because it is a reactionary response to what otherkin and therians have been saying for the past decade; "if they're claiming it, they're either delusional or lying," as seen here...

https://www.tumblr.com/gibdokin/741638765624377345/psa-i-just-saw-pshifters-in-the-kin-tags-yall?source=share

The reactionary response of "we are not delusional" is a fear response to how delusional oftentimes means "not real" in alterhuman communities, not set up by pshifters (because you claim we're basically out of the picture by being deactivated on most of our accounts (unless we're pulling strings??)) but by alterhumans themselves against endels. In the time I've been in shifter circles (2019-present), I have not seen any shifter actively disregard CLCZs and if they had done so, I'm pretty fast to speak up about it, and so are others to correct bad behavior.

2nd screenshot link; https://www.qfeast.com/poll/c7SVpq/What-is-your-opinion-on-otherkin (2017)

In conclusion: p-shifting originally referred to tangible, Real physical shifting, while vocally, aggressively excluding delusional folk and looking down on them (and otherkin as well).

Untrue, given what I showed and what I said but okay. Please go back to 2017 and before in the tumblr search or of multiple prolific alterhuman accounts and you'll find talk about endelity and how most of the skepticals were not shifters. This is a collective effort and everyone is at fault for being ableist, but by far, alterhumans have dominance and have spoken their peace about how they feel about CLCZs and endels.

This is by definition not possible with the term p-shifter: in order for delusional folk to reclaim this term, it would have had to be a deragatory word to describe delusional folk, which it never was.

In smaller cases the term pshifter has been used against endels and CLCZs, you just didn't account for that. So yes, many do reclaim the term but know the muddled history. Also, we aren't reclaiming the term, we are using it as it was intended; meta/physical shapeshifting. No additional definitions or restrictions needed.

As Harloqui says, "Reclaiming a term: if by "reclaiming" you mean "using it in a way that isn't abusive" then actually yeah, I don't have an issue with that. Which is what I've seen most who want to reclaim the term want to do so for."

Yes, the community looked down on delusional people, but the term itself actively excluded CLCZ and similar beings. Generally speaking, the term was never a slur used for anyone, it was always a positive and self-choosen term, created by the community for themselves. You cannot reclaim this term by definition.

First sentence, no they haven't, it was a reactionary response to many alterhumans calling shifters delusional, which becomes "I'm not delusional!" Second sentence, it isn't a slur so why are trying to "let it die"? Third sentence, no one is reclaiming it nor have they said they are..? Okay.

a-dragons-journal: "[…]using the word is still making it sound like you're making a physical claim. […]

Because we are. Shifters are meta/physically shifting. They have been doing it for centuries, this not anything new ever. It is a physical claim because it is a tangible, physical experience due to subjective beliefs and identity. It is crafted, it is perfected, it is executed, and then displayed as being shapeshifting. It is a craft, it is an art form - shifting is not required as a shifter but as an identity one must feel that physical urge beyond species dysphoria and beyond pre-established ideals.

who-is-page: "[…] You can't erase the history of the term […] and the ways in which it's been used (and, most importantly, continues to be used!) to hurt others. […]

Silly. No one is doing this nor has any shifter ever said "this term has no bad blood." But okay, I guess. We're saying that our identity can be shaped and changed regardless of terminology, but this terminology has been so deeply engraved that we can't do anything. Hey! Shifters have even used shiftomorph and etc.

P-shifters have harmed and continue to harm delusional folk, spit down on them, disrespect them and put themselves above them. Why on EARTH would advocating for the usage and acceptance of this term be a positive thing? How would that help?

Hi, Holothere was made in conjunction with multiple shifters in court. (https://www.tumblr.com/clowncaraz-journal/774795408055697408/terms-and-stuff-rambling-about-holothere-as-a?source=share) The holothere symbol was made by two shifters. The physical nonhuman community was shaped around the influence of shifters (https://www.tumblr.com/shifternortheast/757840741472026624/sounds-good-to-me-the-anchor-is-pretty-unique-and?source=share) and the perception of their existence - even their name has been used to bash endels and CLCZs on a scale far greater than the identity itself - please do not tell anyone ever for the rest of your existence that shifters are "spitting down on them" when half of the hate had bloomed from the refusal to accept delusional identity in the form of shapeshifting. Shapeshifting claims that began with shifters. Shapeshifting is a common experience in endels and CLCZs. The claim of shapeshifting is the reason most alterhumans had gotten on endelity and CLCZs. That's what you may not understand that beneath the surface, it isn't black and white as they may make you seem. Everyone is at fault.

Unlike subjective reality, you (technically) need to provide proof to claims you make that refer to Reality.

Sorry, I believe you also took the approach of seeing pshifters as those claiming an objective reality and not a subjective one. Which.. isn't what you're supposed to do when analyzing the differences between old vs new in relation to reclaiming terminology and the usage of it. Shifters have explained this and here is the Shifters: A Guide (https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1pfibt8ECchsoEaKhHp9BagrYyNsQcCuarq1J8Z1m_hg/mobilebasic) document I made that goes deeper into what shifters are. p.s, shifters don't even use "pshifter" unless they're making you upset, wink wink.

The rest usually claimed it was based on DNA. I don't know percantages on this, but from what I have seen, I would say at least half of them claimed to be able to teach (or claimed they learned from someone, which supports the same stance from a different pov).

Funny. This is just in time I get to pull the harloqui card just as you have and link to this post (https://www.tumblr.com/harloqui/779397664448086016/the-mathematics-of-shifting?source=share) where they talk about the mathematics of shapeshifting regarding pshifters. While not "proven science", it's one of the many types of way shifters have gotten out of their way to discuss scientifically how their shifting may work.

Now, let's look at your sources!

Swiftpaws

This is one that discusses psychosomatic changes while saying physical shifts are impossible. Physical shifting includes psychosomatic shifting.

"The phenomenon can be explained by the mentality, just a changing of the energy, and the body wanting to express the animal side more clearly.

Physical Shifters wiki page

"Shifters, often referred to as "P-Shifters," are individuals who subjectively experience or believe in the possibility of literal, physical transformations into non-human or mythical entities."

I revamped this wiki page actually! It also includes the document I made and multiple other links of information that shifters have built.

Anyway. Subjective is in the definition. We don't believe objective reality can align with our identity when none of us have been investigated, but we can assume that our identity is subjective and vast and won't be explained to be "Real" enough for others.

As for everything else, it's where you got the quotes from and I've already talked about that, haven't I? No need to drag it on.

Want to know what I think? It's in this post, it's in previous posts, it's in the way I hold myself and talk about my identity. Shifting is in my blood, in my ability, etc. No one is going to take away my ability to speak about it. No one is going to tell me that my terms need to "die". I didn't write and I didn't make art and start a convention, etc to bring together a community just to be told that we don't deserve terminology.

Shifters and CLCZs and Endels don't deserve to be harassed because anti-shifters are targeting groups that like to understand others. There's understanding. Can you learn this too?

Here as some stuff you should read in order to learn more about shifters. We genuinely just want to shapeshift and enjoy our nonhuman lives. The ones who give us a bad name aren't even active, don't know about this new community on Tumblr, and have been denounced from our wider communities.

https://www.tumblr.com/a-minke-whales-tale/764242117170167808/clcz-and-p-shifters?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/bearwithmeshifting/697488181905473536/skeptic-here-much-of-the-explained-process-for?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/clowncaraz-journal/777434480816308224/no-hate-to-the-original-commenter-asking-me-this?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/harloqui/699159136396607488/so-this-is-surprisingly-relevant

https://www.tumblr.com/clowncaraz-journal/773569728519323648/i-basically-had-introduced-some-basic-rules-to

https://web.archive.org/web/20090830090430/http://geocities.com/LanceFoxx/thesasebopshift.html

https://pshifting.carrd.co/

https://forum.monstrous.com/index.php?topic=7062.0

https://forum.monstrous.com/index.php?topic=2477.0

https://rayne-vandunem.livejournal.com/27502.html?es=1

https://www.tumblr.com/were-link/750851820070535168/hi-i-saw-you-were-looking-for-a-pack-for-physical

[cassiaorsellio]

okay I saw @suntamer (her poll is here) drop a poll about dragon age oc discourse and honestly, i love a good poll particularly when it comes to ocs and even more so if it's something fun like this. so, which of my dragon age ocs would encourage the most / the worst discourse, if they were part of the universe?

magni aeducan (he/they, 27-28 in da:o, dwarven noble, pansexual) — quintessential and traditional dwarven noble and yes, that included the sexism, bought into the noble hunter culture, deadbeat father (gn.) a little too willingly committed fratricide to advance themself (masterful gambit, sir) and brought both gorim and mardy down with him. "has anyone told you you're insane" / "i prefer the term ruthlessly pragmatic myself". chose to desecrate the urn of sacred ashes for Cool Dragon Powers and no other reason, let bhelen stay on the throne because he would rather have an aeducan on the throne that stabbed them in the back if it meant not having their dynastic rule continue. kept the anvil of the void and sided with branka. told alistair he was like a brother to them with a complete stony face and then proceeds to betray him at the landsmeet (magni did say he was like a brother to him...). let amaranthine burn.

rosalind hawke (she/her, 23-30 in da2, human, straight...?) — haunted by her mother's face every time she looks in the mirror, leandra 2.0 and resentful about it. did anything to protect bethany from the horrors of the world, only for bethany to die in the most horrible way possible. rival romance with anders, trying to protect him but smothering him and making things worse in the process by further denying justice its purpose, and was in an emotional situationship with sebastian at the same time. took a hard turn into mage hatred after leandra's death at the hands of a blood mage and meredith got her claws hooked into her. no one knows what's going on with her and meredith. killed her lover and father of her unborn child both out of mercy and justice, sided with the templars to 'get it over and done with quickly'. becomes known as "the butcher of the gallows."

arthur trevelyan (he/him, 49-52yo in da:i, human noble, gay) — noble born and bred, thrived in the circle predominantly due to family interference (aunt paying off templars) and his family name protecting him. extremely pro-circle and anti-rebellion (vocal about reform, however), known templar fucker (had an on-and-off again relationship with one for 20+ years), chose to go to therinfal after finding out what happened to the mages in redcliffe, celene died on his watch and put gaspard on the orlesian throne because he was going for stability over progress and then actively ghosts said emperor. encouraged dorian to speak with his father again because he was somewhat projecting. caused a scandal by getting into a relationship with his qunari bodyguard 12 years younger than him.

hissera trevelyan (she/her, 21-22yo in datv, qunari shadow dragon, bisexual) —thedas' most recognisable nepo baby. in a fashion. constantly got in trouble in the orphanage for either fighting, talking back or letting off homefashioned smoke bombs in the privy. fucked up work with the shadow dragons on such a scale she had to leave minrathous bc magisters were pissed. has been arrested multiple times for theft, murder and destruction of public property but has always been released because someone keeps pulling strings (#nepobabyprivileges.) probably overthinks about all the ways she could painfully kill a venatori. is absolutely not qualified for her job but she got it anyway because nepotism ig???? got hit with the ben-hassrath allegations by her friend's mother and she was just like 🤨no? 🤨thanks for asking? 🤨even though she has absolutely had some form of training from her dad. picked a fight with that aspect of mythal Just Because, and then didn't even use it at the end because of pettiness.