#*cis men and whatever justins got going on

[inanimateinsanitywiki]

i always knew there were problems with cabby's arc but my dumb ass never fully understood it until this current watch through.... i think it's finally clicking for me just how dire it was until the crew got shit on and had to completely overhaul it last minute

[horizon-verizon]

btw, if you are one of those who think that it's worthwhile to criticize Blake Lively for this, that, and third--even for misogynoir--by repeating "receipts" and how she has to be lying bc "white women tears", just block me now. Unfollow me. Blast me on all the apps whatever. Just don't interact with me any longer, you'll just be blocked.

First of all, Justin Baldoni is still a WHITE MAN, the only other demographic prized/privileged above a white woman and their said predator. Yeah, sure, she's willing to potentially ruin her image & reputation in Hollywood entirely to drag him through the dirt. It's not like this country doesn't protect cis straight white men above BOTH white women and literally everyone else--yes even those who are poorer than the white women, esp the white woman who no one seems to like anyway. Look at Trump, Jonny Depp, etc, men wo still are not in jail or still have active careers or think about your local communities & leaders that dra women wo speak up reardless of the tax brackets; it's not just bc they were richer or more respected...it's bc tat respect/social grace goes hand in hand with them being (white) MEN. Y'all severely underestimate gender roles and ideology as tins tat are just as, if not more than, ways societies have assessed people's innate "worth" of communal support. Baldoni's career will never be over or ruined in Hollywood, bffr.

The very principle of "she must be lying bc she has a huge ego" smacks too much of the same sort of victim blaming and abuser-attacks-abused shit that affects ALL white, POC, and Black women in some way, shape, or form. From Black, white, PoC men and other women. Does it affect Black women differently in some contemporary and historical aspects form slavery and Jim Crow, of course! It doesn't erase that aspect of victim blaimng nor does it stop PoC/Black men from employing similar tactics of making the victim seem unhinged or untrustworthy. There is a phenomenon where the abused/alleged victim merely wished the harm to stop or to be vindicated so they focus on the abuse....while that abuser focuses on character flaws of the victim bc they know if we were to focus on the evidence, the recrimination would motivate onlookers to focus on their actions...and now we have women of all races try to pooint out how BL dresses, speaks, does her makeup on TikTok to make those things indicate her untrustworthiness...

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the internet, his team, Baldoni, etc. are usin Black women's digust and thoughts about BL's possible lying to revitalize te wole "women just lie on poor men and ruin their careers" narrative (prioritizing the man or the state's preservation over the possibility of rootin out a menace to vulnerable groups), bc like the U.S. cyclically uses Black "cool" to remain itself statis. Check out what bell hooks has to say about how the 70s-80s exotification of Black people allowed wite people to make as if their usual tomfoolery could remain as is behind Black faces and "cool". (Mark me, this is not me saying Black women don't have the right to support not Blake for her plantation and other race-suspicious shit. I try to point out a particular pattern in white, capitalist culture now that we are hurtling more and more toward fascism. I'm sayin that DO NOT ACTIVELY SUPPORT A RICH WHITE MAN WHO IS SO FUCKING SUS. And you do so by going out of your way to talk down on BL.)

Second, considering the NYTimes lawsuit: Blake's team didn't get the "right to sue" before Baldoni's team did yet, so yeah, Baldoni was able to get ahead of her...and change the narrative ahead of time. Look up how the State of Cali does this sort of thing, and put the pieces together. Why the fuck is he even suing the NYTimes when he's got Blake Lively to sue, he should be restign on his laurels if he's so confident about his own innocence. But no, he wants to silence a public paper AND sue a woman AT THE SAME TIME? Is this not more work? Is he not scared or conconcerned about the workload for his team, why are they not focusing and suing AFTER the stuff with BL?!

Third, the "receipts" of his do not have him disagree with Blake's claims. Just try to make her seem crazy for establishing boundaries. And going back to that video of Baldoni saying that is was "hard for him" to "hold himself back" in his "merthod acting" of an abuser....like other men as Jared Leto in Suicide Squad, have claimed...please.

Fourth, Baldoni has Johnny Depp's smear-that-bitch team. The same team that BLATANTLY said how easy it was to slander or make a woman look bad-to-worse in the public eye. That really should have told you all you needed to know; it's the fucking audacity characteristic of the most heinous males ever. OJ Simpson's "If I DId It". Out of ALL the PR and whatever teams you could have enlisted....it's this one? (btw, this shows also that, after Depp's seeming public win wit the adience that this team is expensive....Baldoni is literally also a RICH WHITE MAN TO AFFORD THEM!!!!!) I thought we believed Amber?! What the fuck happened?!

Fifth, if you looked at Rhaenyra's story as her not being the most perfect of victims and have agreed that even with Nettles, there WAS a concerted caimpaign against her simply because she was a woman and not bec of her "attitude"...and you turn around and say a bad or amoral woman deserves sexual assault, ignoring how this WILL worsen things for other women--this shit is so much bigger than BL, just as it was in Rhaenyra's case bc of PRECEDENT--than there's really not much else to say other than you forget real fast about things for te sake of feeling good about tearing a woman down. If you really despise BL that much or simply think this is about "battle of the egos", I suggest... being quiet and not potentially helping a WHITE MAN win against a potential victim and embolden him/other men who are watching this enfold in front of us all.

With how this country runs, Blake is likely not really going to win and if she does she will lose a lot in terms of social capital while Baldoni will have plaques in his honor either way. Like he's some Luigi (I have some critques of this guy, too, but not nearly like I do for Baldoni).

Sixthly, it is rather because women--and some others but it's primarily women--have been trying to use how she dresses, acts, does makeup, pointed out infinitesimla details about how she looks that this reveals itself as not about justice but women taking the opportunity to drag a rich famous woman bc they eiter ate er or te privilege she has & they desire. Will claim they are making things "fair", but they also will not be a part of any activist movement that would actually work towards fixing society's ills--okay, how are you really any different from her or actually in a morally superior position when you don't actively do things outside of yourself? It's quite clearly a witch hunt for some online women, not a movement towards social awareness. They want to have permission to treat a woman how they treat her privately or out of the public sphere.

Perhaps Blake is part of larger issues by perpetuating/helping white supremacist patriarchy in several ways. In short, I really don't give af what sort of person BL is; I will not be helping a huge feature of rape culture and patriarchy win, I will not perpetuate the narrative of women-are-liars. That's not my legacy. I'd rather be wrong in one of the anomalies of human behavior, the one time a white woman actually lied against a WHITE MAN than ignore Occam's razor of how these things usually go.

Think of it this way; there is a chance that Baldoni did do that shit, and statisitcally, that chance is very high. Women tend not to lie bc they know the public wil find anyway to make them the issue even AFTER evidence is found against their rapist/abuser: "what's was she wearing"; "why was she out so late?"; "she doesn't know when to quit and was so hard to work with"--all that work to shift the responsibility of the man's sexual assualt onto her bc women are by defualt accountable for men's behavior, right?

And no, "girl's girl" is not the fucking same as feminism; capitalism as rotted your brains and misappropriated so many terms and elemetns of this movcemnt to essentially defanged it for promotions of services and goods behind the veneer of oen "supporting" women by materialstically/consumeristly "buying" symbols rather than performing actions towards this movement that inherently disrupts the capitalist stranghold on the U.S. (capitalism wants men and women to think of themselves as inherently different to be able to sell stuff to them differently and push women towards buyin more but stayin ome more). You don't know what feminism is for real.

Wake up. A woman videotaped a man r*ping er, and under the Wiretap Act, is lawyers charged her for violating his "privacy". You need to lock in, fascism is accelerating. We can't afford this nonsense. If you disagree, just block me now.

[justice4falum]

do NOT give money to tumblr user roboticwheelchair

Hi, so you’ve probably seen this post or some of its permutations on this website lately! (The old version of this post broke because I mistakenly deleted it. Let’s try this again, shall we?)

This is a “RAFFLE” for a Nintendo Switch Lite and the poster is asking people send them $10 to earn a spot in the raffle, of which there are 52. People have already sent money in.

This post was made by user roboticwheelchair and the name which currently displays on their paypal is “Mick Garcia” - it’s very possible you’ve heard their story already from several weeks ago. User roboticwheelchair claims that they were physically assaulted for being a transgender man, and that they sustained a concussion.

The BAD news is that roboticwheelchair is a blog which has been on tumblr for a very long time, and used to belong to someone named Falum Gibson. You may have heard this name from their #justice4falum campaign ages ago. They are a notorious scammer and has been doing this since 2016. LET’S REVIEW (LONG, LONG, LONG POST AHEAD.)

Part 1: #BieberMeetFalum and Meeting Ed Sheeran

In 2016, Falum ran a Justin Bieber fan account on Twitter called @bieberfreezer (account has since been suspended). They began a campaign called #BieberMeetFalum by posting a Twitter thread about their disability, cerebral palsy, and how they had intended to meet Justin Bieber personally because his music was important to them. However, the venue he was performing at was not wheelchair accessible and Falum uses an electric wheelchair. They were trying to get the attention of him or his team in order to ensure they met. (LINK)

This was a reasonable thing to post about! Accessibility is a necessity. We know this. And they weren’t asking for money. Twitter got this the attention it needed and they were able to meet Bieber despite the trouble. (LINK)

Later on, they gunned to meet Ed Sheeran and succeeded.

Part 2: #TaylorNoticeFalum

In 2018, Falum was on Tumblr as user taylorsgetawaycarxo. At this point they still say they have cerebral palsy, but has also said they have COPD (something they later will drop.) Claiming that they are terminally ill and has 2 years left to live, they talk about how Taylor Swift is their idol and they want to meet her before they die.

This came right after they had done the same thing with Demi Lovato fans, claiming they idolised Demi and needed to meet her, so on and so forth. They ran a GoFundMe for this. 

The GoFundMe is now defunct, but the URL was “falumlastwish” I believe. Here’s where the plot gets a little lost, because the sheer number of different GoFundMes, donation posts, and meet-a-celebrity campaigns that Falum was running in these couple of years is... pretty wild. There’s a post from another blog here on Tumblr about the Taylor Swift fandom’s run-in with them. (LINK) 

Here’s a GoFundMe they ran from a music fan account on Instagram, where they were asking for help escaping homelessness. They raised almost 5,000 dollars out of the 10,000 they were asking. (LINK)

At some point they also ran a GoFundMe for a PTSD service dog. I’m not sure how much they were asking for this one, but they apparently made $880 off of it. 

Part 3: Ellie Elizabeth

This part is a little muddled, because the tumblr blog connected to it has been deleted and it’s really difficult to find archives of the posts, but at some point in early 2019 Falum started using the blog ellie-elizabeth21 to ask for money as well. The story was that they were being sent to conversion therapy for being bisexual by their father, who had them deemed legally mentally incompetent. Further stories they posted about were potential evictions, needs for grocery money, etc.

Here’s a link to an imgur album of some of the posts this account made. Many of them achieved their goal of over $200 or more. (LINK)

“Ellie” also ran a GoFundMe to escape conversion therapy. Although the person running the campaign was listed as Ellie Elizabeth, the “beneficiary” listed on the campaign is Falum Gibson, proving that Ellie was another pseudonym - just a better hidden one. Here’s the link to that GoFundMe, where you can see it for yourself. (LINK)

This was Ellie Elizabeth’s PayPal account at the time, I believe? And anyway, you might note that they apparently made nearly $6,500 on this account.

Part 4: #Justice4Falum

Now in November of 2019, Falum moved away from the world of Fan Internet and decided to try out something new. They made the blog roboticwheelchair in September of 2019 and reblogged a photoset of cats to it, which for a while was the only thing on the blog besides the donation post they initially made. They’ve gone through a cycle of reblogging and deleting things there, basically clearing out the blog every couple of weeks to make a new post.

At this point they were also @falumgibson on Twitter. The account has since been locked. This is when they posted a GoFundMe describing medical abuse they were allegedly undergoing at the Ottawa Hospital. Weird side note, this GoFundMe is still running and can be donated to, though obviously I’m recommending you don’t do so. (LINK)

They made several donation posts on Tumblr about this campaign, frequently linking it or their PayPal account and asking people to donate. Sometimes it was to go directly to their legal fund for this lawsuit, other times they were asking for money for medications or other immediate costs.

Side note, they had claimed to be in the hospital since August of 2019 due to suicidal ideation and claimed they had been psych warded. From what I can tell, the Ottawa Hospital General Campus they claimed to be hospitalised at does not actually have a psychiatric ward. It has a mental health team, but they appear to do outpatient work. It’s not really clear what they were in the hospital for at this point.

#Justice4Falum was originally about fundraising for a place to live because apparently they were in danger of being forced to leave the hospital due to homelessness. Later on they turned it into a legal fund to sue the hospital for mistreatment.

Part 5: Further Fundraising, Coming Out As Trans

While Falum was in the hospital, they started identifying as nonbinary. I’m not in any position to speculate about whether or not Falum is transgender, because that’s honestly not the point. Either way, they have started using their trans identity in much the way they use their disabilities - as a way to garner sympathy and trust, and to scam people out of money.

On their Twitter at this point, they did seem to have kind of a bizarre interpretation of how transition worked and appeared to be under the impression that the first thing trans men do is get top surgery? (LINK)

Shortly after this, still during the November that #Justice4Falum ran during, they began asking for donations to a different PayPal account than their normal one, because their stepdad was dying of cancer. There was a GoFundMe for this as well, but it appeared to feature their parents and was possibly not created by Falum.

No date on this tweet unfortunately, but right after that, they made a post about how they had been outed to their transphobic father and needed to escape living with him.

At this point, Falum has added several diagnoses to those they claim to have. In addition to cerebral palsy, they now claim to have multiple sclerosis and several mental illnesses. No more COPD, though! I’m very impressed that they recovered from a terminal illness!

Now that they’re out of the closet, in early December they begin making donation posts on Tumblr again and have now made a Patreon. (LINK: POST) (LINK: PATREON) Soon after this, they apparently left their home and became homeless, and started posting about this on Twitter and linking their PayPal.

In late December they posted on Twitter about having attempted suicide by taking 75 extra strength Tylenol. Warning for a photograph of their IV in this link. (LINK)

Not very long after, Falum returned to their narrative of being terminally ill by posting about how their multiple sclerosis (something they have only claimed since 2019, I believe) causes them over 20 seizures a day and will eventually kill them. (LINK)

Then they locked their Twitter account and decided to try something new.

Part 6: Connor Kay, “anontransman”

Enter Connor Kay. At this point Falum makes a new Twitter account called @ConnorIsTrans which eventually morphs into @anontransman. They initially link this account to their old main account, saying that they’ve switched in order to be openly trans on their new account because their transphobic father is stalking them. (LINK)

They continue asking for donations on Twitter, now with a Ko-Fi account called Connor Rocks.

They also post a story about an ex-friend of theirs spitting on them for being trans, apparently, and say they’re calling the police on her, which really doesn’t seem like something that’d be safe for a disabled trans person to do but whatever. (LINK)

On their blog at roboticwheelchair, they post stories about how they are being assaulted and mocked for being transgender. I should note that on Twitter they’ve said they are not out IRL and have not taken steps to transition.

Not only does this particular story sound kind of like the “down with cis bus” post, it’s also somewhat suspect that they allege they were called a tr*nny as an AFAB trans person, given who is generally targeted by that word. But. Moving on.

When the COVID-19 pandemic came around, Connor created a Facebook group for disability support. This was run by the Facebook account Connor Kay, which has since been deleted. It was the same account that they used to have and they’d not changed anything except for the name; prior posts showed it was Falum Gibson’s account.

It turns out they deleted this Facebook account because someone on Facebook posted about their years-long history of scamming people online. Here’s a link to an imgur album of some of the Facebook callout and the images the OP posted. (LINK)

So Falum, or Connor, decides to start anew with an all new PayPal, Ko-Fi, Patreon and Twitter account. At this point they begin to break away from linking these accounts to the name Falum Gibson and their past donation posts, although they are still using the same Tumblr blog. They change their Twitter handle to @anontransman and remove links to Falum. (TWITTER SCREENCAP) (KO-FI SCREENCAP) (PATREON SCREENCAP)

Then they tweet about how they have been diagnosed with cancer. (LINK) Then they begin asking for $100k to go to the US for treatment. (LINK)

Soon after, this Tweet has been completely deleted and they have instead started asking for money for top surgery. (LINK) I believe this is in reverse chronological order, but here are a week’s worth of tweets from them - all deleted at random times in order to make room for the others - asking for money for various reasons. Yes, this was all literally within the same week. (LINK)

Note the very last image of that album contains a reference to an “Amazon Raffle” - they were basically telling people that donations would win them a spot in a raffle for an Amazon gift card or something? It seems they moved on from the @anontransman account before the raffle could come to fruition, or possibly that they just deleted all references to it. Not sure.

In April of 2020, roboticwheelchair posted a specific donation post about being attacked for being transgender and sustaining a concussion. They said they did not see a doctor after the assault because they didn’t think it was important, so their concussion went untreated and because of it they were unable to get groceries. The donation post linked to Connor Kay’s PayPal account. It was deleted and reposted several different times, with basically the same text.

Part 7: Mick Garcia

This is a more recent post with the exact same story, now about their multiple sclerosis medication. The only difference is now that the PayPal link sends you to the PayPal of Mick Garcia. Mick Garcia has a different PayPal username than Falum, Ellie, and Connor did.

On April 12th, the @anontransman account deactivated after Falum, or Ellie, or Connor, or Mick decided to leave Twitter. Then yesterday on April 19th, it reactivated and they tweeted once again.

However, around this same time, another Twitter account under the name Mick Garcia with an icon @anontransman used to use and a very similar tone/style cropped up.

The Mick Garcia account has not tweeted yet, as it appears that they may be staying with @anontransman for their current purposes, but it appears that for some reason or another they’ve decided to start going by Mick Garcia now.

I guess it’s probably relevant to note that while I suppose there are probably some white people out there with the last name Garcia, Falum is really seriously white and it’s suspect they would pick out Garcia as a pseudonym, whether they list “white” in their Twitter bio or not.

More from the current state of the roboticwheelchair blog includes many, many posts where they’re either reposting their own petitions or basically grabbing for as many followers as possible. You can probably guess why. (LINK)

As of April 20th, 2020, there are 2 donation posts still standing on their blog. Here are both of them. (LINK)

Finally, The Switch Raffle

Literally today, April 20th, roboticwheelchair posted something that is allegedly a raffle. They claim to be giving away a Nintendo Switch Lite to a lucky winner. There are 52 slots in the raffle; they are asking that people send them $10 over PayPal in order to enter. They’re also claiming this is to further fundraise for their medication.

They are claiming their doctor has put them on an MS medication that costs $450 every two weeks. (Note that if they’re trying to make money for that right now and also going to buy a Switch for the winner, than they’d only have about half of that at the end? The Switch Lite is about $260 in Canada and their total earnings from a full raffle would be $520.)

You should not give money to them for this raffle, or for any reason. The reason I’m compiling all of this is because after months of seeing them pull this scam over and over again, they’re now promising people an actual product that given their history, I would say they are highly unlikely to deliver.

Given their past, it is most likely they will delete this raffle once they have the money they want, and refuse to allude to it ever again. Or maybe they’ll just disappear! Or hell, maybe they’ll have some kind of nebulous problem ordering the Switch when someone wins, and that’ll be that.

But it’s clear based on this history, I hope, that Falum or Ellie or Connor or Mick has a long history of taking lots and lots of money from strangers online. Like, a lot of money. My estimate is that they’ve made over $15k on this, and that’s exclusively based off of the visible numbers on their GoFundMes and Ko-Fi accounts.

Please do not give this person your money. They are not trustworthy. There are other people who need it - like you, or maybe like, someone you personally know and not some complete stranger who keeps telling people they’re terminally ill so they can meet a cool musician.

Disclaimer

I’ve compiled all of this information to the best of my ability, but I am just one person and it took a lot of digging due to the deleted accounts involved.

Falum is actually disabled; I believe they do have cerebral palsy and may have other disabilities. I do not know if they really have MS, but it’s hard to trust them because they previously lied about having terminal COPD.

I have no idea if Falum is really transgender or not. They have apparently taken no concrete steps to transition, which I know means very little. That being said, if they are transgender, they are leveraging their identity in dangerous ways against other people for money and sympathy. Their stories about being assaulted by strangers for being transgender are highly suspect, given their lack of transition and the fact that the scenarios they describe are highly cliche.

Finally, I’m not trying to harass Falum or threaten them in any way. I don’t know them. If they’re interested in talking candidly about what they have been doing all these years and why, that’s fine. I would honestly love to understand, but at this point it seems like the only thing they can do is apologise for their dishonesty and stop doing this.

Reblog this post if you want! The point is to get the word out there, because this person has been a pervasive presence on this website for some time and has not yet been called out.

[caden]

Honestly thank you for saying that. I also don't hate Travis but can't stand the way he goes about proving his "wokeness" he's obviously good natured but his approach is just so off and it's awkward when listening to the other brothers try to swerve around it, being more self aware than he is. I can't listen to the new Adventure Zone arc because her went out of his way to create a disable character and then be like "are you gonna ask me about my wheelchair" it's just too fucking much dude.

This is a super long rant-y response that doesn’t really say much of consequence, but...

yeah i have not enjoyed his arc so far sadly. I’m still going ahead with it for the time being, it’s worth listening to but honestly TAZ hasn’t gripped me all that much since balance. I feel like one of their issues is that balance really really tactically built up to its big emotional dramatic moments, everything felt really natural and just flowed so well-- whereas with these other arcs, I feel like they just jump the gun and try to constantly have dramatic stuff happening without ***earning*** it. The nature of most roleplaying games is just that they’re long form, and IMO the most important element of nailing a podcast like TAZ is making sure that the downtime is really enjoyable-- that means having really charismatic side characters, engaging and open-ended worldbuilding that allows for lots of different situations, and PCs that have clear and interesting motivations. Travis just isn’t a good enough DM to pull that all off. He’s decent at roleplaying IMO, but his personality / skills are just better suited to being a player. He clearly isn’t as good a storyteller as griffin, and even griffin’s storytelling has been strained from time to time. 

I honestly really really really wish that they would play a more Critical Role / MCDM style DnD game, where the worldbuilding took front-stage over the characters, and where it was assumed that the main players would cycle through MULTIPLE characters because their characters could actually die if it was dramatic-- or even just if the players fucked up in combat. I’d love to feel like they were in a setting that allowed them to have guest players on, where the world has internal consistency (unlike the live shows which are always fun but clearly not sustainable for a long-form story), and where the whole thing isn’t all built along railroading players down an ultra long-form epic story in the vein of Balance. Like one thing that’s great about DnD for me is that if you don’t currently feel like you’re gelling with the character you’re playing, you can just make a new character! If the quest you’re on isn’t incredibly engaging, you can tell the DM that you want to explore something in your character’s past or independently pursue some other motivation instead. I really wish they would experiment with a more freeform, noncommittal story, where they could lean into their improvisation skills (which is what they’re very good at) over their storytelling skills (where they're sort of lacking). 

I also feel like-- and this is just an unintended byproduct of the general vibe that they’re going for-- one big problem that I notice with their storytelling is that all of their characters are just like... too good. I feel like they’re so committed to being wholesome and non-stressful that everything about their worlds just has no edge at all. I’m not saying that I want TAZ to be game of thrones, obviously that would suck-- but so much of the conflict in their worlds feels awkward or forced because they don’t create their characters to be as flawed as I think they should. Justin usually being the exception. I think this is reaaaalllllly coming to the forefront in the new arc, Travis just isn’t capable of putting the kind of tension into his stories that Griffin was because he’s too committed to making his world crunchy and chill and, dare I say, woke. But I think the wheelchair thing is coming from a different sort of bad storytelling-- writers put a diverse character into their story and then feel so immediately proud of themselves that they forget to actually make the character interesting or memorable beyond that, inadvertently tokenizing the characters. 

Griffin also did something really smart when he was DMing, which was that he intentionally never told us anyone’s race. He explicitly said that it being an audio medium allowed the listener the freedom to imagine whatever race they want, as well as imagine trans-ness, disability, etc. Which, even though it might sound kind of like a cop-out, is IMO the best way to handle it. If they play characters outside of their race, people will be mad. If they don’t have enough diversity, people will be mad. If they have explicit diversity but portray something insensitively, people will be mad. I personally think that griffin would have been smart enough to do these things sensitively, but he’s always erred on the side of caution. The only exception in balance was them explicitly stating that Lup was a trans woman, which was also handled very well IMO. Travis just isn’t taking that level of subtlety to his DMing because he isn’t as perceptive about these things as Griffin is. He’s stating all this stuff explicitly because he wants people to know that his world is diverse. Which is cool, but it comes with the baggage of actually having to execute that diversity with some level of insight. In this case, I honestly think the players should be more comfortable going ahead and making characters that are explicitly NOT cis white (or white-coded) men. They made the move after balance to start playing women, which was good. The alternative is just constantly having protagonists that, even in fantasy/sci-fi settings, are cis-coded, white-coded, or male-coded. 

All in all, the big issue for me rn with the Mcelroys is that i have much more of a sense now that they’re the types of creators who are entirely just trying to please their fanbase. This is really visible in the style of comedy that they’re doing these days as well. They aren’t trying new things, they’re just finding what’s comfortable, what fans clap for in live shows, and doing more of that. I remember once in a live show they said “okay guys, we’re making a change. we’re no longer gonna allow you guys to ask questions that are just you bragging about a cool thing you did”. That was one of the best decisions they made from a content perspective, lol. Their most interesting work of the last three years has been the Trolls 2 podcast, because it’s stylistically VERY different from their normal stuff, and because NOBODY was asking for it. And as a result, it was able to be a novel, funny concept. I feel like in the age of streamers, youtubers, creators who are basing their brand off of PERSONALITY over CONTENT, we’re gonna be getting more and more of this kind of art. As creators, the Mcelroys aren’t trying to do something new, to create exciting thought-provoking funny content. They’re just repeating the things that have found them the most success. They take the desires of the fans a bit too seriously, which keeps them from going in new directions, because fans can’t validate things that don’t exist yet. The fans shouldn’t be the ones who create new trends or decide the tone of the content. That should be entirely in the hands of the creators. You can sorta tell that at times Griffin and Justin are unhappy about it. I think this was at its worst about a year or so ago, and they’ve realized it and started to work on course-correction. They stopped doing TAZ live shows with the balance characters, which was a good choice. I DON���T think that the issue is that they ran out of ideas, it’s just that they’re overdue for a creative renaissance. I would love it if instead of just doing more TAZ and mbmbam, they continued to do a bunch of small unusual projects in the vein of Trolls 2, the old Monster Factory videos, the new non-DnD TAZ live shows, etc. I’m also enjoying The Besties (I listened to it before it got canned and was excited when it came back), because I feel like Griffin and Justin act more like normal humans on that show and less like Mcelroy brothers. 

WITH ALL THAT SAID, their content is still often very fun, and I think it’s really good that they exist as successful creators. They’re a net positive force in the world, the small attempts people have made to cancel them for dumb shit will always be petty and stupid. They’ve more than earned a spot in the podcasting hall of fame, I don’t think they’re just has-beens, and I will continue to listen to plenty of their stuff for the conceivable future even if it’s not always exactly what I want from them. 

[clean-bands-dirty-stories]

Changes ~ preface

A/n: ...So I’m, uh, starting something new. I’m genuinely so sorry I never finish anything. Sighhhhhh. Here’s a platonic little fic where the Macebros have a younger, nonbinary sibling. So like it’s platonic :) Please enjoy.

Note: Ugh I hate reader inserts, especially for nonbinary/trans characters because there’s just too much information and shit doesn’t work. I’m really so sorry, I hate reading fanficiton with OC’s too... I tried to be as vague as possible I’m sorry.

MASTERLIST

Ember Mcelroy was odd, in terms of their family.

Amidst cis, straight men, Ember was both nonbinary and also queer. They were a few years younger than Griffin, but the running joke of Griffin being the “littlest brother” held since Ember wasn’t a brother. They were a sibling. Sometimes when he irritated them though, they teased him about who was actually the baby of the family. If there ever were arguments that got too intense, that joke usually changed the mood and calmed everyone down.

Weirdly enough, Ember also wasn’t too into D&D, which became a huge gap in knowledge only when their older brothers started a D&D podcast called the Adventure Zone. They’d invited Ember of course, but they were busy with college and work and just wasn’t interested in podcasts and RPGs. The boys were disappointed and kept trying to pull Ember into it, but it never really stuck.

The podcast quickly blew up and as the story progressed, MBMBAM fans wanted to see Baby Mcelroy, as they all called Ember. Ember had shown up a few times there and having all the Mcelroy siblings in one place always made for the best episodes. Having Clint join the party and not Ember was kind of a disappointment.

Travis finally found a way to reel Ember in. “Hey, you know, Griffin kind of has a hard time keeping track of all of the NPCs.” Griffin rolled his eyes but Justin nudged him, picking up on Travis’ expression and realizing his goal. Griffin kept quiet, a smile growing on his face. “Maybe you could try it out. No commitment, and if you hate it you don’t have to play again. You could play test an NPC. They don’t even show up that often.”

Ember tilted their head back and forth, considering. The family was all together for a family dinner, catching up since they hadn’t seen each other in a while. “I don’t know. Won’t your fans be annoyed to have some random pop into the podcast out of nowhere and then just disappear again?”

“You’re not random,” Justin pointed out.

“And they ask about you all the time,” Griffin jumped in. Ember had been listening to the podcast religiously, and had been getting into the characters and storyline. They always listened to the boys’ podcasts, supporting and such like that. This time though, they made inside jokes and references and even quoted the brothers teasingly. They seemed more involved than usual. Unfortunately, they had a problem admitting when they were wrong or when they wanted to do something, after saying they didn’t. 

“MBMBAM fans too, actually.” Justin grinned. “We need you on more often. They love you.” Ember smiled.

For now, the conversation dropped. Ember hated feeling like they were being coerced or forced or pressured to do something. Their brothers had long since learned to hint and move on, letting Ember mull over it. They usually gave in eventually, if they played their cards right.

By the end of the dinner, Ember approached Griffin. “I get to play Angus.” They were playing with one of the kids, not looking over at Griffin. Thank goodness, because Griffin’s excited grin would have totally made them roll their eyes and crack some joke about Griffin acting like a child.

The next episode with Angus, Griffin called up Ember and they hopped on Skype too. They kept quiet, allowing the boys to introduce them rather dramatically. “Today, we have a special guest! Little Mcelroy, say hello.”

Ember snorted, rolling their eyes. “Yeah, sure thing Babyiest Brother.”

The other boys laughed while Griffin feigned offense. “Hey, I’m a treasure.”

“Made of gold,” Ember teased. 

“Okay okay,” Justin sighed, amused. “We gonna get started, or do you two need a moment to out baby each other?”

Griffin piped up. “Ah yes, the actual reason we’re here today. We heard your rioting and have brought Ember in to test out playing some good good D&D as Angus. I made up a character sheet for him so you can follow along. I’m assuming you know the basic idea?”

“Yeah,” Ember confirmed. “I listen to the podcast.”

“Of course.” Griffin was excited. It was going to be a little odd not to play Angus, but he liked the idea that he’d get more of a chance to focus on world building and other NPC’s.

Once Ember did it once, they had to do it again. Soon, Ember was playing Angus constantly. They came up with their own character voice for him - not far from where Griffin originally set it - and even started to create more of backstory for him. Griffin started to try to fit Angus in the story more, allowing a little more development for him as well. He was more than the cute bu sassy sidekick to Taako or the Kid Detective genius that was constantly helping the Bureau. He also developed a knack for trouble, getting into the funniest shenanigans with Magnus and diving into surprisingly deep conversations with Merle and even sometimes Lucretia, separately.

By the final battle, saying goodbye to Angus was really hard for everyone. Of course they’d miss the other characters, but Ember had given him a little more dimension, his position in the Bureau often allowing the same deep dives on NPCs as well. It was an entire world...

Then Griffin made a whole new world.

And this time, Ember wanted to be completely submerged in every second of it.

“Um, okay so how about you Ember?”

They’d gone last, letting the others tell about their characters, Ned Chicane, Aubrey Little, and then Duck Newton. Ember got excited. “So, I actually chose the Changeling as a character. Basically, they grew up thinking they were human but uh... plot twist! They’re not.” A bit of laughter that caused Ember to grin. “So, the idea is that their powers like triggered at puberty. Realizing they’re not quite human or that they’re different or weird or whatever, they’ve kind of been drawn to Keppler’s... constant odd happenings.” They cringed. “Uh, Griffin said it would work.”

“Yeah, so there’s this little group. You’ll see. It’ll make more sense once we start playing. What’s their name?” Griffin encouraged, knowing that Ember was really nervous about putting themself out there with an original character they made themself, instead of depending on Griffin’s experience. It was a little easier since this was probably just going to be a one shot.

“Win Astaire.” Ember fidgeted with the paper. They talked a little about Changelings, going into the idea that Win still doesn’t quite know what they are, even though they suspect they’re something odd, and came to get answers where most odd things came to... happen. It was explored that Win is nineteen and therefore separate from their family, as well as very close to Ned. Since they’re an artist, Ned often employs them to do drawings of creatures, or even ads. Sometimes using the Krytonomica simply as an art gallery is good enough for Ned who needs the customers anyway.

The net time they were together, they were playing. And Ember fell into the world of Keppler, West Virginia and the clueless Wen Astaire, who’s whole world was about to change.

[balillee]

i mean to be fair, dream's content got big when girls and gays were getting into minecraft and making it popular past smplive's era, so no wonder they latched onto a rising creator like dream. boys would love dream if not for the misogynistic part of the fact that his audience is primarily queer and female, or at least outspokenly so, and boys will make fun of things that might even interest them if they gave it a chance just because they're 'girly interests'.

my best friend is like a stereotypical cis guy who loves cars and listens to lil peep when he argues with his girlfriend but i fucking love him to death. he lives with his mum and his three sisters, and he was best mates with me so even though he still had a lot of guy friends he was never really prone to making fun of girly interests at all (unless it was his little sister, because, y'know, cain instinct or whatever). the motherfucker used to love justin beiber it was honestly odd how much that guy dominated his soundcloud playlists. boys would have loved justin beiber, one direction, kpop groups if they just looked past the fact that their primary audiences are young women and young queer people, and if dream's fanbase wasn't similar they'd probably be more likely to get into his content too.

women and queer people dominate when it comes to media interests even though cis guys stay at the top for things like movie reviewers, media journalists and producers etc. women and queer people enjoy whatever the hell they want whereas men tend to only stick to the media that women and queer people don't tend to enjoy as much, probably because they don't want it 'tainted' or whatever by 'crazy stangirls'.

those same boys latch onto people like dantdm and skydoesminecraft and stampy and captainsparklez, claiming the older minecraft content was better and that the new content is shitty despite the fact that i've seen nothing but support from those creators to the newer generations of minecraft content, and the fact that, to my knowledge, those four are still around. the only difference is that the audience for minecraft content back then was predominantly male aside from like sky's community and the minecraft diaries community (which, hello! 👋i was there too!) whereas, even though it was unexpected, the primary audience for the dream team, tommyinnit, technoblade, philza - all of them - is super diverse and progressive, and it's even gone backwards now to where the minecraft community as a whole is much more diverse with people going back and discovering these creators from the older generations, or bringing in new diverse creators like snifferish, ponk and eret. or, the fact that the older generations of this community are diverse too - skydoesminecraft is literally nonbinary, aphmau i'm pretty sure is latina (but don't quote me on it it's been a while since i've watched her).

we are actively driving those types of audiences out and away from our communities and it's a good thing. it's ironic having to gatekeep the gatekeepers, but keeping content away from the dickhead 'you wouldn't get it' white boys makes media something much more fun to enjoy. now all those boys have in terms of content creators to watch is like, callmecarson. is that guy still even around? does he still do stuff or was the fact that he's a groomer run him off the internet for good this time?

No okay because Ro Ramdin is so correct. Right now Dream and Manhunt might be cringe queer kid girl interests. But they’re legit good cinema and one day boys are going to take an interest in Manhunt and try to start gatekeeping it from all of Dream’s actual fans. Which is just such a funny concept when you consider how wide spread and far reaching Dream’s fanbase is when he probably expected starting out to get those dickhead ‘you wouldn’t get it’ boys as his fans. And got something completely different and completely embraces and loves his diverse fanbase. 

[womenofcolor15]

Wendy Williams Delivers Tearful Apology After Firing Shots At Gay Men Who Wear Women’s Clothes

Wendy Williams is SORRY for comments she made on her show yesterday about gay men wearing women's clothing. See her tearful apology inside...

Often times, Wendy Williams gets herself involved in controversy for "saying it like she means it" with her strong opinions. And her latest comments about gay men wearing women’s clothing just got her hemmed up.

Yesterday, the daytime talk show host (above at the 2019 Pride event in NYC) was discussing Galentine’s Day – which is a “holiday” the day before Valentine’s Day for women to link up with their girlfriends and have fun. She asked the audience to clap if they were celebrating Galentine’s Day and a few men in the audience were clapping. When Wendy noticed it, she spoke on it, and her comments have pissed off the LGBTQ+ community especially.

"Well, first of all, if you're a man and you're clapping, you're not even a part of this," Williams said. "You don't even understand the rules of the day. It's women going out and getting saucy and then going back home. You're not a part."

"I don't care if you're gay," she continued. “You don’t get a mensi [menstruation] every 28 days. You can do a lot that we do, but I get offended by the idea that we go through something you will never go through.”

She didn't stop there.  She continued to get her point across.

“And stop wearing our skirts and our heels! Just saying, girls, what do we have for ourselves?,” she asked the audience as they erupted in laughter.

Check it at the 6-minute mark below:

Some folks agreed with her.  But most of Twitter immediately began a dragging session aimed at the daytime talk show host:

  Hey, @WendyWilliams, This is not cute. It’s homophobic. Do better. https://t.co/sOFiBBDHhM

— Justin Mikita (@JustinMikita) February 14, 2020

    fuck wendy williams and her homophobic studio audience.

— NomaL (@lungeIo) February 14, 2020

    .@WendyWilliams, some friendly reminders:

1. Many cis women would be offended by having their womanhood reduced to a skirt and heels + menstruation.

2. I don't menstruate. I do wear a skirt and heels. Both are independent of me being a woman.

3. Let people wear what they want. https://t.co/HrtIb1cuH0

— Charlotte Clymer (@cmclymer) February 13, 2020

    If #WendyWilliams is so offended by us then why was she on OUR float at NYC Pride? pic.twitter.com/uKI7B9Sclp

— Steph Mendoza (@MindofMendoza) February 14, 2020

    You want gay men to stop trying to dress and be like women, have you seen yourself, show us your mangina so we can all put this at rest. Striking resemblance to man in drag no doubt. Excuse me sir! #WendyWilliams pic.twitter.com/dJKAlSV1RK

— ArmoredNight (@armored_night) February 14, 2020

    #WendyWilliams going on an anti #trans rant for no good reason. Whining about periods as though periods are what's most important about women. Sorry, Wendy. You're not the decider of who can be a woman. Every person gets to decide who they are. Your input is not welcome.

— Risa Pappas (@RisaPappas) February 13, 2020

    @WendyWilliams let the gays wear their skirts and heels they are the reason you look good when you step out on your stage

— Jazell Barbie Royale (@BarbieJazell) February 13, 2020

    @WendyWilliams If you dont like seeing men dressing up like women then i dont like women trying to be like us stop playing sports stop drinking beer stop wearing sweat pants stop using deep voices #women vs #men #incels #proud

— Jason (@ThePlaymaker06) February 13, 2020

  Today, Wendy posted a video to deliver a tearful apology for the comments she made on her show about gay men:

In the clip, she said she didn't realize how her comments came across until she re-watched the episode.

"I did not mean to offend my LGBTQ+ community on yesterday's show. One thing I can tell you right now is that I never do the show in a place of malice," she said.

She said she understands her platform with the community.

"I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings. I'm just having a conversation."

The 55-year-old host said she may have seemed like "somebody out of touch."

"I'm not out of touch except for perhaps yesterday for saying what I said. I deeply apologize and I deeply appreciate the support I get from the community. I will do better. I appreciate you supporting me. Thank you," she concluded.

Peep her apology above.

Last month, Wendy offered an apology for comments she made about JOKER star Joaquin Phoenix's cleft lip. Looks like this will be the year of apologies for Wendy if she doesn't start being smarter with voicing her opinions. Also, Beyoncé is owed about 100 apologies, but whatevs.

Do you think people will accept Wendy's apology, or is she CANCELLED cancelled?

Photo: A.Wright/Shutterstock.com

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/02/14/wendy-williams-delivers-tearful-apology-after-firing-shots-at-gay-men-who-wear-women%E2%80%99s%E2%80%99-c

[hungryego]

Why I love EGS so fucking much

I first checked out El Goonish Shive many years ago. If memory serves, this was in the early 2010s. I don’t recall reading much that didn’t feel like wish fulfillment and it didn’t draw me in so I left it. More recently, a friend of mine who I got into killsixbilliondemons (one of the best webcomics around today) and who reintroduced me to the Mistborn series recommended it to me. I vaguely remembered a few aspects but had no real memory.

EGS is a bit of a mess, really. This is because in its earliest days (2002, amazingly) it was poorly drawn, over-the-top silly, and more than a little problematic at times. Characters were not so tightly defined and there was a lot of nonsense. There was a magic gun that would transform people (mostly gender and furry stuff) but it was... kind of bleh? It’s hard to say. The author has admitted that at that time he was worried about reactions to any sort of trans-related theme so he overcompensated with the character’s reactions to Tedd’s... thing.

By the first real arc, Sister, things were starting to come together. I don’t really want to get into details, but that arc, while flawed, led to some amazing stuff down the road. It was also the first serious plot, which gave it more weight than a comic that was mostly random nonsense.

A bit later the Painted Black arc came and that was rather good. Still far from perfect, but Dan’s art style was drastically improving and Grace’s backstory was explained. It was also a lot darker than previous storylines. Don’t get me wrong - darkness is fun as hell but sometimes there’s too much and I think later EGS managed to set a balance between sadness and good cheer.

I don’t want to detail every story arc by any means but I feel like those two were important milestones for the comic. They helped me actually get into it.

As the story is today (obviously there are spoilers so, you know, don’t read if you're worried about that), there are a lot of fascinating characters, many of whom are queer. Actually, I’m pretty sure most of the main cast is some level of queer (the only one who I’m not sure of is Susan, but she has other issues that are treated well). Magic is abundant but surprisingly logical in that it is explained in a manner that is consistent and its rules generally don’t bend or break.

The basics of it in that world are as follows:

* Normal people can’t do magic, but they can acquire it through the intervention of magic immortal beings (who usually only give them marks in very specific scenarios or when they want to get something done as they can’t affect the world directly)

* People generally acquire magic in the form of a mark, which gives them access to one spell. Through practice (and often an intense event, emotional or otherwise), they can awaken and start acquiring new spells (chosen by magic, which has a will of sorts)

* Uryuoms have transformational powers and physical abilities that are like magic but internal in such a way that they have resistance/immunity to a lot of magic

Note: Uryuom aren’t aliens but are aliens and I’m still not really sure about where they came from. They featured heavily in some earlier stories (especially Painted Black) but haven’t shown much other than as background characters since then.

It’s worth describing the main cast and also some auxiliary queer characters of interest.

Note: in EGS, the word ‘transgender’ was used a lot with regards to transformation spells/technology, but trans characters in the standard sense of the word do exist. When I say “turned into” I’m referring to magic that physically changes their bodies, not their identities (which are separate).

Trans and/or gender non-conforming (identity is weird, don’t want to paste the label of trans onto certain characters):

Tedd Verres - arguably the main main character, although there are many arcs where they don’t show up much. One of the original two characters. Half-Japanese and born with some rather unique magical potential (and lack thereof), AMAB. Tedd has always been androgynous but would get extremely defensive if anyone referred to them as female. They learn about genderfluidity from Grace in a glorious moment. As the story currently is they are working out who they are, and since magic is going to change they’re dealing with the emotional ramifications of whether they’d rather be stuck as a boy or a girl in the likely event that magic changes.

Elliot Dunkel - the other first character in the strip along with Tedd. He starts out rough when it comes to gender stuff (see last panel here, first panel is flashback in following strip) but ends up zapped by a transformation gun and turned into a girl. Eventually he dispels it with a crystal but that creates a double under the ‘curse’ (Ellen, cis) and gives them both powers. Elliot’s is the ability to transform into a girl (and shapeshift under those parameters). He’s at first frustrated by the fact that he HAS to (because of the circumstances of his acquiring said powers he is forced to use up excess magic energy or else he’ll unintentionally transform at random times, something that would be rather inconvenient), but later on he realizes that he’s never really cared about being a boy or a girl and he was just dealing with societal baggage. Oh, and he develops the power to transform into a female superhero. It’s great. Realizing that he actually likes who he is and that being fluid is a part of who he is (all glorious moments of character development). Seriously, he went on a date with his girlfriend as a girl and it was so fucking cute and they are adorable together and just wow it was so cute. Elliot’s agender but also somewhat genderfluid. Also, mostly into girls but definitely enjoys men as well.

 Yes, both of the main characters (initially ‘boys’) later on realized that they were a variety of genderfluid.

Grace: Grace is part alien? (Uryuom insist that they are not aliens but their origins are still unclear), part human, part squirrel (Uryuom eggs can have DNA from up to twelve sources, to my memory). She’s a person of color who is a natural shapeshifter. I don’t recall where it is clarified but she doesn’t really have a sense of any sort of gender as she’s always been a shapeshifter and that’s just natural to her. Basically agender. Also, has discussed how human bodies shouldn’t be limited to characteristics of one gender, has explicitly discussed the lack of binariness to gender and sex and is just generally super wonderful.

There’s also one or two side characters who are trans and don’t have access to any sort of transformation powers.

Most relevant is Sam, a fan of an in-universe analogue of magic the gathering who is a closeted transguy (only is himself at tournaments). Also, an overdramatic doofus who is like one of those pokemon trainers who go on about wearing shorts because of how much easier it makes to run around. He is wonderful. He has a date (or a not-date because people are awkward) with one of the main cast members (Sarah) and as such is likely to become a recurring character.

It’s worth pointing out that of course EGS isn’t totally unproblematic (but what is, really?) and that in a world with magic transformation things can get a little weird but it’s definitely well done by more recent years. The stuff this year especially is just fantastic. Seeing characters break past socialization and realizing that they aren’t what they thought they were is fantastic.

Also, most of the other cast is some variety of non-straight:

Sarah (third character to be introduced) is bi (more into guys but definitely into girls too).

Nanase (Japanese) is a lesbian.

Ellen (Elliot’s female duplicated created by a cursed artifact) is a homoromantic bisexual (and dating Nanase).

Justin is super gay.

Also, a bunch of recurring side characters (or side characters who are definitely going to come back because of going on a gay date with one of the main cast members) are queer - Rhoda (bi or lesbian, person of color), Catalina (lesbian), Luke (gay, ethnically ambiguous), Ashley (Elliot’s new girlfriend, bi, east asian).

Lots and lots of gayness.

Apologies for general weirdness of the post. I’ve been dealing with a lot of mental health problems lately but I want to tell the world that EGS is one of my favorite webcomics and that whatever problems it has in its earlier years it more than makes up for. Give it a try if it sounds interesting.

Also, there are anime-style martial arts, founded by a man who mastered a few martial arts and watched way too much anime to the point of obsession and it actually works.

Dan Shive (the author) hasn’t explicitly stated his own identity but doesn’t really have a gender.

EGS tumblr - @egscomics

Also, reading the comic helped me realize that I’m genderfluid (not in a male-female sense but more of a female - nothing - weird stuff sense).

It’s good.