#I've had coffee so I'm all hyped up and my words might not make sense

[alwaysspeakshermind]

When I say 'I ship it'

this is what I mean:

Because I believe just about anything and everything can (and should!) be analyzed, I have decided to post a trio of unnecessary charts I made once upon a time in college, while I was supposed to be studying. 

Are they exciting? No!

But they do help illustrate the method to my personal madness, and I've got a 'favorite ships' list I've been needing to finish for like a year now that I feel like this will help explain, so there’s that. 

How I ship: lazy little flowchart edition

For me, it’s not about tropes, aesthetics, or the following of/rebelling against canon. It’s essentially chemistry, story, and overall execution that sell me on a pairing, and all three need to be present in order to reel me in. 

Ex. 1: If the chemistry is dynamite but the setup is meh or the storyline takes a dive/drags too long/rushes too much etc., I’m out. Maybe I'll read a fanfic or two for a taste of What Could Have Been If..., but effectively, I'm out.

Ex. 2: If the setup/potential is the most brilliant, epic piece of art in the history of the written/spoken word but the chemistry is blah or the actual execution of the relationship doesn’t live up to the preamble, I’m not just kind of out...I’m Viola-Davis-grabbing-her-purse gif out, and I’m locking the door behind me, and I might even be considering writing a strongly-worded rant on how annoyed I am over my time being wasted.

Ex. 3: If the relationship, whenever it finally happens, is the cutest/hottest/most magnetic and beautiful example of a well-written and loving relationship ever but the chemistry is so-so and the setup is barely there, I may not be out, but I’m definitely not in, because who in the world is excited to drink lukewarm coffee? Not me, so thank you, but no thank you.

That’s just how it is.

And even if I love a ship, certain writing choices can still turn me off of them/lessen my liking for them; while I do sometimes joke about cherry-picking from canon, I don’t as a rule just ignore things I hate and hype what I like because I can’t. It’s like lying to myself, and I don’t roll like that. When I ship, I’m ultimately shipping a dynamic (And yes, the dynamic is usually take-charge, kind-of-b!tchy girl and a feels all the feels/flies-by-the-seat-of-the-pants guy, but what of it?), but I need the dynamic to be built on something that feels organic to both story and characters so that the exasperatingly practical part of my brain isn’t interrupting with things like “But why would they get together?”/ “Why would they get together now?” 

Like...I don’t care if we’re discussing animated mice (Disney's The Rescuers) or elderly assassins (RED). I need to see that they like each other, I need to see why they’re great together, and I need to see why it makes sense for them to get together when they do, as opposed to earlier or later.

So, in summary...I do not convince myself to ship. The ship convinces me, and there is a definable process.

Levels of shipping: cute (love-themed?) colors edition

This one’s pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll be quick. 

Lowest level = “I don’t NOT ship it” = the default level = the ingredients are all there, the finished product is just not tasty enough to tempt me. (Maybe they were mixed improperly, maybe the cookies were pulled from the oven too soon, maybe they had all the ingredients for a delectable layer cake and chose instead to make cornbread and call it dessert, maybe they just served me vanilla when I wanted chocolate, etc.) Highest level = “I hardcore ship it” = the rarest level of shipping I attain = however calm I claim to be about loving this pairing, I am downplaying it because I am actually unhinged. I adore them. You will never make me stop shipping them. The bridge is crossed so stand and watch it burn because babes, we have PASSED the point of no return and I have ZERO regrets.

Rough Shipping #s: extremely unscientific version that I would never let my old stat prof see b/c it would make her sad and possibly think about revoking that good grade she gave me

Whatever the fictional medium, my default shipping mode is neutral...most of the time, when I read a book or watch a show/movie, I don’t care one way or another about the relationships presented. My primary concerns are “do they work?” and if the answer is “yes, they have a not unpleasant dynamic, and the proper amount of work has been put into developing that dynamic,” then I sort of go “okay, good for them” and I move on.

If the answer is “no, they’re kind of boring/basic/bland etc. and they just sort of happen for no discernible reason and/or leave a bad taste in my mouth” then I roll my eyes, get through it as soon as possible, and move on. It’s out of the ordinary for me to love a ship, but it is even more out of the ordinary for me to actively dislike a ship, and it is rarest of all for me to hate a ship. So when I say I adore a ship, it’s kind of a big deal. And when I say I loathe a ship...yeah, well. You get the picture.

In summary:

When I say "I ship it," I mean all the above elements have clicked for me. I have gone through a process to reach this point. I'm not just going "ooh, pretty people, I want them together!" or "ooh, character I relate to most! I want them with character I'd want to be with most!"

Nope.

It's about the journey AND the destination AND the pre-journey prepwork, but it's also about an X-factor, something special I respond to with each ship...and at the end of the day, if that little unexplainable spark is there I'll ship it. If it's not, I won't.

[rad-octopus]

How to be a cryptoterf

My main blog was recently followed by a transwoman, and I feel the need to remind myself how to not get doxxed. Hopefully the little things I've learned will help others, too.

Try to get as many degrees of separation as you can from an "out" radfem blog, especially those that have obviously radfem or terf usernames (I include my username in the obvious category, as an example). Do not reblog from them on your main, no matter how brilliant their posts are (Sorry, ladies).

If you see a post that you want to reblog but it has the name of an obvious radfem? Either reblog from the op (Unless they are also an obvious radfem, then don't) or dive into whoever the obvious radfem reblogged from. You might have to go back several reblogs, but it usually works for me.

Only reblog basics of radfem theory that have nothing to do with trans people. If you can avoid reblogging ANYTHING with the word trans in it, even better. And honestly? Also be careful with posts that criticize gender even though they're 100% correct

If you're worried about alerting a radfem you follow that your main blog is connected to your side blog (I'm not, but I understand that some people are paranoid about ANYONE knowing that they have a radfem side blog), don't reblog to your side blog immediately after liking the post from your main (tip: whenever you like something, you are ALWAYS using your main blog to do so). The pattern becomes pretty recognizable after a couple times.

This is the hardest one for me because my memory is awful plus I follow so many blogs, but keep an idea in your mind of who you can reblog from. There are radfems who don't have obvious usernames but still reblog enough trans discourse that if a libfem went "oh cool, that's a great idea, I should follow that blog" and clicked on it, they would figure out that it's a radfem blog within 3 posts. This point is, of course, up to your personal discretion about who you personally put into the "safe" cryptoterf category and who you put into the "unsafe- and-more-obvious-than-crypto" terf category.

This might make #5 significantly easier, but god at what cost, so I'd like input on this idea in particular: Download shinigami eyes. Look. I know. I hate hate HATE this idea, and I haven't yet done it myself because I use mobile but also because I can't quite bring myself to do it. But if people are genuinely using it to out cryptoterfs (does this actually happen? I haven't seen this personally, but I can imagine it happening), maybe we should use it, too? Genuinely would love to hear other radfems' thoughts about this point.

Be careful of what you like. As I mentioned in #4, whenever you like something, you are always using your main blog. Sometimes I don't even like a radfem post because 2 conditions are met: 1. They're too popular, meaning there's an increased chance an angry tra will go searching through the blog for more blogs to put on terf lists. 2. The post has only a couple other people liking it, meaning that if said tra trolls through said blog, I can't hide my like in a crowd of other likes.

If you're on the fence about whether you can reblog a post? Look at the notes. If there's fewer than 1000 notes and the vast majority are radfems? Might be too risky. Up to you, but that's one of the metrics I use when I'm feeling particularly paranoid.

(Edited to add because I forgot) Hide your likes and the blogs you follow. Do it now. You don't owe anyone that info anyway.

For those of you libfems who read this and think "this is it! This is proof that they're trying to indoctrinate us!" Stop.

First of all, y'all already steal radfem philosophy all the damn time. How many times have you seen "op was a terf so I'm reposting" this week alone? I've seen it a disturbing amount of times, including the warning comment "op is a terf!" on radfem posts that have jack shit to do with trans people. If our thoughts are so vile and awful, why are you reposting it? Could it maybe, possibly be that... we're right? And you've been told a lot of lies about our ideology?

Second, this is a guide on how to talk about the wave of feminism that secured major rights for women without receiving hate, getting doxxed, or worse. I created this side blog and became a cryptoterf on my main BECAUSE I started to get hate messages on my main, calling me vile, sexist, racist. I don't want to lose my job, I don't want to be subjected to hate. It's such a real and present threat that people in my offline life, who I talk to about all this, have asked me to be careful and that they're worried.

If any radfems with cryptoterf blogs wanna hit me up, I'd love to hear from you! I genuinely think that when women in particular read basic radfem tenets without the scary tra buzzwords in the back of their heads (similar to how you can get die hard republicans to agree with you about socialism if you describe it without using knee-jerk reaction words like socialism and capitalism), they much more easily realize the good that radical feminism can do. If we can develop a system where we know who our fellow cryptoterfs are and reblog from each other, I think we can get a lot more people to read radfem theory so they can decide for themselves what to believe without all the baggage.

@spookyterf you've said previously that you have a cryptoterf blog, do you have any pointers? Anyone else with a cryptoterf blog is also welcome to comment.