#and also not just in fandom either this is the rhetoric irl too

[frogayyyy]

just some ramblings on the rise of rebranded homophobia in relation to shipping and fandom etc (i watched lotr yesterday)

the way people will say "healthy friendships between men are important and we need representation!!!!" (this is true) in response to shipping as if there's an abundance of mlm relationships in media and yknow. homophobia hasn't existed??

“>:[ us men aren't allowed to be just friends anymore!!!! because of the homophobia!!!! that we created!!!!!!”

i've definitely seen this sentiment grow more again over the last few years as the number of canonical mlm relationships (often badly written or lacking any substance) increases.

before it was just a blatant "no homo" or something but it's now becoming a bit more subtle and "how dare you imply this character could be gay? do you hate men being friends?! go back to your handful of bland designated Gay Characters that we so generously gave you" from the same people who have spent years adding to the very same toxic masculinity and homophobia that stopped them from having deep and healthy friendships with other men in the first place. dare i say gaslighting?

(and just to be extra clear i am not talking about ace/aro people, or characters who are headcanoned as ace/aro, or qprs, etc. or even anyone interpreting a relationship as 'just' platonic. i'm only referring to that specific "no homo" kind of argument against shipping)

[definitelynotshouting]

grian pains me why is he such an angst child (rhetorical but needed to be said nonetheless)

i do have a query, punctuation ranking list mayhaps? em dashes?/lh

im glad our love for the fic and universe helps motivate you, remember to take care of yourself!! us avid readers will wait

He rlly is squeaky-toy coded isnt he [said as i am gripping him and throwing him repeatedly against the wall for my own amusement]

AKSNWKSNSM CALLED OUT MERCILESSLY FOR MY LOVE OF EM DASHES.... THIS IS SUCH A CRUEL WORLD /SILLY

Unfortunately youve activated my editorial trap card bc while i dont know if i can rank punctuation since they all have such specific uses that make them each invaluable i do have an internal system of prioritization for how and when i use them that sorta.. denotes how well they might make a sentence POP

For example: em dashes, semicolons, periods, and commas are my staples. My general rules of use for em dashes and semicolons specifically is that i TRY not to use them in the same sentence more than once or twice per chapter/story, and i try to alternate between them where i can to keep things varied and interesting, depending on whats being written. Both are very good for asides and building on top of the previous sentence!!! Semicolons, however, get SPICY if used for a list >:] and that can be REALLY useful for me if i want to hit hard and fast with a series of particular images!!!

Colons are smth i try to use more sparingly and deliberately, but are REALLY fun bc almost every time i use them its like code for my brain to go "oh so we're going absolutely batshit ham on this next line, got it" skdbwjdkwkdkd. Sometimes that looks like me going crazy with imagery, and sometimes thats just me dropping something i find structurally simple yet achingly poignant. Either way its meant to be a gut punch >:]

Ellipses are something i generally don't use much outside of dialogue with some exceptions (listen if it fits the narration then it fits) but my gods they are SO MUCH FUN within dialogue..... guys when they trail off like irl people do all the time...... tbh the em dash and ellipsis are my bestest friends when it comes to dialogue bc i am so damn obsessed with writing people who sound like people. Thank u tma for upgrading my dialogue significantly<3 podcast fandoms are REALLY good for that to the surprise of absolutely nobody

Exclamation and question marks are very fun to put a lil flavour into your prose too but i also try to use them sparingly outside of dialogue-- i personally feel that if used too much in the prose itself it can read as either a bit childish or like its very blatantly trying to lead you around by the nose. But my gods starting off a story with a question??? That shit ROCKS i love doing it and reading it, its a banger every time. By and large i think my favorite opener to a story ive written so far has to be "What is the definition of a haunting?" from my dsmp fic when the night cries. Good shit your honor good shit

Anyway yeah i dont have much of a tierlist per se but those are my general thoughts on how i personally use punctuation :]

[edwardsissyhandsthtdanceslikeabb]

my longsuffering meta on extremism in fandom

aka this reblog was too good not to make into its own post —

✧˚₊‧

(These comments were rebutting calls for censoring predatory / "pedo" fics, with detractors claiming all censorship, without exception, is authoritarian).

"Either you’re for it or you aren’t."

"...if you take it to its logical extreme."

"It’s that they want you backed into a rhetorical corner where you feel compelled to agree with them."

"Something being nasty is not a good reason to ban fiction about it."

my reblog:

im not sure if ppl are aware they're doing it, but they're employing very extreme, conformist, fearmongering language which inadvertently ends up reinforcing exactly what they're critiquing. im definitely not the biggest anti sympathizer around, but the stuff they're talking abt isn't just "nasty", that's a very disingenuous and reductive way of characterizing it, a good portion of it is illegal, and can and has been illegal without simultaneously/automatically targeting people's rights. and while illegal, a lot of it is trivialized, unaddressed, rampant, sewn into cultural norms, or having protections dismantled rn, these are not issues that are unanimously bad or completely safeguarded irl.

additionally, these ppl are not automatically asking for authorized/institutionally enforced censorship just bc they think some things should not be promoted, they're very clearly using words like "we" and "everyone" which alludes to fandom culture and etiquette, and relatedly, they're not necessarily saying that this restriction should extend to victims and educational media, conflating the two ends up weaponizing and tokenizing victims and portraying them as a monolith that all feel and cope the same way. now i'm NOT trying to say that this conversation does not include or has not been informed and spearheaded by survivors [even in this very thread] of a lot of the abuse mentioned, but i think hearing the input of those (also possibly survivors) you don't agree with and considering their feelings is imperative in letting everyone be heard and not enforcing authoritarian dominance you sanction. this doesn't mean you can't have your safe spaces or have to acquiesce to the demands of outsiders — policing the ways ppl explore and deal with their trauma is unhelpful, sanctimonious and pushes purity culture (esp when there's a double standard for victims of violent crime and the main issue here often being HOW ppl express entertainment/enjoyment), but i think understanding their concerns and the ways facets inherent to exploring problematic themes, though relegated to narratives, may bleed into real harm, problems or attitudes that escape the confines of that space or affect fandom as a whole, hurting ppl in tangible ways, and actually functioning as smth dangerous.

this becomes a bit tricky bc what's defined as "pedo" for example varies from person to person (fiction is a vehicle for narrative exploration, meaning characters can and have been reduced to functional constituents as opposed to representation, and consequently, irl contexts can be/are stripped. not everything is actually harmful, there are PLENTY situations where a dynamic that would inherently be predatory irl is just a dynamic and age or power imbalance doesn't factor bc its not real, so those aspects have been eliminated, in the source material or the fic. however if real markers of age or youth or maturity are applied to a character and major facets of their personhood are inextricable from their age, then yk, that aligns with promotion). plus "knowing" who is a victim or not can often undermine anonymity and make ppl feel doubted or pressured, but i think a very rudimentary and balanced way to get around this is to actually evaluate what the content is saying and encouraging those who its intended for to hold the author accountable if they end up platforming problematic matter in a way that romanticizes, undermines or promotes it. like i think its fairly easy to tell when someone is exploring a dynamic or theme, portraying a dynamic, using a theme as a narrative vehicle, delving into the theme's dubiousness or complexity to the characters or working through smth vs using something effectively as propaganda to excuse or cause irl harm to marginalized communities, and if that distinction becomes muddy i think its just as easy to engage the author instead of automatically deferring to either extreme of censorship or blind support.

language like "if taken to the extreme" is very revealing bc why do we have to do that? it also reveals that we're NOT there, and that intervention IS a spectrum, we CAN employ nuance ppl. yall's kneejerk should NOT be to reject balance or productivity or coherent arguments.

this shouldn't be a puritanical fight where each side levies their big moral argument as to why they're superior and ur a bad person if you don't support them (which is what implying that censoring works that promote, not depict but promote problematic themes is equivalent to erasing lgbtq or victims' rights. bc realize it or not, ppl are equivocating the two — and i get why, but we don't have to / it can be implemented in a way that doesn't).

we're all clearly doing this bc we care abt ppl, so let's maybe start doing that, yeah?

[who-is-page]

hey, do you have any posts on the history of the kin community and the origin of the word? I just had an encounter with someone who said that fictionkin and otherkin are somehow different from just kin by itself... :P

I don't have any specific posts on that-- or rather, I'm sure I do, but they're buried in my tags and unfindable.

The standalone word "kin" meaning one's family or relations is, of course, a word that predates the otherkin and related community; but I have a feeling that in this ask, the individual you were involved with was either arguing that the shorthand of otherkin, 'kin, is somehow separate from the community (which it isn't-- it's shorthand for a reason!) or was arguing that people who inly ever use kin as a verb to mean "to stan," "to like," "to relate to," or "to take on the aesthetics of for fun," are separate from the otherkin community, which yes, they are.

For the former, "'kin as shorthand," that one seems pretty self-explanatory: sometimes, you get tired of typing out "otherkin" in a post or essay repetitively, and shorten it to just 'kin. You can even see the shorthand applied to anti-otherkin, who are often just shortened to being called "anti-kin" or "antikin." With that said, here's one older example of an excerpt by ex-Therianthrope Lupa Greenwolf from her A Field Guide to Otherkin, which uses 'kin as a shorthand: A Day in the Life of Otherkin.

For the latter, "kin for fun" or "KFF," as it's sometimes called nowadays, the history is a bit more fraught, but no: people like this are not otherkin, therian, nor fictionkin just for stanning celebrities nor for really liking specific characters. Otherkinity and identities related to it are considered to be about identifying as and on some level recognizing oneself as being something either partially or entirely nonhuman-- most typically through psychological or spiritual explanations or reasoning, but not always limited to just those two. These identities can be silly and fun in their own right, but if someone is just having silly fun in fandom spaces by picking out their annual blorbos or squeeing over the latest pop star RPF then that's a separate phenomena. It's still perfectly valid for people to do! It's just not something that makes people otherkin.

KFF evolved from anti-otherkin shenanigans in the mid-2010's: with anti-otherkin constantly insisting that otherkinity was a choice and a common experience that anyone could have but that people who called themselves otherkin were taking "too far." Some popular bloggers ended up picking up on this rhetoric, believing the anti-kin and spreading it further (usually also alongside the ableism, sanism, and bizarre antisemitism that anti-kin would push with it, which explains a lot of the rhetoric from KFF that's been aimed at otherkin in the past that I've seen).

One particular fictionkin blogger who later ended up being revealed to be a fake--a cis-woman who was revealed to have been lying about her race, her gender identity/status as a transgender person, and other things potentially besides for the sake of Internet Clout--YandereBitchClub, especially caused problems in the community and could even be argued to in some ways be the true founder of the KFF community from 2014~ish. She pushed narratives of kin as a voluntary, social justice/morality-related, fandom concept, saying things such as how queer individuals couldn't have fictotypes with characters who were straight/cis, and that "problematique" fictotypes meant you were actually an evil person IRL. Lots of harassment brigades, lots of being genuinely cruel and awful to actual fictionkin, this person and the resounding ideas that people took from them are in a lot of ways responsible for the fictionkin cultural crash of the mid-to-late 2010's. But she's not the only popular blogger who's spread misinformation, we've also seen it from people like Normal-Horoscopes and popular YouTubers like the Amazing Athiest (yuck).

So KFF aren't otherkin, and are much closer to just a subset of anti-otherkin based on everything. If they were placed on a timeline graph would look more something like...this:

Some sources below.

General Sources:

“Otherkin - People who identify either partially or wholly as one or more non-human beings, entities, or concepts in a psychological or spiritual manner.” (2015, Kinmunity.com, now defunct. RIP)

Otherkin timeline: The recent history of elfin, fae, and animal people, v. 2.0 (Unabridged). by Orion Scribner

Otherkin Lexicon: A multi-lingual dictionary of jargon used in the communities of otherkin, therianthropes, and other similar peoples. by Orion Scribner

Addendums to Scribner’s The Otherkin Timeline. by House of Chimeras

Examples of Otherkin defined as identifying as something nonhuman over the years:

“Otherkin, n. [Coined 1990 by Torin / Darren Stalder in the Elfinkind Digest listserve. E. other additional, or different in kind from the one implied + E. kin family, kind, race. Pl. otherkin. Based on contemporary use of the word elfinkin or elvenkin for people who identify as elves. Spelling note: some authors spell “otherkin” with a capital O, some don’t, and some use either. Syn. otherkind (obsolete).]

1. (elven comm., early otherkin comm.) [1990 in the Elfinkind Digest listserve.] (Never commonly used. Obsolete in mid-1990s.) The below definition, but limited to refer only to people who identify as mythological creatures other than elves. With such usage, a group of people who identified as elves, dragons, and satyrs would be called “elfinkin and otherkin.”

2. (otherkin comm.) [Circa 1992?] (Now commonly used.) Otherkin are real, non-fictional people who identify as other than human. Otherkin identify as creatures from myth and legend, usually elves, faeries, and dragons. This is a sincere identity, not role-play. Many otherkin identify as other than human for spiritual reasons; that is, they classify their identity as otherkin as a personal spiritual belief. Being otherkin is a very individualistic thing: each otherkin reaches his own explanation for how and why he is an otherkin. Some of their common spiritual explanations include that they are other than human in spirit, or they were other than human in past incarnations. Although spiritual belief is often involved, “otherkin” isn’t a religion. As such, each person who identifies as otherkin practices whatever religion he individually wants. It has always been the case that most of the otherkin community practices Neo-Pagan religions, and so that religious perspective shapes the common views and ideas in the otherkin community. Some otherkin don’t use spiritual explanations. Some otherkin believe that they are physically other than human, or that their ancestors were.

3. (otherkin, dragon, and therian communities) [Circa 2006] The above definition, but expanded to also include people who identify as animals (therianthropes). Less often, some people use the word “otherkin” as an even larger umbrella term to include otherkin, therianthropes, and vampires. A more appropriate umbrella term has yet to be made.

4. (fiction, outside of the otherkin comm.) [Circa 2006] Starting around 2006, several novelists later appropriated (or independently coined?) the term “otherkin” to refer to fictional, physically supernatural entities. In those novels, the term “otherkin” doesn’t refer to real kinds of people Otherkin Lexicon O. Scribner 25 who simply feel other-than-human at heart. Those authors include paranormal romance novelists Nina Bangs, Anya Bast, and Delilah Devlin.″ (2013, Orion Scribner’s Otherkin Lexicon)

“Personally I would describe Otherkin as any person who believes that they are, in some way, other than their kin (kin being humans), and kin to the other (the other being non-terrestrial/mythical/religious/etc. entities). This belief is something that can be spiritual or psychological but, at its core, it is a belief and not a physical condition.” (2013, Tumblr Otherkin FAQ from someone who has been in the community for 14+ years, since their description hasn't been updated in the last five years.)

“Otherkin: There are two main definitions of this term, and both are provided here so as to denote the prevalence of both definitions being used often.  One definition is that otherkin is a general, overarching term for those people who feel they are in part or whole [non-physically] non-human, with one or more non-human otherkin types/aspects (also known as a ‘kintype); this is a category that therians are a subsection of, but it also includes a variety of other non-human creatures, including but not limited to mythical creatures.  The other definition is the same except that it is not as generalized of a category and instead only denotes the creatures that are mythical, fantastical, or non-Earth animals.” (2013 or before, Project Shift)

“Otherkin. (uh’ther-kin) n. A person who believes her/his self to be of another species in spirit, or in some other way identifies with a particular creature, usually of myth and legend. For example, a person who accepts that she/he is human in body, but believes herself/himself to be a faery in spirit, or that she/he has elven ancestry, etc. Plural: otherkin. No adjectival form.“ (2009, Otherkin News on Livejournal)

“[…] a person who believes that, through either a nonphysical or (much more rarely) physical means, s/he is not entirely human.” (2007, Lupa’s Field Guide to Otherkin)

[mt-lowercase-m-derogatory]

Some people's gender is just "Henchman", and I met a lot of those people.

This will be a long, self-centered, self-mythologizimg, rambling narrative about my youth where nobody comes off well. There is no moral to this, and there is no real story either. Insert the "This is not a place of Honor" copypasta here.

During my childhood/adolescence, I did not know I was really fucking chronically ill. I just thought that everything people do while not lying down just sort of sucked somewhat and people are ok with it. If an assignment required lots of handwriting, which took me significant effort and pain for very ugly results, I interpreted that to imply a view of us as so filled with respect for authority and desire to please that we would studiously do our work.

There is a lot of genuine callousness to the way children and teenagers are treated, and that naturally builds some frustration. Now imagine being able to vicariously release that frustration through one incredible asshole of a fellow child, someone locked in an endless battle against the teaching staff to be left alone about not doing homework, but also someone who shows up surprised to every exam before acing it.

A mythical figure simultaneously at odds with and one with the world. A transcendent Bodhisattva moonlighting as Cú Chulainn. Someone achieving what you are told are the goals of school, while being maligned for a lacking work ethic nonstop.

That is why I had friends as a child. There is no other explanation - I certainly didn't take initiative. I was too busy dissociating from my aching form by consuming an endless stream of books from the massive free library near me. At all times. Especially during classes. I would carry around separate novels in English and German to justify my actions to my English or German language professors. The amount of nonsense that happened to ensure my divine right to be uninterrupted in my pursuit of literature is difficult to describe. One of the persistent holdouts was my mathematics professor - despite the fact I'd annihilated the entire rest of the school and most of the country in every national mathematics competition, despite eventually making it to the god damn internationals, I was not allowed my printed opium.

... Ok it's midnight and I've spent way too long talking about books. Let's try to remember people. Ow ow ow ow pain pain bad idea.

I had some very close friends, overwhelmingly the kind of kids who could not yet quite figure out how to socially weaponize their intellectual interests. To them, I was Napoleon, and I don't have a complex, I think it's quite simple.

For so long, since kindergarten, I'd been told I just "thought I was better than everyone else/too good to put in effort"... That I started to believe it. I like to think it's a kind of humility - they wouldn't be wrong, right? I'm not special enough to be the one they all get wrong.

That's where the trouble started. I still believe I had a kind heart, but I had a black belt in the rhetoric of intellectual superiority and many eager students.

It's hard to describe what it was like to attract people (platonically and otherwise) based solely off being a smug asshole who knew too much. Fandom culture sometimes feels way too close to home, I feel like one of those people who misguidedly relate to Tyler Durden, except it's Gregory House and Wholock. I'm pretty sure that the few and unfortunate summer-camp-for-gifted-teens girls who tried to approach me before I realized I was unique in being aro/ace- they projected some hateable tumblr sexyman on me. and that's-that's harrowing.

I don't feel like any of the changes in my life have truly come from anything except realizing the things that were wrong with my body the whole time, except that one thing. The thought of someone wanting to be "the Watson" or "Wilson" to my dysfunctional bitch witticisms IRL has grown kind of horrifying.

[oilslicksoftserve]

You ever think about how so many people had universally terrible experiences from 2011-2015/2016 and realize it’s probably an end result of us growing up on this website?

Like, we’ve varied in ages from early teenhood to early adulthood, but those are ages where we’re still developing socially and cognitively, and a lot of us compensated attention and education on here when our IRL lives and families didn’t provide by spending excessive amounts of time on here in our formative years (sex-ed was pretty good on here, though, I think that helped a lot of people out).

And as a result, at young ages for years we were exposed to:

Anti-treatment, anti-therapy, and anti-medication rhetoric by people who have either never sought out psychiatric assistance or had a bad therapist encouraging people to get off their meds and avoid therapy, and if you did either of those, you were The Enemy

Enabling of mental illness symptoms, fully excusing damage done by people with mental illnesses, and terrible coping methods (including encouraging re-traumatization alone with no moderation...actual exposure therapy is supervised for a reason...).

The development of a very harassment-centered culture lacking any critical thinking at all sucking young people in, exacerbated by the anonymous feature

Very restrictive expectations of how trans people should look a la uwu smol bean for trans men and Nonbinary people (the latter later on) and if they didn’t look like skinny androgynous hairless twinks they got harassed, meanwhile trans women got pretty much ignored until like 2014

Fandom drama with no nuance whatsoever, older fandom members getting weird boomer-like complexes

The notion that you need to leave fandom in general if you’re over 21-25 (varies by time period and fandom), usually only targeted toward women and carried a lot of sexism

Porn of all flavors, even the highly disturbing types in our face for years because people refused to tag NSFW and put it in main tags--and many of us were already desensitized to shocking porn only became more numb to it and stopped seeing it as a problem

One thing I’ve noticed a lot of Gen Z people haven’t experienced that numbness via exposure to early-mid 00′s internet, and don’t hand-wave those topics off as much.

A year or so where everyone was encouraged to consume, interact with, and post about porn regardless of age, which is pretty fuckin dangerous, dude, and it seemed to be out of defiance? And if you complained about this to any capacity, you were a pearl-clutching, slut-shaming prude. That was the perfect hunting ground for predators, jfc.

Also this is probably why current NSFW content creators work so damn hard to keep minors out of their space (aside from the fact minors are walking legal liabilities in that realm), we remember the shit that went down and what we saw too young, and how porn creators were treated like they had to be educational with everything they did...

Responsible creators wanna keep you safe, kids, and any adult who WANTS you to be in NSFW spaces and enables that are bad news.

Call-out posts

Just. call-out posts. Tumblr Call out posts.

Really petty reasoning, unsubstantiated accusations, & really old receipts in a lot of them (seriously, if someone did something 5+ years ago and don’t do it anymore, odds are they’ve improved and don’t think that way anymore ( that is affected by their age, of course, too))

The pressure to put every scrap of sensitive info about yourself online for everyone to see or you were judged

No wonder so many of us have psychological and emotional problems, a lot of which are a result of straight-up emotional trauma

[baixueagain]

speaking of the star wars sequel trilogy, I personally started seeing more anti stuff once the the force awakens came out because of the whole ‘kyle ron is ugly and doesn’t deserve a redemption arc and reylo is abuse’ thing. do you think anti ideology started to be spread around more and become more accepted because people wanted a moral reason to hate the ship, or was anti stuff already that pervasive and that’s just what brought it onto my dash personally?

I think Force Awakens just happened to come out at the same time that anti rhetoric was gaining more ground. I’d actually been on the receiving end of it several months prior from iwill//eatyourenglish and a few other early antis (before the term was really coined) because I’m a fan of Immortan Joe from Mad Max Fury Road. She and a few of her cohort called all of us rape fetishists and abuse apologists just because we liked a character, even when we 1) were always very careful to thoroughly tag our posts; and 2) informed them that a lot of us were survivors of abuse and assault. Many of us were AFAB people who had been deeply hurt by abusive men, and who had complex feelings about that, and the Immortan Joe fandom (aka the Gigadumpster) had become a community where we could explore those feelings. Many of us are still friends and mutuals to this day and some of us even spend time together IRL. It was and is a safe space, and these early antis tried to burn that down. It was deeply disturbing to see that from people who were claiming to be feminists.

When we sent them asks begging these people to stop spreading this kind of rhetoric about us because we were getting some really nasty hate mail, they naturally in good anti fashion accused us of harassment. To this day iwill//eatyourenglish still says that I led a harassment campaign against her, which is some amazing projection since I had never even heard of her until she suddenly came into the tags and started calling my friends and I rape apologists and whatnot. Because asking someone to stop bullying you is harassment, I guess? Nowadays I know that approaching antis privately and asking them to stop (or attempting to do so, anyway) doesn’t do any good, but back then I’d never seen anything this hateful and even harmful (remember, telling abuse and assault survivors that they condone their own abuse/assault is super fucking triggering and dangerous) over not even a ship, but a character.

I had seen occasional anti-esque discourse on tumblr before, but had never been on the receiving end of a direct harassment campaign like that because of it, and at that point I didn’t really know anyone else who had, either. It was something of an eye-opener. And then it just seemed to start happening everywhere more and more, especially by the time TFA was released.

So yeah, I think anti rhetoric just started really taking off in 2015, and TFA happened to come out at the perfect time for wannabe-activists on here to fixate on the idea that fem-aligned people who enjoy villainous characters represent What’s Wrong With Society Today. From there it just became part of wider fandom discourse rather than quarantined to specific tiny corners of fandom. It’s been wild seeing it happen in real time, but also really sad, too. Fandoms and fiction are supposed to be safe spaces where you can explore difficult topics that are too painful or dangerous to explore IRL, and antis have actively sought to destroy that safety. And, in many cases, they’ve succeeded.

[galacticvampirisms]

@peachie5000​

Figured I’d just make it clean so if you don’t want to interact, then you don’t have to. 

A. They don’t want to help real people - they claim they do, but then they will go and attack people who use fiction to cope or explore and understand difficult, complicated concepts. 

B. Pro-censorship is a slippery slope.

C. They’ve taken heavy language and twisted it to fit their own needs; words like pedophile no longer hold the same weight when it’s tossed about as an empty threat towards people they don’t like.

D. By attacking creators of appropriately tagged content, they’re discouraging the creation and utilization of these tags. But the fic and art won’t go away. They’ll just get filtered into the mainstream tags and fandom and will be  accessed by people who don’t want exposure to that sort of content. 

E. They blame the content creator and not the abuser for the abuse.

F. They brigade fandom creators and not mainstream media. Fandom creators often utilize tags and appropriate warnings. Mainstream media rarely does to the same extent (movies have a rating system, but an R for sexual themes does not tell me if there is rape involved. A rape/non-con/dub-con tag does). 

I keep having to rewrite this because I’m not very good at giving my thoughts but I think what’s stuck with me the most lately is the fact that antis attack small time people who may have an audience of thousands max and not the abusers. 

They say the people who write these stories are for incest and pedophilia, but the writers and artists who utilize the tags don’t support it. They’re giving people a chance to create their own safe spaces. It’s the artists and writers who don’t tag it, who let it leak out into the mainstream that should be spoken to. Not brigaded with hate, but asked if they understand what they’re writing is a problem and if they don’t give them the tools they need to educate themselves.

They attack victims of abuse, they send gore and porn to people they disagree with. And I’m not saying some anti-antis aren’t guilty of that too, but when I see the vitriol of the anti community versus how the anti-antis will normally interact a few times before just blocking someone - I know whose stance against hate I like more.

Also the idea that you write it and then tag it as abuse means you actually like and support that irl is just ??? to me. Sorry that’s actually why I commented to start with. I know some people do genuinely think this shit is okay and MAPs and other shitheads can go to hell for all I care. Nonoffending or not they don’t deserve a space or voice in the general public and fuck them. But saying people who often are an oppressed minority and/or victims of what they’re actively creating to explore believe it’s okay just because they used a content warning. It baffles me.

Oh and like most of the underage tag on AO3 is teens having sex with other teens. And most anti rhetoric sounds hella like “You can’t headcanon a 14 year old fictional character as asexual! It sexualizes them! They’ve obviously never thought about sex a day in their lives because 14 year olds don’t do that!” I mean

And I feel safe spaces can and should be carved out as needed. I was fine with a zine I’m in choosing to cull any Rei/mob shippers because I’m not a fan of that ship either - but the mods were so understanding about stuff like A Breach of Trust and age difference fic in general (we ended up talking about it a lot because I wanted to let my opinion be out there and if they weren’t comfortable they could kick me to the curb). But the thing is, you can’t turn the entire world into a safe space. If you did, and you start talking about actually burning books well. 

Ugh I hate this is so helter skelter. Sorry. I’m just super scattered and all over the place.

[janiedean]

Why do people ship so much in fiction? To the point that they made it such an activism movement? just because they 'd like to see 2 fictional character bang? Like, why do people even ship at the very first place? Life (and fiction) is/are much more than romantic stories?🤔

bwell this has two answers

people ship stuff because they’re interested in human relationships. like, as my man aristotle said once upon a time, man is a social being and since you end up seeing yourself in characters or there’s some kind of dynamics that are interesting to you, you end up shipping people. of course it can be your main drive or not - I mean there’s stuff I like regardless of whether I ship people in it and stuff I watch just for the ships or mostly for the ships because I like dynamic X/that type of character and the rest of the plot is bad or it’s admittedly trashy tv that I enjoy for the trash or because it’s good but it’s not groundbreaking and shit. I mean guys let’s be real deadwood’s my fave show because it’s overall a masterpiece and the fact that I have ships in it is secondary to it, while bastille day was a fairly good flick for its genre but I didn’t write fifteen fics for it for the plot, I do it because idris elba and richard madden playing two people who a) ship themselves, b) have the dynamic I like is relevant to my interests and I’d have never watched it for reasons other than those two people starring in it. like guys we’re allowed to be shallow once in a while, we also can like things for the eyecandy ;)

activism: because people on tumblr aren’t activists and don’t understand that making it about fictional ships is performative af. 

as in: I’ve been saying since fucking 2012 that applying politics to fandom that heavily beyond ‘this show has a very crappy treatment of category X so I’m gonna drop it bye moving on’ was going to fuck everyone else over, because sorry to say but 95% of activism on tumblr is a) performative, b) made by people (most times young) who never went to a march in their life and never internalized the concept that activism is not about your feelings, c) made by people who can’t conceive the concept of actually standing up, get out of the house and do something and who have drunk up all the pseudo-puritan rhetoric going around here and who don’t know any better, so since their main pasttime is fandom and shipping they decided to make shipping activism, which is a huge clusterfuck and should never happen, because then you get this amazing situation where people think that fiction = reality so what you ship = who you are and shipping *problematic* things = you are problematic, or shipping things that they perceive as *ist or *phobic means that you = *ist or *phobic, when someone’s shipping preferences or character preferences sometimes can definitely say something about them if they relate to a character, but most times say absolutely nothing about you as a person. (ie: I ship sandor/sansa, I do not relate to either character even if sandor is based on one of my favorite tropes ever so I do appreciate him in that sense [and I like sansa too but because she’s a good character, not because I relate to her or identify with her] and while I love their relationship/interaction I wouldn’t have wanted them to do anything in the canon timeline because she was too young for that and I like it also because of its *problematic* elements because they appeal to me fictionally, but an anti on tumblr would just assume it’s abusive [which it’s not] and I’m okay with such a dynamic irl at once and that I approve of twelve-year-olds going with men in their late twenties, which is not the case irl, I just enjoy it fictionally. and I’m saying sandor/sansa because it’s still the most ***problematic*** thing I enjoy at srs otp level and I don’t even have that many problematic ships, I tend to go for the fluff xD) and it also says nothing about what you generally like in fiction because I mean I write mostly fluff romance fic or anyway fix it stuff and in my spare time I love watching horror movies and I absolutely greatly enjoy tarantino-level gory movies, I have diverse interests thank you XD but anyway since shipping is the easiest and most convenient thing at end to do performative activism with for people who spend their time in fandom they turned it into PSEUDO FAKE ACTIVISM because it’d be too hard to like, go to the local lgbt association and help people hands-on or smth. but like, shipping is not activism, it’s nowhere near that important and it’s just... stuff people like fictionally, fuck’s sake. which we all like because we enjoy extrapolating on human interactions, those of us who like it anyway.

*shrug* /two cents

[zorilleerrant]

2017

January

an amorphous thing A poem about misogyny, in all its forms. I never quite got the ending to do what I wanted, but overall I think it’s strong.

Fandom: Cho Chang bio I don’t know if you want to call this a ficlet or what? I think I’m going to expand it or something. Just a musing on why she’s called Cho Chang.

poem This is sort of a poem and sort of a joke because fuck the environment I guess; it was topical at the time I think.

musing on seasonal affective disorder An addition to something I really liked that someone else wrote, because I was having feelings about SAD. The initial story is wlw; my addition is nblw even though I was trying to match the tone and style of the original.

there is a demon A poem about femininity, bisexuality, and mental illness. Our narrator is, I think, a makeup youtuber? Or something like that. This was written in response to people saying just awful things about makeup hobbyists.

HP fic: Courage Hermione deals with racism. I always headcanoned Hermione as middle eastern, so I wanted to add something with that because I don’t see it a lot even when people intentionally make her nonwhite.

American Gods/Sookie Stackhouse fic: Small Town Mentality A little character study about Shadow interacting with Sookie. This was when I was rereading American Gods, and I was like. You know, these books have similar vibes and similar canons. Timeline wise it’s set about halfway through American Gods and a few years before the first Sookie book. (The title is about not-my-business isolationism, not racial violence.)

The Maze Runner book review Musing on the worldbuilding problems in the book and how writers can and should do better than that.

February

Shadowhunters fic: Parabatai A lot of people were invested in the part where Jace could tell that Alec boned. Just my take on the thing. There’s sex in this one. Probably my most popular fic to date.

March

untitled Beauty and the Beast fic From the perspective of LeFou waxing poetic about Gaston.

Shadowhunters fic: Love Will Tear Us Apart Magnus blames himself about Raphael drinking Izzy’s blood. So tbh I don’t actually remember this fic and I don’t think anyone liked it? I will have to read it over at some point and see what it is.

Shadowhunters fic: A Fish Without a Bicycle This is a companion piece to Parabatai; going along with the Parabatai bond being a sort of metaphor for an erotic relationship, it posits Izzy as aspec and explores that a little.

Shadowhunters fic: Answers Another companion piece. Just a lot about Alec exploring his sexuality and trying to figure stuff out.

Shadowhunters fic: Forever Home Magnus being A Dad, to cats and other magical creatures.

April

queer is not a slur Just a poem bitching at people about the ‘omg q slur’ nonsense.

untitled six word story look it’s only six words either read it or don’t. (it’s not very good.)

the two genders A poem about how stupid gender essentialism is, and how people apply it to literal newborn babies.

untitled poem ???

May

Static Shock fic: No Flams Prepz Hotstreak talks to a (presumably court mandated) therapist.

Static Shock fic: Worry Static’s dad worries about the kids in his life.

Static Shock fic: Everybody Makes Mistakes Character study on Virgil, pilot centric. (Contains guns.)

mall gothic Yes, that’s a pun. No, I don’t know what the point of this was either.

let me tell you something about not being confident in your writing A poem about writing and your feelings about what you’ve written. It’s supposed to be inspirational probably.

ROY G. BIV A poem about what does and does not exist. Implicitly about LGBT+ gatekeeping but there’s nothing direct in it. I like this one a lot.

June

flag a poem on why I didn’t like the Philly pride flag back when everyone was gushing about how pure and perfect it was.

pride a poem that I think was mostly bitching about people being like ‘don’t do xyz you’re ruining pride!’ or like gatekeeping or whatever. not sure if it stands up without context

Ocean Short story about a nonbinary mage questing after a fantasy sword. Written on the assumption this is a typical high fantasy universe so no there are no proper safety protocols or historical preservation procedures. Mildly comedic.

poetry isn’t real just a micropoem about poetry, the most common topic for poetry

I have a poem about gatekeeping. someone probably told me I wasn’t allowed to use the word queer (again) or like accused me of not understanding queer history? I don’t know it happens. this poem is probably triggering if you’ve got issues with violence generally or queerphobic violence in specific

queer is another poem about gatekeeping. prose poem. I don’t know man people keep going on about bullshit

Static Shock fanfic: Protest Static meets Magneto. The timeline on this is obviously confusing af, but like, imagine it’s during the corresponding irl point of any of the major ups of BLM protests, within Static’s timeline somewhere after he’s got the hang of heroing but before he’s really used to it, and in Magneto’s timeline, somewhere during the initial rise of the Brotherhood. This was just an idea that got stuck in my head and that’s about it.

Static Shock fanfic: Attraction Virgil/Richie. Just an excuse to write puns.

Static Shock fanfic: Marathon Static & Rubberband Man. Fluff

Static Shock fanfic: Frieda Character study. Also ruminating on bullying and sexual harassment. (It’s about the gun violence episode, if that gets to you.)

Static Shock fanfic: Educational Overnight Crossover with Batman. Mostly animated Batman continuity (although largely backfilled from Batman Beyond), but I don’t think it super matters to the text of the thing. Static pretends to be Batman and has to face off against the Riddler. Also featuring Richie in hot pants (as Robin).

July

okay. so. musing about writer’s block, self-esteem/mental illness, and the thought processes that go into writing. maybe a prose poem? I don’t know what you would call this particular form

growing up depression poetry

August

a few points bullet list formatted poem about writing and writing advice

Welcome to Fae Mart humorous story about retail in Faerie

September

Let’s Talk About Slurs it’s a poem about people who smugly claim they’d never say a slur

on good and evil a prose poem or something. about how bigotry is learned (and, sort of, unlearned) and why attitudes about it make no sense

Queer as Folk fanfic: Not Always in the Same Way Hunter being bi

November

just the same prose poem about intersectionality and bigotry and how people always conflate everything into neat little soundbites. there’s a bit about reylo at the end there, too, because I kept seeing shit about it at the time, so watch out if that’s a thing for you

December

tw villanelle yeah I only write villanelles what about it? anyway this one has a bunch of violent rhetoric and bad opinions; it’s from the perspective of antis. it’s not very good but the rhymes sound nice

[sonfaro]

@you-me-and-the-force-between-us Thank you for your rebuttal.  My response will be similarly long, and tumblr is being annoying so I’m switching to a new thread.

��Normal behavior isn’t always guaranteed by everyone. That’s life. Of course there are always going to be outliers of people who don’t think as they should. But they’re small compared to the number of people who CAN make these differences, so making comparisons like these are not only hurtful, but useless. It doesn’t matter WHAT language you use, somewhere out there–is going to fan over a serial killer or want to become one, because it’s not about language, it’s about personal experiences.” It DOES matter to those who are left behind.  To those who’s people are routinely NOT treated in this way.  Infantilizing dangerous white men at any level of media sets a tone.  To see that kind of behavior follow into fiction and NOBODY have a problem with it is beyond bizarre to me.  I’ve had friends locked up for far less who never got treated like the children they were, so forgive me if I’m a little sensitive to the subject. “People who sympathisize with these types of people are either going through some sort of fucked up, I’m edgy 100%, phase that they’ll grow out of or have some serious mental instabilities. It isn’t the media’s job to walk on egg shells with language,“ It’s the media’s job to present the truth with no spin.  When they do things like this, it absolutely poisons the well.  There’s no one to blame for his crimes but the monster, but there are people to blame for how that monster is viewed by the masses. “This other rhetoric about what’s being said and how it compares to fiction–it’s bullshit. And let’s be honest here for a second–just honestly speaking–looking through OP’s page you can very damn well tell this post isn’t done with good intentions in mind; it’s a clear attack on a group of people under the facet of being a good citizen who truly cares. Which also pisses me off.“ In what way?  I’ve literally seen someone claim that Kylo is ‘young’ and ‘doesn’t know any better’. That sort of language does exist amongst the fandom. “(I’ve seen people call others abelist for using the word crazy on this hellsite, but idc either way) “ You’re sympathizing with the villain is all.  Which is fine, “ Clearly it isn’t??? Because that’s OP’s point. That’s what OP has a problem with, saying that we’re like criminal sympathizers because we sympathize with a villain–so YES I agree, I’m JUST sympathizing with a villain IS ALL, nothing more. That’s the point.“ OP’s point is about the language being used: the infantilizing and woobifying.  I can sympathize with Erik Killmonger, but know he’s a grown man and his end in Black Panther is justified.  I’m not going to say “He’s basically a teenager lashing out” or nonsense like that - which IS a thing that Kylo stans have said. “ALSO JUST SO EVERYONE’S AWARE. This ISN’T the media saying this.“ Matt O’Donnell, listed below the lawyer in OP’s post, is a reporter.  He lists the killer’s status as an orphan (with no reason), his young age (with no reason), and suggests he had a ‘troubled’ background.  These are softening social cues. And the media doesn’t have to make these quotes the headline.  It is they who present these quotes as a worthy title for an article. “Darth Vader is one of THEE most popular villains of all time, and most people ADORE baby-fying him.” Not canon Darth Vader they don’t.  If you want an Alt universe Kylo (like Emo Kylo Ren) it’s whatever.  That's a separate idea. “He was Kylo BEFORE KYLO EXISTED–he’s WORSE than Kylo–so where’s all the hate there?“ I disagree.  Vader was a tool for the Emperor.  Kylo IS the Emperor now.  And the hate is largely gone because in canon Vader died sacrificing himself for the hero.  “Why isn’t the majority of the world turned into serial killer supporters by now?  A. The majority of the world isn’t into star wars.  We’re a big fandom, but the world is bigger B. and the majority of Vader’s fans don’t try to justify his actions.  He’s liked because he makes a great foil for our heroes. Why isn’t OP making a comparison to Darth Vader and attacking his fans? Again, Vader’s fans generally don’t make excuses for his actions. Because OP has an agenda to attack Reylos and make them seem like horrible people, because that’s just the way the shit rolls on Tumblr nowadays.  Agreed, he definitely does. “[...]Committing a crime due to violent media, is far less easy to prove, and there has been no direct connection thus far.“ Right, but your post flat said “It isn’t true”, and that has not yet been determined.  Hence my post. “All of these still prove my point–media alone does NOT transform you into a violent person UNLESS you already have a predisposition to being violent (like a history of abuse or a mental illness etc). It ISN’T true until you have enough statistics that back up your claim, and this doesn’t. What’s unhelpful, is not being well researched in a matter and making blatant claims. “ But I didn’t make a blatant claim about video games.  I literally said the jury was still out.  In response to you flat saying it wasn’t true.  -_- “The media compares Hux and FO to Nazism because there’s a legitimate comparison to make (I know some SW fans disagree with me, but there is blatant Nazism parallels imo), because that was done PURPOSEFULLY. They took one evil regime irl and were inspired by it to create a fictional one of it. Every writer and design EVER takes inspiration form real life things to create something, eve villains. But let’s give an example here of a rational comparison and a shitty one:- Hux is like a Nazi (this can be confirmed by the imagery in SW, and background information, etc)  - Hux is like a Nazi and therefore if you like Hux you like the Nazi party and therefore you’re a Nazi apologist. Hux is a Nazi and you’re a Nazi apologist.“ This is a bit of a straw man.  You’d only be a Nazi apologist if you thought Hux’s POV were correct.  Once more, liking a villain is fine - liking them to the point where your sympathy leads you to defend their views and actions is another thing entirely. “Saying that someone who likes Hux or the FO is like someone who might have agreed/sympathized with the deaths of millions of people is a HORRIBLE, inaccurate comparison to make (also Hux is LIKE a Nazi and Hux IS a Nazi are two different things, “ Again, that’s not what’s happening here.  OP is talking about a specific action (how shippers talk about Kylo). Not liking the character in general. “And if you’re going to make the point that forcing yourself into someone’s mind is akin to rape, and therefore Kylo’s a rapist (and therefore Reylos are rape apologists–no lie i hear this shit WAY TOO much) then guess what?Obi-Wan is a rapist.Vader is a rapist.LUKE is a rapist.”  I mean Vader definitely attempted to force himself into his daughters mind in ANH.  Dude was the villain.  The jedi mindtrick is more deception than anything else - morally suspect but not a painful violation unless there are more than one person doing it at the same time.  Which is the actual term Pablo Hidalgo prefers for what Kylo does to Rey in that scene - a violation. “She (or he idk and idc tbh) is basically insinuating that Kylo Ren sympathizers cause school shooters sympathizers.“ Or vice versa, that the media and how damaged white monsters are portrayed is the reason Reylo’s see Kylo as sympathetic.  Which was what OP’s excuse was IIRC.  Personally I think the fault for both lies more with societies internal preference for white dudes, but that’s my take. “//Also–just for future notice–I don’t suggest ever using a Buzzfeed article to support your claim because your credibility will go right out the window. Buzzfeed is a pandering shitfest that is really written more by biased bloggers than actual reporters. I suggest using articles without bias and an actual good writing team and reputation.//“ I mean at this point that’s every news organization ever - least in America as far as I can tell.  You can barely open a paper or watch the news without someone's opinion’s being clear.  And it’s hardly the only article: https://www.salon.com/2016/01/12/we_need_to_talk_about_ben_kylo_ren_star_wars_and_the_media_narrative_of_the_mentally_ill_school_shooter/ https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/1/10698090/emo-kylo-ren-star-wars-parody-twitter http://www.forcematerial.com/home/2017/11/5/we-need-to-talk-about-kylo https://geekmom.com/2016/01/trying-not-to-raise-kylo-ren/ Kylo being compared to real world evil isn’t new.  Shoot, there’s a bunch that link Kylo to the alt-right as well.  Double shoot, Adam Driver himself straight compared him to terrorists.  Kylo gets compared to lots of real world evil people.  It’s going to happen. “Yup that’s definitely what happened. It wasn’t like he literally saw Luke about to kill him in his sleep“ No, he LITERALLY saw Luke post realization that he was in the wrong but still holding his lightsaber (like an idiot) and jumped to the conclusion his uncle was going to attack him.  Luke’s behavior (which is a character assassination if I’ve ever seen one, but that’s an argument for another time) also happens only after peering into Ben’s mind and seeing nothing but evil.  Ben then definitely attacks his uncle after that - from his point of view in self defence, sure - but from the overhead view an unnecessarily. “Oh no–wait, I was wrong:“ ...the article LITERALLY lists him murdering the kids.  -_- “Oh so I guess it’s like I said before–people PICK AND CHOOSE their biases!! There is a UNMISTAKABLE comparison between Vader and Kylo FOR A REASON–the two ARE very much alike. But Kylo is a shooter and Vader’s tragic and grand?? GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE WITH THIS BULLSHIT.“ Uh, yeah.  Vaders complete arc requires six movies at two hours at least each to tell.  It’s pretty grand (lofty, big, etc).  His heel turn alone is a culmination of three whole films.  Also, the article presents Kylo as tragic as well, with Drivers portrayal being described as:  “a mixture of pain and hurt so raw it threatens to rend the fabric of the series every time he's on screen“.  Did you actually read it? “really made me want to pluck my eyes out. Holy hell my dude, why did you use this as a reference when it’s so clearly just—bad?? I think I lost five years of my life.“ Because it’s another example of Kylo being compared to the evil that is a school shooter.  Again, it’s not the only time, and it’s not the only horrible evil he’s compared to.  OP was insensitive about it though, given recent events. “And I want to make this clear–I don’t give a single FUCK if you don’t like Kylo Ren. That your opinion.“ I like his character a lot actually.  I think he makes an excellent, compelling villain based on Adam Driver’s work.  My issue is people attempting to pretend he isn’t one, or that his past trauma absolves him of ANYTHING he’s chosen to do, or that anyone owes him anything at this point, or pretending that this 30 year old man’s childishness can be justified at all.  My bigger concern is that sort of thing happens in the real world for folks just like Kylo and that the two often sound exactly the same. “ I CARE when you bring real people into stupid fictional shit and say “You’re the reason why this is happening. It’s YOUR fault things are this way” I don’t think that was OP’s point at all.  Least as far as he’s said. “ESPECIALLY when fiction is used right after a real tragedy like this. “ THAT I can agree with.  Dude was insensitive. “ It’s disgusting to be compared on ANY level with someone who might do something like this–and again–it isn’t true. “ No one compared you guys to the shooter.  How you TALK about the villain was compared. “ Read up on mental illness, debate gun control, read up on what actually causes school shooters to occur, look up psychological studies of BOTH sides, not just what Buzzfeed says–they aren’t accredited to make those calls in any way.“ The article I listed didn’t list the causes of school shooting at all.  Did you just skim it? “STOP accepting this shit behavior my dude. It ISN’T OK or educated AT ALL. It’s downright stupid.“ The behavior I don’t accept.  The point - that dangerous young white men are coddled both in and out of fiction - is all too true though.

[who-is-page]

I keep seeing the whole "staff is pedophilic and transphobic" stuff floating around, but every Google document I've read on it only showcases fandom drama and argues why so-and-so fandom/ship that a staff member was a part of or reblogged is terrible/evil/bad/etc., rather than showing anything demonstrable of actual IRL pedophilic actions and transphobic attitudes. While I think we can all agree that the author of HP is awful, I don't think someone shipping characters from the books actually counts as them being transphobic or a TERF in any way. And note, I'm saying that as a trans person; I'm not interested in petty flamewars and faux fandom activism. Someone being a part of one fandom over another does not really change my life in any observable way, and I'm a little sick of people implying it does or using it as a cudgel to bash other people and accuse them of things that might not be true. I need real, actual transphobic rhetoric and not just ... Draco and Hermione ship art ... to believe that someone is actively, maliciously against trans people. In the same way, avoiding Harry Potter like the plague does not actually make you a perfect little angel of gender activism who's actively working towards trans rights and equality. Sorry, but not sorry! No one in either scenario is doing jack shit! Go to a fucking protest, donate actual money or goods to a trans person in need, and support trans-owned projects and businesses if you want to claim you've done actionable change, because I'm sick of arm chair activists who don't actually do shit but then act as though their word and online harassment campaigns are single-handedly saving lives everywhere. You're not helping anyone.

The way staff handled target harassment of one of their members was probably overly-harsh, but I was also on this hellsite when Tumblr ruined one woman's entire career in ecology because of baseless accusations of zoophilia(iirc), so I'm also not exactly sympathetic to the deleted after witnessing what that stuff can do to someone's career. Something something fuck around and find out. I'm especially not super sympathetic given now my dash is just fucking covered in "if you have ever liked [long list of seemingly fucking random fandoms and fictional ships] you're an evil, no-good person in your core who probably wants to vandalize buildings and kidnap children!!!! But we all already knew that because we're the Elect good pure beans who have never touched those Evil Fandoms isn't that right followers :)" type commentaries because of it.

This is just a personal rant, but as an out trans person who was openly queer and homeless for five years, who's actually affected by and faces real-life transphobia pretty fucking regularly, this drives me nuts. It's fucking fandom wank and it has literally zero moral judgement values whatsoever attached to it by virtue of its existence. People are just using it as an excuse to sit on their ass and claim they've 'helped fight against transphobia,' when in reality they're too terrified to step away from their computers and work to tackle the actual physical injustices trans people regularly have to wrestle with. Unfortunately, some of us--like me!--don't get the option to just hide behind a screen and pretend that if only we could eradicate all Harry Potter fans from the universe, we could magically rid the world of transphobes.