#but the backlash is saying some SHIT

[surprisearson]

Sometimes I wish the fanfic people could just accept that fanfiction is good and valid and fun without having to claim its generally better than published media or on the same level as the classics. It's okay that the 1000 word only one bed fluff does not have the same skills involved in writing a 400 page novel. It's fine that Jane Austen explores gender and class and identity and the 40k slowburn you're reading is an escapist fantasy. Fanfiction doesn't have to fill the same niche as published lit, but a lot of people think it does and I think that's partially out of guilt. We've established this internet identity that it's smart and sexy to be a reader but we have to be real. Sometimes books are hard! They're long! They take too many skills to dissect! It's hard to carry around the physical item during your busy day. You can enjoy reading fanfiction, even the meaty poetic stuff that definitely feels like it should be a novel in its own right and not enjoy reading.

I'm not saying fanfic is bad or cheap or format, just different. This year I've read lots of great stories and I can tell many of them are by fanfic writers, from people who bring archive of our own into the story, from people employing the kind of fun tropes I see dominate the fanfic space. I love those books, but I still wouldn't call them fanfiction. Those books are professionally edited, with a structured plot, developed original characters and often themes behind the plot. These can appear in fanfiction but they're never a necessity. And that's a good thing. I enjoy reading little snippets of characters tending to wounds, and dying their hair, and crazy aus where characters are rival professors. It doesn't need to be better or worse than published fiction because that was never it's role. You can just say you don't always have the time or energy to read a book.

[bonefall]

As a big sibling with a lil sib with epilepsy, when they read TBC they Honestly thought if they got struck with lightning reciting the lord's prayer they'd be cured like Shadowsight is from their epilepsy. I had a discussion with them on how that's not how it works, but ge was so upset they took it away from Shadowsight that he hasn't picked the books back up and has stated that 'he hopes Ashfur wins and starts a new religion.,'

I do not even know how to respond to this besides saying that your little sibling is 100% right to be pissed and I now also hope Ashfur wins and starts a new religion.

[nintendont2502]

I feel like the reason *I* enjoyed Homestuck^2 despite... everything, was because I never really saw it as a 'canon' continuation of the main comic? Like to me it was so separated from Homestuck proper to me that I could ignore the weirder shit and just pick the interesting parts that I personally like, which is definitely the superior post canon experience

Anyway I think the name change to 'Homestuck: Beyond Canon' is definitely a good step into getting the rest of the fandom to see it that way

[transmascwillbyers]

Ngl I always find it low-key funny when people call Will a boring character. Because like... did you watch season two of stranger things? Did you remember anything from that season? Did you remember Noah's acting at all? Did you remember the exorcism scene? The shed scene? Did you remember the sadness in his eyes, the intensity in them, the sheer ability of his character and performance to be heart-wrenchingly tragic and also terrifying at the same time?

If not. Um. We've got a problem here-

[mrspockomakeitso]

I know it's bad to be in an echo chamber online but god do i sometimes wish i could avoid seeing posts i very much disagree with.

[menalez]

ntm that circle have actively overlooked rape victims like myself being harassed by their friends in the vilest ways possible... but u draw the line at 'obviously lifelong celibacy isnt something easy, but it can be beneficial to the individual & women overall and thats why its a radical action to take'.. because somehow that statement is harming a rape victim (??????????????????????).... mhm

[ssaalexblake]

You know, as somebody who has nominally enjoyed watching the Raffi and Worf plot I still have to say, it's a tragedy that it didn't need to be Raffi.

It should be important for it to be her in this plot, and it's not.

There is no connection to her plot last season, you could say there is some from her S1 plot but I'd say that technically it's more like they ripped the Raffi that probably existed some time between Picard quitting and leaving her high and dry and her getting the boot. They removed her romantic relationship as dead weight, apparently, which is more insulting in the context of her 'sacrificing' for this job because if it didn't Need to be her, it's just. Insulting to the ones who valued that relationship a Lot for what it represented. Her relationship with Elnor has ceased to exist, which it would, because Elnor has ceased to exist entirely. None of the things that tied her to this narrative in the show have been allowed to stay, nor are they in any way important to telling the story they're trying to this season.

And it just makes her strangely adrift. They could, genuinely, have just invented a new character and had them play this role and you'd not need to change much more than an awkward scene with Seven that wouldn't be awkward anymore.

I mean, sure, it's Raffi... Well the footnotes anyway. But it didn't need to be, and that's an issue for me. Make it important for her to be there as Her? I'm just tired.

[cryptidyork]

.

[starlooove]

Everytime I see anything abt how teenagers are reacting to Kanye I wanna scream bc black women have been saying this for YEARS!

Especially on tiktok bro, like there are videos where ppl are talking about how the normalization of anti semitism is happening in spaces like schools right, like it’s ppl saying that their classmates are jokingly saying “Hitler was right” and using literal dogwhistles that they pretended they didn’t know existed “as a joke” and it’s always someone with a stupid shocked look on their face acting like it’s some big new thing that see coudve never predicted but we literally HAVE

When y’all were making fun of AAVE, when y’all started calling the bodies of our aunties and moms “bbl bodies”, when y’all started calling every fat black woman peaches or Lizzo, you know who saw first hand just how easily teenagers were radicalized and converted? BLACK TEENAGERS! Do y’all know the hell it was to be a black girl with “DSLs”? A black girl being called Shanaynay by Shane Dawson Stans? You know who has firsthand experience with being gaslit using dogwhistles? Black girls that were called hot cheeto girls by their TEACHERS! Y’all yap and yap Abt the alt right pipeline and ignore who’s affected and how, and NOW y’all wanna act surprised? Y’all are just confused that you’re seeing it in real time abt ppl u pretend to care abt.

White people make me sick bro y’all can’t be this fucking unserious. Some bitch making a post abt how we should be aware of what celebrity stanning can do to minorities as if black girls weren’t dealing with swifties, Ayesha Erotic fans, or the entire fucking K-pop fanbase for DECADES! Like bitch we been fucking knew y’all are the only ones not caught up.

[pwurrz]

some of y’all should. go outside. touch some grass maybe.

[catcze]

literally everything you've said on sumeru is SO RIGHT...

ngl i'm SO scared for natlan... esp since apparently it's gonna be pre-Columbian latam... which makes me. v nervous as a latin american person ;;

—Ciaran (who's not logged in rn lmao)

I’m really hoping that hyv gets their shit together and actually starts listening to the community and starts implementing change ASAP, because all this is such clown shit, and eventually the consequences of all of it is gonna become too much to handle if they don’t do something abt it 💀

NAW but omg fingers crossed that they get Natlan right too— because I’ve been excited about it from the beginning, and I’d hate for it to become another shitfest like Sumeru currently is 😭

[cynicalcat]

I’m not watching tommy’s finale lore stream if it includes dream and you shouldn’t either. I understand some ccs may not know or not know the fully story, but this is how you show them this is serious and that we do not want to give him a platform.

[empyrangel]

ngl me and the groupchat are having a fantastic time laughing at you. the way you go off at every little insignificant thing. the way your responses make no fucking sense and are so incredibly juvenile it sounds like im listening to a bratty ten year old attempt to annoy me. im literally crying with laughter holy shit why are you so easy to set off. keep posting ur stupid little rants its the best entertainment ive had in ages

What’s wrong? Too scared to show your face on the silly little blog app? You’d never have the guts to say any of that without your mask. You can laugh yourself all the way to hell, sweetheart, but you’ll never be anything more than a coward. You can say whatever you want about me behind your comfy little veil of anonymity, but at least I’m able to say what I say with my whole chest. I’ll laugh at you back, little coward, your scared little remarks make my day. Keep giving me attention, I love it when people like you can’t stop obsessing over me. And give your groupies a kiss for me, mmkay?

[falinscloaca]

shut up about the gay sex cats

[thatdogmagic]

The first official step towards banning any and all LGBTQ+ art and literature has been taken.

This is what hypersexualizing queer topics was always leading towards. Expect this to be the signal flare that gets some state legislature barreling forward to enact this exact measure, solely so the bill can be struck down, challenged legally, then taken all the way to SCOTUS.

...

Repeating what I said on Twitter: This is a good time to remind people that just being LGBTQ in this moment in time can be considered an outright radical act, so anything less than going all-in on the life you want to lead is fucking pointless.

Put another way, if you're putting actual time and energy into respectability shit right now, do everyone *and* yourself a huge favor, and stop wasting your time.

You can't fucking negotiate with Christian Terrorists.

...

EDIT:

To be perfectly clear on this -- I made this post in the interests of calling attention to its inevitable end result. I thought (wrongly) it would be taken as a given/it would be implied that I fully think the bill, and any bills like it, are a bad thing, period, end of story. SESTA/FOSTA was a fucking disaster. Anything that further criminalizes sex work and pushes for divorcing people from their bodies/sexuality is just plain wrong.

I will be blunt, though, and say that the people saying 'it won't go that far' need to look again at Evangelicalism, and how far it's willing to go. The fall of Roe was orchestrated over decades of bills exactly like this, field tested in state and federal legislatures, over and over again. It starts here, but it ends with something far worse. And in this case, it's starting with an easy target: sex work. And as with Roe, it will inevitably wash up on the shores of even The Cishets, while the ruling class continues to do whatever the fuck they want, with whomever the fuck they want.

Now is absolutely the time to push back against this shit. Failing to do so just emboldens the people who introduce bills like this. Harsh backlash is needed, right now, against the rising tide of Christian Fascism/Terrorism, and if you happen to think otherwise, then, I'm sorry/not sorry: you're just not paying close enough attention.

EDIT: this is many many months old and it's going around again so I'm locking RTs, eek

[mr-ribbit]

gonna rant again bc im seeing a lot of trans women on my dash having to carry the heavy lifting to argue for their basic respect and a lot of other queer people who want to ??? get mad about that apparently. for the record as usual: im tme, im not speaking for anyone besides myself and my perspectives, but I am trying to reach out to fellow tme people to level with y'all from inside the house.

i thought we all got past the 'calling people gendered terms when theyve asked you to stop' thing in like. 2012. i swear we were allllll on board with not calling women dude anymore, nerfing sir and ma'am, neutralizing collective terms for groups, and all of that was like, during the onceler era. that's how we got off-putting shit like folx into the mix - remember???? why are we here again.

to those who I've seen claiming that they REALLY genuinely don't want to offend anyone, and that theyre trying to understand the dude thing, and they don't want to be seen as transmisogynistic when they aren't: ok. let's talk about it. step one, stop sending that really loaded anon to a trans woman you don't know, and close that in-group hatepost with 100 replies from people name-dropping trans bloggers they don't like. try to open your mind and assume for the duration of this post that I am not cynically trying manipulate thousands of tumblr users into making Bro the next big swear word, but a fellow queer human being who thinks you're all being pretty intentionally obtuse about an upsetting trend in our community

to be clear: this post is about the issue of trans women being called bro, dude, man, etc., particularly in recent tumblr discourse about transmisogyny, and the backlash they face if they get upset about it. this is also maybe moreso about the shitty ass excuses I see tme people make for why they supposedly can't stop doing this.

so let's go through some of the things I've been seeing people say they don't understand, supposedly in earnest, about this issue

"I DIDNT USE DUDE AS A MASCULINE TERM. I CALL EVERYONE BRO. MAN IS A GENDER NEUTRAL TERM"

I'm not actually going to exhaust my list of reasons why dude/bro/man are not strictly neutral, but you should be pretty aware that all words have context. Dude might be seen as neutral in many contexts, sure, but 'woman who is frequently called a man by others' is a situation where the context adds extra meaning to your words, just like calling someone "sweetie" might be neutral in some cases, but if you've got the context of knowing that's your coworker who's half your age, it's a bit less neutral. If you're not capable of reading that context and being tasteful about when you say dude, then you need to at least be ready to respond gracefully when someone asks you to stop. This is the part I'd rather focus on.

"BUT I DIDNT MEAN IT THAT WAY. IM NOT TRANSPHOBIC"

I think you should consider broadening your perspective *beyond* your intention behind the word. people may already understand that you meant the word neutrally and therefore didn't have transmisogynistic intent, but that's not really the entire scope of what people are saying. if that's your only concern, you're just trying to clear your record, not actually listen to what they're saying.

there are lots of words people don't enjoy being called, and in most cases, when they say 'pls don't call me that', people respect that and move on. even if the word isn't a slur, if it hurts someone's feelings, we all as a society have agreed that it's pretty shitty to keep calling them that. if your friend asked you not to call them 'buddy' anymore because their dead grandparent called them that, or something equivalently personal, you'd probably respect that instead of telling them 'but I call everyone buddy!!' right? even if you didn't really understand why it bothered them so much?

there is a prominent tendency for trans women to be denied this privilege, and when they ask not to be called dude or bro, people don't seem to respect this request as much as they would in other situations. when I accidentally use a gendered word and someone tells me they don't like it, I try to respond with something like "my bad, I didn't mean it as misgendering but I can see you were still bothered by it, so I'll try not to keep saying it. sorry!" and most people are willing to accept that. when trans women ask people this favor, a lot of people get VERY defensive, and treat the request as inane or unfair, instead of just apologizing and moving on. this is why people are upset when this happens, and it's why people are calling your actions transmisogynistic

also like you might not be doing this, but a lot of people DO use dude and bro in an intentionally gendered way to make trans women uncomfortable. it's a power play bigots use to talk down to them or otherwise maliciously harass them. do you know what arguments they use to defend that behavior when called out on it? 'oh I call everyone that' 'dude is gender neutral calm down' 'dont overreact its just a word'. by acting like this, youre all just giving credence to those same arguments.

"WELL THEY SHOULDNT GET SO MAD AT ME WHEN I DIDNT MEAN ANY HARM"

they can get as mad as they want!! also, are you sure they're 'mad'? or are they just expressing their feelings about a negative topic to you, and it makes you feel bad, so you have to make them out to be unreasonably emotional? how do you think they should have phrased 'dont call me that' to better spare *your* feelings?

also like, in most cases, these women do not knowww you. if your main response to someone saying you disrespected them is to say "I didnt mean it that way, I meant it in a friendly neutral way", well that's NOT YOUR FRIEND! she has no idea what your opinions are or what you think of her!!! she has no reason to assume you only upset her in a friendly way and not a bad unfriendly way! but she did get upset, and she did the one thing she can do which is *tell you what upset her* and your response is to say "well actually you shouldn't be upset at all"??????

and another thing:

it's not just the issue of using the word 'dude', it's because you're coming off extremely dismissive of women who have asked you to stop doing something that harms them, and because your argument is basically that they just shouldn't be so bothered by it. or that they're stupid, irrational, or otherwise crazy for telling you that it bothered them at all, just because you Technically used a gender neutral word according to Your Rules. be honest, does that seem fair? If people were calling you something that bothered you enough to ask them to stop, and they responded like this, how would it make you feel?

focusing solely on your intent and what the words mean when you use them is the same thing as saying "just get over it". no woman should need to Prove to you that 'dude' is gendered for you to care about what she's saying. the fact that you're asking people to do that sucks and makes you look bad, which is why people are arguing with you and calling you a misogynist.

especially those of you who are only doing this with trans women who are actively arguing with. you're wielding misgendering as a cudgel and we can all see it, grow up please.