#can't like anything problematic but also can't like anything unproblematic

[multiversemittens]

I'm fucking sick of this belief of 'healthy ships are boring' or 'healthy relationships are only for real life'. Ok so I can't like a healthy fictional relationship without being shamed for it? I can't avoid toxic ships because of my personal traumas without being called boring? Grow the fuck up. Whatever happened to letting people like what they like?

[moonshine-009]

This fandom though smh all the people wanting to stick up and support Ryan while being an anti Eddie this or a pro Eddie that, but hate getting called out for being a hypocrite... I'm tired of seeing them "separate the actor from the character," when they're more than willing to bash every other transphobic, racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist, misogynistic, ableist, fascist, anti vax, etc, remark or topic, but still have positive post about Ryan Guzman. They aren't "protecting their peace." That's not how it works. They're choosing to ignore what he's doing because it'll disrupt their fantasy of the show. Seriously, why are they posting about current anti transphobic topics and then the next post it's "Ryan's dumb mustache 😍🥵🫠" as if he didn't just get exposed AGAIN for having transphobic ties this past week????

They don't want to hear that Ryan is the problem. Everybody, fan or anti, still calls out Lou, and everytime they admit and drill that he is at fault, but Ryan ALWAYS gets a pass, and we should move on because he gave a disingenuous apology all the non bpocs accepted on our behave or it was "so long ago???" Make that make sense... Also, no one wants to bring up anything else he's done either! But even so they're not advocating for anything in the fandom with only "Lou is racist," when they won't even accept that what Ryan did wasn't just as bad, it was worse than what Lou did, they both were wrong but let's be real Ryan has more to make up for than Lou but yet Lou isn't unforgivable???

How can people still say, "It's his upbringing, and he was taught that way" only for Ryan? They really want to compare Ryan and Lou's family situations? Seriously? Which one of them is estranged from their abusive bigot father, and which one is still surrounded by his ignorant friends/family who he proudly stuck up and admitted were all racist like him? (Also, which one of them did people have to fake and edit hate material because there wasn't anything new? 👀)

And they need to stop saying everyone who calls out Ryan is racist. I'm very familiar with all the excuses he made, and just as I've said to my White/Latinx family and friends, all of what was said IS absolutely racist. He doesn't get a pass because of where he lived, and everyone around him said it, and the more they deny it, the worse it is. Everyone who accepted his apology should understand he was willingly stating his ignorance.

These stans though... They're just as phony wanting to play both sides and have no consequences. They can't stand by what they're voicing. Saying "anti *** BUT I don't tolerate any hate towards (actor)" when that actor is still problematic as of today...

Nearly everyone has said/done something awful in the past, but there's only a few that still are choosing to continue that behavior. Many of the 9-1-1/LS cast/crew/company "should've been canceled" for things they've done. Most acknowledged their wrongs, sincerely apologized, stopped and grew up and changed their views and redeemed themselves. That's the difference. Ryan is still the same Ryan. Fans forgave after one forced apology, and now they ignore that he's still actively messed up because what he's attractive or he's a part of their favorite ship or his hate doesn't personally affect them???

*But yes, let's only call out Lou's issues and keep posting about how wonderful Ryan is and talk about wanting to bring back Ronda, Cocoa, Edy, Rockmond, etc. back because they were also soooo unproblematic* 🙃

Yes, call it as we see it, Lou did some messed up shit. But for them to say Lou is worse for 10+ year old post, but stay quite when Ryan continuously talks/posts/likes disgusting views to this very day 😒 That's the thing, Lou's past caught up with him, his PAST. Ryan gets exposed every week because he's still updating his accounts with that stuff.

(and you don't have to post/reply to this if it might get backlash but 👏🏾 big sigh)

me being a white person I don't get to say if I expect Ryan's "apology " or not. Some other white people in the fandom on Twitter really had the audacity to say why people still hating on Ryan and he apparently has changed?!! It's not our place to say !!

And saying he has changed after what he is sharing on Instagram is honestly really laughable.

And they also say Oliver would hate Lou for things he was posting a decade ago this is why he doesn't want to work with him. So they basically saying that he is totally fine working with Ryan ???

When a ship is more important than having morals.

They always protect Oliver and Ryan and don't call them out.

It just makes me so mad seeing Ryan posting all that shit. And people posting him all over Instagram even the cast is hanging out with him.

People are so comfortable being openly transphobic and homophobic, racists these days without any consequences.

They said when the actress who plays Marisol was posting that transphobic shit, why would they want a cast member in a show with LGBTQIA+ storylines. These same people are really quiet right now about Ryan.

So they totally fine with what he shares on Instagram? ???

[doomspiral]

I'm confused. How are any of those ships proship? I'm genuinely confused and not trying to be mean or anything, do I have the wrong definition of proship?

Preface: I think terms like "proship" and "antiship" are very silly.

"Antiship" was originally used for specific ships, like, "anti-fruk" for example. Someone who just fucking loathes the ship and harasses people for it. This got a more broad name through calling someone an anti while people were talking about anti-smut, anti-kink, anti-ship. so we have antishippers now. iIts a derogatory term.

"Proship" came about as being the opposite of all of that. Pro-ship, pro-kink, pro-smut. However, antis decided this was short for "problematic-ship(per)". Apparently there's another term like com-ship because of some internal fandom drama where some antis wanted to be clear they weren't freaks but like to explore "complicated/complex" themes. Which obviously did not work lmfao. I didn't know about this until i asked a friend. So, to call a ship itself "proship" signals that op believes it means "problematic" and is likely an anti or surrounded by them.

In this instance, I think it's easy to point out that ruspru, lietpru, polpru, and rusliet are inherently problematic. Problematic just means that something is complicated, has parts or is entirely made up of things that could be done poorly, maybe its bad optics maybe theres room for issues. now, everything is problematic, but for the sake of clear language, something in meta analysis being problematic means more so than the average. It's generally considered that lietpol is healthy enough to not be problematic, but this is objectively false due to the nature OF meta analysis and problematics. To believe something is unproblematic is to ignore the problems it has. Which is also why I just softblock or block people with "proshippers DNI" because I'm not dealing with people who can't or wont use basic media analysis in fandomspace.

[devildevotee]

hello! we hope this is ok to ask, it's totally fine if you don't answer- but we've recently become interested in satanism and demon work, but we know exactly nothing about it or where to start. we did some basic research with academic sources like wikipedia but have no idea where to go from there. we're hesitant to just dive in on our own because we know there are a lot of bad sources and groups to avoid but don't actually know what those things are.

anyways, we trust your opinion and recommendations so we wanted to ask if you had any suggestions on how to go about researching and learning about theistic satanism for an absolute beginner! recommended books or articles, groups to avoid, red flags, anything like that would be very appreciated 💚 thank you so much!

okay so, this may be a controversial opinion but in my opinion (KEY WORD OPINION) you actually shouldn't only stick to unproblematic and valid uwu authors, because i'll be honest (in terms of satanism and demonolatry), there ARE no pure and good authors out there. every author out there, especially if you're reading a text from a long time ago, is going to have something you disagree with. you need to practice some form of critical engagement, additionally, because engaging with a text critically and understanding why it is wrong is way more important than just shutting out the information altogether. you will not learn anything if you pretend that problematic texts do not exist. i'm not saying this to be harsh, but there is a reason we research a variety of texts and perspectives in high school english class. you need to continue that kind of method when researching anything.

now that is covered, i'll tell you what i have read personally. taking the above into consideration, there are no authors here that don't have something deeply wrong about their texts. i did read their works, and i came to my own conclusions on whether i'm going to dub them an authority on satanism, and i suggest you do the same. satanism is about knowledge and drawing your own, unique conclusions. just make sure what you do adopt doesn't throw any groups of people under the bus, because we're not here to read books and thoughtlessly believe whatever the book says, especially when the book can have misinformation, or offensive content. this is very common in satanism; as much as people love to treat it like it's revolutionary and all-accepting, it can be just as, or even more, discriminatory or outright hateful as christianity, especially in the texts.

the most easy-to-find material:

ars goetia > pretty basic info, but very handy and simple to read

the infernal gospel > probably my favourite book on this list

the complete book of demonolatry > i don't agree with the author, but i got this one in my early days before i knew anything about said author. it's got some useful information, but there's a lot of misinfo

book of the fallen > useful rituals if i remember correctly, i sold this book so i can't recheck

at satan's altar > also an interesting book

the goetia devils > has a lot of what i assume is upg... seems to conflict with what i've seen from other practitioners

the goetic hymns > second favourite book

the satanic philosopher > i found this one hard to read personally

esoterica > youtube channel with amazing information on demonolatry and its history, i suggest getting into this before doing anything else.

all of these websites.

and lastly, i also got like 50+ older texts i got as a bundle off etsy that i can't remember the names of. i wish i could give them to you, but i genuinely have lost every single text i got in the bundle due to me changing computers. i suggest looking on etsy for similar bundles on satanism and demonolatry if you want to get into the historical meat of things.

that being said, my actual last thing i want to say is not to get too entrenched into the theory. the texts are handy, sure! but the one thing i have found the most useful is by engaging with the community. most of my wealth of knowledge did NOT come from texts or media, it came from those around me talking about their experiences. if you want to learn, and i mean REALLY learn about demons and satan, get into the community hardcore and you will learn something new every day. talk to people, make friends, don't do this alone.

edit: okay one more thing. this does go against what i was saying to some degree but i do have a limit to that logic. avoid joy of satan. they're n/eonazis and come on this website regularly. avoid them, avoid them, avoid them.

[joyswonderland1108]

Weird.

First of all and before anything else, good morning to me (It's currently 3:28pm for me lol) i set my alarm right at 9:00pm KST so waking up to my baby bunny is just

Today JK really said "It's OT7 for y'all bitches" love to see that, he also talked about GOLDEN and how it was a term used to describe him, like golden closet

Uhm he also said that he wrote a poem called "Golden" and spoke about the present which to him was a golden time. I can't believe he didn't mention golden maknae T-T Unless i missed that part.. But anygays, ah! Muy precioso 💜

Now the point of this post is something that i might've mentioned before but i've seen it today again and i was scratching my head. I'm not gonna mention names, i'm not gonna say what they do as to not narrow the possible search for who this is, but one thing i can say is that they're a Jikooker.

Now don't get me wrong if you want to follow solo accounts that are unproblematic, just post about X member, hype them up, without being disrespectful to other members, then you do you again i'm not going with a herd mentality the whole "I don't like this person so unfollow them, report them and block them" to me as long as there's nothing problematic then you do you.

The thing is that this person for a while now but even today has been liking and reposting very solo-ish posts, the type of posts being mad about comments asking JK to play this or that member's songs, saying that this live should've been about him yada yada, and this is just MY take, my non-solo take, feel free to agree or disagree.

The thing is, JK himself suggested to play songs, if members songs weren't suggested then other artist's songs would've been suggested, this is not the first time he puts on music on his lives and if anything to me JK looked really happy listening to the different members songs, he even said that he misses the members and this is not even the first time he reminds us that he is looking forward to 2025 when they will all reunite again, yet some people are having their panties on a twist that people talk about 2025.

You say that the live was supposed to be about him and his upcoming album and my question to you is, what in a 1h+ live can he say about an album that is yet to be released without spoiling anything? Am i missing a chapter here or did any other member talk for 1h about an album that is yet to come out? The only thing we know so far about the album is that the design, what comes in it, there are 3 different version + the WV one, there are 11 tracks including 3D, Seven Explicit and Clean version. So exactly what do you want him to tell you and i like to say that again WITHOUT SPOILING his album?

I want to also remind you that he was on Stationhead for 3 days where he took the opportunity to talk about 3D so again making him repeat the same things he said during those 3 days will just be repetitive for him. Why can't we just respect the fact that JK actually loves his members and genuinely wants to be reunited with them later and that he actually appreciates listening to their songs and the different colors they each have?

There's just too much projection here, just because YOU want him to talk about himself it doesn't mean that HE is uncomfortable talking about other things. A little reminder that JK had no problem calling out problematic comments before and even said that he is ignoring some comments, so instead of treating him like a child who can't make a decision for himself, know that if JK wanted this live to be about his album only, that is coming on November 3rd in case you forgot, he would've done that, he would've actually said that today's live he wants to focus on talking about it.

I want to take this opportunity to bring back something that had me rolling my eyes so far back i could almost see my brain. When there was talk about a world tour and people gave a logical explanation as to why it MIGHT not be possible based on JK's words, not anyone else's. Yet some people took a very solo-ish position to the matter bringing up the subject about MS and how he is still young and doesn't have to enlist right now that we can't make the decision for him when HE himself talked about the subject and made it clear that he too will be enlisting so they can all come back in 2025. (And by the way that one person liked and reposted those type of posts too..)

I don't know if people realize that by projecting sometimes you're basically discrediting a member's own words and wishes, we are here to listen to them and listen to what they want us to understand, yes i don't get to make decisions for them but YOU also don't get to do that.

Why don't you take the opportunity of using the remaining time for the album release to prepare questions you want to ask him about the album cause by then he would be able to talk a lot more about it, you can even prepare some questions for the possibility of him coming live after his KBS show later? Like instead of dramatizing every situation, think wisely, don't think with your own selfish feelings and remember that as much as you are a human and have feelings and needs, JK does too, he doesn't have to accommodate to what YOU want.

And again and again and again, JK is a grown up, i don't know how many times he needs to tell you, to show you, for you to understand that he isn't on a leash, he will do whatever he wants and if he doesn't like something he will simply not do it there's no gun pointing at his head to do something.

I don't know how do people even find time to whine when they're watching his live and seeing him happy, smiling, i find myself dumbly smiling back no time for drama, i'm just happy to see him on a lengthy live after a long time, i'm just happy to be sitting here watching him sipping on his concoctions, enjoying the music, singing, showing us his lil Tiktok corner, etc..

Please learn from him and grow tf up.

Salutation.

(I might do another post later and i say i MIGHT because this is a cultural one and people never seem to be ready to accept culture diversity --")

Side note: STREAM 3D AND PREPARE PLAYLISTS FOR GOLDEN!!!!

[dizzying-faust]

I think the reason I'm starting to hate people that make liking only unproblematic/wholesome media their entire personality is because they seem to treat anything that isn't their standards of unproblematic/wholesome is bad. Not just dark media, but any media, even when it's also unproblematic/wholesome.

You like an unproblematic character? They decided the character is actually bad because they did some problematic stuff they don't like.

You like a wholesome ship? They decided it's problematic because it has some stuff they don't like about it and thinks all shippers who ship it are bad.

You like a wholesome show? They decided it's bad because it has some stuff their media illiterate brains can't comprehend and declare it irredeemable media.

You draw harmless fanart? They decided it's bad because it doesn't cater to their standards and think you deserve death threats.

And I'm saying this who likes both wholesome media and dark media, and even I don't want to hang out with these guts with how toxic, annoying, and miserable these guys are.

[gwenthebard]

I think one of my favorite bits of writing advice/observation is "you can't parody or satire something unless you like the genre" and I love that, but also I feel like an additional step is "you can't copy the charm of something unless you love the original for what it is"

Because honestly I was thinking about it, and like, fully honestly? I think a lot of modern media does run into this problem. Where a work will say "I want to be X but unproblematic" and you end up with all the workings of that piece of media, but missing a charm

One of my favorite examples is Warhammer, because I think a lot of stuff is like "I want to be Warhammer, but I don't want it to be problematic", and you end up with something that maybe has the dressings of it but has none of the feel. Locked Tomb is one of the only ones I think said anything close to "I want to be Warhammer, but I don't want the problematic aspects" and still managed to keep the feel and I'm not sure if that was purposeful

Fantasy you run into a lot of stuff that wants to be that golden age of cheap fantasy novels, but doesn't want a character to be evil for anything more than either capitalism/feudalism/misunderstanding, or it'll just have a villain tick every single evil box without even a fun personality

Sci-Fi you see a lot that wants to be Dune or Mass Effect or Star Wars, and explore social issues or have deep stories about points, but ends up with a lot of the same issues as Fantasy

Romance you have a lot of novels obviously written by people who WANT to do old oil painted bodice rippers, and have the trappings of one, but don't want to write a problematic relationship. So you usually still end up with a problematic relationship, but the book goes out of its way to keep it in a gray area of audience and doesn't push that far

Horror I feel like I don't enjoy a lot of modern stuff in, because I feel like not enough horror says "wouldn't that be fucked up" as its first thing. A lot of horror and Dystopian stuff feels like it looks at old aspects held up as metaphors for societal issues, and starts at that.

The horror stuff you tend to get a lot of blatant points where the metaphor is almost nonexistent its so clear, and doesn't want the horror to be too horrifying. There's almost a sense of "these are people who grew up or were influenced by horror writing and movies of the 90s and 00s who thought it was just gross and didn't have a purpose", and fight their own writing to keep a lot of that out of it

Dystopian stuff I lump in here, but mostly because I think it has similar problems. It feels like most dystopian stuff heard Fahrenheit 451 was was about censorship, never heard about the stuff about TVs connected to it, and thought dystopian was supposed to be that blatant. Like, the trope of "World but X is controlled or banned by government, and everything revolves around that" was already a joke when I was in middle school

This isn't to say I don't like modern stuff, I still like a lot of things I read and get recommended or at least hear about and haven't got around to checking out. This is more just "I feel like this is a problem weirdly unique to modern media"

There was a lot of bad writing in the past, but I think there's something interesting in how a lot of bad writing in the modern day is bad because it's not sure of what the charm is of what they're trying to cover. It might like the aesthetic, and it might like the media even, but it's missing a core. Usually it ends up almost feeling good, but like it's not sure if it wants to be safe and simple or dark and morally gray.

IDK, this was a long rant because I was thinking of my own writing, and what I liked about it and what I didn't, and I thought about this connecting to a wider feeling I had about a lot of media. That like there's been a good understanding of "it was bad this was normalized and we need to fix it," and there's some understanding of why stuff was good, but there's a desire to only copy the aesthetic and complexities are inevitably forgotten.

A lot of people want to write 90s horror novel, 50s dystopian, oil painting bodice ripper, mass market fantasy novel, galaxy spanning space epic, and they want to make it leftist and queer, I want to do that with a lot of things. But I feel like in trying to remove issues of those old examples, real and perceived, they inevitably remove what made them work. You can't write a kidnapped fantasy romance and have the relationship be 90% healthy, you can't write a psychological horror and have the main characters be perfectly normal, a 90s mass market fantasy where the societies are unproblematic and fair

This didn't really have much point but me rambling to myself, so I'm just holding it off here and hoping at some point I made sense and this wasn't just a series of unconnected thoughts poorly explained

[ventbloglite]

I think people should stop being ashamed to say they like Homestuck. People should stop being afraid of judgement to admit they like it at all. It shouldn't be a 'past cringe of mine' kinda thing.

Homestuck is a lovely little series, with a complex curious plot and world building and a LOT of characters who are all unique and interesting in some respect.

It's not without it's problems, then again what media is truly unproblematic? But if you go into it aware of it's datedness, it's incorrect use of language and stereotypes and that you are not actually expected to like or agree with the purposefully horrendous actions of it's morally diverse cast you enjoy it.

You can enjoy any problematic media by being able to actually think critically, which involves seeing the value and goodness in media which has problems and also able to see those problems clearly and not internalise them as 'ok' or 'magically right because the rest is good'.

Anyway, read Homestuck, but only if you're not a censorvative who can't enjoy anything less than 100% pure.

[agapeeternal]

I looked up the interview to verify, and it was a bit over 10 years ago.

So mid 20s? I wish I could say mid 20s me was unproblematic and never said anything questionable. But I can't.

Man mid 20s me was just like are you even okay…? And I knew plenty of people who said problematic shit back then who’ve grown and changed. My family had problematic issues around all things gay but they’ve mellowed. Could have something to do with me being queer but also just views changing period. So people change and I wouldn’t be surprised if he did too.

[kokoinupi]

fuck it. rating the swords in cql by fuckability.

thanks to a certain extra chapter i now cannot watch the untamed without thinking about the logistics of fucking the swords. so im gonna rank em based on overall sexiness of design of course, but more importantly, by practical insertability of the hilt. its 4am.

Lan Wangji's sword (Bichen)

the whore that started this all. good ol bichen. this is the only sword we have canon information on the genuine fuckability of. solid, attractive design, for sure, though personally it's a little blocky and boring for me. the main part of the hilt is well-shaped, with a subtle wavy topography in what looks like quartz or ivory, not bad at all. the sword exudes icy air as well which can certainly be a point for it if you're into that, or a point against if you're not keen on getting frostbite in the worst possible place. but there's one big problem here; the shape at the end of the hilt seems very problematic in terms of insertability, so much so that I wonder if the prop designers knew anything at all about the fate of this particular sword, or if they did, and they deliberately tried to make it as unfuckable as possible to hopefully put that thought out of everyone's minds. but we're all thinking it anyway. 6/10 godspeed wei wuxian.

Wei Wuxian's sword (Suibian)

oh honey, this is a stick. this is a branch. very aptly named "whatever", suibian is overall an "eh" in the looks department. in some shots it looks more shiny and finished, but in others it seriously looks like a piece of wood from the forest floor. it's like the swordsmith heard what wuxian wanted to name it and decided to stop trying. the metal detail lends a little to it, and i do have to admit that the blade itself is a lot sexier than the sheath, there's also something to say about its loyalty in sealing itself for only its master, but in its everyday look, it leaves a lot to be desired. the shape of the hilt is not bad, and it has no obstructions at the end, but i wonder exactly how finished the wood really is.... 3/10 ow ass splinters.

Jiang Cheng's sword (Sandu)

ok now this is a sexy sword. very good overall look. this sword is a hot goth that you spot from across the mall food court that you will never talk to, because you know it is too good for you. sandu has its aesthetic figured out. the deep purple, the quilted pattern, the entwined snakes? hell, sandu is too good for jc himself. the frog at the end may be a slight problem for cowards, but it's nowhere near as bad as bichen, and has the ridges down the hilt to make up for it. 8.5/10 the name is metal as fuck too.

Lan Xichen's sword (Shuoyue)

not terrible in design, though it's honestly just bichen's less hot brother. the bulky dull metal looks somewhat cheap and thin, but i do like the double chains on either side of the sheath. the hilt itself is a more exaggerated texture from bichen, and is that same pretty opaque white, but of course the glaring problem here again is the end. this looks like a nightmare to insert, to at least double the degree that bichen is. this is a plug, but not in the way you want it to be. shuoyue does, however, gain something for being the sword in the most homoerotic and tense scene, jgy's death scene, so that's redeeming, i think. 4.5/10 just fuck bichen instead.

Nie Mingjue's saber (Baxia)

ouch. ow. nothing is more hostile and outright unfuckable than baxia's little head of spikes. sexy design but at what cost. you'll have a better time fucking nmj himself tbh. 0/10 not even a sword.

Jin Zixuan/Jin Ling's sword (Suihua)

sexy in an insufferable rich asshole way. so pretty but so infurioratingly stuck up and arrogant it drives you insane and you can't stop thinking about it. the gold detailing is a little much, but like, in a good way. the blue on the sheath is a perfect touch. hilt is smooth and unproblematic, with the buttons for a little extra something, good shape, if not a little short and underwhelming. suihua overall is not a bad sword to fuck, but you better not fall in love with it. 7/10 is he gay or just european.

Xiao Xingchen's sword (Shuanghua)

if shuoyue is bichen's less hot brother, then shuanghua is bichen's sexy cousin, even down to the frost magic. the design is immediately one of the prettiest right away, with the silver design on the sheath and the pretty clean matte white. the structured hexagonal shape of the hilt is incredibly interesting, and the intricate engraving is a nice touch. the end does have a similar problem to bichen though, but while it is more rounded outwards, it's also not disconnected the way bichen is so it's up to you whether it's better or worse overall. 7/10 everyone's sword crush.

Xue Yang's sword (Jiangzai)

holy shit this is a hot sword. i know i previously haven't been commenting on the blades because they're usually sheathed in the pictures i find, but how can i not acknowledge the aesthetic of this blade. everything about this sword overall is exceptionally beautiful, and just the right amount of evil to suit xy. the hilt is very smooth and a bit tapered in shape, very nice. biggest problems is that it does have a tassle on the hilt, and the very end is a flat piece of metal, which might be sharp and would bring down insertability significantly. but i really can't find it in me to lower the score of this beautiful sword for that. 10/10 but the manhua version is even sexier.

Wen Chao's sword

i literally would not be making this post if not for this nameless beauty right here. this sword, in its bold, yet refined design, is the entire reason i thought to myself, hm, maybe you could fuck more than just bichen? it's honestly such a shame that i can't find a higher quality image of this sword, so you'll just have to trust me on this one. the exaggerated, swirled ridges spiraling down the hilt are... needless to say, very intriguing, and the head of it is not only rounded for ideal insertability, but is such a perfect cap shape too. there is absolutely nothing wrong with this sword, down to the design of the sheath, except for the man that carries it. take it out of his hands and put it somewhere more useful. 100/10 i think im genuinely sexually attracted to swords now.

[whoreforharlow]

Just to add to the discourse on Jack working with Chris Brown, and how that makes him look because he says he's a man who respects black women...

Both Ella Mai and H.E.R. are both black women featured on the album as well. On the list of who should not be collaborating with him, black women are at the top, black men second, and then white people. If black women are collabing with Chris Brown, after EVERYTHING he's done to us, my expectation that a white man would miss the opportunity to jump on the album is wayyyyy low. If a white man observes black women engaging and supporting Chris Brown, it's a solid assumption to believe that he wouldn't find any issues in it. Many believe "he's paid his dues" and have moved on from his negative behavior. Now, this is not at all an excuse, but it's more of an explanation. We can't hate the white man for not being in our corner, when black men and women can't even be in our corner. The most woke of them will only mimic our actions, and if we don't demonstrate the respect that we expect, they won't know what to do but copy what we do and how we view ourselves. If we pointing fingers, the black women on the album should be put on the hot seat before we ever look at the white man.

Also, this is an industry, and for him to pass up an opportunity to work with the biggest names would be a disservice to his career. Like for him to take what is quite literally personal moral stances against people who are problematic, he wouldn't get anywhere. Does he give up his dream of being a big shot legend? Because the reality is you can't reach the GOAT status that he's looking for, without playing the "game" set before him. Can we isolate and blame him solely, sure you can, but it's unfair to try one without trying all. He's unproblematic beyond calling himself an alpha, but who he associates with is questionable. Could he do better? Yes. Will doing better get him the results he wants? Not necessarily, or at least not in the way and in the time frame he's looking for.

I don't support the idea of overlooking wrong because everyone else is doing it, but tbh this mentality is SLIM in this world. Many will do wrong because EVERYONE else is doing it. Just as I said, it's not an excuse it's just an explanation. Would we all like for every misogynistic, colorist, homophobic artist to be canceled completely? Yes. But would that leave us with a very small percentage of the current mainstream media socialites? Also yes lol. Now realistically, we would have to really sit with ourselves and think about who do we listen to? Who are on our playlists? Even if they themselves are unproblematic, have they associated themselves with problematic people? Then by the logic we're using with Jack, literally all of our "faves" gotta go.

As for Anitta... to be completely honest, beyond her just being annoying lol, I didn't know anything about her. It wasn't until I saw people saying she was a racist that I knew she was, well, racist. From what I could see on Tumblr, A LOT of blogs didn't know, and found out from the Grapevine on here too. So with that being said, what can we assume that Jack knows about her? What do his black friends know about her to warn him about her? When I Google it, I saw stuff about 2013 and 2017... they met like this year lol. Again, not an excuse, but an explanation. From what I can tell, Jack doesn't spend time on social media to be reading up on the Anitta racism threads that span back almost a decade ago. Realistically, I doubt that he and his friends are researching the folks they hang out beyond their discography. Should he have someone on his team doing that shit for him?? 10000% because honestly being friends with Anitta isn't really something necessary for his image, if anything, bringing it down. I definitely think he's needs a black woman on his PR team, because as literally the most ostracized demo, we SEE everything lmao, can't get shit passed us without alarms going tf off.

Baby Boy is honestly on the denser side of the pound cake, and that's okay, I don't expect too much from a white man from Kentucky. But it's just that, I don't expect much. He's just trying to climb the ranks, play the game, and the only reason we're mad is because he's "supposed" to be the one good one... when in reality black men should be that for us black women. If we look for accountability, our own men should be held with more expectation and standard than a white man. I just don't like that we've elevated him to such a standard that he, as a white man, does not necessarily have to hold up. Take that as you want, but I said what I said. "I love black women", "I support black women", "I admire black women" are not conclusive statements, it's not solely black women that he's into. We're not the end all be all for him, that would be a FETISH lol. If he dates a white woman, that doesn't negate or contradict ANY of those above statements, but yall have contorted this man into a box that feels good, and will take it as him just pandering and capitalizing on black women. And before I hear "well he just talked sooooo much about loving black women, he obviously was pandering" HE TALKED ABOUT BLACK WOMEN BECAUSE HE WAS ASKED ABOUT BLACK WOMEN!!! Every interview he gets a black women question and he's gotta answer it lol, yall want him to say "I love all women" to that question? Yall would throw a fit at that too lol do I think he's capitalizing on black women, absolutely, but is that any different than what black men who literally rap the most disgusting stuff about us do too? NEITHER are correct, but yall just mad at Jack because we're letting a white man do it to us and not just black men and we feel a way about it. Welp, don't support his or any one else's pandering... its that easy. Black women are not dumb, we know what we're doing with these white men. We eat up any amount of attention because our own men won't give it to us, it's hard out here, and I do it too so I'm not judging. But there is an accountability that we need to take on. It's not just Jack.

[bookofmirth]

Dear acotar fandom,

This post is partly advice, partly me finger-wagging, and completely unapologetic. It deals with the way that people in this fandom read one another's posts and unnecessarily center themselves in conversations. I spare no one.

(I considered putting this under the cut but like I said - unapologetic.)

If you read a post, any post, in the acotar or any other fandom, and think “oh no, that was about me, how mean!” I beg you to think for two seconds about a few things:

There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people in the acotar fandom. You are not the only person here.

If the topic in question is not something you have engaged in, take a deep breath and back away. Rest assured that it is not about you.

If the topic in question is something you have engaged in, then take a moment to question why you got so defensive about it. Did you actually fuck up? If yes, then do better. If no, then again, it’s not about you.

Especially if you were not mentioned by name or tagged in an accusatory or disparaging comment, ask yourself if it is actually about you, because again, there are thousands of people in this fandom. What are the chances that this particular post and/or comment is about you, Mary Joan Sue Bobette Gumby? 

Obviously people can be vagued. It's something I personally dislike, a lot, and so I intentionally tag people so they don't get the impression that that's what I am doing. However, this is by far not the first time that people have thought I was vaguing them. This post is from 2019 and then there was another incident in 2017 where I complained about people over-sexualizing the characters and someone reblogged accusing me of vaguing them, but I can't find it so whatever.

But I promise you - I swear on my original acotar covers - I do not think about you as much as you believe I think about you. It’s likely that I don’t know who you even are, and I don’t say that as an insult or anything, it’s just a reflection of the fact that there are thousands of people in this fandom and not every single post is about you specifically, dear reader.

Literally no one in this fandom is exempt from saying or doing stupid shit. The way that people only call out problematic behavior when it happens to also make their fellow shippers look like better people is, frankly, disgusting. There is no such thing as one population of this fandom that is perfect, and unproblematic, and non-toxic. I don’t care if you ship elriel, or gwynriel, or elucien, or feysand, or neris, or cazriel, whatever. Me saying this should come as no surprise since I have always intentionally avoided pointing fingers at any specific shipping groups. The things you ship do not create an identity for you in which you are absolved of all fandom wrongdoings.

The way that people applauded certain Black women when calling out racism because it made one group of people look bad, and then attacked another woman of color when calling out racism because it made another group of people look bad? That tells me that certain people:

don’t actually giving a shit about racism in the fandom

Are more concerned with being labeled racist than if they’ve actually done racist things.

I prefer to assume people have good intentions so I don’t want to think this is true, but it feels like people are also using these topics to further their ship war agenda.

Maybe you’ve never done anything racist in the fandom, and if so, congratulations! That’s fantastic. Good job. That means that there is absolutely no reason for you to take offense at the idea that there is racism in the fandom, because you were not part of it. You can move on with your life.

So about what was actually said and the reason I am bringing this up: what I said was that two women of color were made to feel uncomfortable. That is an objective fact. It is still true, and I stand by it, and have no intention of backpedaling. I do not need to verify with other people about how those two women feel, when those two women told me themselves how they feel. There is no "other side of the story" to how they feel. I like to call it reverse gaslighting. I can and will vehemently defend your emotions and your right to feel them, whatever they are.

That’s what my parenthetical said. That’s all my parenthetical said. There was no accusation as to who caused those emotions, just that they were felt. I wrote in a passive voice, even, which means that the actor in the sentence, the person/people doing the “making uncomfortable” was not only not the subject of that sentence, but was not even present in the sentence in any other function or form. There is literally no other way that I could have written that sentence to be less accusatory, while still saying the very true thing about two people’s feelings. 

Which brings us full circle. 

If you felt like I was calling you out in that post, reread what I wrote, remember how many people are in this fandom, and ask yourself why you identified as the victim of that comment. Ask yourself why you think I was targeting anyone, when I not only made no accusations, but I explicitly said that everything in that post was about the fandom in general. And when I wouldn’t even know whom to accuse, even if I wanted to.

It might also be worthwhile to ask yourself why it’s more important to you to be a victim of a racist accusation, than to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, you actually fucked up. People crying about being called racist is a great way to detract from actual racism, which I have discussed before. (Skip to the section about tone policing and respectability politics.) Congratulations on providing us with another example, though.

So as I said above, this isn’t about anyone in particular because literally everything I am referring to in this post is a habit, it’s something people have been doing for years, whether it’s accusing me of vaguing them, or pretending like being called a racist is worse than actually being a racist. All of my examples are from 2017-2021, other than the post from this week, obviously.

tl;dr If you think that me saying “you” in any post is about you specifically SallyJesse Fluffensploofy TomatoPants, then ask yourself why. If you read a sentence in which there wasn't even a "you" or a name or a subject, and you somehow inserted yourself anyway, ask yourself why.

If not, if you recognize that you have no role in this and that I am not accusing anyone of anything other than being self-centered, then congratulations. You have perspective.

One last thing - to anyone who has ever read something on the internet and thought (non-ironically) “oh no, this feels personal” despite it not being addressed to you - your lives will be much easier if you learn to see past the end of your nose and realize that not everything is about you.

Y’all are free to post whatever and however you want. I will block accordingly, if I need to. But don’t put your personal baggage on me because I’m turning that shit back in at the baggage claim. Good luck dealing with that.

[avenger-hawk]

Hi Hawk, I've been following your blog for a while. I'm also a writer with an interest in "problematic" subjects, some of which come from personal trauma, others just because I find them hot. Who knows why we like the things we like? The point is, I'm very disturbed by the social justice trends in art and creativity. In a real world scenario, if we can't write about things that aren't "approved of", then we're all fucked. It's hard enough to make art without fear of censorship. 1/2

2/2 I’m worried about the repercussions of this type of thinking. If you take away problematic subjects, what do people expect stories to be about? The real world is extremely problematic. This just shows me that most of these "woke" people are very young, but unfortunately their morals have a real-world impact on the kind of media we consume. I’ll end my rant now. Thanks for defending your right to like whatever you want. I hope you can keep writing, because your prose is very beautiful.

                         **************************************************

Hi and thanks for appreciating my writing.

I think that this moralistic trend in fiction killed fandom culture already. These ‘woke’ fans are young, yes, and extremely ignorant. They ignore that not only the real world is very problematic so with certain things they’ll have to coexist with and with others they’ll (we’ll, as humans) try or should try to change things but it’s impossible cause decisions are in the hands of corrupted governments and dictators who don’t give a shit about human rights or environment, so in this shitty world we live in, where people get killed for the color of their skin, where people are killed in shellings because their country is invaded with a pretext, fiction, be it problematic or not, doesn’t matter anything, even less than in a peaceful world where things are all ‘unproblematic’.

Because it’s fiction and fiction should be a safe place to explore things we are interested in even if (or precisely because) they’re dark and dangerous so we wouldn’t do them in real life, or to elaborate certain things, traumas or whatever, or to just enjoy weird stuff.

It’s extremely offensive imo to start moral crusades against a pairing or some fanwork, or to have all these long ass discourse things about some injustice in the fictional world, when in the real world real injustice happens, real r*pe, real genocide happen. And now I feel this even more and I hate fandoms even more because they’re disconnected from reality, or, they engage in some online activism thing abt the current trends, because there are trends for activism too, and they apply them in fiction. Idiots, just do some real activism in the real world instead.

For me it’s too late for everything, because when I was younger and not active in fandoms I remember how much ‘problematic’ stuff there was everywhere and how people either enjoyed it or ignored it. btw I hate the word ‘problematic’ so much, and only now I’m starting to use it, and this is a victory for them too. I remember how when I started being active in the Nar fandom there were little little problems about this, and I see how it is now instead, where people self-censor themselves and their creative works so the 90s% of content is boring and stupid, 5% is ok and 5% is ok but the author apologizes so much that makes it less cool with their words. I see how my fics in the beginning received positive feedback, then less and less, with more hate because how dare I, or with justifications for liking them, as if it’s not only a guilty pleasure but a real sin to atone for.

Like you said, their ‘morals’ have an impact on the media we all consume, so we’ll have more and more ‘wholesome’ boring flat stuff...about s*x and relationships (especially when it’s about lgbt+ fictional stuff...I get that maybe for some life is so shitty that they want only ‘wholesome’ content but for others it’s ok to consume different stuff? I speak for myself and my gf for example, but there are more like us), while violence is always ok. So we’ll keep on having serial killers crime stuff because for some reason they are never included in the problematic stuff even if they indulge in problematic stuff but in the end they catch the bad guys (like Criminal Minds, which idk if it’s still ongoing. I kinda like the characters but I find the way they show serial killers/s*xual maniacs things very disturbing) or those shitty super violent things like The Walking Dead, which was so disgusting but somehow it was ok? Idk. As long as there was no ‘age gap’ or ‘problematic relationship’ cannibals and extreme violence is ok.

I think there is no turning back, not for now. Our generation of fan creations is fucked. We can continue writing, drawing, whatever but we’ll have less and less appreciation because the trend is against us. I can keep on shamelessly admitting what I like but I’ll be more and more cornered in a pit of shame and immorality by puritans. Until I, we (not you specifically but we creators of problematic content) will get tired, bored of this and we’ll grow out of the fandom. Also because like you said they are very young, so they have more time and less ideas of their own, their biggest pasttime in fandom is not creating anything, it’s politicing creators, who, on the other hand, have less time because they are older and because they spend it creating stuff.

It’s a lost battle.

[memes-saved-me]

Point is: this overly policing of what you can and cannot like in media feels like being back in the Catholic rhetoric of the '60/'70

People just need to consume media (problematic or not) and every other kind of online content in a responsible way

Especially with how people treat queer rep as well. You can't have a morally ambiguous gay or the world will burn apparently. Also there is no much thing as unproblematic media. You can find something wrong with anything and everything if you look hard enough. Consume the media you love and maybe be a bit critical of the shitty parts but you don't have to preface that or think of that 24/7

Unless its affecting people irl who gives a shit?

[nostuntmanneeded]

we should definitely stop giving her any kind of attention. wether it’s a view of her story, a follow (although i doubt people on this blog follow her), posting anything about her at this point, even on tiktok, instagram, twitter, tumblr etc. it’ll just give her the satisfaction that she’s being talked about, therefore she thinks she’s important. and honestly, considering how everyone reacts to every single thing she does, say or post, isn’t she ? i mean y’all give me this impression, some of you went crazy over A FINGER in an instagram story. and wether this is pr or not, she made it very obvious that she (and/or her team) is checking out these blogs. and i believe at this point, considering how everyone reacted to her CA at first and everything that went after, how much hate she received from seb’s “jealous fan girls”, she knows that whatever she does has an effect on us and she’s using this to her advantage, and she definitely enjoys it, that’s a fact. pap walks, paid articles, “random” sightings, instagram stories/posts etc. we all react to it on here (and other platforms), and that satisfies her. she’s being talked about. besides giving her attention (and that’s EXACTLY what she wants, attention and fame) she also has fun messing with us. so why play her game? why not stop giving her attention? why give a narcissist, selfish, racist, attention-seeking, fame-craving and dare i say cheater what she wants? as you’ve probably noticed by now, hating on her, calling her names and what not has no effect on her, besides playing with us, she’s got the upper hand considering she’s “in a relationship” with seb. yes, she’ll go frustrated and probably do something extreme to get a reaction from us when she’ll notice no one’s talking about her anymore, but if we don’t give any reaction, she’ll realize that seb’s not getting her any attention anymore and she’ll get bored, possibly breaking up with him. there are plenty of people just like her or even worse in this world, and we don’t know about them, we wouldn’t have known about her either if it wasn’t for sebastian. why give someone bad what they want? at the end of the day, we can’t change anything by hating on them, calling them names, predicting, inventing things about them etc. we’re only feeding her already giant ego. and whatever they do (about this pr i mean, not the traveling part) won’t affect our lives. that’s what we should always keep in mind. i too had a time when i was constantly checking everything she did, but guess what: it didn’t change my life. i don’t know them personally and i realized, why waste my time giving someone bad what she wants? why not use it do something good instead, for me or others? why use my energy to hate on someone problematic when i can use it to support someone unproblematic? no hate to this blog tho, as i’ve noticed this is the only blog that has a somewhat calm and nice vibe, and that’s what made me stay in the first place, except for my constant worry about what will happen at the time:)) hope you are all well and please, don’t let this person affect you, don’t let her think she has that power over you. whatever happens, happens. as much as we like to think we do, we don’t have the power to change it. stay safe and take care!

Yes! I've been trying to say this for weeks.

We shouldn't view her stories or even follow her. We can't follow her every step. Every single view, follow, like or comment gives her the attention she wants, even if it's only because you want to see what she's up to.

Alejandra just wants attention. There is good and bad attention, but it's still attention nonetheless. Don't give her what she wants.

[o-wyrmlight]

Also can you give me some context on the asks giving you characters for you to rip apart? I don't know whether it's /srs but I don't get the vibe it is, can you explain?

(i mean whether it is or isn't, it really gives me a glimpse into the mind of someone who assumes the worst or everyone.)

It was basically just me making a point that 'anything can be deemed as problematic if you look at it long enough'. I was basically fed up with people on Twitter being idiots and twisting facts and 'evidence' around to fit their own narrative, so I basically said 'Let me give an example of how easy it is to make even 'harmless' things seem problematic'. I asked people to send me Cookie Run character names so I could show them what I meant, and people did.

I earnestly don't stand by any of those points whatsoever. It's absolutely not to be taken seriously and doesn't reflect my actual opinions on the characters themselves.

I don't like starting arguments and I don't like dissing characters in a genuinely hateful manner--I have a lot more fun talking about why I like characters rather than why I hate them, even if I do say so in a way that's like 'Affogato's a little shit (affectionate)' or smth like that. And even when I talk about why I dislike characters, I try to give examples without trying to justify the extremes. Like how I don't really like Pomegranate much because her entire motivation seems to center around her loyalty to Dark Enchantress and nothing else.

It's perfectly fine to not like characters--it just irritates me a lot when people go out of their way to try to justify why they don't like said characters in very extreme cases while also calling people who do like those characters 'problematic' because they like those characters. And this goes the other way around, too--people who dislike characters that others deem as 'unproblematic' and being harassed by people who do like those characters.

Here's a few examples I've literally seen using misogyny as the 'problematic excuse':

You don't like White Lily? You're a misogynist for vocally disliking a female character.

You like Pomegranate more than Affogato? They're 'basically the same character', so you're a misogynist for liking the man more than the woman.

You like PureCacao more than PureLily? You're a misogynist because you hate women so much you can't stomach seeing them in a ship.