#engaging with the source material online

[hypermascbishounen]

man i am real sick of people seeing any complaints/criticisms about an adaptation, and taking that as a personal attack on them if they liked it. Just bc people don't like the thing you do, doesn't mean they're being hostile, or gatekeeping, or mean.

They do not need to justify not enjoying something, or to shut up so you never have to see negativity. If you do not like seeing people have opinions that aren't your own, it's on you to block them, not on them to not post how they feel about the latest big thing in the fandom they've probably been in for years, possibly decades.

[transmutationisms]

i would love to hear more about your criticisms of the BITE model! for me it always feels.. unfalsifiable? it seems to do poorly at distinguishing a cult from any other community, if you squint at the definitions

yeah so first of all i'm not particularly keen on even trying to defend the category of "cult" in general. obviously abuse and control methods can and do happen in groups, but i don't think it's particularly useful to talk about this like there's a strict dichotomy between evil malicious groups and all the others. and i think generally, when people do try to sort groups into strict categories like that, what you actually see is that the differentiating factor is less to do with the degree of control exerted by the group and more to do with how much the person doing the sorting is bothered by the group's ideology or doctrinal commitments lol. like, this is sort of baby's first cult concept critique but yknow, a group setting where you're being extremely openly financially controlled is your job and yet most workplaces, however abusive and surveilled and controlling, are not typically designated a 'cult' unless they're also peddling some kind of heterodox religious or medical claims or something.

anyway in regards to BITE in particular, yeah i think it does a really poor job of distinguishing between a 'normal' level of social pressure to say/do certain things, and the kind of control that ostensibly characterises a cult. for example steven hassan has called both MAGA and online trans communities cults, and a lot of this comes down to his persistent and pretty open belief in the power of 'mind control' and hypnosis as mechanisms of cult control. ofc any group of any political persuasion could engage in abuse and high-control of its members! usually this occurs by financial means, social isolation, etc. but hassan's BITE model isn't really good at identifying these kinds of material factors despite paying lip service to them, because it's more motivated by his desire to root out these kinds of shadowy quasi-occult forces of mental reprogramming that he fears.

i just find the whole model to be pretty silly and used mostly as a way of justifying dislike of lots of different social, religious, and political groups---some of which are genuinely mistreating members, some of which are just saying things their critics disagree with---because it's perceived as a reliable social-scientific designation and therefore name-dropping it helps the speaker feel that they're making some kind of objective scientific observation rather than a judgment dependent, as are all judgments, upon their own perspective and values. i think instead of this kind of haggling over Which Groups Count As An Evild Shadowy Cult it would be infinitely more productive and helpful to vulnerable people to talk about how high-control groups operate, what sorts of methods specific groups are using to control and abuse their members, and what sorts of resources those members are dependent on the groups for and need access to from other sources: financial and material provisions, social support networks, etc.

[greatrunner]

Yep. Control the space, control the narrative. That's always the game when they're outnumbered (or not) in fanspaces.

IWTV Twitter and the so-called "Fake Black Fans" Invasion

Something that I've been seeing a lot after it gained traction on Max is white fans condescendingly talking down to Black fans, some of whom have been in this fandom longer than they have, and acting as if they don't know what they are talking about because of their critique including a concept or subtext they wish to ignore. I want to repeat that this doesn't happen in the same amounts to white fans who make analyses or memes, it seems to uniquely be Black fans speaking AAVE or with Black pfps (visibly black bc of this) being bombed in the comments for having valid opinions.

I reached about the fifth tweet of white women going onto posts of Black people (particularly older women on Black Twitter) talking about IWTV and saying "You don't know what you're talking about, read the source material/finish the show" or entirely saying that "You don't understand fandom culture". Prompting those Black people to respond curtly that they, in fact, have read the source material, finished the show long before they have, and have been a fandom elder since before they even rolled into town. I witnessed someone doing BABY talk to a 30-year-old Black woman who was talking about episode 5, with "Well you see, it's not my fault you can't read". And when the woman professed anger back, she was the one blocked.

I witnessed this backhanded shit FIVE TIMES over the course of this week. With different white women doing the job of whitesplaining fandom culture and Anne Rice to random Black fans who already know unprompted with a level of passive aggressiveness and annoyance that only comes with doing it repeatedly. I must assure you (white people who are doing this) nobody asked, you can put down your task and stop pretending like you are doing something Sisyphean. You are not legally required to explain and describe IWTV poorly while getting into screaming matches with far more educated Black fans on Twitter and Tumblr.

People are acting as if there's a rising population of Black fans who are "Fake Fans" and must be stopped, lest they start up the freaky discourse. OOHHH NOOOO! Whatever are we to do then???? And therefore it is completely normal and a civic duty to blast Black fans in the comments of everything that they say about the show or the books.

I've been seeing people unironically football tackle reaction posts of the show with paragraphs worth of text that is inflammatory and backhanded. This is even more apparent when the poster is visibly black or uses AAVE. The association is that Black people who use AAVE or memes obviously are uneducated, lack media literacy, and cannot consume content the way that "White" fans do.

It is an attempt to tone police Black fans away from creating new topics of discussion or creating/expanding the fandom space with the growing watcher-base. It always has to happen in their chosen language, on their time, in the places they can reach us and yell some more. They are very discomforted when Black fans have pockets in fandom where they can't be outnumbered and they do in fact control discourse in a way that isn't productive to respectability. (As much as I am a big fan of big words and rambling, that is somewhat what is expected in this fandom as a Black person to be considered "respectable" and I'm not willing to ignore or shy away from that).

This is also hand in hand with my previous thoughts about fans' dog-whistling about media becoming accessible/mainstream and how "Others" will ruin it and outnumber them. I noticed that in the IWTV fandom, it seems like white fans believe that the "Others" is just Black Twitter in general. Not just "Twitter" but specifically Black people who don't fit into their narrow respectability politics.

I hate to tell you all this, but Black fandom culture is still fandom culture, and Black people do in fact read and write. I should not be seeing a pattern of random white fans going into the comments of Black people who mention IWTV and automatically assuming that they have no clue what they're talking about.

Like clockwork, exactly as when the show came out, racist white book fans started up the discourse of "The Black people are going to ruin fandom with their racism discourse and spit on Anne Rice!" and then when that time passed, the show reaches Max, and here they go barking again.... We really need to get a muzzle.

[sunny-superstar]

dont make me tap the sign

i know it ultimately trails back to the corporations but i just wanna say i think it’s heinous that old heterosexual men are STILL seemingly always in showrunner positions for major television shows, or at least they are always the ones getting their ideas greenlit. and so the most accessible popular media (the narratives we collectively see) are determined by these dudes who do not relate to You. they don’t care about what or who You’d like to see represented onscreen. sometimes this is affected by diversity in the writer’s room, etc., but for the most part everything must be dumbed down to what THEY THINK an average middle-american audience member can tolerate—and it’s insulting to everyone’s intelligence! It’s nearly 2025 and we’re all supposed to accept that certain kinds of stories are not worth telling (on that scale) because why? because it’s potentially alienating to a demographic that already has decades of screen representation to enjoy?

SO let’s talk about how showrunners/networks are well aware of viewership demographics and the profitability of fandom. Take a show like wwdits, where a lot of its notoriety had to do with its general edginess and, importantly, its appeal to LGBTQ audiences: the creators intentionally featured a mlm will-they/won’t-they at the center of their show, to the point that it was arguably the driving force behind continued viewership. It’s the carrot on a stick. “How will we keep profiting off of these queer viewers? Make them hope. Textually suggest the prospect of a fully realized gay romance and then tease these viewers for making ~homoerotic fanart and fanfiction~ like that wasn’t the plan all along!”

Your fanwork, whether it’s drawn or written, is free publicity for the source material. You Need To Know that. Because the corporate bastards Have Known That. that’s why supernatural was on for 15 seasons. Not because the plot itself was worth that much, but because the supporters of the central gay ship MADE it profitable. And baiting them only fans the flames (basically, it drives people crazy. spn still trends on here like once a week, 4 years later). & they want you crazy. they want online engagement. they want it trending on tumblr and twitter. They believe that if they give you what you want (canon gay rep) then the show will instantly lose profitability.

So. That’s what it comes down to. Your dedication means nothing to them but job security... and if you dare to take the bait and hope for the writers to fulfill what they VERY deliberately set up, they’re gonna straight up mock you. In the end, they’re just gonna fumble all of it, because they never cared about You or even the characters and their stories. Why bother if it doesn’t seem profitable anymore, right?

God it’s all so cynical. Keep writing fanfiction. Keep making fanart. Keep engaging in fandom spaces. Do it because YOU have passion. Do it because YOU care about a story or characters that mean something to you. Do it because we, as the folk, as the common people, need to have some way to control these narratives. We need to create our own hope, even if we get belittled for it. It’s all we have to combat the cynicism.

[karereiko]

Hello, everyone from Yuumori fandom.

Guess what, because of Concert that will be held in July all parts of Moriarty the Patriot Musical (op1-op5) are available to rent and watch online. With my Morimu fanarts or other talks about it I often get asked where you can watch it, often my answer is that you have to buy DVD or Bluray to watch this wonderful adaptation of Moriarty the Patriot manga. I know it's a big cost and hard to get for some so Streaming like this is a great opportunity to watch Morimu.

Official twitter posted few days ago about this possibility and here is the post with all information about it:

1600 yen is great amount to check if you will like it and wach it because I think it's worth any money, director who made morimu clearly loves manga, he treats source material with care and even makes it batter at some times, there is also a lot less cuts than in anime, like a lot. May be little spoiler or not, but Baskerville arc is there and Durham date too, as well as many Sherlock and John stuff that was cut in anime, some things from Moran arc etc. this is already big selling factor, right?

Actors are amazing and they love and care for characters they play. I wasn't into any actor adaptations before Morimu, I was ok with musicals but not caring too much about them and Morimu sold me since first part and it only got better and better each part even if you think that's not possible. Songs are there to make emotions and moments deeper or to have real fun with plot they show, they are not there just for song to be there. So yes high recommendation for you all to check Morimu if you didn't saw it yet. The most amazing thing is that you don't need VPN to buy those streams.

I was going to write about this few days ago and was busy, good I didn't because I talked with friends in Yuumori fandom who knows morimu and we were troubled to recommend this stream to people who doesn't understand Japanese. Morimu is faithful adaptation so almost like 70% lines comes from manga and you should understand what's going on if you read manga. Still, with subs it's a lot easier.

Kana did amazing job in creating English translation for Morimu Op1-Op4 at this point, all who bought DVD/Bluray versions of Morimu are using those subs and if you decide to buy own copy after seeing stream then those subs works great with DVD/Bluray versions.

So we talked over the stream matter and from what we checked with this plugin to Chrome it's possible to play subs with Morimu stream after you rent it (It works only with Chrome but if you know other program like this you can try it on different browsers, we only checked Chrome and this plugin) :

The only matter is that Kana saved subtitles in .ass file format, but you can easily format them to .srt file format that this plugin plays with this site:

You just open subtitle file and save it as srt, and open it with plugin to your Morimu stream. If you will have any more problems with subs them write me a message and I will try to help as soon as work let's me.

I think this is the easiest option that creators gave us now to watch Morimu, it was never so easy to buy or rent it until now, you had to use crazy VPN programs and other stuff to just check on it. So this is best option since for sure it won't last forever. Such promotional streamings are only around when new part is coming up, currently Concert I mentioned.

So for other things I wanna to say. If you get your copy of Morimu then please don't share it, don't post it to any social sites. Company that makes Morimu is quite strict with that matter and they do search who uploads those musicals and strikes them down/ deletes files even on places like google drive. Even without it, it's a matter of love for Moriarty the patriot. As much as fandom wants more people to watch those musicals, any piracy might destroy our chances to get Op6, possibilities for future streams and other stuff. Currently with Op5 we reached end of Final Problem arc and there is hope that maybe one day New York arc will be done in op6. Any piracy, sharing and messy stuff might destroy such chance, so please if you hold dear MTP then respect those rules. Watching streams with your friends in closed groups after you buy it isn't bad but please hold from any public sharing (they would be taken down anyway, but it would still put us fans in very bad light).

I know end of this post was not nice but it had to be told. I hope this possibility will help you see Morimu and fall in love with it like I did. I would recommend at least seeing OP1 and OP2, it should hook you and OP3 is where everything hits even more than op1-2, more hits from songs, more hits from sherliam stuff.

Hope to see you in Morimu cult :D... ehem... fandom. May you have "wind" (for some Great Detective) in your heart like William....

[musashi]

I HATE THAT THIS IS A TYPE OF GUY NOW! THIS SHOULDN'T BE A TYPE OF GUY! Fandom used to be for freaks! Fandom used to be for autistics and infohoarders! Fandom used to be a welcoming space for people who remembered WAY too much nonsense about their silly little Thing, it was like, the stereotype! The stereotype was that we thought it was deeper than even the creators did sometimes! The stereotype was that we remembered little details others forgot! Fandom was about seemingly misplaced passion, it was about being obsessed with stories even when they were imperfect! It was about LOVE!!!!!!!!

if you are learning everything about a piece of media from fanfiction you do not love the media! You love someone else's interpretation of their own relationship with the media! And that is fine if you keep it to yourself but PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TWITTER CANCELLING ME OVER THIS!!!!! people constantly FIGHT with me about it! i say 'hey popular fanon is not canon' and they go BALLISTIC because they don't want to admit THEY GOT THEIR INFORMATION FROM FANFIC. AUGHGHGIUHGUIGFGF

ENGAGE WITH THE SOURCE MATERIAL!!!!!!! AT THE VERY LEAST, BEFORE YOU START ARGUING WITH FANS ONLINE! YOU FUCKING TOURIST!

[avephelis]

okay. jrwi fandom. sitting you all down. i need everyone to hear this. all sides. okay? ready? the discourse is stupid. (TLDR: block each other)

making a dichotomy out of what is a nuanced topic, and enforcing it on EVERYONE with an "us versus them" mentality, is stupid. boundaries and fandom activity are not a black and white moral issue, and you are all harassing each other over having different personal opinions. and forcing that discourse onto everyone else.

you CANNOT and WILL NOT "win" an online argument by harassing people. if you group people up, and ostracise/villainise that group, those people are going to LASH OUT. and DOUBLE DOWN. they are not going to magically agree with you. it's frustrating, but that is how the internet works.

boundaries and fandom are complicated topics. jrwi boundaries, especially, hinge on a message from 2021, which has since been contradicted by the source material. it is a grey area. but REGARDLESS of your stance on that, the point of boundaries (about fictional media and fictional characters of age) are to protect an INDIVIDUAL, and what THEY see and interact with. not to create a code of rules for everyone. and as far as i'm aware, nobody has been making the council interact with nsfw content.

FURTHERMORE. people are ALLOWED to have their own boundaries. people are ALLOWED to be uncomfortable with sensitive content, and to choose whether to engage or disengage with it based on the information they are given. making fun of people (ESPECIALLY minors) for being uncomfortable with a complex situation, and for disengaging to look after themselves, as well as acting intentionally obtuse, is not counterculture. or a "ha, gotcha". it is not cool. it is immature and needlessly cruel.

and, while it is important for people to have safe spaces, jrwi is a piece of adult media. it is fine if teens are interacting with it and the fandom space, but you cannot expect everyone to cater to your personal comforts in that space. and i don't mean this condescendingly, but everyone NEEDS to be responsible for catering their experience to best look after themself and others. because social media by design is a hostile environment.

block tags that are uncomfortable. block people you are uncomfortable around. and the people creating said sensitive work? TAG IT so we can avoid it. rate it appropriately. it is not funny to intentionally expose people to content you know is triggering for them.

and as for callouts. if there is nobody being actively hurt (which there were not in recent events), you can handle it privately. otherwise you are actively exposing uninvolved people to content they are probably trying to avoid. which isn't productive.

please just be respectful and take care of both yourself and others.

[bad-system]

the neighbours — let's talk KCD3

disclaimer: this post is a continuation of my previous KCD3 posts on speculation of the events and lore that i'd like to see explored in the next installment(s) of the KCD story. and as per my last post; these are only speculations born of my own biased narrative and hopeful bastardizations of real events. this is not representative of ALL the real historical persons and events as there is either info missing on them, they were altered by WH for the sake of the game or i'm plain wrong. PS: i am not a historian. i just like history.

PART: 1 2 3 4 5

_____________________

in this post, i'd like to speculate on why hans capon/jan ptaček joins his pro-sigismund neighbour due to family relations. i know this could be explained in easier ways and that there are simpler theories but i wanted to engage (read: kill) my brain with data that was half missing, incorrect or there was no source i could find. if you do have a source that would help me correct this i would love it if you could share it with me. again; i'm not a historian.

so let's get to the point — Lacek of Kravař from Šternberk or Petr Konopišťský of Šternberk ?!

the biggest hiccup i've encountered during my research is none other than petr- or lacek- of šternberk...

in the wiki entry of jan ptaček it is noted that it was petr of šternberk among the leaders of the battle of vyšehrad. and according to wiki it is indeed that petr of šternberk, the pro-sigismund anti-hussite neighbour whom he had sided with.

however, hans' codex entry lists a different person as his anti-hussite neighbour- a lacek of kravař from šternberk + source. this lacek was both a king weceslaus supporter and a follower of jan hus, as per sources.

thus, i present to you a... mind map more than a genealogy chart that i made to help myself visualize the 2 possible events.*

(please refer to the legend before trying to comprehend the image.)

(*once again a big fat disclaimer... please do not use this as a reference or learning material. this chart takes artistic freedom into consideration like WH does with some characters.)

in the case #1, we take into account the wikipedia sources. in this case, petr konopišťský of šternberk, is indeed a poweful pro-sigismund neighour of jan ptaček. in this case, jan ptaček sides with petr due to obvious political reasons- his neighbour, even though he's a sigismund supporter and an anti-hussite, is simply more powerful than ptaček's estates. signing with the enemy to protect his people makes sense from a practical point of view rather than a moral one. his obligation is to protect his people. = CONFLICT

in the case #2, it gets a little more complicated. case #2 takes into consideration what is written in the games' codex itself- and makes the aforementioned 'close neighbour' one lacek of kravař from šternberk. why does this make it more complicated?

well.

if that was indeed the case, then jan ptaček and lacek had no political conflict. both jan and lacek were wenceslaus supporters, and lacek was also a vocal supporter of jan hus. so if there was no conflict between the lords- why was lacek mentioned?

i believe the conflict of interest could stem from lacek's wife- eliška of šternberk. while lacek's family wasn't anti-hussite itself, eliška's side of family was and if they were indeed the 'powerful neighbours' of ptaček's, i could see that being the source of internal conflict (within family) which could have swayed lacek (temporarily?). i haven't found proof of this (at least not online) and am skeptical they could improvise that so it remains as the theory i favour the least. or WH simply has the sources i do not.

then why did they put his name in the codex?

like i said; this data is inaccessible to me and WH have more trustworthy sources (which is the likely scenario) OR WH decided to improvise and take creative liberties with this historical figure.

remains to be seen!

but it was definitely fun to think about the potential reasons.

[jasper-pagan-witch]

hi! sorry to bother you, but i would like to get into pop culture paganism and am intimidated by all the.. everything people are talking about that i dont understand. do you have the most basic, "explain it like im four" crash course for learning PCP? [i feel the need to specify, i dont think im interested in being a witch at this time, i just have a pop culture deity id like to venerate] [i think thats the right word? worship? work with? idk]

thank you very much!

I'll happily help, anon.

WARNING! This post is a very, very basic introduction to Pop Culture Paganism, and I'm writing from my own perspective. There's no way I can cover everything. Please let me rest.

Let's start with some abbreviations:

PCM = Pop Culture Magic, the usage of elements of pop culture in one's magical or spiritual practice

PCP = Pop Culture Paganism, the usage of elements of pop culture (including but not limited to pop culture deities or characters-as-deities) in or as one's religious practice

PCD = Pop Culture Deity, an entity who is worshiped as or is a deity in their source material

PCE = Pop Culture Entity, any entity from a pop culture source (any PCD is a PCE, but not all PCEs are PCDs)

And some of my own definitions (yours may not be the same!):

Veneration/worship = including a figure in your religious practice

Work = creating an agreement with a figure in a magical or spiritual practice, which may or may not be religious in nature

Devotion = worshiping one deity above all others, that deity becoming your patron

All of these have been greatly simplified for ease of use in this guide.

PCP can be done in addition to or in place of other religions. Due to the nature of the phrase "paganism", a polytheist approach is implied but ultimately isn't necessary - there are plenty of pop culture pagans who only worship one PCD/PCE. I practice both PCP and """mainstream""" polytheism.

PCP can be done in addition to PCM, but the two can also be mutually exclusive. I, personally, practice both PCP and PCM.

The primary appeal of PCP is that it is deeply personal. Many people who engage in PCP find that starting their religious practice from the ground up, or in using familiar religious practices from their culture that they're used to, is a lot of fun. Others love the source material(s) that they're drawing from so much that practicing PCP is just a natural way to continue expressing their love for it. There are a thousand reasons to practice PCP.

Some of the """mainstream""" polytheism issues appear in PCP, too. Gatekeeping, cliques, the insistence that deities have to "choose" you...a lot of toxic ideas tend to show up, just because of how online spaces work nowadays.

"That's great, Jasper, but how do we actually do this?" I'm getting there, dear readers, I promise.

Decide your approach. What pop culture source are you drawing from? A video game? Music? A book series, or even a standalone book?

Outreach. Do you build an altar or shrine? Make an offering? Write a poem or invitation? Pray? Wait for the PCD/PCE to reach out first? Do you create them yourself?

Set expectations. What are you going to do? What do you expect? Do you want to communicate back and forth, or just pray and not expect a direct answer? Figure out what you want.

Continue developing. Your PCP practice will likely not remain the same as time goes on. Let it grow, and let yourself grow with it.

Hopefully this is a very beginner-friendly 101 style post! For further resources, please check out my Pop Culture Magic/Paganism Resources Masterpost.

~Jasper

[hsvh-hp]

Hi! Thanks for all the responses -- I hadn't realized how many chapters I'd gotten through since your last round until I saw the emails lmao

I was wondering, in regards to this:

And omg, I totally feel you on being a trans person in the HP fandom. It's very weird how my tumblr dash is set up. I have mutuals still from old fandoms who are queer, and I feel so ostracized from them at times when they toe the line of 'anybody in the HP fandom supports JKR, you're a bad person if you're still engaging with it'. I'll spare you the essay on why I disagree with that, but oddly the safest place I feel on the internet as a trans person is in the HP fandom. Which is weird at face value, I suppose, given what JKR is doing, but we really are separate from her. I've yet to see substantial evidence that fandom, which is infamous for generating zero revenue, is floating trans peoples' demise. It's just a thought crime, I guess.

if you would, perhaps, not spare me the essay? lol

I feel the same sort of ostracization which is especially frustrating when I am in such "thought crimes are fake!" circles, and I'm interested in your perspective, if you want to give it!

Sure, I’ll offer my perspective on it! This is probably best broken down into bullet points:

1. JKR was already a billionaire before she came out as a TERF.

There is nothing in the world that will change this status. Even if every single person currently engaging with her various IPs immediately dropped them, JKR would still have a billion plus dollars to drop on anti-trans movements and whatever. A billion dollars is immensely difficult to picture. The easiest way is to think like this: if you make $50,000 a year, the equivalent of her dropping $75,000 the other day is you spending $3.75. How often do you spend 0.0075% of your income and give it any thought? JKR’s wealth is not directly tied to ‘levels of fandom engagement’.

Which leads to…

2. Boycotts don’t work.

Sorry. They don’t. Not against someone this politically powerful. If they did, the flood of people out of the HP fandom in 2020 would have had a measurable effect. What did have a measurable effect? People not going to watch the Fantastic Beast movies (because they were hot trash lmao). Not giving JKR any more money works in the sense that it cripples her future projects, but it has zero effect on what’s already in her purse.

Also, think of boycotts this way: wasn’t it hilarious watching conservatives try to boycott the Barbie movie, Nike, Bud Light, and whatever else they’ve systematically locked on to? But so then why do progressives/the left/whoever think it’s going to work the other way? Like with Hogwarts Legacy? Just don’t interact with the media, dude. And if you do, pirate it.

3. Fandom is not mainstream. I have never seen any data to substantiate that participating in a fandom directly correlates to dollars for the IP. Copyright literally prevents that from happening. To bring up to popular saying, “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism”, fandom exists outside of capitalism—for me, at least, as a fan fiction writer. This is a hobby to me. I have never seen a red cent for any of the hours of work I’ve put into my fics.

And I can probably guarantee that no one has stumbled upon Harry Potter through me, lol. They didn’t read one of my fics and go, ‘you know, I should check out what source material this is coming from’. Harry Potter is so well-known that there’s no way they came in blind.

Also, the TERF discourse is very much an online thing. I work retail irl and I’ve had conversations with customers who’ll say “you know, I really don’t get all this hubbub against trans people” but are too boomer to be anything more than tangentially aware that Harry Potter is a Thing. Like, ‘oh yeah, my kids read those books when they were coming out, but I never bothered’. One of my employees bought a set of the HP books because they were on a wicked deal at Costco, and when we were discussing it I told her that while I still enjoyed HP, I wasn’t comfortable giving JKR more money because she’s extremely transphobic and donates a lot of money to anti-trans causes. My employee was horrified and said that had she known that, she wouldn’t have bought the books. Lots of people just don’t know!

Which takes me to…

4. This type of online activism isn’t effective.

I’m talking specifically about being anti-Harry Potter or anti-JKR. Falling into those two categories does not automatically make you pro-trans. This was pretty blatantly obvious back when the books were being burned for promoting witchcraft. As far as fighting for trans peoples’ rights, screaming until you’re blue in the face about how anybody who engages with Harry Potter is a traitor and JKR BAD is wasting time better spent doing something productive - something that could actually benefit trans people rather than…I don’t know…virtue signalling that their blog or twitter account is a safe space?

5. I personally do not feel welcomed or vouched for by these people.

Listen, I’m going to break myself down into all my stupid little categories. I’m trans. Autistic. Intersex. Aromantic. Asexual. Basically, all the things that people love to try and cast out of the queer community, whether that means they’re trying to split LGBTQIA+ at the T or Q.

The anti-Harry Potter stuff, as far as attacking the fandom, feels like the latest strain of purity politics to me. As I’ve laid out above, abandoning HP will not right the wrongs of JKR in any measurable or tangible way. Boycotts don’t work. Fandom does not feed JKR’s coffers, and destroying the fandom will not cripple her. There are trans people inside the HP fandom, and what of us? Are we traitors? Are we not ‘really’ trans, because obviously we don’t care about the current political climate? Are we just confused and need to be enlightened as to what harm we’re doing? Where have I heard this rhetoric before?

One small thing, tangentially related:

6. I don’t care what JKR says about how engaging with Harry Potter tells her about who her ‘supporters’ are.

Seriously? She’s a lying dirtbag, and I’m just supposed to take her word on this? This is the one thing she just so happens to be right about?

When she started spouting TERF shit, I was really saddened by the writers who, upon leaving the fandom, also deleted their works in protest. Seeing as the majority of the HP fandom is queer, I’m sure that JKR was very pleased with the amount of queer media erasure that occurred. Why did we do that for her?

7. I believe JKR actually seethes and malds over the prospect of her fandom being queer and producing queer content.

As a writer, there’s a special kind of pain that comes from someone not quite interpreting your work the way you would have wanted them to. What do you think JKR’s first reaction was when she first learned about the Harry/Draco ship? The Draco/Hermione ship? If she didn’t live in a stone castle, I bet she would’ve punched a hole in the wall.

So, yeah. Transing and gaying all of her characters is a pretty nice way to get to her in a way that she can’t legally or financially retaliate. Every time she screams ‘WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?!’ at the queer people in her fandom, a trans person’s crops are watered.

8. The HP setting is very welcoming to trans people.

Potions exist that can change your body. Enough said.

That the Harry Potter books never really says anything specifically about trans people (NOTE: obviously JKR’s prejudices even back then showed through, but this isn’t about that) leaves the question on the table. Obviously trans people exist in the Harry Potter setting, because they exist everywhere. So, how did they never get any page time?

Well, who says they didn’t? In a setting where potions exist to change your body, trans people are just…people. I don’t even think that they would have a marginalized identity because gender dysphoria would be something very easily treated. Think of it like someone who takes medication for blood pressure. They need the medication, it’s life-saving, and while there isn’t a magical pill to ‘cure’ high blood pressure, it can be managed. The magical world revels in being strange. Why would being trans, while being considered strange here in the ‘Muggle’ world, be anything other than normal there? Why can’t it be?

And then there are Metamorphmagi. People who can literally change themselves at will! If that isn’t a trans person’s dream, I don’t know what is. I would personally love the option of being the biggest, hairiest dude with a dick so big an erection would make me black out, and then ultra femme and delicate the next.

Last on this point, Harry never notes anyone specifically trans in the text (NOTE: touching on things like the physical descriptions of Rita Skeeter and Marge Dursley, JKR tends to do the ugly=bad person thing. Although she describes Rita and Marge as mannish in appearance, they aren’t trans characters. They’re women that JKR wants to frame as bad people. Like I said above, this is JKR’s prejudice showing through). If Harry never notes anyone as specifically trans, that probably means that it’s impossible to tell at face value. The same as blood pressure medication, to return to that analogy. How do you know someone is on them? They tell you. You see the pill bottle and happen to know what that medication is for. They complain about side effects. They complain about the symptoms that led them going to the doctor in the first place.

9. Queer HP fandom content can potentially be how a Harry Potter fan realizes that they’re queer (or that queer people are just regular folks).

Hey, the first one happened to me!

If someone comes into the Harry Potter fandom unaware of JKR’s politics - maybe they were gifted the books for their birthday or happened to catch the movies on TV - it’s good actually that this person doesn’t fall right into an echo chamber of JKR’s politics. I’ll be happily here to correct her record in a way that isn’t shaming or policing them.

Anyway, I think that’s everything lol. To summarize:

- The HP Fandom is a neutral setting. Engaging with it doesn’t help JKR, and not engaging with it doesn’t help trans people. Just don’t spend money on official HP merch.

- If you want to be a pro-trans activist or trans political ally, please just ignore JKR and put all your focus on the real world.

- There are trans people in the HP fandom who are left feeling awkward and uncomfortable due to virtue signalling.

- Generating queer HP content is good, actually.

[pumpkinpaix]

In the author's words:

My chapter explores the racialization of Chinese overseas fans of The Untamed at the intersections of free labour online, affective labour in fan communities, and sharing Chinese cultural literacy with fans unfamiliar with Chinese culture. Overseas Chinese fans of The Untamed tend to be collectively referred to as a diaspora, but I argue that The Untamed created a diaspora through engagement with the Chinese cultural markers within the source material. At its core, my chapter is a roadmap through the process of diasporic making that I underwent through my engagements within virtual Untamed fan spaces.

Stay tuned for the chapter spotlight, coming tomorrow!

(FAQ) (all posts on Catching Chen Qing Ling)

[lvmimis]

ok advice no one asked for-

people frame “info dumping” as a bad thing and i strongly disagree because info dumping is often a great way to get to know someone else and their interests

the problem is if you info dump you have to look at the social cues of someone being interested

if in person and their eyes are glazing over, stop or redirect to a different topic or even better ask a question that engages them in the subject material. online, the equivalent is don’t just keep going for an entire screen unless they’ve told you you were okay to

make sure you preface like ‘hey i really like this topic so here goes’ cuz sometimes a mass of info thrown in out of nowhere feels very intimidating without a warning shot, especially if the person feels obliged to answer out of politeness but can’t keep up or is interested

if you are giving a lot of info at once and someone interjects to ask a question, please actually answer the damn question or politely say you don’t know the answer, let’s look it up together. i think often people forget this part and it’s very frustrating to talk to someone who you are trying to connect with who is treating you as a stand in for a wall. taking the time to react to interest is very affirming to a relationship because once you don’t the person can feel interchangeable with any one else you’d like to talk to

make sure you’re not condescending about it like don’t assume the other person knows 0 about the subject but also don’t assume they know as much as you. it’s a dialogue. again, the whole warning shot of ‘hey i’m gonna talk about this’ or ‘do you know about this cuz i really love this topic’ cuz no one wants to be talked down to

and share your sources or resources! tailor them to how much the other person is interested or knowledgeable, maybe you’ll stumble into new knowledge together!

last of all, please know your audience. talking excitedly about a topic that either confuses or upset your friend seems self explanatory not to do, but i have actively seen it happen so please think

acknowledging the above, i think don’t be afraid to talk about the things you like! but remember your audience is a real person that has thoughts and opinions of their own!

edited - putting info dumping in quotes

[lemonhemlock]

I did not get into Game of thrones when it first started airing. In fact, I waited until it was long past it's heyday (around s6 or 7) to check it out because the marketing and the conversation surrounding it misled me into thinking it was nothing more than "grimdark" bullshit. As one famous YouTuber sarcastically called it "hot fantasy that fucks." So, I avoided Martin's work for literal years due to the impression that I got from online reactors and show-only casuals who did as you and a few others have described as his work being fundamentally misinterpreted.

Fortunately, I overcame my hang-ups, purchased the books (even the supplementary material) and fell down an entire rabbit hole of ASOIAF which led me to recognizing that this world he spent decades creating is far more complex than what had been portrayed onscreen. Regardless of the possibility of the books remaining unfinished (which I am fine with, personally), what George has created is a genuine work of art that I imagine took a tremendous amount of time and energy. So, for so many people online to behave like children and throw tantrums because they feel entitled to him (ew) instead of ushering forth more reasonable conversations and legitimate debates about the nature of his situation frankly makes me look at this fandom with a heavy dose of skepticism.

It is truly baffling to hear even professional critics and see articles describing George as being "ungrateful" or "unprofessional" when it has been well-documented just how often authors get locked out of the adaptation process and left to the wayside as consultants. Look at what happened to Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini! George R.R. Martin is not the only author to have qualms with how a multimillion dollar studio has mishandled his creative work, and to act like he should remain silent just because he's amassed a certain degree of wealth is quite frankly, ridiculous. He shouldn't have to settle down, be grateful, and stay quiet because the greedy corporate executives and their media drones will get offended by actual criticism that could alter the perception of the adaption being revealed as mediocre for having departed from the source material.

TLDR: authors should be allowed to speak up about their art being sacrificed for commercialization.

Thank you so much for this message, anon! This needs to be talked about more, because I don't think a lot of commentators truly understand the vulgar, late-capitalistic sheen that seems to set in and slowly poison any ASOIAF adaptation. It honestly baffles me how quick some members of this fandom are to rush to the defense of, what is essentially (let's not be kidding ourselves here), a cashgrab by a giant corporation to the detriment of the actual artist and the actual creative foundation behind it.

Why else would "MAX" (if that is even their name) make another (or several other) ASOIAF adaptations? Not to stay true to any philosophical aesthetic vision, as it has become more than apparent with Season 2, but to increase shareholder profits by appealing to the lowest common denominator. Even the basic premise has been shifted in order to address popular trends and satisfy the mindless consumer that doesn't want to engage with anything deeper than their favourite tropes, prettily packaged:

from a story about a doomed ouroborous family superimposed on the pitfalls of feudalism, with villainy and heroism to be found on both sides, it has been simplified and reduced to a narrative that exalts white feminism and disqualifies anyone who opposes its girlboss protagonist. This is Sheryl Sandberg's version of Fire and Blood.

Truly, I think Sara Hess did (unintentionally) outline it the best: "civilians don't matter in Game of Thrones". They don't matter in Game of Thrones, but they matter in A Song of Ice and Fire. The entire heart of the series is contained in Septon Maribald's speech. The writers "kind of", must have forgotten, though.

[buckitweride]

This fandom is…whew. I stick around for the fics and gifs because no show has captivated me in recent years like this one but venturing into the tags is a cesspool of negativity. My dash is a relatively safe place but outside of that, it’s impossible to avoid some of the weird pervasive narratives in every corner of this fandom.

At this stage in the show, I definitely would prefer to see the BuckTommy relationship reach a satisfying reconciliation and grow into stability. But if for some reason this show goes on another 10 seasons (as procedurals sometimes do) and Buddie canon is legitimately on the table one day? I’m gonna be excited about that too.

It’s wild seeing bucktommy shippers act like anyone who ships Buddie is crazy for seeing their chemistry. Like… give me a break. We can love Buck with Tommy and still acknowledge that 6 seasons of history, love, trauma, and family bonding do in fact mean something. Entire fandoms have been built on less than what Buddie has established in canon.

But on the flip side, the “buddie canon season 7/8/9 TRUST” crowd is deluding themselves. And I’m not saying that to clown, because when I was binging through 8a for my first watch, I too thought it was imminently possible based on fandom noise. However, stepping back from the hype of it all, most of the “evidence” about the possibility of imminent buddie canon came from interviews and not the actual show. And it makes sense when you think about it. Of course the actors and showrunners are gonna acknowledge and even lean into buddie when it gets them engagement. The general audience doesn’t read those interviews anyway so it doesn’t matter what they say about a ship they likely don’t intend to make canon. It keeps the online community engaged with the show and that ultimately works for them.

It would be healthier for people still wholly convinced buddie is gonna be canon any minute now to accept this and take the show for what it is. There is always fanon to build off the amazing canon buddie moments we do have. There’s no need to disrespect the amazing queer rep we are getting in this show just because there aren’t any imminent buddie canon plans (and may never be).

And for those of us who love Buck and Tommy together, why are some of y’all seeking out opinions of the ride or die buddie shippers? And then getting yourselves upset over what they have to say? Who cares. Seriously. The whole point of fandom is to take moments from the source material and use it as a launching pad for fanon theories. And whether you wanna admit it or not, there’s tons of sand to play with when it comes to buddie. Of course there are also the people who’ve made it their entire personality to warp every canon moment, bts nugget, and interview as proof that buddie is going canon tomorrow. 2+2=whatever they want it to be, regardless of reality. Every fandom has those people.

By all means, call out bullying, racist, homophobic etc behavior when you see it. But seeking out their harmless theories and hopes just to clown on them makes you look mean and petty. And contributes to what makes this fandom so hard to participate in if you’re just here to have a good time and aren’t concerned with “winning” a ship war.

Similarly, dealing with the asinine “queerbaiting” complaints because a ship no one promised would be canon continues to not be canon makes it tough to enjoy fandom for those of us who are drawn to this show because of the queer rep. I’m begging this fandom to get it together. We easily have some of the best material to work with and feels like we are consistently having the Worst Time 🙃

[cockringvarric]

i have to say harry potter is one of the more wild topics out there where my entire online curated experience is almost universally aligned that jkr is a real, tangible force of evil in this world, that casting actors of color to specific roles without actually changing or engaging with the (racist) source material is asinine at best (sure i can maaaaybe say "wait and see" except we waited and saw that horrible goblin eugenics game), and that monetarily engaging with any official licensed hp media and merch is directly putting dollars in her pockets that goes to lobbying anti trans legislation.

and then in the real world people go :) are you excited to watch?

[dwellordream]

"...According to Ovid, Medusa was originally an extraordinarily beautiful mortal woman who was known for her gorgeous hair. Then, however, the god Neptunus (whom the Romans equated with the Greek god Poseidon) raped her in the temple of the goddess Minerva (whom the Romans equated with the Greek goddess Athena) and Minerva punished her by turning her into a hideous monster with snakes entwined in her hair and making it so that any mortal who saw her would instantly turn to stone. A claim has circulated online for years now claiming that modern people have misunderstood this myth and that, actually, Minerva turned Medusa into a monster and made it so that anyone who saw her would instantly turn to stone in order to protect her so that men would never prey on her again. This claim, however, is not supported by any evidence in any ancient source and, in fact, Ovid’s account expressly says that Minerva cursed Medusa in order to punish her for her involvement in desecrating her temple, even though her involvement was totally nonconsensual. Furthermore, the context in which Ovid tells the story strongly suggests that he intended his readers to sympathize with Medusa and question the justice of Minerva’s punishment.

...I think it is perfectly acceptable for modern storytellers to change and invent new versions of ancient myths—but, when they do so, they should be clear that this is what they are doing. When modern people try to claim that modern creative reinterpretations of ancient myths that they personally prefer are genuinely ancient stories and that the stories that are actually attested in the ancient sources are misinterpretations, they are spreading misinformation about the past. ...The earliest known version of the myth in which Poseidon rapes Medusa in Athena’s temple and Athena turns her into a snaky-haired monster as punishment, however, comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Ovid was writing nearly seven hundred years after Hesiodos and in a very different cultural and historical context. He was not interested in simply retelling classic myths exactly as he had heard them, but rather in putting his own creative spin on them. As such, he frequently departs significantly from his source material, inventing new details, twists, backstories, and other elements out of whole cloth. As one may guess from the title, the central theme of the Metamorphoses is physical transformation. In it, Ovid tells many memorable stories about people and deities turning into animals and plants and even, as I discuss in this post I wrote in August 2020, men turning into a women and women turning into men. The story of Medusa’s transformation into a hideous snaky-haired monster fits well with this overall theme. As a Roman author writing in Latin, Ovid uses the Roman names for all the deities, calling Athena “Minerva” and Poseidon “Neptunus.”

...To understand why Minerva inflicts this harrowing punishment on Medusa, it is important to understand the historical, cultural, religious, and literary context of Ovid’s story. In general, the ancient Greeks and Romans did not regard their deities as moral paragons for mortals to imitate. On the contrary, the most common view of the deities held that, as a result of their immense powers, they were more-or-less not bound by human standards of morality.

As far as mainstream Greek and Roman religious thought was concerned, going around abducting and raping mortals—including mortal women, adolescent girls, and, in some cases (such as the myth of Ganymedes, which I discuss in great detail in this post I wrote in November 2021), adolescent boys—was simply completely normal, everyday behavior for any powerful male god. Stories about powerful male deities engaging in this sort of misconduct were absolutely ubiquitous throughout the Greek and Roman cultural spheres.

People, of course, recognized that abducting and/or raping people is morally wrong, but they also recognized that, if a powerful god like Zeus or Poseidon is doing it, no one can really do anything to stop them or hold them responsible for their actions. In other words, gods will be gods.

At any rate, if any ancient Greek or Roman person ever expected some deity to try to do something to stop male deities from sexually abusing and raping mortals, Athena/Minerva was probably one of the last deities they would ever expect to do such a thing. As I discuss at much greater length in this post I made in July 2021, ancient Greek and Roman sources generally portray Athena/Minerva as a staunch, unwavering defender and enforcer of the male supremacist patriarchal cosmic order that allows powerful male deities like Zeus and Poseidon to rape mortals with impunity in the first place.

...Sources written in the Greek language after Ovid generally don’t endorse his version of Medusa’s origin, instead mostly keeping to the older, more traditional story that Medusa was simply born a hideous monster. Ovid’s version of the story, however, seems to have enjoyed somewhat more acceptance in the Latin west and, thanks to his pervasive influence in western Europe from the Renaissance onward, it has become accepted as the standard version of the story throughout the English-speaking world today.

There is no ancient source that ever describes Athena/Minerva as transforming Medusa into a monster in order to protect her. This is entirely a modern reworking of the story that is meant to portray Athena/Minerva in a way that is more palatable to twenty-first-century feminist audiences.

Really, though, this reworking of the story does not actually make Athena/Minerva much, if at all, better. As the self-described “antiquity enthusiast” Meg Finlayson, who has a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees in classics, points out in this tweet they made on 2 September 2022, in this reworking, Minerva still transforms Medusa into a snaky-haired monster who turns anyone who sees her to stone without her consent, which is still a heinous and fundamental violation of her bodily autonomy.

If you want to change this story to make it portray Minerva/Athena even remotely positively at all, you’re going to need to go beyond merely changing the characters’ motivations. You’ll actually need to change the events of the story, have Medusa pray to Minerva/Athena and specifically beg her to transform her into a hideous monster with the power to turn anyone who looks at her to stone, and then have Minerva/Athena grant her this wish.

...Moreover, there is no evidence for the face of Medusa having ever been used in ancient Greece to specifically represent abused or victimized women in any form or capacity. Indeed, as I have explained above, the very earliest attestation of a story in which Medusa is even definitely a victim of rape at all is in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, dating to around 8 CE. Prior to this, there is no definite evidence for anyone at all regarding Medusa as a rape victim.

Medusa’s face was genuinely an important symbol in ancient Greece, but the Greeks used it as an apotropaic symbol—a symbol meant to generically ward off evil, similar to how some Greek people today use the mati eye symbol to ward off the evil eye."