#like genuinely i would like to be better if I did something racist and harmful but I have no idea what u r talking about

[jewishfalin]

That anon was about something else entirely take some context clues and figure it out you got called "racist" specifically.

Okay, I have no idea what that was about though then?? If I did or said something racist without knowing, I would like to know what I did wrong and learn from it. I don't really get much context clues from "slit until you hit an artery you racist druggie" and I'm going through my blog trying to find what on earth would warrant that.

This gives me 0 context clues

[levyfiles]

some people are mad at steven for a moral issue, tbf. regardless of your thoughts on watcher’s streaming service he did still say he has racist and homophobic friends. he still goes to a homophobic church.

I absolutely recognise that you must have been recently introduced to The Pod Clip that the twitter teens who hate him preserved to break out whenever it's a fresh moment to rally hate against him, but I would advise anyone just receiving this clip from August 2020 being passed around with the angle that Watcher tried to hide this. I and many others were there and just know that I have a zero tolerance standard for people who show no remorse or growth when they uplift racists and bigots.

Mine and other fans who were startled by the statement hoped publicly that it would be an opportunity to clear the air for Watcher because the current political climate was just finally examining anti-blackness in everyone's biases and as someone who is mixed-African growing up in an Asian household, I know that anti blackness is and has been a normalised mindset in the Asian community.

But the thing is, months before this, Steven platformed Tammy and her colleagues to discuss how all of us can work together to stop Asian hate and one of the conversations I highlighte back then was how very clear Tammy was that allyship from the Asian community to the African-American community was tantamount to moving forward. That the us vs them rhetoric has and continues to be harmful for both parties. Ryan and Steven were very involved in this discussion and agreed wholeheartedly.

Having said that, the narrative around the podcast ep never had a chance to be discussed rationally. It really ended up skewed because Steven's response to the backlash from that clip was this

I hope that's legible to you. Many people who felt uneasy about what he said felt a lot better and his intention to say something at the top of the next episode would once again, unfortunately, get derailed because Twitter users (some who are particularly loud about loving and supporting Watcher yet constantly join in on the throng of bullying as soon as the tide turns) were adamant that they needed Watcher to post the clip and Steven's apology publicly on their youtube front page and on the main socials, to literally advertise it when the reality is that not many people were watching/listening to the podcast. For what reason would it be intelligent or good business practice to broadcast this hurtful moment so that more people could get hurt by it?

Watcher's response amid the harassment was to release a full podcast episode where they all discussed what they would do going forward to show that they are allies, not just by not being racist or homophobic but by being anti-these things. They showed that they cared about their impact. It was emotional and devastating to watch and by that time, we knew the pod was likely going to wind down. 2020 was already a miserable time and it was made worse because no matter what Steven or Watcher said at the time, the "stans" on Twitter wanted the man fired, they posted memes saying the world would be better if Steven Lim didn't exist, they wanted him shamed by his staff, and for Ryan and Shane to publicly disavow him. Many of these so-called devoted fans raided the server to yell about how Steven's alleged homophobia hurts them, most of them were white and pointedly talking over people of colour telling them "it's not your apology to accept!". It was a blood bath.

And I see waaaay too many of the same faces utilizing this completely neutral move--that of COURSE could have been executed better--to terrorize Steven, to make petitions to get him fired, commenting on his wedding photo telling him that Tammy should leave him, posting those same damn disgusting memes because you see, a whole bunch of people forgot how disgusting and evil this vendetta was to the point where even watcher's socials started to FOLLOW some of these genuinely mean-spirited individuals. They didn't give a shit about a movement or activism.

What kills me--what absolutely THROWS me--is that these same people expect to be able to return to interacting with the staff, attending live shows, buying merch and sending fan mail as soon as the hate tide winds down. All these people so concerned about a statement referencing faceless hypothetical racists and homophobes that Steven never named nor attributed any context for--as he was never given the chance--are so quick to dehumanize and caricaturize real human beings to their faces and they think this is a normal and acceptable behaviour.

You'll have to excuse me, as an older fan who has seen my fair share of normalised homophobia and racism in these communities, if I disagree.

[the-final-sif]

Hiya! I just saw the QSMP post you made and I have a genuine question! If you can't answer me yourself, it's totally fine, it's just that you seemed to know something about this.

I'm from central Europe, and looking at the mob from the modpack, I never would have guessed that it was offensive in any way whatsoever. To me it just looked like a fantasy creature based on tribes or very very old human history (like uhh.. neanderthals for example). My question is, what part of the mob is offensive? Is it based on something that exists? I'm just really trying to see what I should avoid for future reference. Again, I absolutely mean no harm, this was just my first time hearing about this.

Hello!

So, first up, I want to say that nothing I'm going to go into next should be taken with any sort of malice. It's really really good that when you saw something and didn't understand it and you went to ask questions to understand the topic better! That's wonderful! I am very proud of you for taking that step!

I will also preface this discussion with a general disclaimer that I am white, the reason I've made these posts is because native people who I follow and am friends with were hurt by the really racist portrayal but didn't feel comfortable risking harassment. I am completely fine with risking harassment, and I want my friends' hurt to be acknowledged and addressed. That being said, there's millions upon millions of different indigenous people from all different places and backgrounds. They live all over the world and they are not a single unified voice. My goal here is to just give a rough overview of some of the basics.

That being said, when you say "it just looked like a fantasy creature based on tribes or very very old human history (like uhh.. neanderthals for example)." that's honestly kind of a big part of why this imagery is so racist. Because it is based on tribes. It's a racist conglomerate of indigenous/tribal cultures that all get bundled into an age old racist "savages" trope. These cultures are not dead, they are not gone, they are not primitive or a relic of history, and they deserve the same respect as any other culture.

"savages" and "brutes" are both extremely racist stereotypes of indigenous cultures. Through history it's been used to justify colonization and genocide throughout the world. Nowadays, people often attempt to portray tribes and indigenous cultures as either gone or archaic. Just a thing of history. Ignoring the fact that there are still people that belong to these cultures who deserve to have their histories treated with respect & to not have their cultures and images treated like some sort of monster.

The mobs in question have a stereotypical "tribal" look to them, and they attack players on sight that don't look like them (until you murder them and take their masks). The resemblance was bad enough that the streamers I heard were all calling these "natives". It was very obvious what they were supposed to represent. An idea of native people as primitive savages that player can (and are encouraged to) murder without consequence or feeling bad for their actions.

In fact, in order to be able to trade with or not be attacked by the mobs, you have to murder them to get their masks. It's really bad. You can also murder and enslave their "Chief". Which is. Bad. It's really bad.

Now, just to be clear, Quackity/the other streamers didn't create the mod. However, it should've never been added to the server, and streamers should address the way that they reacted to the mobs. FitMC in particular reacted very racistily and clearly knew what he was mocking when he did.

Overall, this mob is a deeply racist stereotype, and while it's inclusion was probably accidental, it's still very important that Quackity be an adult about it, take responsibility, apologize & set out a plan going forward so this doesn't happen again. That's his job as the owner of the server. FitMC also needs to apologize for the comments that he made and do better in the future, or Quackity needs to remove him from the server because that shit really wasn't okay.

Hopefully that's helpful? It's something that's kinda hard to explain how racist the imagery is because of how bad it is.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

person i got the image from did a great takedown but i’d like to hear your thoughts. apologies for the long link.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/311f7b4b715f10b0348b193a4052d2d7/d15b73343c42378a-bb/s1280x1920/0275e731e2a174150f41ca47438558bf3dad1684.jpg

"Violent tantrums" what an odd way of saying "emotional breakdown due to intense grief, and that Katara is upset by not because she feelts threatened but because SEEING HER BEST FRIEND IN SUCH RAGE AND PAIN HURTS HER"

And yeah, Katara never reached out to comfort/soothe Zuko when he was in battle mode - because he was an enemy. One that was constantly attacking her, and not because of a fit of rage (even though he was prone to such behavior) but because he was supporting the systematic oppression and murder of anyone that wasn't on his side because that's how he was raised.

Of course Katara didn't try to calm him down, because Zuko was not acting out of anger but out of RACISM and INDOCTRINATION. She didn't try to reason with him because Zuko simply could not be reasoned with, at least not by a conversation with someone he saw as inherently inferior. There's a reason his arc had him being banished, then becoming a wanted fugitive, and finally a refugee in Ba Sing Se - if he had never been forced to truly experience the damage his nation was causing he would have never realized it was wrong.

It doesn't matter how much zutarians try to lie about it, only one of those two characters ever knowingly, deliberately put Katara in harms way, only of them was TRYING to be a threat, to intimidate her into obeying him, and it wasn't Aang.

If they want to ship Zutara, they need to either deal with the fact that it started out as two people being enemies because one of them literally couldn't understand that other races are not lesser people, or they make a modern AU in which there was no war so that element can be dropped. Trying to pretend Zutara was not rooted in violence and intimidation (at least at the start) but freaking Kataang was is ridiculous, pathetic, and proves that for all their talk about "liking a more complext dynamic" is nonsense because they're TERRIFIED of engaging with the one narrative element that would actually make their ship complex.

They want the "hate turns to love" aspect without going into WHY that hatred existed, because it wouldn't be the typical "both sides had something to learn", but rather "one side was actively racist and thus hostile, and the other was just reacting to it." They want to praise Zuko for learning from his mistakes, but they insist on sweeping said mistakes under the rug. They want to put him in the role of Katara's hero and hope for a better life, when he actually spent 5/6 of the show being the bad guy ruining her life, putting her and her loved ones in danger.

This is why the fanon dynamic of Zutara is racist and even misogynistic, while the canon one isn't, even though both involve Katara forgiving Zuko and growing to care for him: the show was interested in using Zuko's warped world-view to deconstruct it and make him change for the better, but the zutara fandom at large only seems interested in making up excuses for him, and thus robbing both Zuko and Katara of their complexities, as Zuko's growth is negated and Katara's righteous anger is not allowed to exist.

Zuko and Katara's canon friendship is about a bad person being forgiven when they realized they made a mistake and genuinely changing into someone worth admiring. Zutara's fanon romance is about a bunch of enablers pretending Zuko wasn't ever racist, hostile, and violent towards Katara.

[stranger-rants]

people think about racism in a... weird way, let me tell you that. it's either you are, or you aren't. that's a problem because of the way systemic and ingrained racism is built in the roots of our society. people have done racist things out of ignorance or any number of factors and people will continue to do so, even people we admire. people fall into pipelines as kids, people commit microaggressions that they genuinely do not understand, people share racist memes because they don't see the dogwhistles/ don't understand the severity and only think of it "as a joke", whatever.

thing is, billy could be completely innocent in his eyes. he could believe that he genuinely hurt lucas to protect max and nothing else. but his actions still contribute to racism. and it's fine to acknowledge that. whether he was raised to have racist biases, doesn't think of himself as racist but still carries these beliefs subconsciously, or he genuinely isn't, it doesn't really matter because his actions were harmful and they hurt lucas. and again, it's okay to acknowledge that.

i wish people wouldn't really swing the pendulum one way or the other, you know? there's a lot of complexity here. people either characterize him as a violent racist who chose to torment lucas incessantly, or an innocent boy who did nothing wrong. fellow people of colour can have their interpretations, but i like it when the complex nuances are actually acknowledged. billy, whatever he was thinking (even if he was justified or innocent in his eyes), still did something racist, and that's still something he can atone for by apologizing and working to amend his errors. it's not okay, but he can change for the better and do good.

i simply think characterizing him as a violent abusive racist is damaging overall. it paints a very specific picture of racism that renders every other form of harmful discrimination obsolete, especially subtler forms. people think racism can only exist in violent people with hate in their heart, and that's simply not true. anyone can say or do racist things. anyone can cause harm and further perpetuate hurt to the people around them. anyone can thus apologize for these things, grow, and change for the better. as people of colour, it shouldn't be our job to rehabilitate or soothe people who did racist things, but growth they choose is a net good. and acknowledging racism as something that exists outside of plain evil bigots works to tackle the very ingrained racism in our world. just think that's important to consider for everyone, and it makes me happier now that i've understood billy like this, because i don't like viewing the world in such a strict, rigid moral way.

I agree. There is a lot of nuance to the conversation that gets ignored one way or another. It’s easier for people to identify overt racism that manifests in physical violence, but not so much racism that manifests in institutional violence. While I am white and I don’t think it’s my place to tell fans of color how they should feel about Billy, I think a lot of white fans are unwilling to confront the ways in which they are racist and/or contribute to institutional racism. They think that as long as they like the right characters and perform allyship then they can absolve themselves of their own bigotry. Regardless of race, I think fans need to also confront how their own traumas impact their world view because a lot of people use trauma as an excuse to perpetuate institutional harm.

What Billy says and does can be triggering to people for different reasons, and I don’t fault people for that. However, we can’t just use our own traumas to ignore his or ignore the context of his words and actions. If you don’t take the time to contextualize his behavior then you will never understand how to address it. Yet, there are so many people who don’t want to contextualize his behavior because that would require uncovering really uncomfortable truths about society… and themselves. I think a lot of hateful reactions to Billy stem from people’s own guilt and shame and in performing such hate for this fictional person, they are “checking” themselves. Making themselves feel good. It’s much much harder to think, hey, I might have been a bigoted person in my youth and it takes hard work to unlearn it.

That’s why people are comfortable taking a pro-punishment, pro-carceral stance when it comes to “dealing with” Billy’s racism even when that very mindset stems from institutional racism. It doesn’t emphasize growth and change, which are entirely possible with a teenage boy who was surviving abuse at the time they said and did those hurtful things. It emphasizes violence as a solution, which is how institutions already respond to marginalized people who are perceived to have done something wrong - with violence. This isn’t to say people can’t or shouldn’t defend themselves from racists or racism. It’s specifically this idea that Billy needs to be eternally punished for his actions even when he hasn’t shown himself to be a bigot that doesn’t resolve racism but rather feeds into it.

These people don’t want to admit that they’re doing harm or perpetuating cycles of violence themselves, so they need to be right. They need to feel good about hating him, and they need to perpetuate this false idea that people are static individuals who cannot change. You either are a bigot or you’re not to them, and I think feeling the need to defend their investment in such a character many people who like him feel the need to call Billy’s actions something other than racism. It’s still racism. You can be racist without being a card carrying member of the KKK or a neo-nazi. It’s important to acknowledge that, but it also is important to acknowledge that you can learn from that and grow and change as a person. That is what ends the “cycle.” Not more institutional violence.

[fandomfluffandfuck]

i’m the anon who previously sent the message about the deplorable things alba and her friends have said and done.

i did indeed see your response to my message, and to be completely honest, i thought it was a genuine and well-thought out reply. i know you mentioned you did not want to engage (which is completely fair, considering the scope of your blog), so i understand if you don’t post this. however, i was disappointed to see you continuing to give alba a platform when she has, in fact, not changed or learned from her previous actions. she is still close friends with people who have publicly tweeted statements such as, “fuck me like hitler fucked the jews.” it was revealed that she is heavily antisemitic on set just as recently as last year. she is not sorry for her actions, that much is clear.

it’s your blog - you have final say on what to do with it. but as a part of your previous reply in stating that you could do more in holding racist people accountable, i just thought that you would at least stop giving her a platform to spread such horrible values. because of her antisemitism and racism, her (and now chris’) fans also think it is okay to do so. yes, we cannot control the actions of others. however, as public figures, they do play a part in guiding the narrative and setting an example for those who see them.

i wanted to end off with saying telling you that someone previously asked a fan blog of chris and alba, “is nazism and racism okay if you’re white?” and the response was a resounding, “yes!”

this is who you’re supporting, parasocial or otherwise.

related to this

Thanks, I am surprised that you came back. Also, thank you for not screaming, I've seen way too much "discourse" that is just that online and, unfortunately, in real life.

That's all horrible, and awful to hear, obviously. I knew vaguely of her association to friends with problematic, harmful views through another anon, but no details. The description given certainly paints that she's not learning or growing, yeah. That's shitty. Especially shitty when it's more recent things and not past regrets or ignorance.

It is certainly in my mind whenever an anon sends me something about Alba. She's in a photograph with Chris, I see her in his tag, or whatever. Each time I post something of her, even if it's not really about her and more about Chris, it's consciously something I contemplate. I really hate getting into the real, real relationships and such. I'm not a gossip blog. I have no interest in that side of stanning/supporting a celebrity. So, I very much hesitate to post anything that toes the line. I don't want to, and I shouldn't give people who are racist a platform. You're right, clearly.

Also, I'm sure there are fans of either (or both) Chris and Alba who support racist views or think that they are allowed to because they see their favorite celebrities doing it. I would prefer to think that it is just a very vocal minority, though, in the same way when I see people posting about committing violence toward Alba, death-threat-ing her, making remarks about how they hope Chris divorces her and does horrible things to her because she deserves it, etc. I hope people understand better. Maybe they don't. Maybe I am naive and the outlier by assuming that people compartmentalize their fandom lives from their real lives similarly to me. If so, more should be done to educate them, or push them to educate themselves, on why that isn't okay. Poor behavior examples can be very dangerous, though, I agree.

Anyway, again--for real this time, haha--I'll say that I don't want to get further into this. I can feel a very slippery slope coming, not necessarily from you, but generally about who has reportedly said what and when and to whom, and that's too much for me.

[marrow-minded]

What is it about Jaune that makes you like him? /gen

i know a lot of what im about to say can be boiled down to "hes miles self-insert" but like. as a certified Miles-Hater thats so dumb to judge a writers fav character (i dont think jaune is even miles character) or the character they heavily base around their own experiences on the feelings you have for the writer. many MANY writers far better than miles luna have based characters on themselves-- which is what jaune is btw a self-insert/mary-sue is ENTIRELY different-- anyways

you see, something that made weiss and pyrrha (and somewhat blake) in vol 1-3 many peoples fav characters, including me, was that they had functional character arcs. pyrrhas was far more deep and interesting than weiss' (bc the writers were scared to actually tackling unlearning racism) but functionally: weiss started off as an uppity racist bitch that was entitled and self-important, and by the end of vol 3 she had not only learned to summon, but also did it in protection of a faunus-- regardless of the quality of writing, this was a perfectly acceptable story arc during vol1-3 era that made weiss a standout. pyrrha went from a sort of empty mentor shell character to somebody that the audience understood to struggle with her identity, her destiny, her talents and lack of agency, coupled with this idea that she might be forever changed should she take on the burden of her destiny... and then she kissed jaune and took on cinder solo (meaning that if she was rescued [meaning she escapes the stigma of being the unbeatable girl, thus escaping her destiny] or somehow won, she could return to jaune [thus gaining the joy she was always afraid she would never have] OR she would die [again, escaping her destiny]

you see, people LIKE character development and that is in woeful short supply in RWBY. but jaune is constantly changing, while other characters remain static for massive bouts of time (ren, weiss, yang) or repeat the same character arcs again and again (ruby, nora) and while hes changing, its always for the benefit of others

jaune starts off as a doofus cringelord that throws up on the ship to beacon. hes a liar, getting his hands on fake transcripts (ive always wanted to know how the hell he did that), hes a poor student (like everyone else tbf) and he struggles to fight. hes unprepared, and he struggles with leadership, like ruby! where ruby had to deal with internal team struggles (blake v weiss and weiss v ruby), jaune struggles with external factors (his own backstory and cardins bullying)

ive seen Certain Individuals say they hate jaune because hes mean to pyrrha when she offered to help him but like. isnt that the point of character arcs and development? jaune started off as thinking he had to shoulder the burden of what cardin was doing to him (which btw was physically bullying and mental exhaustion, he was doing the burden of five people and in the meantime was being physically harmed) as well as the guilt of his own backstory (failing to live up to a huntsman legacy [which GOD why havent they come back to this at all] and his lies.) and by the end of it, off the advice of ruby, he fights back to protect his team and DEVELOPS into someone that willingly and genuinely apologizes to pyrrha and asks if she would still be okay with training him. its genuinely good development for both of them!

jaune continues to change post pyrrha. he honors her by incorporating her armor into his own, carrying her silently alongside them, while also keeping up his training because he knows that the best way to honor pyrrha is to keep up the fight, to protect their friends, to make sure she didnt die in vain. hes ALWAYS supported ruby from the very beginning, following her, supporting his teammates

im not going to pretend jaunes flawless or faultless. especially in vol 4-6 where a LOOOOOOOT of writing flaws and character issues crop up for me, in all characters including jaune. i hate the way they all blame Oz/Oscar, i hate his stupid plan to steal an atlas airship (cordovin literally offered to escort weiss just have her claim oscar as a servant boy and have qrow go along as her pet bird, have her go to atlas with oscar and qrow with the lamp and then ironwood would have given cordo orders to have everyone else shipped out GOD), i hate the way they all just SIT AROUND at haven, i hate the way they all act like qrow turning into a bird is some fucked up thing, yadda yadda yadda. the fight at haven is bad and ugly and he (like everyone) fights like an absolute ding dong but OUGH his semblance...

listen one thing about me? i love paladins. love healers. im a support main, i play clerics and bards, i LOVE paladins. theres something really great to me that his aura was set up from the very beginning as something he had a lot of and now his semblance is literally giving that away to his friends, literally giving his SOUL to others to heal and boost and protect. that's genuinely so beautiful to me. its not only a wonderful semblance that has really good utility and synergy (regardless that he only seems to use it with ren) but its wonderful that it heals, because thats the first thing he found out aura can actually do; pyrrha unlocked his aura to HEAL him. and he struggled for so long with the fact that he couldnt help pyrrha because he didnt know how but now? his literal super power is to help others. (i mean. not that the writers use it to great effect but still. the potential is there)

and then the atlas arc starts and man this is some of my favorite jaune era because a lot of what i like is background details! i ADORE his friendship with marrow, i truly wish more characters got to make friends with the characters in atlas (give me blake/neon NOW!!!!!!!!! give me weiss/flynt NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! double date!!!!!!!!) guard dogs is literally one of my top five ships (i also adore marrow to death and back so its a no brainer) i like that he actually steps up to do huntsmanning work that isnt glorious or battling, even if at first hes a little disappointed and then!!! it literally comes back around in the finale episodes!!!! it showed that even seemingly silly tasks like escorting kindergarteners to school and back can be utilized in the right situation, bc hunting in atlas isnt just about fighting monsters, its about taking care of the people, from evacuation procedures to literally escorting children. i loved it and it felt really satisfying to watch (even if it did make me judge literally everyone else like what now suddenly you dont care about the civilians in mantle?)

and also, this entire time, its been wonderful to see jaune slowly build up his arsenal and his fighting skills. ill admit, some of my fondness from jaune comes from my own headcanons regarding his legacy and such but tbh the fact that only some of my enjoyment comes from my headcanons and not literally all my enjoyment (like most characters) is an improvement. but also, its just ingrained in my media to want to root for the underdog, the clumsy bad fighter that gets cooler and cooler, thats the appeal of the literal Heroes Journey (sora, noctis, link, jaune; all swordfighters, all either knight/royalty coded, all went on the heroes journey, all some of my favorite characters... coincidence? i think not!)

im not really going to speak on vol9 too much because its a lot and its unfinished rn and i dont know how this series arc is going to end for him so i cant make an informed sort of conclusion but i think hes very in character as a naturally continuation of his character before the time in the EA that was put through the Horrors for a couple dozen years. it makes my heart Ache

anyways this was already a lot. basically, i like jaune because he feels like a genuine paladin and feels like what a huntsman should be like. one of my biggest complaint that is specific to him and not a series wide issue with writing is i wish his designs were better? im loving the rusted knight look with the full armor and the longer hair and i hope that he keeps the ponytail (if he survived vol9). hes a genuinely good friend who ive never questioned whether he actually would be a good huntsman (as ive questioned with literally everyone else of the main cast except ruby) or if he even wants to be there at all! he has his own motivations to be in this fight beyond just following ruby and he actively gets better throughout the show (unlike rwby, who all started off goated and then have had to be nerfed through the show). i think he had a lot of potential that was wasted but i think hes genuinely one of the better characters we've gotten as a main staple of the show and hes been there since the beginning!

i hope this answered your question! i could literally go on for hours (it took me an hour to respond to this alone) so if you have specific scenarios you want me to break down i can totally gush about jaune, or my headcanons (for example i have a hc that he has a drag persona named Matre Domme, a play on matyrdom (bc joan of arc) as well as being french for Master Domme bc of course jaunes experience with feminity and what he would explore through drag is rooted in strong dominate women)

[filthforfriends]

I'm sorry to say this because I like you usually. But the answer you gave to anon is the worst I've seen on tumblr in a while because it sounds a lot like I want to save my ass but I won't admit I did something not nice here and will coin it on the other person. Please read the third paragraph again, that's a non apology, except for the last bit. It's going into the last paragraphs as well = "I understand that the language I used made you feel othered. The othering did more emotional damage than providing captions could ever outweigh for you." "I put captions not to target people with prominent accents" but you do exactly this with "thickest accent" and quite literally writing it out as targeting people with "prominent accents". It can be that you really can't see this because you want to be right over this at all costs, but I would have expected something better of you. Furthermore anon is right, I believe, that this isn't the first time, you have such a sentiment, if it be conscious or not, with how he talks and this is only ever present when it's about Thomas which might have even soured them more to actually sent this ask. It might have been looked at a lot different if it would have been the first time they noticed it. The last thing which I don't understand is the "inclusiveness". How is it inclusive when you only caption one part? People who for whatever reason have the captions on or the sound off aren't really helped when 2 minutes of an interview that's 30 min long are captioned? They don't just have that for Thomas then, so it doesn't make any sense. This is a genuine question as I really don't see any thought or sense behind this excuse.

I have been operating out of a giant blind spot in my privilege. I had no idea that that way I comment on Thomas’ accent is problematic that’s never even occurred to me. I absolutely do think that commenting on someone’s accent can be problematic. Even without malice it can be xenophobic, racist, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory. My thoughts were that none of the above apply to Thomas, and I’m doing so affectionately, so how could this be wrong? Clearly I missed the point.

When I read that ask my thought was “is this anon alerting me to a widespread issue or is this someone whose suffered a lot of discrimination and my careless use of language brought all that back?” I came to the conclusion that it was the second one and tried to approach with empathy. When I reread “the othering did more…” I cringe so hard. I was trying to be validating by showing I understood how they were feeling, but it came of as demeaning and fake which wasn’t my intent. I’m sorry to that initial anon for dismissing you. I recognize that from whatever intent I speak from, my words cause harm.

I absolutely have described Thomas’ and probably the others accents this way numerous times out of total ignorance. I’m so sorry for marginalizing people who speak English as a second language and making them feel unsafe on my blog. I’m going to run this blog differently.

I unfortunately can’t caption and upload the entire thing because Tumblr has limits on file size. I will make little montages for the other three. I know what’s not the point, but it was mentioned by other anons.

Thank you for everyone supplying me with new information♥️

[russilton]

I know this post was a while ago but I saw your "#either they’re all so stupid we shouldn’t platform them or he knew about it and chose to go anyway" tags and just wanted to say that like ... both are true? This podcast, as well as the "comedians" involved in it, have gotten bad publicity for years now for their misogynistic and racist "jokes." It takes one Google search to find articles upon articles calling them out for problematic "jokes," yet Daniel and his management still thought those were good people to affiliate with and to laugh about their problematic "jokes" (this is the same podcast that brought despicable people like Andrew Tate to fame and influence, for reference). Also not the first problematic podcast like this that he's voluntarily gone on tbh.

Yes, they are both bad, which was my intended point and I’m genuinely sorry if I didn’t phrase it right to convey that. Both are bad, neither are acceptable. It is not acceptable to be so stupid you cannot do the research on a podcast before going on it. It is not acceptable to know the problems with it and decide “well I’m not the problem so it’s fine if I go”. It’s not acceptable to blame a PR team when YOU still allowed it to air.

The point I was trying to make in those tags was “there is no defending this, nor should we be trying to mitigate it” either he’s ignorant, which isn’t acceptable from people in positions of influence, or he’s complicit. Not answering doesn’t mitigate the fact he should never have been there.

It’s the same stance I take every time a driver does, says, or aligns themselves with something problematic. With the money and assistance they have, Ignorance is not an excuse, and to be silent is, on some level, to be complicit. I also fall in the camp of “disappointed but not surprised”. All the drivers are in insane positions of privilege and power and should be using it to promote good causes, educate themselves, or at the very least, not actively promote harmful ones.

It’s also why keeping these people at arms length is important. Para social relationships are real and very harmful. The sooner everyone realises all of these drivers engage in harmful practices and that we should call them out when they do, and encourage them when they speak up, the better this space will function. Also WE must stay educated and listen to primary voices (POC, Queer, from afflicted counties, etc) when they express why certain actions are bad.

This is massively oversimplified, there’s a million and one different aspects to every situation I can’t cover here, nor do I want this to turn into a debate here when I would rather promote more clear and educated voices — but I just wanted to clarify: both are bad and I don’t want anyone to think I was in any way trying to defend what he did. I’m not. I’m disappointed and I hope there’s enough backlash here he uses his time to do some learning.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

(vol 7 rewrite/ why is Ironwood the only evil political figure annon here!) Honestly, I think the faunus plotline is basically unfixable now. I don't know if it's because the plotline was a fucked up idea from the get-go, or if Blake as a character is terrible for the story they're trying to tell because she seems to be more in favor of an oppressive system rather than trying to make it better for her people. I have never seen a rewrite of the Faunus plotline that I liked or thought handled the subject well, the idea behind my rewrite was basically how historically, when job shortages happen, already existing racial tensions get worse, but that would also fall into the trap of having only one person be the bad guy in a systematic issue that existed before he was born. It's just that now it's an able bodied white character we were never supposed to like. But that's still a problem. Unfortunately, it's also kind of the best I've got. I just really wish Blake was trying to advocate for change in volume 7 so she could actually have a purpose as a character again.

Hey anon! Sorry this took so long, life is insane and so is my inbox so uh yea lolz. Anyways personally I think Blake does not work even as an advocate for Faunus rights because she is basically a princess within the Faunus, she lives in a mansion on the island she lives on, is the leaders daughter and has the air of....well privilege seems to be the best word for it. It feels very uncomfortable seeing her present this holier then thou attitude regarding Adam when he was branded as a child solely because he is a faunus. The writers claim it happened to him because he was a brat or something along those lines but let's be real, if he wasn't a Faunus branding him never would have flown at all, it is because he is a Faunus that, that happened to him and that is something Blake cannot understand. She comes from this place of being very well off and we never really....see her dealing with issues relating to being a Faunus, even in the kingdom supposedly known for being the most racist of the kingdoms....despite the fact that it is the kingdom we see the least amount of racism in. Minstral had signs on shops saying "No Faunus", at Beacon Blake was genuinely afraid to remove her bow and from the news broadcasts we saw that I can remember she kind of had a good reason along with Weiss being racist. In Atlas? We get two random assholes make snide comments but....they where nothing compared to the shit Weiss was saying in the early volumes. Not to say any comments like even those are even remotely okay in any form but more that this is supposed to be a terrible kingdom for Faunus and you would think with three Faunus characters being fairly prominent within Volume 7 we would....like actually see those issues actually crop up and be something they have to deal with but he just do not see it. At all. I think it would have helped Blakes character a lot if she was working on making things better for Faunus using the peaceful methods she was pushing in volume 6 but we got none of that and I think that actively hurt her character.

Sorry I went off on a tangent their. A part of me kind of wishes they never introduced the racism as a plotline at all and just kind of had a girl with cat ears exist and that be the end of it. I understand why better writers want to explore racism because it is unfortunately a thing a lot of people have to deal with and I get authors wanting to explore that. I think CRWBY just A.) doesn't actually give a shit about racism and B.) couldn't be bothered to research even if they did care, making for a very offensive and harmful plotline. The writers try and brush it off and play the "We're just a bunch of white guys we didn't know what we where doing." Then why not, oh I don't know, bring in people other then white guys to help you make a more nuanced and realistic story that didn't turn the only civil rights group into terrorists? I think having the implication being Jacques and most of the rich elite continuing to create a racial divide amongst the people to remain in power is kind of realistic and makes sense and makes it so just one person isn't responsible and others have a hand in it as well? I'm sorry I am not remembering all of the details so I am just spit balling ideas lolz.

[beetplease]

on being in the HP fandom

I felt like I had to write something maybe just for myself to get some coherence on this. I discovered Harry Potter (if you don’t count movies, I don’t) in the ninth grade when my bestie was really into it. A bunch of us read the entire series back then. I loved the magical parts, and I was very much in love with Snape. The biblical allegories irked me and I could understand why some church people advised against reading it.

What made the series more special to me was how much other people seemed to like it. I made so many friends online because of the fandom, and it was such a quick and easy way to connect with people. And that meant a lot to me, because I was really struggling with peer relationships back then with all the middle school politics, bullying, and puberty. Unlike other pop culture things, there was a lot to talk about in the HP fandom and a lot one could dream of.

There came a point where after watching the last movie and having made enduring friends both in school and college, I didn’t really need the fandom and I was able to leave it behind. My friendships were based on many other things - like shared experiences, genuine curiosity, and proximity. The pandemic tore me apart from this social world where I didn’t have to look too far for small comforts. Amidst the teeming stress of graduating, finding a job, and struggling so much to see any future for myself, I once more took solace in the series and found an online community, which was quite immersive and engaging. At the same time, JKR’s transphobic agenda came to light, causing harm to so many trans fans and allies, who now had to grapple with the choice of staying or leaving the fandom they held so dear.

My ninth grade bestie left the fandom. Any mention of HP triggers her. She feels betrayed, like most others, and I do too.

I stayed, because the community gave me hope like nothing else at that point did. There are many who have justified continued engagement with the Harry Potter fandom. My own city has a recently established HP-inspired café, where I caught up with another high school friend who read the series with me. People have made so much with the fandom, and made it their own. Even the “Death of the Author” argument has been invoked - cancel JKR, participate in HP fandom in a queer-affirming way, don’t economically contribute to JKR etc.

Staying has been disappointing. The community keeps letting me down. JKR just gets worse and worse, and reads our engagement as support for her views. Reading the books feels irksome again, because the author continues to cause harm, and benefit from our attention.

I was not particularly looking forward to Hogwarts: Legacy. But I saw how happy it made my friends. Then I found out it’s transphobic, antisemitic, and racist. Yet, a majority seem to be brushing this under the carpet. This includes people who vocally cancelled JKR but stayed in the fandom - people like me. We can definitely do without a game like this. There might be other HP games that are not so horrible. But interpreting the series through a critical race lens, I feel like the problems are so entrenched and a lot of fan labour would go into acknowledging and righting wrongs (through fan fiction, alternative reading lenses etc). I’m very appreciative of the people who are already doing this!

I considered slowly leave the fandom behind in the pandemic - I knew being in it was wrong, and I tried to make it not that way, but I believe I haven’t succeeded. There’s nothing extraordinary about the fandom to me save for the community I found, but even that community keeps letting me down. A friend asked me how I can continue to stay, and I did not have a good answer.

Having witnessed the myriad resistances one faces while reclaiming Harry Potter, I feel it might be better to just leave it all behind, perhaps. Move on to the next fantasy world (there are so many that are constructed with so much more care and compassion). Find community in other places, where people actually try instead of making excuses or ignoring the obvious. If anything this speaks to our potential for online communities.

I’m already filling the void with other things. But I hope I don’t come back to HP again during other earth-shattering times.

[queerflagswithbenton]

About/Please Read!

(updated as of 2/12/2024)

Hello! This is a blog I've been running for about 7 years now (feels weird saying that) for the purpose of compiling identities and flags into one spot! I don't reblog all possible identities, and moreso reblog/post identities I think are cool, interesting, or are something I want to reference later.

~About Me~

I'm a 23 year old nonbinary trans guy that has been out and transitioning since I was 15. I use only he/him pronouns, and consider myself gay, demisexual/romantic, and greyplatonic. Queer identities has been a special interest of mine since I realized that I wasn't exactly binary and went down a huge rabbit hole to figure out what words fit me best (and took me until I was 21 to fully realize I could be both nonbinary and a trans guy lol). During that journey, I realized the knowledge I'd retained could be used to help others that have also struggled with their gender (and orientation) journey. Compiling identities into one space has helped me a lot with that!

"Why don't you have a lot of posts about xenogenders and (insert gender system here)?"

It's not because I don't think those terms are valid. They are and I'm happy when people find words that fit them and make them feel comfortable. For me, though, with identities like xenogenders, given as there's so many endless possibilities, this blog would essentially end up being "overrun" by those with less visibility to the ones I really want to reference later. There's lots of awesome xenogender blogs I heavily reccomend you follow if you're looking for that! This is a similar story for why I don't reblog a bunch of alternate or themed flags for terms/flags that already exist. I'm always happy to reblog *updated* flags and more visually friendly alternatives, but tbh this blog is pretty "basic". (Note that there may always be exceptions/something "random" here and there)

Do I accept requests/submissions/questions?

I don't really make flags anymore or edits, so I don't do those requests anymore. I don't mind submissions! But there's no guarantee I'll post them, feel free to if you want, though! Lastly, I am always happy to try and answer questions. I can't guarantee I'll always have an answer, and I may not be able to direct you to someone who can, but I'll always do my best and worst case scenario, I post the ask in hopes someone who comes across it can help better! Also! I cannot give an accurate timeline of when your ask will be answered. I'm not consistently on Tumblr and I can go from checking every few days to not thinking about it for a week or more.

One last note before I move on to my DNI

I'd like to note that this I've been running this blog for such a long time, since I was a teenager, I did once hold some exclusionary mindsets (I was confused about xenogenders for one example and wasn't kind about that.), and in some cases being "on the fence". I've posted about this before but basically, I've gone back pretty far and deleted as much as I could find, but I can't guarantee that some things didn't slip through the cracks. If you see something really old on this blog that is exclusionary, just know I don't hold those beliefs anymore.

DNI criteria:

Please do not interact if:

*tr/nsmed, T/RF, aphobic, ableist, racist, or any other form of bigotry.

*you're a purely NS/FW blog. I don't want younger followers seeing adult content blogs reblogging my flags, so please don't reblog to any blogs that are mature in content.

*you stigmatize any mental health disorders, I don't wanna see that

*Pro-ED blogs or any other blogs that encourage genuinely harmful behaviors (I'm not sure if this form of content goes by any other name now?)

*Post a lot of gore/blood. Just a personal thing, not me hating or judging!

*people who want to start discourse. I really don't want this blog to be related to discourse in any way.

[tavarillasgalen]

Not sure what it says about me that I used to live for media that was like "ugh, of course it was a MAN who caused these problems" and "people should absolutely feel guilty for what people they may not even have any relation to did hundreds of years ago and Repent for it" and "omg this person didnt know about this obscure identity/sexuality, they're SUCH a bigot!!!!"

and now I read stuff like that and I'm just like... c'mon now. This is ridiculous.

99% sure it's just maturing, lol. And also distancing myself from people who would say things like (in all seriousness too, like... they were not joking in the slightest) that they hate "lighteyes" and strangers not immediately knowing your pronouns are something like ze/zem is beyond hateful. And having your "friends" say things like white cis women are the root of all evil, but then if you, as a white cis woman, are hurt or confused by why they are even friends with you then, that's you being racist and trying to make the world revolve around you instead of genuine like... if you hate people like me so much, why am I even in your life. And not being able to say anything, because no matter what, you were always "talking over" someone else, and you doing anything was "taking up space that should be given to someone else!!!" so i felt so guilty for wanting to pursue my dreams and wanting any sort of success because that meant i was "taking it away" from someone else. and there was always this unspoken competition among them all of who had it worse.

Like, after being in circles like that, and seeing how people take literally anything as a sign of hate, it made my anxiety go insane. Because I KNEW there are many people out there who would be like, omg, this person didnt look at me when we passed each other on the sidewalk, they're so bigoted!!! They think they're so much better than me, how awful!!! Omg, this person smiled at me when passing me on the sidewalk, they're trying SO HARD to seem like such a good ally, how fake!!! And like. You would think, with the ridiculous of that, that I'm exaggerating. But I'm not, in the slightest. That's what those far left people are like. Anything can be used as an example of sexism, of racism, of queerphobia, of literally anything.

And just, after distancing myself from that, I realized just how much I too had fallen prey to that mindset of being a perpetual victim and thinking anything ever was because of me. This person being short with me was OBVIOUSLY because of sexism, there's no way it could be because that person was just having a bad day!!

And then the longer its been since you've been around people like that, the more you realize just how... absurd that is. Like, sure, could someone be short with me because I'm a woman and they think women are stupid and overly emotional and exaggerate everything? Sure. But it's far more likely that if someone is short with me, it's because they've got their own things going on. And also, I could have done something or said something that was annoying or taken the wrong way.

Like, I'm not a conservative. But the conservatives are 100% right when they talk about how narcissistic that mindset is, to assume that anything ever has to do with you and anything that doesn't go how you want is a personal attack.

And like. It's a good thing to want positive change. But if you think even the slightest perceived transgression means that a person hates you and isn't actually on your side and they must be canceled and have their life ruined, like... you're doing far more harm than good, lol.

I WISH this post was an exaggeration. But this is genuinely what those "friends" were like. And I'm so glad I cut them off, lol. And I'm glad I stopped thinking the way they did because I was so angry and so exhausted and so guilty (for the color of my skin and the fact that I'm cis - neither of which are things i have any control over whatsoever) 24/7. Being a constant victim and taking everything personally/as a sign of an -ism or -phobia does absolutely nothing to help you and only ever keeps you miserable.

[thepaininurneck]

Okay, wow, never in my life did I think a music video involving giving Satan a lap dance would delve into a conversation about gay rights ( and how gay men are portrayed in media ), but Lil Nas X broke the world with MONTERO, so here I am. We’ve got three things here that I think are important - Internet culture, religion, sexuality. These are the things that I think people are getting too uptight over/not upset enough over, and I wanna rant for a bit, so bear with me on this one.

First, I LOVED MONTERO. I’m a whore for religious imagery/theming/etc. being used in media, and as a former Christian and an openly gay woman, it makes me very happy to see it used in a spiteful manner. MONTERO was gorgeous - sexual, unapologetic, and so clearly pulling straight from Biblical stories. The religion used commonly against us ( here in the US, at least, because I know other religions can be just as oppressive, if not worse, and Christianity isn’t the dominant religion everywhere ) being used in a way that’s expressive of our lives is beautiful. The very clear message of “Oh, I’m going to hell? That’s okay,” is perfect - for so many LGBT people in this country, we’ve been told that we’re condemned to eternal punishment because of something we can’t help. LNX took that in stride and made it art, with MONTERO and the video. I am in full support of it and will be throwing it on my horny playlist.

But here’s why I think this is so important - MONTERO’s release has exposed, in my opinion, where the real issues lie in Western culture. WAP did this too, a little - both of these songs, and their accompanying videos, were criticized using children. “Children watch you”, “how could you expose kids to this”, etc. were complaints hurled at Cardi B and LNX over their music. And in LNX’s case, people used his previous success with Old Town Road - I saw one tweet saying Old Town Road is “every kid’s anthem”, and that their children love Old Town Road. Which is problematic - how can you complain about MONTERO, but allow your child to listen to a song with lyrics such as “Lean all in my bladder”, “Cheated on my baby, you can go and ask her”, “Bull riding and boobies” - Old Town Road is not a child-friendly song by any means, but LNX didn’t include naked breasts, or ( as far as I’m aware ) market the song in a way that showcased those lyrics. So parents let their children enjoy their funny horse song, never looking into the words their kids were hearing daily. But with MONTERO, because they saw at a glance that it was an issue, they assumed this meant the previously “child-friendly” artist LNX, the man behind the funny horse song, was suddenly trying to indoctrinate their children. When in reality, LNX has never catered to kids. He’s always been open about his music and himself, and it’s entirely the parents’ faults for not better monitoring what media their children take in. It is never the responsibility of the creator to change their content for an audience they didn’t want. MONTERO, and WAP, both exposed just how internet culture has allowed parents an excuse to be lazy, hands-off pieces of shit, and demonize creators further.

MONTERO also exposed how homophobia continues to follow us, in how many comments there were calling LNX predatory, claiming he was indoctrinating children and pushing agendas - and, with Kaitlin Bennet’s actual racist comments, now he’s being slandered. ( if you didn’t see that beef, TLDR: Kaitlin asked “do you still see your dad?” w/ blatant intent to hurt, LNX replied with “yeah and I’ll fuck yours”, to which Kaitlin accused him of threatening to rape her father and several small, conservative ‘journalists’ ran with it ). I don’t like throwing around the word homophobia, but this isn’t new - gay men have been called predatory for a long time and demonized for even small gestures like holding hands. And now, an openly gay man made a video celebrating his sexuality ( which isn’t a new topic: look at any music video from the early 2000s for more examples of people expressing sexuality ) and given fuel to these idiots to continue pushing their narrative of “gay man predator, gay man bad”. Fortunately, it’s a lot less than it would’ve been thirty years ago. But the fact that it still happens on this scale, enough that journalists pick it up as a story, and governors, Candace Owens and other prominent homophobic conservative figures jump on the bandwagon....it’s sad. A man celebrating his sexuality shouldn’t be demonized the way it is, and MONTERO is doing an amazing job at spitting in people’s faces.

Cutting myself short here, I think MONTERO was a gift. It’s a work of art in many ways, but the social response it generated is also a blessing in that it shows what we need to prioritize - which is self responsibility. No one is forcing you to watch the gay man give Satan a lap dance, nor are they forcing you to buy his shoes. No one will ever force you into that - you, a consenting adult/teenager, willingly watched it. You’re reading this now of your own choice. If your child is watching MONTERO, you should blame yourself if you’re mad - why didn’t you monitor them better? Teach them to avoid things they don’t recognize online? You failed as a parent to protect your child from what you deem harmful. That isn’t anyone’s fault except your own as their active guardian.

Sex, talking about sex, grinding, lap dances....those aren’t new to music videos. They’ve been happening for decades, actually - early 90’s and 2000’s videos had a lot, and I think some 80’s had them. MONTERO didn’t invent NSFW music videos, the only difference is it’s gay and dared to use religious imagery ( which also isn’t new, but that’s another rant I don’t want to get into ). For once, I actually agree with the masses - this outrage was mostly fueled by homophobia and dumb Christians. And to any Christians reading this ( that didn’t get offended, because if you got genuinely upset by this drama, fuck you ); you’re cool.

Anyways, yeah. I think MONTERO was awesome, LNX killed it as always, and I hate conservatives. Goodnight.

[marilynsoda]

The CM fandom on TikTok is toxic. I can’t say anything without getting a massive load of hate comments on TikTok, so I’m gonna say it on here. Here’s the biggest problems we have on that app (not in order, and just from what I’ve seen).

1. STOP arguing about whether Spencer is a dom or a sub. He’s a fictional character and someone thinking he’s a dom, sub, or switch is not fucking hurting anyone. From what I’ve seen, it’s literally only the fans who see him as a sub who do this shit on there. That’s not to say there’s something wrong with seeing him as a sub because there’s not. There are loads of sub!spencer fans on Tumblr but you know what the difference between them and the sub!spencer fans on TikTok is? Sub!Spencer fans on Tumblr DON’T harass people for seeing him as a dom. Dom!spencer fans will literally just be vibing on the app and people just have to be like “did we even watch the same show lmao” “you’re delusional” “stfu 😐” “he would cry if you asked him to dom you haha”. This one especially hurts because Spencer Reid used to be my comfort character until I saw all of this on TikTok. The Spencer stans on TikTok literally shame people for seeing him as a dom so much to the point where I can’t stand Spencer anymore, like I genuinely can’t look at him without getting upset or irritated because I’m immediately reminded of these people and how stupid I felt for believing that he could be a dom. Every time I saw this (which was verryyyy often) it also sent me into a non-sexual subdrop. Every. Damn. Time. The one time I tried speaking about this on there, someone told me to “go back to the straight community”. So apparently because I’m a sub, I’m not bisexual. My bisexuality is completely invalid because I’m submissive. If you harass people for seeing him as a dom, let me ask you something. How is it hurting you? Like genuinely. Literally about a week ago I was in love with that man but THIS genuinely made me hate him. I can’t stand Spencer Reid anymore because of his stans on TikTok (if you’re a Spencer stan please don’t unfollow me I still love you and like I said you’re different from the ones on TikTok 🥲 pls I love you).

2. Homophobia 😐 I said it. Literally any time there’s a Jemily post :: “JJ was straight” “Hotchniss is better”. No one is saying you have to ship Jemily but you don’t have to put us gays down for shipping it.

3. Racism. “Derek is scary” “Shemar is scary” “Tara isn’t a main character” none of that is true, they’re just black and you’re racist. Tara has been on the show longer than Matt, Luke, Kate, Elle, Alex, Gideon, Ashley, and probably more that I just can’t think of right now. When the hell was Derek ever scary? He’s sweet, sexy, and funny. What the hell is scary about that?? And same goes for Shemar. This is even more harmful considering he’s a real person. Scary?? Shemar?? Shemar “I’m just in a silly goofy mood” Moore??? Bye 😐✋

There’s more but these are the ones that bothered me the most.

[olderthannetfic]

Ah, I do see your points, anon. I'm not going to post all your asks publicly because if you really feel that unsafe, it's probably best not to have a bigass chunk of your text for people to analyze and try to guess your identity from. I think one of the best points you made is about how close to home it hits when the non-fave is not only your fave but is similar to you in some way like demographic. You're not wrong for having those emotions. I do wonder if they make it hard to see how some other people feel similarly embattled on other axes.

TBH, I think one of the big problems here is that the large aggregate patterns you're talking about are racist, but most individual fics and fans are not really the problem. It's hard to know how to talk about this or who to tell to "fix" it when we're looking at free, hobbyist art.

A lot of people's tastes are certainly formed by shitty society, but once they're formed, they don't change fast if at all. Asking someone to rewrite their libido is a big ask, yet tumblr does it all the time as though it's as simple as snapping your fingers.

This leaves me with the sense that a lot of tumblr is... like... the political lesbians of porn fic or something: desire is not real, only choosing based on logic and politics. Or maybe people are so asexual that they just don't understand the lizard brain's "YES!" at some porn things and complete indifference to others?

I don't think it's great if great swaths of people feel like bottom!Nicky is super hot and top!Nicky fundamentally isn't, but I also don't think they can necessarily just turn it off like flipping a switch.

(If someone reading this doesn't like their current tastes and wants to attempt to alter them, I do think it's possible. What you should do is line up a large slate of media that prominently features characters of the ethnicity or whatever that you don't find hot/interesting. These should be leads whose emotional development drives the plot and is supposed to be central to the audience's enjoyment of the media. Watch/read/etc. this media all the time. All. The. Time. Try out many pieces because you won't like every character or every show, and we're looking for genuine enjoyment, not the fandom equivalent of a pity fuck. Spend enough time on this, and your unconscious sense of who's hot and interesting will eventually shift somewhat. This is a project you should expect to take a few years.)

But I digress.

The one tweet thing is a very toxic pattern. If TOG fandom is doing that, guys, please try to be more conscious of holding the actors of color to a higher standard (or the women or whomever). I know this often comes from a place of paying more attention to our own and wanting to set a good standard, but the effect is that minorities can't fuck up ever while white dudes get infinite passes.

Okay, on to the fic thing... Gotta say, my instant reaction to that description is "Ooh!"--as it would be for the same scenario with the characters reversed. (Ships who start out trying to kill each other are my favorite! x1000 if they're resurrecting style immortals and they literally do.) I can see how it would feel like slamming into a brick wall if you aren't kinky in just the right way and you didn't know it was coming though.

Part of why I react so strongly to a lot of discourse that runs along these lines is that I am a naturally extremely kinky person. It's not so much about what I do (which as a deeply lazy person in a long distance relationship is essentially nothing), but it's absolutely how I'm wired.

And I can tell you that my quotidian experience in fandom is sharing something I don't even realize is a big deal only to have someone I like, respect, and trust react in horror and tell me that it's triggering and awful and should not be allowed in fandom spaces because it makes "people" unsafe. It's such an instant, kneejerk reaction they don't even realize I was sharing it because it spoke to the very core of me. Lesson learned, friend. Lesson learned.

That sounds a bit off topic, I know, but bear with me: The point of that anecdote is that it's pretty common for me to get people trying to raise my awareness of things I have already thought deeply about while denying my essential humanity and not even realizing. As a kinky person who likes to make my fave the top (and generally a conflicted sadist), this constant request to explain and justify is exhausting.

I doubt most of the top!Joe fans have this precise problem simply because people who make their fave the top are much less common in fandom than people who make their fave the bottom, but I see a similar pattern with fans who are just fundamentally wired for rape fantasies (one of the most common fantasies that exists) vs. fans who just don't get rape fantasies at all. Or substitute your BDSM/kinky/messed up fantasy trope of choice. Covertly radical feminist attitudes towards kink and power are on the rise in fandom, and as a naturally kinky person, boy do I notice it!

I know that it feels like crucial activism to share these insights about why the ratio of top!Joe is hurtful, and the pain you feel is real. But it's also the case that it's a big ask to want people to listen. (Not me. Obviously, I routinely choose to engage with discourse. I mean overall.) The reason for that is that you're only seeing a fraction of what they do or who they are, and you don't know how many previous people they've listened to how many previous times. It's a very different situation from someone whose job is making some major TV series or movie or something. That person does, in my opinion, owe you some amount of listening.

Now, I'm not saying no top Joe fan was ever a jerk. I'll bet they were. There's a tendency to be rude and to publicly air your schadenfreude when you feel like everyone has been yelling at you. What I am saying is that a lot of the problem here boils down to conflicting needs, and that means there isn't a good solution. It's a situation where people are genuinely hurt, but I don't necessarily agree that other people have harmed them.

I like that you did an actual count of the explicit fics, btw. It's good to look at the real numbers. I see too little of that in these situations. My off the cuff reaction is that 2/3 to 1/3 is not a bad ratio at all compared to many fandoms, but yeah, it definitely shows a strong trend, and that can be painful. (I have a fandom where I think there's maybe like 1 bottom so-and-so fic in the entire zine era fandom. One. It's pretty extreme.)

I guess my thinking here overall is: What is the practical solution? What are we hoping to gain? What is reasonable to ask of people?

And it can't be "Well, if they would just listen..." That's just a sneaky way of saying "If you haven't done it my way, it's because you haven't listened to me yet."

So the question I would ask of people is this:

What does a non-racist fic where Joe tops look like?

What does a non-racist sex pollen, dubcon, or even noncon fic where Joe tops look like?

And if you say the latter is impossible... well... sadists exist everywhere in the world. So do doms. So do people who prefer to top in a purely physical sense. People with rape fantasies where they're the rapist exist (people who are not actually rapists, I mean). None of this is restricted to any one group. We can't categorically say fic like that about Joe is coming from a place of racism without denying the fundamental humanity of kinky MENA people who'd want to make Joe like themselves or like their ideal partner. (Yes, I agree this won't be the majority of fic writers writing top!Joe, but this is a place to start for figuring out what the better version would look like.)

IDK, maybe you're that kinkster yourself, but your asks gave me the vibe that you don't really get the drive towards those darker kinds of fics and what might be motivating it besides stereotypes and shittiness.

If we can answer these kinds of questions, we can better critique the way people write what they write without telling them all of their taste is bad and they should just stop writing. Even if we think the latter is true, it isn't going to get us anywhere. Figuring out how to make Joe more multidimensional in the fic they already want to write or finding very specific wording that should be avoided might actually work.

Beyond that, the actions I think are productive would be running prompt fests, exchanges, or other events for bottom!Joe or for top!Joe where he's the main character and the fics are required to be from his POV. Themed collections and recs lists are great. (I've seen a bit of this going around in TOG fandom in the past, and that's an excellent approach! Keep it up!) Positive actions tend to work better here. Make more of what you want. Promote what you want to see.

I don't mean this in some fluffy magical thinking way: you aren't going to change that ratio radically just by the power of positivity. But I've seen this kind of thing play out in many, many fandoms, and going after the people who write what you don't like, even in a well-intentioned effort to educate and even in a polite, kind way doesn't do much. A few people feel guilty. A few feel defensive. A lot ignore you. The overall fic doesn't change. It's not a good use of your limited time and energy.

I'm off to look up that fic to see what I think of it in practice, but I'm going to post this before tumblr manages to eat it.