#monthly discourse lol

[duckymcdoorknob]

Hey Ducky, I’m not trying to come across as rude, but is it true that you called CSA survivor a Pedo knowing that their a CSA survivor??? It doesn’t seem like something you’d do, but you can never be to sure

Well I’ll be quite honest, I don’t remember what I said.

HOWEVER: this is the first I’ve heard of them being a CSA survivor. I wholeheartedly did not know that, and there was no way for me to know because they don’t make it known on their blog. (Or if they did, I didn’t see it) If they had posted anything about it, I had already blocked them, so I would not have been the wiser.

SA is not anything to poke fun at or insult others for. That’s not their fault, they can’t control what others do to them. So no, I’ll NEVER use their CSA survival to insult them. That is the shittiest thing a person can do. While I don’t know the horrors of being A’d, I’ve been SH’d before, and I still haven’t recovered from it.

Whether or not I called them a p!do: I genuinely do not remember doing it, but im sure they’ll have a screenshot of it. The whole situation escalated and I didn’t quite understand where they were coming from. Our first argument was when I was still underage, so I’m sure I did.

I was mad because I was a minor in the tickling community and I don’t have any sexual desires from it. So this person saying “no, tickling is a kink, minors shouldn’t be in the community” pissed me off because I didn’t enjoy it in a sexual way.

Here’s what I did say: “because a person likes to spank it to little kids, I have to censor my SFW blog because it might “enable” them.” And ykw? I could’ve worded that better. So there’s a discrepancy on my end. I take responsibility for that poorly-worded statement, entirely.

What I SHOULD have said: “because a person likes to spank it to tickle art, I have to censor my SFW blog of any underage characters because it might “enable” them.”

That’s what I’m taking away from all of their posts. They want to protect the minors, which is a very great thing to do. I agree, minors do not belong in kink. But telling SFW blogs that they can’t post anything with minors in it because it might “enable” an NSFW blog is bonkers.

This is my current understanding of the main argument:

This person has a tickling kink.

Cool

Let them

Not my cup of tea because I’m sex-repulsed.

I don’t see tickling as a kink, nor is it exclusively a kink in its entirety.

This person is arguing that tickling IS a kink in itself.

They are arguing that minors should be talking to any tickle blogs because “tickling is a kink”

Yes, it is a kink. But it isn’t EXCLUSIVELY a kink.

It’s the same thing as saying handcuffs are a kink because some people are into them, so cops shouldn’t use handcuffs on minors. Or young chefs can’t prepare food with knives because certain adults see these objects in a sexual way.

For others, like myself, it’s literally just a thing. For some, a coping mechanism. Others, a fun game.

This person. And others, are saying that since tickling “is a kink” that SFW blogs should not have minor followers, allow minors to follow them, should not draw minors or write about minors in tickling situations.

I agree to an extent. I think kink blogs should not allow minors (which they do a good job of. They set their boundaries and it’s up to others to respect them). However, since tickling is literally just a thing, and isn’t seen as a sexual thing by every person in the community, there’s nothing wrong with a minor interacting with a SFW blog.

Drawing and writing about minors in tickling situations needs to be done carefully. It shouldn’t be done in an NSFW way whatsoever. Fictional or not, these are still kids. There are people in this community that do just that, and that might be the example that this user is seeing.

TL;DR: Tickling can be a kink, but it isn’t exclusively one. It is up to each individual blog to decide what their stance on it is, and whether or not they let minors interact with them.

If people wanna witch hunt me for saying that, let them. I won’t change my mind.

[rigels-nigels]

Something I don't get is when someone is talking about things being expensive and then some americans are like, it's not actually a scary $125 guys it's actually only $80 which is still a lot but it's actually kinda reasonable for the item

And it's like no!!! It doesn't work like that!!! Just because it costs less in usd doesn't mean the person didn't actually pay that much!!

If you buy a mug for $125aud, and you live in australia, you're paying that in $125aud, not $80aud!! Currency conversion doesn't matter in the slightest for understanding because in practice it is functionally the same as paying $125usd for a mug in america!!

If I earn $15cad/hr, and someone in Poland is earning 15zł/hr, and they bought an item that was like 150zł, me converting that price into Canadian and being like it's actually not that bad bc it's only like $50cad :), it doesn't change the fact that that for them!! It was a lot more!! Like functionally that's the same as $150cad

Functionally 1cad = 1zł = 1aud = 1usd = 100¥

Like the only time currency conversion is useful is for figuring out how far your coin goes when used in another economy, not for understanding if an item is or isn't expensive for a person living in said economy

[lgbstims]

just wanted to ask, if you know that tw are male and tm are female therefore don't support the trans ideology then why do you make posts for them exactly?

Transsexuals are a part of the LGB community. Historically, they were gay & bi gnc people who used transition as a means to cope with dysphoria or better fit in with a homophobic society. Nowadays the trans movement has been overrun with heteros with fetishes, but the motives for LGB people to transition are still quite similar to what they were historically. I’m critical of the health industry pushing it as a cure all - but I think as long as homophobia/misogyny dominate society we’re going to have LGB people who choose to present as the opposite sex.

My mutual @miss-shorty (RIP queen) had a couple flags for FTM lesbians so I made boards and FTM lesbians were happy about that. So i kept making posts for trans people. Trans people who recognize biological reality are ridiculed by the mainstream kweer community so I’m glad to make this blog a safe space for them. (I mean technically I can’t stop kweer types from interacting but most of them block me on learning I don’t validate TWAW/TMAM lol.)  

[soapskneebrace]

HOLY FUCK 900k?? where are people getting that number? did she say she makes that much??

maybe i should start posting art too but im scared nobody will care cause im not as good as her… lol…

@ceilidho and I were talking about it on a different post lol. Umiko hasn’t said anything about how much she makes, but if you take a rough estimate of her monthly patreon average and multiply that by 12 then yeah, that’s in the ballpark of her income.

Also she’s talked about having recently bought A WHOLE HOUSE on Instagram. More than likely she paid cash. Girl is making bank.

As for your art—I’ve seen worse artists than Umiko do just as well. It’s about marketing, NOT skill. Maybe you won’t make 900k, but can you afford to turn your nose up at any extra cash?

Also, the discourse needs to be had—long term, prolific fandom writers with novel-length fanfiction should have the right to charge for their fanwork. It’s RIDICULOUS that we let artist make fandom work exclusive for patrons but writers can barely convince people to send them tips on ko-fi. As a writer and an artist—writers work just as hard for just as long. If artists deserve to profit from that, then so do we.

[lazyflan]

For de Redditors: Fandom in tumblr

I just noticed that in the amount of post welcoming Redditors to tumblr, there aren't many people mentioning the fandom side, and I think Fandom in tumblr need a little bit more of explanation because of it's relevance in here.

So, here is some info, feel free to ask away in my inbox if there are any doubts tho.

So, welcome! If you have heard about this site before it might have been because of how fandoms are so prominent here (or the hypster side in 2012, but we don't talk about that), but if not, you will realize this soon enough.

Like most thing in tumblr, you can look a fandom through its tags! Though keep in mind that there are many fandoms that have more than one main tag. An example can be Twisted Wonderland, with two main tags #TwistedWonderland and #Twst, most people use both tags when posting and I recommend doing the same in your respective fandoms.

Character tags are also a thing, same rules as fandom tags but it helps you find more content centered around a character in specific.

Also, remember that the blocking button exist! Fandom in here is wild, and it’s incentivized to just block people who you don’t like or if their content triggers you. The same goes with tags! I’m personally a “problematic” kind of blog, so feel free to block me if you don’t like the rest of my content lol. Just don’t start shit up because most people prefer blocking rather than starting discourse. We aren’t as bad as we where in 2012 with fandom wars, so please don’t instigate.

Fandom also expresses itself differently here, there’s a lot more writing, like this blog, where people post small one-shots, headcanons or imagines by request of other people. There is also a lot of recommendations for ao3 fics. And fanart is, like always, very prominent, if you like some fanart, reblog it, the artists always appreciate when their art gets recognition!

There is also the term “Fandom in law” basically a fandom you are not in but know about because of your mutuals. A personal example is how I know a lot about tmnt, but only because one of my mutuals is obsessed with it, I haven’t touched the series in years, and I know the latest news in the fandom!

If you are as neurodivergent as me, you might like fandom statistics, and for that, Fandom exist! It’s basically a blog that post tumblr statistics monthly and generally post about fandoms that are prominent at the moment. They also have a yearly statistic thing with top 100 of different categories like anime, kpop, tv series, movies, etc. It helps to observe fandoms in here, what's getting recognition and stuff.

TLDR: Content in here might be a little different. Don’t be an asshole and start fights and remember that blocking is the better option.

[ink-stained-clouds]

hi!! what are some of your favorite readings, books, essays, articles, etc on sociology? i’d love to maybe see what class readings you’re doing

Hi anon!

I have a whole bunch of recommendations, no books, unfortunately. Actually, scratch that, I have one but it's actually a history book! I found it to be sociologically fascinating, though. It's The Origins of the Modern World by Robert B. Marks. It's a really interesting take on decolonizing the study of history and our understanding of how the west became the global superpower

To be honest, I don't know what book chapters I was reading for my theory class, our professor only sent us pdf scans. If you're interested in the philosophic origins of sociology, I am happy to try to hunt down the reference for you. Personally, I'm not a big philosophy fan so I can't speak to how good it was lol

Scholarly articles

Clover, Carol J. 1987. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” Representations, 20: 187-228. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2928507.

Sowles, Shaina J., Monique McLeary, Allison Optican, Elizabeth Cahn, Melissa J. Krauss, Ellen E. Fitzsimmons-Craft, Denise E. Wilfley, and Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg. 2018. “A content analysis of an online pro-eating disorder community on Reddit.” Body Image, 24: 137-144. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2018.01.001.

Berbrier, Mitch. 1999. “Impression Management for the Thinking Racist: A Case Study of Intellectualization as Stigma Transformation in Contemporary White Supremacist Discourse.” The Sociological Quarterly, 40(3): 411-433.

Kwate, Naa Oyo A. 2008. “Fried chicken and fresh apples: Racial segregation as a fundamental cause of fast food density in black neighborhoods.” Health & Place, 14(1): 32-44. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2007.04.001. (I read this one in a class years ago and it's always stuck with me, highly recommend)

Snow, David A. and Leon Anderson. 1987. “Identity Work Among the Homeless: The Verbal Construction and Avowal of Personal Identities.” American Journal of Sociology, 92(6): 1336-1371. Doi: 10.1086/228668. (a really interesting application of identity work, which is one of my favorite sociological frameworks)

West, Candace and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. “Doing Gender.” Gender and Society, 1(2): 125-151. doi: https://www.jstor.org/stable/189945. (a classic! essential sociological reading, you may have come across it already)

Non-scholarly articles and essays (that are all very sociological in my opinion)

Being an Honorary White Person Doesn't Make Us More Powerful

How the '5-Minute-Face' Became the $5,000 Face

Why We Should Talk About What Kyrsten Sinema Is Wearing (Tressie McMillan Cottom is a phenomenal sociologist! I recommend all her writing)

Selfies, Surgeries, And Self-Loathing: Inside the Facetune Epidemic

“ain’t i a woman?” on the irony of trans-exclusion by black and african feminists (one of my personal favorites)

Poor People Deserve To Taste Something Other Than Shame (I return to this one often)

Violent Delights (a really interesting commentary on the cultural fascination with true crime)

Podcasts

Sage Sociology

Give Theory a Chance

Maintenance Phase (not technically sociology but very sociological in my opinion)

Unfortunately, I don't really have any books to recommend but if anyone else does I'd love to get some recs too!

I also try to post a round-up of all my reads under my monthly reads tag if you're looking for more suggestions, though it seems I haven't been particularly consistent ope

Thank you for the ask, anon. It was fun going through my notes and finding all these!! Please feel free to reach out with any recommendations of your own :)

[feuqueerfire]

April 2024 Movies/Shows Wrap-Up

A little monthly (spoilery!) wrap-up of all the shows, movies, and shorts I’ve watched or am watching in April 2024, general thoughts, and ranking of them all.

Recommendation of the month(s): idk, had a bunch of shows that I rated pretty well but they each have big caveats lol.

Ranking

The Good Bad Mother (2023) = Utsukushii Kare S2 (2023) = 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) = The Warp Effect (2023)

I Hear Your Voice (2013) = Rewatch: ? Utsukushii Kare S1 (2021) 

Jazz for Two (2024) =  Utsukushii Kare: Eternal (2023)

Some More (2018)

Watching: 23.5

I managed to watch some shows that I’d been really anticipating for quite a while and were released early last year: Utsukushii Kare S2 + movie and The Warp Effect

Average Rating: 6.5/10

MDL Updates - Added to Watchlist: 

A section because I’m curious about how many shows I decide to add to my Watch List a month and also the ratio of watching them:adding them.

Title MDL (year) - (date added to Considering or finalized to Watchlist): initial reaction

Jazz for Two - 240411: New kBL that seems fine

Love is Better the Second Time Around - 240417: i'm fond of the second chance/post-breakup romance trope, hopefully I’ll like this one

Blank - 240417: Only season 1 is out for now and apparently it ends on a cliffhanger, so idk if I should be adding it to the watchlist quite yet but I want age gap GL (w dubious morality? idk what the discourse is about tbh), so I’ll add it and hope S2 is released in May as expected and turns out well

My Beautiful Man: Eternal (2023)

Unknown: I’d been keeping an eye on it since it started releasing and it got pretty high praise all throughout. I think I can get into the we’re-not-biological-brothers-but-we-grew-up-together-as-brothers dynamic 

Deep Night: I’ve enjoyed First Piyangkul in shows before and am curious about the host club setting in this. This show is such an interesting case because on reddit and on Tumblr, everybody seems to love it and MDL has some mixed comments but mostly positive there too and yet the MDL rating is 7.5, I wonder why the discrepancy.

23.5: FINALLY

I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama - 240417: The Conversation podcast mentioned in their 2024 Winter Lagniappe and seems like it's a celeb-related show? they’re actors?

To Watch List At Start Of Month: 64

To Watch List At End Of Month: 64

Removed from To Watch List:

Title (Year) - (date removed): reason

Nothing this month

Completely Watched

The Good Bad Mother (2023)

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Apr 26, 2023 - Jun 8, 2023

Watch Via: iQiyi (so, ;>) 

Watch Dates: Apr 1 - 3, 2024

Rating: 7/10

Overall Impression: Lee Dohyun <3 My reason for watching but the show is bigger than just him. It was so addictive and entertaining, watched the whole show in like 2 days and 2 hours. Impressed by the acting of Lee Dohyun and the mother and Mijoo's actors. The show was mostly about the mother and son relationship, with the revenge plot + the Mijoo/Kangho romance arcs in the background. I deeply wish that Kangho hadn't apparently forever loved and understood his mother and did everything for her and sang her favourite song while studying for the Bar or whatever. He went low-contact with her in Seoul even before he discovered the stuff that made him break up with Mijoo, so I think the reasons behind that and the hurt and betrayal that caused him to take such an action should have been focused on more. We got fleeting moments of him being angry or her saying she's bad but it was all explained away or he understood or whatever. Anyway, idk, I think if that relationship was more clear + the ending of the revenge arc was more solid, I would've rated it higher because I did enjoy this but some things bothered me significantly.

Also Appears In: The Good Bad Mother Live Blogging

I Hear Your Voice (2013)

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Jun 5, 2013 - Aug 1, 2013

Watch Via: Viki (paid, so ;>)

Watch Dates: Apr 3 - 11, 2024

Rating: 6.5/10 [May 12, 2024 Update: Decreased by 0.5 stars when rerating shows I've watched in 2024: 7 -> 6.5]

Overall: Noona romance + mystery + courtroom + sliiight supernatural with mind-reading, it has a bunch of things I liked. It's from over a decade ago but enjoyable nonetheless. I liked it, though Hyeseong and Sooha were quite cute but I wish 1) the episodes were a bit more condensed to be 14-16 episodes and 2) the fucking love triangle wasn't so prominent (though I get that they probably did it because Sooha was underage at first). Not life-changing and kind of overstayed its welcome for me, esp because I was barely watching 1 ep a day in the middle there.

Also Appears In: I Hear Your Voice Live Blogging

Jazz for Two (2024)

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Mar 26, 2024 - Mar 29, 2024

Watch Via: iQiyi (paid, so ;>)

Watch Dates: Apr 11 - 12, 2024

Rating: 6/10

Overall: Nobody in this drama asks before kissing lol not Doyoon, not Seheon, not the little kiss that Seheon's brother gave to sleeping Taejoon, and the other two, Juha and Taeyi, are experts in being creeps and having internalized homophobia that they direct outwardly to the guys they like as well (Seheon's brother fits here too lol). Yet, I enjoyed it a fair amount, the story was coherent, the acting was fine, I was endeared by Doyoon (is he the Omega X kid?), and the dynamics were enjoyable, if iffy on certain counts. Not super attached though.

tags: jazz for two

Also Appears In: Jazz For Two Live Blogging

Some More (2018)

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Nov 7, 2018

Watch Via: Gagaoolala (paid, so ;>)

Watch Dates: Apr 13, 2024

Rating: 5/10

Overall: It was fine ig but I did skim through the latter half. 

Ah, my exams are done (for this semester or forever? who knows), so I can finally start some new shows. Dunno whether I want yaoi with Utsukishii Kare rewatch + S2 and movie or to watch The Warp Effect. They’re both early 2023 shows that I’ve been meaning to watch but it’s been so long of me anticipating them before their release + wanting to watch while releasing + meaning to binge them after release that the expectations are a little high and I keep putting off watching them oof.

And then I got a bunch of Love for Love’s Sake tiktoks on my FYP and the edits for that show are really good, so I’m tempted a bit to rewatch that because it’s on my To Rewatch list anyway but I’ve decided no.

Rewatch: Utsukushii Kare (2021)

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Nov 18, 2021 - Dec 23, 2021

Watch Via: Viki

Watch Dates: Mar 23, Apr 17 - 18, 2024

Rating: 7?/10

Overall: Ahh, idek why I wasn't Gripped by this rewatch, like I like the characters and dynamics but it wasn't keeping my attention as much, maybe because it's a rewatch? Maybe my original rating of 6.5 was correct and I shouldn't have bumped it up to 7 but who knows, maybe I'll be reintroduced to the brainworms after watching Season 2 because I found ep 6 really engaging and was into it and S2 + movie will have new, unfamiliar stories for me.

tags: utsukushii kare

Also Appears In: Utsukushii Kare, Utsukushii Kare (S1, S2, Movie) Live Blogging

Utsukushii Kare Season 2 (2023)

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Feb 8, 2023 - Mar 1, 2023

Watch Via: Viki

Watch Dates: Apr 18 - 19, 2024

Rating: 7/10

Overall: This season is about Hira and Kiyoi's relationship. They didn't become boring after getting together, they didn't magically end up being a perfect happy well-adjusted couple after getting together, nor were there random issues thrown just because; the struggles and hurdles are true to their characters and dynamics. I liked the themes and dynamics it explored and their character + relationship development and progression. I also smiled a lot and lost my mind a little at certain moments. Strong writing, strong characters, strong acting, what a relief.

tags: utsukushii kare

Also Appears In: Utsukushii Kare (S1, S2, Movie) Live Blogging

My Beautiful Man: Eternal (2023)

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Apr 7, 2023

Watch Via: Viki

Watch Dates: Apr 19, 2024

Rating: 6/10

Overall: Great, fun, though not as emotionally invested as Season 2 because they're in a better place in their relationship in this movie (even if it's not necessarily Perfect). It was interesting to have new people in their lives like Anna and Noguchi and how their stories influenced them. I'm happy with where we're leaving off the characters after ~6h of show/movie but lowest rating so far because it felt like we spent too much time on stuff like Anna’s story or the random kidnapping.

tags: utsukushii kare

Also Appears In: Utsukushii Kare (S1, S2, Movie) Live Blogging

The Warp Effect (2023)

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Dec 12, 2022 - Feb 27, 2023

Watch Via: Youtube

Watch Dates: Apr 20 - 26, 2024

Rating: 7/10

Overall: A unique and enjoyable show, it was so fun to see all these characters in their specific situations and how they deal with them. The characters were all compelling, it's wild how I was into all their storylines. how charming each character/their story was, and how the story juggled them. It also made me see a bunch of actors in new lights, New most of all, as they acted in a role outside of their usual wheelhouse. I think the most frustrating part for me was how it seemed like although they were getting at it, they never quite acknowledged that what Alex did to Jean that night was rape. It made me quite angry actually, especially how Alex's actions didn't feel like it actually took Jean's feelings and trauma and requests into account. I was at least glad that in that timeline, Jean doesn't get back with Alex. 

tags: the warp effect

Also Appears In: The Warp Effect Live Blogging

GMMTV 2024 Part 2 Showcase happened and it was very intriguing, I’m excited! 

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Country: USA

Release Dates: March 31, 1999

Watch Via: TV

Watch Dates: Apr 23 , 2024

Rating: 7/10

Overall: Watched it with my sister impulsively because apparently Heart Breakers is loosely inspired by Taming of the Shrew/10 Things I Hate About You and I wanted to understand all the stuff that referenced that movie. It’s a fun one, I thought Kat and whatever the guy’s name is were cute, even though I thought the resolution was much too easy. 

Change2561 Changing Project Lineup 2024 happened and oooh, it had some gems, I’m sooo excited for Goddess Bless You From Death now! 

Also last night I created a list on MDL for Upcoming shows without release dates (mostly BLs, some GLs, a non-QL here and there) and it now has 33 shows. I hope most of them are released by this year please

Currently Watching

23.5 

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Mar 8, 2024 - May 24, 2024

Watch Via: Youtube

Watch Dates: Apr 27 - ONGOING, 2024

Rating: -/10

Overall: Started it when 8 episodes were released.

tags: 23.5 degrees

Also Appears In: 23.5 Degrees Live Blogging 

I think I'm just in more of a mood to watch intense/thriller stuff and would binge if I was watching that was more that route because I've been watching one ep of 23.5 a day and while it's fun, I'm not dying to watch the next part or next ep. The Warp Effect was kinda like that too, I was watching 1-2 eps a day for a while. Been a while since I binged stuff quickly (The Good Bad Mother in 3 days at the start of the month). Hopefully I can make sure I keep up with the rest of the episodes as they release and don’t get distracted with other shows.

Posts Created This Month:

GMMTV 2024 Part 2 Showcase

Change2561 Changing Project Lineup 2024

[esfawkes]

Apologies if this has been answered before. When and why did you make the decision to not release through COG/HG?

I haven’t answered this before, because I hadn’t mentioned it outside my Patreon until that post, lol.

There were a few reasons, but the primary factor was COG’s policy regarding Patreon. When I first started my Patreon in… 2018, I think? I had talked to Jason personally via PM about the limits of what I could offer on there, given ChoiceScript’s license. At some point the policy for authors’ Patreons changed, and I confirmed it with Jason over PM.

The policy change was regarding early access content for authors who featured that as reward on their Patreon. It had originally stated that any content in the Patreon-only version(s) of the game had to be made publicly available — in a beta version or what-have-you — after two weeks:

Any ChoiceScript-based content that you give to your patrons must be released to the general public within two weeks of giving your patrons access.

While talking about this with Jason, I suggested they change that to a month, since Patreon operates on a monthly cycle, and fortunately they did, which I think was a very good decision for many authors with Patreons.

Unfortunately, it didn’t make any difference for my own situation, so I eventually decided to move Seven Heirs to Twine. Again, there were some other reasons for this decision, but I consider this to be the real catalyst.

It was not a decision I made lightly, as Seven Heirs was fairly successful on the forum, and I received a lot of helpful and high-level feedback on there that I (personally) don’t believe Tumblr is as conducive to. I think a forum like Discourse creates a better environment to have a proper dialogue with readers on what works and doesn’t work in a game. It allows for an actual back and forth. And, in my own experience, the lack of anonymity on a forum sometimes fostered a bit more… “professionalism,” for lack of a better word, in the interactions between author and reader. Not always, of course, but still, lol.

I had my share of really, really bad experiences on the forum, but it is still the thing I most regret having to leave behind in switching from ChoiceScript to Twine.

Once I have things a bit more settled on my end, I do have plans to address that, the current lack of a proper community for Seven Heirs’ readers, but for the moment the actual game itself is my priority.

I hope this answered your question!

[loveletterstomycareweb]

Dear Abhi:

I am constantly blown away by the you are able to hold me and the people around you. Hands down, you are one of the best listeners I know. You really listen with such care and intention that it makes me feel heard and seen (and not in the superficial "I see you, I hear you" kind of way LOL).

And one of the reasons you're such a good listener (in addition to your unwavering kindness and warmth) is because you have this impulse and want to understand things deeply and have a sense of curiosity that I really admire and inspires me. Your ability to retain and synthesize information is amazing, whether it be discourse around Marxism or the latest on Buzzfeed news. I, after all, would be far less cultured without our monthly briefs on what's happening in pop culture. So thank you always for conversations that are thoughtful and funny (and also for keeping me youthful).

Above all, I am grateful for the warmth you extend to the people you love. I witnessed your unwavering love for Ko before I got to experience firsthand, and it is truly something I feel lucky to have in my life and to call you one of my closest friends.

With love,

Kai

[duckymcdoorknob]

hey man now I can add “called out” on my tumblr bingo card LMFAO.

[achermvn]

life updates- a series- #2

02/09/2022, Friday

Hi

So. I finally sat down to write life update #2. Or life update #002. I cant really choose which one looks better or cooler so I'll just go with the former.

Now.....where do I began. Don't be alarmed though I didn't really have a super eventful month since update #1 or whatever. By the way, I've decided to try and do this as a monthly thing. Updating at the end of each month.

A part of me is already groaning in frustration as this is yet ANOTHER monthly update thingy that I have to keep a record of. Yes, keeping up with such things does feel like a huge task to me, sometimes even a chore that I can't wait to get rid of. I don't know, can you even get rid of a chore? Hmmm. I think I didn't really phrase this as well as I could. Apologies for the same. I'm trying and I'll get better.

I always do.

Anyways, you get the gist of it. Monthly updates it is.

So, life update = it's been good.

I've come across a lot of posts on Instagram, tumblr posts fyi lol, about how august slipped away (shoutout to Ms. Swift!) But yeah, posts and discourses even about how August brings upon a strange uneasy feeling of bittersweet-ness or yearning plus a little heartache here and there. And honestly, bro i genuinely don't relate to all that. I concluded that's 'cause I'm not that much of a hardcore swiftie at heart to romanticise this month in such a depressing way.

August for sure went by really fucking fast but I'm looking back at it fondly. From building and getting used to a new routine, celebrating and having a blast at my best friend's 20th, and securing a job through the campus placements(YESSIRRR), it has been blissful! I'm so grateful to god for the past weeks that went by and also really fucking proud of myself for achieving some of my goals.

I'm gonna keep it a little brief from now onwards cus firstly, I'm getting tired and secondly I still haven't completely wrapped my head around a few things to articulate rational thoughts and opinions on them.

But, here's some free advice.

Believe in yourself. Always. Believe in God. They're always there for all of us. Having faith in that Higher Power really helps a lot. And of course, practice gratefulness!

Alright bro im out ill prolly delve deeper into all this maybe some time later for sure but right now im tired af so im gonna go get some zzzz. tc.

by honey

[wolfstar-in-color]

June Colorful column: Queering the lines, spaces and the fucking moon – A very one-sided comment on ‘Bound princes and monogamy warnings: Harry Potter, slash, and queer performance in LiveJournal communities’

Welcome everyone to the first installment of the Colourful Column! This is a monthly space where we, your Mods, try to discuss specific topics that are relevant to the Wolfstar Fandom. With a little bit of research, a pinch of personal opinion, and a dash of expert perspectives, we hope this space opens conversations, brings nuance to your perspectives, and helps as a resource for your content creation!

Today in our colorful column I’m not gonna talk about racism or representation as you probably expect (well… not directly. LOL I know, what’s even this blog theme then?) but you get to experience me, Mx. Moth, nerding about fandom, queerness and research.

Yup. As terrible as it sounds.

I’m kidding, I hope it’s not too terrible, and at least one of you finds it in their hearts to indulge me, read this, and nerd with me about, chan chan chaaaan (dramatic music in Spanish)... fandom.

So, this column is going to be different to next columns – this one is about* this article (*’about’ as in, I’m bastardizing it and taking my favorite parts from it and leaving out big chunks, like a good ol’ fanfic writer), written by Darlene Hampton, that studied how in the context of LiveJournal’s HP Slash communities, practices emerged that defied gender and sexuality norms, creating spaces to perform the female desire, questioning heteronormativity and the patriarchal culture.

This is not an idea that sounds too weird for any of us that have inhabited fannish spaces for a considerable time, isn’t it? Fandom feels extremely queer, at least for me. And when we look for the history of fandoms (you can start by browsing fanlore), fanfiction spaces have been historically described as female/non-male and queer-ish dominated (and if the AO3 census of 2013 with over 10,000 responses is anything to go by, this idea is true - 71% of respondents were not heterosexual and 94% non-male. You can check this post for a summary of the census and other stats, and the master post on AO3 with the analysis, including specific trends on M/M fans).

At the same time, there are these extended ideas that fandom spaces are mostly focused on Slash, which is actually up to debate (data here) but also this idea that it’s mostly straight women (anyone has these vague ideas about ‘horny housewives’, ‘crazy fangirls’ and ‘fujoshi’ used derogatorily? that’s what I mean), which, as proven by the previous data, is actually not true – fandoms, particularly Slash-centred fandoms, seem to be extremely queer spaces; spaces where people are exploring their identities, roles, and all in all, their desires. I’m a big data nerd, but debunking these myths is not to make the spaces ‘legitimate’ (because they still would be), but to actually understand why we vibe with fandoms, and particularly, what’s the role of Slash fandoms.

Like Wolfstar.

(My personal hypothesis, based in reading countless of opinions so ofc it’s not mine, is that Slash fandoms are a playground where people can project a less-patriarchal ideal, where social hierarchy doesn’t seem as strict since we start with two men, who are theoretically less constricted by this structure. People can explore then those constructs and hegemonic discourses without feeling the weight of misogyny. Of course, we know that in real life patriarchy permeates all our relationships, including M/M relationships, but I digress. A different, but very interesting hypothesis can be found here)

Anyways, we have established here, like the article did, that fandoms are predominantly female/non-male queer spaces. Now, the article “Bound princes and monogamy warnings” shows us the analysis from a Case Study for the community around a Drarry fanfic in LiveJournal. If you don’t know what that is, LiveJournal was a platform for personal blogs, very big in the early 2000s – in a way, similar to Tumblr, but constructed more around the personal site idea than as a social network (there are still fics there that you can go check right now so you can get an idea. See this post for example for R/S content). LJ was basically replaced by Tumblr after a massive purge of explicit content, and some issues about the archiving system, but it used to be one of the big places for fandom.

Case studies, to understand what the paper shows, are qualitative-led or mix-methods research that do not seek to generalize or properly prove something, but they are done to understand the qualities of a phenomenon in depth, in a particular context. Based on that analysis, Case studies can propose lines of research and/or build theory (as in, propose models for how complex systems work). In “Bound princes and monogamy warnings” the author, who I’m gonna call Darlene from now on since we are amongst friends, wanted to study how repeated scenarios (as in, tropes as scenarios in which we put the characters, but also the ~fandom~ in a general way as an scenario, understood as a place where fans engage in a ‘performance’ of their online/fannish personas), communitarian practices held in the collective space of fandom (like comments, public profiles, etc), and personal narratives (again, through comments, profiles, author notes, etc) articulated around the particular fic to show performances around queerness. Performance not as ‘something fake’, but as something that’s being tried (‘test trailed’ if you want), something fluid and ever-changing, defined in the same process that’s being acted.

One important idea is the one about scenarios, then. In fanworks, the scenarios are created mixing repetition (of tropes, but also the use of the characters that we already know and parts of the story that are also assumed to be known) and change, based on the personal experiences and desires of every creator. We make the characters ‘perform’ in a scenario we all know, but that somehow always ends up changing. This gets interwoven in the notion of tropes - in Slash fandoms we find some specific tropes that repeat themselves through different Slash fandoms in history (hurt/comfort for example). This tension between change and repetition in itself can be understood as ‘queering’ the original text. Slash fanfiction pushes the scripts, based in cultural dominating codes, that the original author gave us to interpret canon, to build ON them by repetition of scenes (for example, in the Wolfstar corner picking over and over again Lie low at Lupin’s), but never making them the same - playing in this sense with the script, making it lose consistency. We are making the roles, genders, any black and white possibility, deviate from the lines the author intended for us to use to read the books (*cough lines marked by cisheteronormativity and misogyny cough*). Gender roles and the gay/straight binary start to loosen up after the 10,000 hurt/comfort fic (because a MAN? taking care of another person? How scandalous!). We romanticize your friendship (or maybe friendship-cize romance?) to make a brotherly embrace a lovers’ re-encounter. This encounter moves in the margins to not be a hundred percent gay (okay yes it is pretty gay) nor completely straight, because of this tension between canon and fanon, between repetition of tropes and changes that put the characters in a same trope but in one position in this fic, in a slightly different one in other, and then another and another, until it’s symbolically this in-between.

In making Slash fanfiction, reading it, interacting with the fandom, we make oblique the lines of what’s a legitimate interpretation of the canon, the characters and tropes. It’s still oriented by new angles: there are new rules on play here - the rules of Slash tropes. But it switches from the source material, and deviates from its own rules over and over again.

And since I’m talking about turning a friend’s re-encounter into a strangled lover’s caress, I can bring how Slash fandoms not only queerify by making the characters, well, gay. Darlene uses queer theory to show how queerness in this context is the crooking, the distortion that goes beyond the mere sexual orientation. We disrupt the lines of genre; we are disrupting the intentions. Instead of writing YA, the case study is rated for adults. Instead of the single, authorial voice that claims the universe, we have multiple voices, we have collabs, we have remixes. Instead of fantasy, we write romance, drama, angst, smut. In Drarry, they are not only Straight™ in canon, but also enemies, and Drarry writes them as *le gasp* lovers. The Wolfstar fandom doesn’t do this same move, but instead of “childhood bros” we write them as former lovers or pining idiots. The argument remains then, as the lines are disrupted, re-interpreted, and lanes are switched.

The product of distorting these lines, of queering the text, is not perfect, of course. In our fancontent, culturally dominant values and subjective desires and experiences find themselves in conflict, and build their ugly babies in the process. The product, our dear Darlene tell us, is a negotiation of dissonances between these two levels – personal desire and culturally dominant values. As a performance, as a play with 20,000 iterations, each of them slightly different (because here is a mid-1800’s performance, and here race-blind 2020’s one; here’s one done in Brooklyn, another done in Cali, Colombia; one performed in the community theater and one in the Sydney opera house, to use the metaphor), the fan content will be something in the grey area of the rules of fandom and canon, between dominant, repressive-aligned discourses and other ideological subjectivation processes – subjectivation, as an ever open process of constructing ourselves as people, in relation with others, in relation with the ideas that are dominant in our time and the inevitable resistances that emerge with them.

So yes, Slash fanfiction can be “regressive and traditional” – but it’s usually built in an in-between that makes it complex and oh so interesting to live in. Authors and readers move in these margins too, writing one thing and then reading something that seems like the opposite as what they write, and going bonkers for it.

So okay, if you reached this part of the text, wow, I’m glad I was able to keep you tuned in. Still, you might be thinking, “cool, Moth, but what do I do with all of this academic titbit?” Well, dear reader, my purpose with bringing this paper to discussion is to open the question about transformative works and queering the texts. You see, we are used to seeing, every time we access AO3, those references to transformative works and whatnot. So, what I want you to question yourself is - what does it mean for fanfiction and fanworks to be transformative for you, after reading this? How do we make sense of the reiterative, tropey, dominated by stereotypes nature of fanworks, with the individual desires, individual development, personal exploration nature of them? This ‘individual’ card isn’t necessarily the panacea and ‘unquestionable’ thing we want to think, since as it was pointed, also plays with a tension between dominant discourses and political subjectivation, of ‘self-queerification’, we might say, in a process of questioning the self, but also internalizing misogyny, white supremacy, classism…

So I want to ask you, reader, what do we do with these ideas, when topics like racism and discrimination open their jaws to show us how pervasive white supremacy and other structures of domination are, how imbricated in our ‘intimate, lonely’ mind spaces they are? How do we queerify our own minds, when we have so many blind spots?

My response, although not complete, and not the only one that is possible, would go in line with the question about collectiveness and community. We can’t close our eyes and claim the transformative nature of fandom just on an individual level. We need to queerify other things in fandom too – in the sense offered here. Not only ‘make it gay’, but deviate meanings from the mainstream interpretations, analyze how we intercalate our desires with fantasy and repetition. We need to open fandom and fanworks to solidarity, we need to break the lines handed to us when it comes to thinking a reading of a text as something individual, because it’s not. Fandom has already been doing that for a long time in processes of intertextuality, of commenting and building on top of the previous tropes. We just need to keep interrogating our spaces and queering everything in our reach. Creating new spaces so people with different voices open new reads, new paths away from the reading the author offered, even from the paths fandom has been constructing.

I might be an optimistic, but I think we can do it. At least, I don’t see that many outraged cries about making a white character a person of color. But that might be me, just keeping myself safe from assholes *shrugs*.

So yeah, that’s what I have to offer for today, and I hope this gave you some pause and opportunity to reflect. Now, go and queerify your lives, colorful readers! I’ll be here waiting to read how you see your own writing, or other’s writing, changing these offered lines of production and commodity, and how you answer the questions about how these ideas might help us build a different community with time (or like, how they don’t).

Colorfully,

Moth~

[idontlikeem]

probably unpopular here but protecting canner over carter and kapanen wouldn't have really moved the needle on this team, and that move is not why we are tumbling down the stretch. i'm getting really tired of the monthly discourse that's going on pens twitter esp when we have a really bad game. it's also sad how they all turned on jeff real quick. last year during his hot start they were saying "he's everything ex player wasn't" and now that he's showing his age they are mad about him staying

ok i think these two messages are from the same person? if they're not, i'm sorry! they're similar enough that i'm grouping them together, though.

in a sense i agree with you, but in a sense i also don't.

one player not being present on the team anymore is absolutely not why the penguins struggled at critical junctures this year. mccann is also his own brand of streaky, with cold stretches and playoff no-shows just like everyone else. and yes, there's no real way to predict how he'd have performed this year, with this roster, and if it would be better or worse than he's done in seattle.

however: he shoots the puck. he can score. he's depth at center, young depth at center that's crucial on a team that's only getting older, who can also play wing very well. he can be moved up to play on the top power play unit, or function as a secret weapon on the second unit if the first is getting shut down (when's the last time our second PP unit scored at all?). he can play second line minutes, he can play third line minutes.

i thought trading him for a prospect was a mistake when it happened and i still think it's a mistake. i've said it before, but when you have a team that by nature of who's on the roster goes all-in every year (and when sidney crosby and evgeni malkin are on your team, you must go all-in every year), trading a known positive asset for the potential of a future one is foolish. he would have been a known commodity and improved our depth significantly simply by being familiar with the team and the systems. having him as an option would have made me feel a lot less concerned about the lineup during the penguins' multiple rough patches this season, especially when sid and geno were out.

now, nobody could have predicted what would happen with kappy this season, not after how well he meshed with geno last year and how good he looked in the preseason. i think everyone has been shocked by his collapse. but jeff?

i think carter was a great get last season. i think he held down the fort admirably while geno was gone. i also think he's 37 years old, and that after he signed his contract his play dipped dramatically. if you look at the underlying numbers, his line, no matter who's on his wing, gets caved in for scoring chances against practically every single game. bad nights and streaky play are one thing (jake has cold stretches! god knows rusty's totally disappeared the last few weeks! and i don't need to remind anyone what it looks like when geno has a bad night, lol), but this is months of both the data AND the eye test indicating that he's gotten significantly worse.

i think he's got another level to him—it seems impossible that he'd have dropped off in the blink of an eye like that. i hope he's able to turn it on during this series, we badly need our bottom six to step up and provide scoring support if the rangers' d is able to shut down our top two lines.

i'm also going to challenge your premise that people are 'turning on' him. that makes it sound personal and mean-spirited, and i don't think that's a fair assessment. people are allowed to be disappointed and concerned by a player underperforming, which jeff has absolutely been doing for the last couple of months. that's sports! at the end of the day, we want our teams to win, and a player that appears to be a hindrance towards that goal is going to be called out on it.

[wolfcrunch]

hm, i wonder... would the fandom be less jumpy if bhna was a monthly manga instead of weekly? (I just pondered this off the back of one of your previous asks about the whole back and forth about nana last week... and well, pretty much most chapters lol)

maybe. although i still stand by that several fans would probably be better if they dumped weekly and waited for the series to end before binging it. even with monthly, the discourse and disagreement would still be there no matter the cliffhanger... except its a month long instead of a week

[ahiddenpath]

Fanfiction.net Discourse

Okay so ye olde social media has been whispering that fanfiction.net is on its last legs.  Is this true?  No idea.  Let’s just say that this is NOT the first time I’ve heard that argument since roughly 1999, and FFN is still here, a living relic, like a horseshoe crab.  The anecdotes always sound convincing, but- they’re anecdotes for the most part, and I don’t know how to verify more specific claims (ie, stuff breaking and no support, which- uh, that’s hardly new, regardless, lol!).

BUT!  In case it IS true, and FFN is spiraling towards the drain- what should you do?

1.)  Back up your fics

You should NOT be storing your works solely on FFN.  Stuff happens on the internet!  Your fics should be stored in multiple places.  Make sure you back up your newest writing at least monthly.  This is totally unrelated to any potential prophecies of website doom!

2.)  Save your favorite fics

IIRC, FFN makes it difficult to download fics.  In some ways, this is good- anything that makes it more difficult for someone to download and reupload your stuff is potentially helpful.  But most people just want to have a safe copy of their favorite fics for personal use.  (It should go without saying, but anything you save off FFN is for your personal use only!).

I’m told there are workarounds for this, so now might be a good time to look into that.  Sorry I can’t tell you more, I’m old.  Again, like a horseshoe crab.

3.)  Consider saving your reviews/stats/favorite authors lists

My fics are backed up a zillion ways, but I don’t have any copies of my reviews and legacy stats.  I’m wondering if I should take some screen shots, just in case?  It seems a bit much, but dang, losing those would be sad.

I’m also thinking of how lovely a binder of reviews would be.  I CAN TOUCH THE LOVE!

4.)  If you haven’t, consider posting your existing works and new works to AO3

Might be a good time to put in a request for an AO3 account?

Again, I wouldn’t panic at this stage?  I have no idea how accurate these prophecies are?  But I do think we tend to assume things will be around forever online, and then...  They aren’t!  It might be worthwhile to back some stuff up, even if nothing is wrong.  And spreading to another platform is a good thing!

What do you loves think of all of this?

[pettyprocrastination]

Don't be worried, I get my hair fried on the monthly lol, I'm sure it will come out great. 💜💜💜

So here's my ask, I haven't watched Prospect yet, convert a sinner (lol), what's your favorite thing about Ezra?

Ooo I'd probably say ezra's..honesty?? Towards cee.

Incoming spoilers for the film and talk of potential assualt

Like from the beginning he was sort of "this is a kid "towards her. He tells damon he should leave, that his daughter is scared. Though that was also self preservation. He easily could have shot her in the back as she ran and he simply shrugged and let his gun hang off his finger. When she talks about going to the mercs he gives her the brutal honesty of the situation. That shes a young girl all on her own and that the implication is that they would try and assault her if she went to them alone with no ability to harvest by herself. He listens to her talk about her joy of reading, her favorite book, and how she likes to rewrite the scenes. Even remarking that he'll have to read it some day. He also talks lowly of her father, who was indeed an asshole. Which I find kind of funny because he (spoilers) literally killed her dad yet he reprimands him for not keeping his daughter in the loop for jobs of prospecting. He never lies to her or sugar coats thing to keep her put of the loop in favor of saving her feelings because shes a kid. And below are some quotes that I think show this well🥰🥰

"A girl of your age, a child, wanders into a camp of mercs. At the end of the tour what happnes? You appeal to their sympathies? They have none. They are ruthless propiteers. You must have something to offer or they will find something to take from you."

"Now, hold on. I'm keen to make.the case that damon killed himself.-He was trying to steal my thropy cases, what he was trying to do. A man's work is no petty thing. To you, his daughter.....I truly apologize for my contribution to his passing.But he was stealing my entire harvest.And actions like these foment the threat of appropriate reactions. Your Father knew that, and if didn't, then he had no business in the green."

"He didn't tell you anything?It's bad practice keeping you in the dark, if you ask me. A deep partnership is only made so by candid discourse."

Anyways I think ezra is a character whis morals shift through the film from helping see as a source of profit and self preservation to solely making sure she is safe and survived even if he doesnt. While he acknowledges her as a child in a parental adjacent way he sees her more as a partner and doesnt speak down to her but talks to her like an adult.