#ofmd harassment

[ladyluscinia]

Every once in a while I'll scroll the Izzy Hands tag and be blindsided by the sheer confidence with which haters assert that the majority appeal of BlackHands is *insert dynamic I have thank fuck never been subjected to in this fandom and would click out of instantly*

Like do you guys need actually enjoyable BlackHands fic recs? I feel like maybe you're reading absolute garbage or someone is fucking with you? I definitely know you did not do the reading on those metas you casually referenced, or maybe just needed someone to hold your hand and walk you through it again because you kinda missed the central point by a mile 😔

Surely you wouldn't be insulting a bunch of people for their shipping preferences based on shit you just made up

[bromelads]

Insight from “Izzy Canyon” on racism in the OFMD fandom and putting our cards on the table

This post below is in response to this one by @ourflagmeansgayrights

Phew! Thank you for hanging tight for this! First, I wanna thank you for sharing your vantage point in the fandom. It can be really easy to forget that we’re all seeing different things at different times in our dashboard/timelines/feeds so it means a lot that you’ve been trying to expand your viewpoint to meet me halfway (especially hard to do when there’s strong emotions involved). On my end, I joined the ofmd fandom through Twitter in mid-May (correction: it was closer to early or mid-April) and have been properly active on Tumblr since November 2022.

The attitude that you described adopting during the early fandom days (leaning into discomfort in order to center the perspectives of fans of color) is something that I’ve seen reflected in my circles within “Izzy Canyon” and outside of it too.

I can see why there‘s been a perception that people pushing back against “izzy critical” posts by complaining about the targeted harassment Izzy fans have been receiving were attempts to shut down conversations about racism—diverting attention from racist harm by pointing out a different issue is common tactic after all. One that me and the people who have been pointing out the targeted harassment of Izzy fans do not care for. At the core of this pushback is the fact that we are part of a fandom culture that refuses to ignore racism (good) while also enabling a social dysfunction where antiracist rhetoric is used to exact abuse against members of our fandom community, including fans of color (bad). This is a solvable problem.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to meet you halfway on the list of grievances you and other "izzy critical" folks compiled by including the voices of Izzy fans. This took the form of a container worksheet (linked below) that was based on the list you provided. A friend (@uselessheretic) generated clarifying questions to help establish a common ground that’s set on finding effective, restorative ways to address racialized harm in our fandom community. Before presenting this container and the input of Izzy fans, I want to make two requests and address your input on white favoritism.

Invitation to pursue a restorative approach

I use the word “restorative” multiple times in this post. This is in reference to restorative justice, which is the framewok I’ve been trying to apply throughout my exchanges with you and other “izzy critical” blogs.

I learned about the notion that we could apply a restorative justice approach to harm done in the ofmd fandom through this brief image thread by a fellow ofmd fan about how to practice Restorative Justice in Social Media Spaces. I can’t recommend this resource enough.

Request to focus on Behaviors vs People

In reference to the story you shared about a Black fan being called scary: I didn't know about this incident before you described it. What you described is indeed a racist microaggression and it’s behavior that I refuse to enable. If the attitudes reflected in this incident are indeed still pervasive in the fandom, then we need to address it. What I've seen work is an approach that‘s more “hard on the issues and gentle on the people.”

A lot of “Izzy fans” shared insight that supports a statement you made on your last post: that a lot of the grievances in the list are not exclusive to “izzy-positive spaces.” With this in mind, and in the spirit of working together to address the cultural problem we have in our hands, I want to request that we steer away from thinking of the list of behaviors and beliefs as coming from a “type/genre of izzy fan” for the following reasons: 

The social structures in fandoms are largely flat (non-hierarchical) and interpersonal (not institutional), which is why culture change is more achievable if we focus on influencing changes in behaviors as opposed to people. Even if there’s items on the list that are more common on the “Izzy side,” it’s easier and less antagonistic for community members to deal with problem behaviors than with problem people. (Of course, there’s always exceptions to this.)

Constructing a “type/genre" of fan who's rife with racist beliefs in a fandom as supportive of social justice as the ofmd fandom, doesn't inspire behavior change: it makes a scapegoat out of “Izzy fans” and encourages a punitive, adversarial mindset. This scapegoating has the following unintended consequences for BIPOC:

A. It supports exclusionary and inaccurate assumptions about BIPOC who disagree on popular race-conscious meta or simply enjoy Izzy: that we are deficient in some way (prioritizing white comfort over the safety of nonwhite fans) or that we simply don’t exist within the scapegoated subset of fandom (talking about “izzy fans” and “BIPOC” as if they’re separate, adversarial categories).

B. This scapegoating ALSO facilitates white guilt by giving white fans in the wider fandom easy “outs” to avoid evaluating their own implicit biases towards BIPOC. All they need to do is avoid the “izzy side of fandom,” uncritically promote popular race-conscious meta posts, and follow accounts that are run by people who disclose that they are not white. No need to cultivate vulnerable, equal, honest relationships with fans of color, just stay quiet when they talk about race and support their positions, even when you disagree. No need to stretch your imagination to give depth and dimension to the many characters of color we have at our disposal–just focus on the two canon romances of Ed/Stede and Jim/Oluwande. I have witnessed these attitudes in the OFMD fandom at large, including “Izzy Canyon.” Ascribing the bulk of racist behaviors to a subset of the ofmd fandom unintentionally offers the rejection of other fans (“Izzy fans”) as an easy alternative to doing the slow, reflexive, emotionally demanding work of confronting the racial prejudices we all bring into fandom.

This particular request and observations are informed by conversations with BIPOC and white people within “Izzy Canyon.” They are also informed by my own formal+informal training and experience teaching organizers in my local community how to adopt racial justice lenses. I would also be remiss not to mention that at least half of the BIPOC who supported the development of this post have real-life experience leading antiracist and restorative work in their own communities through education and grassroots organizing. We know just how challenging it is to talk about and dismantle racism.

On white favoritism

I don’t know how much awareness there is about this on the “izzy critical” side of fandom, but uselessheretic wrote a guest post in Stitch's Media Mix about concrete ways in which fans can uplift characters of color and subvert white favoritism. I am curious about perceptions among “Izzy critical” people about this article, since it does carry important insight about fandom culture and is incredibly well-grounded in antiracism.

Finally, your expansion on white favoritism (“fans who have fixated on izzy and whose brains will not let them create anything but izzy content…”) struck a deep chord, especially among BIPOC contributors. So much so, that someone added this item to the worksheet and so many people responded that it needed its own page. I will let their input speak for itself and add that a lot of it resonates for me.

Invitation to "talk it through" (aka "the container")

This worksheet is grounded on the list of grievances you compiled. It's meant to be a container where “Izzy likers” and “Izzy criticals” alike can share an understanding of each other’s experiences with harassment and racism in the fandom. This is putting all the cards on the proverbial table. Kinda like…

As of now, the worksheet has been filled out by “Izzy Canyonites” from Twitter, Tumblr, and Discord. BIPOC Izzy fans were the first to contribute to the sheet and make up the majority of voices in it. 

In filling out this sheet, my asks to “izzy critical” fans (especially nonwhite fans) are to (1) read the existing input from “izzy fans” and (2) answer the questions in the empty cells.

(If you’re an “Izzy fan,” please DO NOT ADD to the worksheet. I’m good to receive DM’s if u need to get anything off your chest)

Without further ado: here it is

My hope is, if there’s a collective desire, that we can brainstorm more effective approaches to mitigating and preventing harm (especially racist harm) in the fandom together. 

Ok that’s what I got. Big shoutout to all my Izzy Canyon friends (old and new). I know this shit is emotionally charged. Love you all and love our creative, fun, loving corner of the fandom. ❤️ Special shout-out to friends who are impartial to Izzy but care about the psychological and emotional safety of fellow fans: your influence is super grounding 💚

Finally, big appreciation to the ppl on the other side of the izcourse who went through the trouble of giving their two cents. Particularly BIPOC. That was neat of y’all and I do hope to see more of what you have to say. 💛

[izzyferal]

Hope you get your teeth shattered today. Fucking die, izzy stan.

You sound like some of the racists I've dealt with my whole life 🥱🥱🥱 Your will never stop me from loving Izzy. Go to therapy and get a hobby, this isn't good for your health.

Tagging this because I refuse to hide my harrassment due to being an Izzy fan and allow it to be minimized or ignored by the wider fandom and Izzy critical folks.

@izzy-anti-archive

[fivehundredpagesoffiller]

Girls is gender neutral here ofc

[actual-changeling]

one single hot take from me before i go rewatch the reunion scene ten times and then go tf to bed.

we have a show full of queer people. every single person we encounter with the exception of the british probably is QUEER. ALL OF THEM. let that fucking sink in for a second.

and the queerness is so multi faceted and well done and reflects the realities of so many people watching it.

so if you sit down after this finale and type a post that in any shape or form calls izzy's death homophobic, "bury your gays", or anything in that direction? i need you to go outside for real. i need you to fucking log off and look at the news. maybe look at some nice queer media statistics from 2014-2016. maybe turn on the fucking tv and scroll through the programs and THEN you can come back and tell me how many queer people you saw. how many shows that are unashamedly about queerness.

yeah that's what i fucking thought you absolute twat.

if you are harassing creators over their writing choices when they are out there risking their careers to create queer media you are a vile person and i want nothing to do with you.

[eduobsessed]

besties i hate to break it to you but izzy has literally Not Changed That Much compared to s1 like sure he's moved on and is learning to not repress his shit as much but his personality is exactly the same. we're talking about the "daddy... daddy..." freak. the creature who hate-flirted with stede in s1 with "plumb the depths *slutty curtain touch*". Like if you couldn't stand him in s1 and now think he's ok only because he's a "completely different person" maybe what happened is that your reaction to him was too visceral and people who seem cunts sometimes are people with shit going on (in his case his husband was cheating on him while he tried to take care of the household ok) that deserve some grace

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I'm seeing a lot of hate in the tags today so let's just go ahead and take all the bitching over the ads campaign to its natural conclusion.

Ignoring that the ad campaign raised over ten thousand dollars to be donated to charity and we have the receipts proving that happened, come on a little thought experiment with me.

A bit ago, I finished saving up 300 dollars and I spent it on a Lego kit I'd been wanting (the motorized lighthouse, if you're curious). That's the kind of purchase I usually don't have the disposable income to make responsibly, so it took me months of putting money aside for it. It was a responsibly-timed purchase; I made sure my bills were paid and grocery needs were met before I bought it. It also brought me many hours of happiness as I assembled it and I love looking at it displayed now in my home. Obviously, because I bought this thing from the Lego company, none of that money went towards charity. Was this purchase morally wrong of me because I chose to spend what is, to me, a fairly significant chunk of change on a selfish purchase instead of donating the money I'd been putting away little by little?

If your honest answer is yes, then honestly that's a pretty online take and we've got nothing more to say to each other. There are many terrible things happening in the world right now, but the idea that someone is morally reprehensible for spending money on something that matters to them instead of donating is wildly out of touch. Yes, I think you should absolutely donate to many of the excellent charities providing relief if you can! I've been running charity drives through my university for months, it's very important to me! But making the occasional selfish purchase is not morally wrong, and harassing people for doing so is not activism.

Renewal campaigns for cancelled shows are not new. Fans of other shows (I think Shadow and Bone?) have also been collecting money to put up ads recently. OFMD is an incredibly important show to many people - it's the first time I've ever felt so seen and respected by a TV show, and the first time I've ever seen a brown, gay man like myself as a romantic lead. It's a fucking good show, there's nothing wrong with us for wanting it back, and honestly if you donated to the ads campaign who fucking cares. That's no worse than me choosing to put money aside for a Lego kit instead of donating it. People making selfish purchases, whether towards a renewal campaign for a show they love or an overpriced cup of coffee, are not your enemy.

[natjennie]

I haven't really engaged with the izzy drama bc its mostly so boring to me but. just saw a post that was like "it's so fucked up that djenks said izzy was a father figure to ed, the whole time he's been psychosexually obsessed with him" like okay have you never heard of a daddy kink? do you have no idea about the concept of a relationship with older men? you are the same kind of person who assigns found family roles to characters and then gets mad when people imagine them fucking. father figure does not mean literal biological father. you have no understanding of authentic queer experiences if you think being a father figure is in direct opposition to having a weird sexual obsession with someone. what the fuck are you talking about. being queer is literally all about subverting classical understandings of relationships and family roles and love and sex. have you not been paying attention? to anything?

[celluloidbroomcloset]

I don't even know what to do anymore.

[something-about-sunflowers]

OFMD fandom:

Stop minimizing the severity of harm and manipulation that happens to people in cults by comparing a small fandom subgroup (literally, there are fewer than you're imagining) to cults. Stop acting like people disagreeing with YOU means they're incapable of seeing another point of view. Stop acting like people disagreeing with you is somehow policing you. Stop. . . just. Stop.

For the love of all that is good and joyful in this world just. If you don't want to see Izzy fans or the Canyon then just. Stop. Leave them the fuck alone. Get out of those tags. Stop commenting on their posts. Stop sending them rude shit (or ANY shit) in their ask boxes. Stop making up hypothetical Izzy fans/Canyonites to get mad at. Go get mad at your boss or your government officials or something actually productive instead.

I do genuinely wonder if the more normal people in the fandom see any of this and like. Question this behavior because. Like. Jesus fucking christ.

[lionpointe]

I thought I was done but I'm not!!!! People going "Izzy wasn't the only disabled character" no one's saying he was!!!! Ricky spotting his prosthetic leg and that being the reason they were found out. His disability being a perceived weakness in universe and by the narrative itself!!! That's why people are pointing out his disability!!!!!!! No one else with a disability is given this type of attention in the narrative!!!!!!!!!

[ladyluscinia]

Also I am NOT coherent enough to have real thoughts on this but - plus side - also not coherent enough to get mad so has anyone else noticed that the new ofmd wank is basically treating "the canyon" like the boogeyman?

I've been checking the tags less and most of the people I knew in them have dipped anyway (like me), but the vagues about our near-dead corner have never been so frightened

"Don't talk about Izzy or the canyon will getcha!"

"The Izzy tag is so scary and flooded with canyon takes"

"We have got to reclaim Izzy from the canyon"

Maybe they are just stupid. Or follow too many people who make up strawmen for Tumblr clout

[bromelads]

Mfing out-of-pocket, racist-ass, anti-black “Izzy anti anon” got me all sorts of fucked up now lmao

I’m still getting the hang of what the ofmd fandom is like on tumblr but I do know that this deeply disturbed individual likes to camp out in the “ofmd meta” and “Izzy hands” tags looking for people to dump their ugliness onto.

This my soapbox moment: I don’t care who you have beef with or what your social justice-centered meta boils down to. You have a right to do shit you enjoy without having to withstand abuse.

And it’s incumbent on those of us who want to be useful to any sort of anti-oppressive effort to pursue collective responses against abuse—stretching ourselves a little to dissipate feelings of isolation for harmed parties and connecting with others (sometimes even offenders) to mitigate future harm.

IG user trainstationdancer, Twitter user wwditgo2, or whoever you are (ie Izzy anti anon): ground yourself on something other than your convictions. Find someone or something else to help you carry whatever your burdens are. Your “contributions” at this time are an unwelcome obstacle to black and brown and queer joy in this fandom. Get out of your own head. People are not trash bins for you to dump your shit into.

@uselessheretic you are a gift to this fandom and I’m grateful to be in community with you. I love your writing but more than that, I appreciate your presence in this fandom as a cool fucking person who successfully encourages critical thinking (not an easy thing to do) while managing to enjoy themselves online. My ofmd fandom experience is better off with you in it 💖

[izzyferal]

You cry over an abusive rapist.

I can't wait for you fucking cultist cunts to get yours in s2 when Izzy doesn't get redeemed, doesn't get a love interest, continues to be THE racist abusive villain, and eventually gets burned to a crisp.

I am only publishing this for the sake of documenting the harassment that Izzy fans receive on the regular. I dealt with it on twitter and I now deal with it here. I know if I post anything to my insta, I will be harassed there as well.

This fandom has a problem with harassment and it isn't izzy fans doing it.

@izzy-anti-archive

[irate-iguana]

Izzy's a piece of shit and I hope he dies this season. If you're an Izzy stan I hope you die too.

Hey it’s my first hate message! What fun!

My previous post expressed zero opinions on Izzy, I simply said that I was scared of the intensity of the fandom in-fighting about him. So thanks for backing up my point!

[summerlinenss]

Yeah I'm sure plenty of loved ones are getting killed in genocides. It's a stupid pirate show, there are people are dying, people's rights are being taken away, good God go touch grass

babe idk why you’re so worked up about me caring about a stupid pirate show when i’ve been passionately advocating for the rights of others and firmly taking actions (real actions not just sending cowardly anons to people on the internet) for palestine.

also i wouldn’t expect you to know this but the ofmd fandom has self-organized fundraising and activism many times in its < 2 years of existence. we were on the front lines during the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes and raised money every single week for water and food/food trucks for writers and actors. we’ve had multiple fundraising events for lgbtq+ rights organizations. we raised over $10,000 (with an original goal of $2,500) in 12 hours through a charity auction for palestine legal aid. not for internet points, because we wanted to.

so i mean excuse us for also campaigning to get our show back. terribly sorry if our ability to care about two things at once offends you.

anyway: