#so much of the younger generation is so media literate and articulate about standing up to oppression

[stil-lindigo]

an ex-zionist jewish man recently went a bit viral on tiktok for sharing exactly how he sees zionism tie israel to the jewish identity and his personal experience with breaking away from it - I think it’s a really great watch.

He also made a follow up talking specifically about how he learned to humanise Palestinians, and a really integral part of it was his school, which would often bring in Palestinian speakers who’d share their perspective (here’s a link to it).

[fangirlunderground-blog]

Meta Monday

I got involved in fandom in the mid-90s when I was around 14 years old. My cousin @lyndanaclerio sent me VHS recordings of the Sailor Moon dub, and I fell in love... I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before.

Since then, I’ve been in a lot of different fandoms: from manga to YA, Tolkien to Xena, Harry Potter to Teen Wolf, Star Wars to Marvel, and countless mini-fandoms along the way. And I’ve met a lot of cool people online over the years — older and younger alike, including my best friend of 15 years — on all sorts of platforms. I’ve built myself fandom homes on shitty GeoCities fansites and moderately less shitty sites I made from scratch; on Yahoo! Groups and LiveJournal; on AO3 and Tumblr... and that’s nothing compared to others!

But, last week, I turned 36, and according to some, I’ve already overstayed my welcome in fandom by at least a decade. I guess I’m supposed to put all my comics and collectibles on eBay, swap out my fanfiction with whatever the fuck a beach read is, and spend the rest of my life cloistered in my house where I won’t offend society. (I mean, I’m kind of a hermit, but that’s not why.) 

And let me be clear here: by some, I mean some. While there is indeed a frightening trend here on Tumblr, in which some young people have embraced bizarrely conservative views about women and sexuality, with the Trumpian rhetoric to match, I think the problem is bigger than that. I recently talked about the pressure I felt to abandon fandom when I was 25 when Tumblr was still brand new, and nothing like it is today. It’s clear there were (and are) more societal forces at work than just a toxic sub-culture on a struggling platform.

So, this post isn’t about the vast majority of young people in fandom, nor am I here to yell “get off my fandom, you pesky kids!” when no one ever said that to 14-year-old me. In fact, this post is as much for fangirls as it is for fanwomen because you deserve to know that getting older doesn’t mean giving up the things you love. But you don’t deserve to tell others to conform just because you’re uncomfortable that they exist. There are already enough toxic fanboys trying to keep women out of geek culture, so don’t help them hold the gates closed from the outside.

And if you are older, and already let that shit drive you out of taking a more active part in fandom, I’ve been there, and I get it. But you can still come back; not just on your private Tumblr, or your secret AO3 account, but for real and any time. One of the most freeing choices I’ve made is to stop pretending I think all of this is stupid. The world needs more quirky, eccentric women, anyways.

Sorry this one is so long, but apparently I have FEELINGS this month — especially after the Bog of Eternal Stench I had to trot through while researching this one — and there are a lot of people who’ve articulated them better than I did here (see the following meta recs). I promise we’ll move on next week! As always, let the authors know you appreciated their work by engaging however you can. And if you ever feel alienated on this site, please feel welcome to talk to me! 💛  

Fandom - Ageism

Adults in Fandom by @littlesystems, [...] There are a lot of different factors at play with the current fandom purity thing. It’s primarily being driven by minors, which is why I’ve used that as a stand-in, but there are older people who are obsessed with this and younger people who aren’t. Nuance! Exciting stuff. I think the two biggest drivers here are a genuine but misguided desire to make fandom a better place, paired with plain ol’ run-of-the-mill sexism. I’m not the first person to say this and I know others have said it better, but here are my two cents. (Mirror Link)

Age and Experience in Fandom by @tppfandomstats, This month’s @threepatchpodcast episode, When I’m 64, looks at fandom and aging. To go along with these discussions, here are some demographic stats from a few fandom surveys on the age distribution in our online fandom communities. (Mirror Link)

Age Appropriate Activities by @telesilla, So this post, another in a long series of “find a bridge club you embarrassing old ladies” posts, came around. And I adulted hard all day and it just really pissed me off and caught me at a bad time. (Mirror Link) 

Ageism in Fandom by @badtech-reblogs, Seeing yet another post about ageism in fandom and I’m trying to do some root cause analysis. That ageism in fandom is tied up with misogyny is a given. There is almost no age too young to start ridiculing a woman for her hobbies and interests, and even young girls are expected to have a maturity and patience beyond their years. The misogyny is coming in from the larger world outside of fandom like how misogyny, ableism, anti-blackness etc. seeps into all subcultures. (Mirror Link)

Ageism in Fandom: Too Old to Fangirl? by @ravenmorganleigh, @vulgarweed, et al. Most Fandoms are comprised mostly of women, young and old. It’s interesting to me when Young Women– who are the most likely to champion women’s rights can turn around and show their youth-bias when it comes to Older Women in Fandom. (Mirror Link) 

Fandom culture wouldn’t be where it is now if it wasn’t for Old Fandom by @thepalmtoptiger, I almost forgot that ageism in fandom is a thing. Apparently once you hit 25/30 years old you’re supposed to stop having interests in things. People need to freshen up on their fandom history and realize that fandom now wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for older fans. (Mirror Link)  

Getting older doesn’t actually feel like anything by @catchmewhispering, The hilarious thing about growing up, that all the ageist people here are gonna very harshly realise, is getting older doesn’t actually feel like anything. You don’t “turn into” an adult, it’s just another year that passes and, sure, it might become easier to make decisions or figure out how to fix a sticky situation but overall, you don’t suddenly Enter Adult World and never have a goofy thought or a messy moment ever again. (Mirror Link)    

The idea that you will someday be ‘too old’ for the stuff you find fun by @freedom-of-fanfic,  [...] The idea that you will someday be ‘too old’ for the stuff you find fun now is a long-standing cultural message that I’m sure many anti-shippers - many adolescents of all stripes - have absorbed. that message caused adolescent me to think I would outgrow fandom, and I don’t think that message has particularly changed. (Mirror Link) 

If other people in fandom are older than you, by definition, they have been your age by @codenamecesare, [...] If other people in fandom are older than you, by definition, they have been your age. When fans write about younger characters, we’re not peering through a keyhole at young people now and creeping on them. We are drawing on our own experiences, thoughts, feelings and memories of what it was like when we were that age. (Mirror Link)

I’m old as balls by @warlordenfilade, [...] Just realize that with 30+ year old franchises there will be 30+ year old people who grew up with the franchise and still love it.  Tumblr may be a relatively recent platform but fandom as an institution is waaaay older than I am and the Transformers fandom in particular has fans in their 40s and 50s whom I am personally acquainted with, fans who have adapted from photocopy fanzines and snail mail mailing lists to bulletin boards, newsgroups, forums, and, yeah, tumblr, in their many years of fandom. (Mirror Link)

I wish we’d stop telling each other - and ourselves - that there’s a point at which we’re too old for fandom by @vantasticmess​, I spent every year from 14 to 25 telling myself that eventually I’d grow out of fandom: I would get too old to cosplay and I would write my own original stories instead of ‘just’ fanfiction. After all, adults don’t write fanfic and adults don’t make costumes for themselves. Adults get married and have kids and make costumes for their kids and write real stories and get published. (Mirror Link) 

“like, i’m not saying that adults don’t have a place in fandom.” by @porcupine-girl​, @melifair​, et al. [...] Fandom is vast and encompasses a multitude of interests and age groups. We all fandom responsibly, and those who abuse that at the expense of someone vulnerable or impressionable are not tolerated. This does not mean that anyone specific group of fandom should be limited. Nor does it mean that the only entertainment media created ever should be accessible to all viewing audiences. Young fandom will grow to understand this, not only in fandom but in life. (Mirror Link)

“Lmao 30-year-old women don’t belong in fandoms. Go knit or have kids or something.” by @rainbowloliofjustice, @the-salt, et al. [...] It’s the fact I don’t get what these people think happens when you turn 18 it’s not like the second you turn 18 you just immediately lose interest in everything you were interested in at 17 and from then on only like strictly ‘adult™’ things. A lot of people who were in fandoms as teenagers stay in fandoms as adulthood. Fandoms aren’t minor-only spaces and never have been and there’s literally nothing wrong with adults in fandom environments. (Mirror Link)

Older fans are crucial to the survival of fandoms by @muchymozzarella, [...] Not ONLY because they’re literally the ones keeping fandom afloat (AO3 wasn’t created or maintained by kids, let’s just say), but because older fans generally don’t attack or bully or fuck up a fandom by being aggressive or volatile or overzealous, destroying any enjoyment of a medium. (Mirror Link)

PSA by @bugsieplusone​, I’ve been sitting on this post for a while because it probably reveals more about me on a platform that I’d rather not reveal but here goes. I’d like to talk about fandom and ageism. If you are older, you are: Allowed to like things, Allowed to create fan works, Allowed to discuss things with other like minded fans, Allowed to participate. (Mirror Link)

Reblog if Older Fans Are Welcome In Fandom by @cameoamalthea​, For many fandom is a life long passion that starts young, but being a geek isn’t something you have to grow out of and put away. I didn’t start cosplaying until my 20s (I couldn’t have, and probably won’t be financially secure enough to do all the things I want until my 30s). (Mirror Link)

tumblr’s disgust for older people in fandom by @bai-xue​, @awkward-smiley​; [...] I’m young now, but I was scared that I wouldn’t be over fandoms when I got older. I’m sick of it, how about we all just like what we like and not judge people? (Mirror Link)

you are never too old for fandom by @hils79​, [...] You are never too old for fandom and if you think that’s true I pity you when you reach whatever arbitrary age you think is the cutoff point. (Mirror Link)

You are reinforcing a stereotype by @asocialjusticeleague​, @olderthannetfic​, et al; [...] Whenever you question a woman’s right to this space because of her age or parental status, you are reinforcing a stereotype that has effects that reach beyond that one situation. The expectation, for example, that 40 year old men be catered to when writing comics, but that characters of interest to 40 year old women are obsolete or unprofitable. (Mirror Link)

[luffyasksandanswers]

// “hi, I’m not from the US” ask set ALL OF THEM YOU COWARD. ALL OF THEM. YOU REBLOGGED THAT MEME NOW COMMIT. GIVE ME MY STALKER KNOWLEDGE. GIMME. OR MEET ME IN THE PIT.

“hi, i’m not from the us” meme - @fearllacy //Bruh, you curious George xD! But dare is a dare and me not want to the coconut pit D: so here we go!

1. favourite place in your country?

Summer cottage, a place to escape the hectic city life *thumbs up*

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad?

Toss me with a shoe because of my unecological thinking but I do like to see new places and cultures  so whenever there is a chance, I try to travel abroad. 

3. does your country have access to sea?

We are the land of thousand lakes buuut we also have sea around us, a lot in the south! so we can escape to Estonia xD 

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

Praised Karelian Pasty and Kalakukko here! otherwise our food is pretty much either stolen from Sweden or colorless/tasteless xD 

5. favourite song in your native language?

Me revealed some of them hier :>

6. most hated song in your native language?

Spent the yesterday browsing around Youtube xD and results are täällä

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

Wow, this is a thing I’ve never thought about it so this should be something to be asked from my mates because they know better which words I repeat nonstop *laughs*  Hey, how about teaching you fellow buddies a few Finnish words?

- Juoksentelisinkohan?  (=I wonder if I should run around aimlessly?)Never heard anyone say this but I think it’s very amusing word in general xD 

- Lohikäärme = dragon Simply put so but if you write “lohi” and “käärme” separated, you get salmon and snake. In other words the translation could also be salmonsnake,kinda makes sense, kinda doesn’t *laughs*

- Pöpelikkö

= ThicketRarely used word for a forest/growth that is hard to walk through, maybe in spoken language means more like “in middle of nowhere” or at least that’s how I use that word ::D  

Bonus: lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilasThe longest officially approved finnish word monster. In english it would beAeroplaneshowerturbinemotorhelpmechanicnoncommissionedofficerstudent. 

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

I probably told this before but I’m not a bloodline finn, my biological roots are in China (but I’ve spent practically my whole life here so my soul is very suomi perkele saunaan ja torille xD). As imaginable, this causes awkward situations because people get misunderstood or assume things right away but well whoopsies happpen as long as no one makes a number about it, it’s all ok ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?

Revealed #lifegoals här!

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language?

Maybe the most heard sweard word is the finnish version of F-word  [x]Frankly spoken I don’t like or use it because it’s like the C-word and dunno, sounds weird when people love to repeat loudly a word that literally means woman’s genitals :D Nah my favorite swearword is “Perkele” because when you are angry you can feel the power in the R-letter.  But I actually use “Helvetti” (=hell) the most, no idea how it happened but anyway, if it’s not “PERRRKELE” then it’s “EI HELVETTI” *laughs* last time I swear like mad was when I had to assemble a furniture at work xD

11. favourite native writer/poet?

Tove Jansson adoration here :>

12. what do you think about English translations 

I have to admit I’m not familiar with translated literacy D: wait no I lied! I’ve read 2 Moomin books in english but don’t remember paying attention to the translation, only thing that was confusing first was the names in english because there wasn’t any expalanations to the names of the (random) side characters xD

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

We finns love icy waters but we have another tradition that is a dank meme. I mean TORILLE!! which basically means finns rush to the local market places if we win hockey championships or are good in any other sports. I think it’s a global jokebut yeah finns are trash for getting national recognision. Just mention us anywhere outside the borders and transmit that info to Finland and you can hear and see people hyping it like mad and I am not sure if other countries do this too in such extreme ways xD  

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

One thing that makes watching the finnish tv boring is that they literallt recycle the celebrities which means same faces in almost every fame teledrama or shows and practically everywhere you go or channel surf, you’ll see them and then even tabloids need to write nonstop about their slighest moves.  It is good to be ecological but if there is an actor that needs to shove their face everywhere no matter what and they try to keep their fame in every way, it just doesn’t work plus this might be stereotyping but in those “finnish versions” of big shows, finns are somewhat stiff and don’t go like “yeehaw WOHOO \o/” the same way like in the original shows  so it sometimes looks like they try too hard to be like the original or they are just “forced” to be superhyper. 

Another reason I don’t watch much finnish series is that the articulating is bad or then there is something wrong with the audio or it’s just my bad hearing but the actors tend to speak very very quietly so you have to put volume on if you want to hear anything on the telly and then your ears get rekt and wasted because when the commercials (which are louder than the normal speech) comes, the sound is even louder [x] just like when you open your computer and forgot the volume is at maximum and whe Windows start music suddenly appears. 

I bet there are good finnish movies too that are high quality and I personally enjoy the game shows (quiz like thingies) but in general, nah :p 15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?

Another thing outsiders maybe don’t understand but finns love to queue and freebies and an ultimate example is that usually if a new shop opens up, people can start to queue a long before the grand opening. Funniest thing is that free buckets are the most queued thing and why not because they are useful xD

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

Maybe my favorite finnish stereotype is that finns love personal space [x] It is a national joke that if there is a bus stop, finns don’t stand next to each other (well in the capital and big cities maybe) but they have at least 2 meters distance xD 

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

Frankly spoken nah, I mean I liked to hear my grandparents’ stories about the life when they were younger and how my both grandfathers had to see the wars but in general nah, because well we’ve been owned by Swedes and Russians and had a civil war.  

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

I’m originally from the Eastern Finland that has its dialect  and people distinguish it easily. Especially now that I’ve lived outside my hometown during studies and work, people tell that they hear strong dialect although I only use it in the person pronouns *eyes emoji*

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem?

Blue is a nice color so thumbs up for that! Well can’t say I’m a fanatic finn but of course it sounds nice to hear the anthem on telly [x]

20. which sport is The Sport in your country?

Hockey is probably where Finland is the most successful but we also like football (duh, everyone likes) but we suck at that so bye FIFA dreams xD you know about that Phil because I ranted about it last summer XD

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?

SALMIAKKI and that free bucket *laughs* 

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

There are many things very well in Finland, like everyone gets a free basic education and natural disasters such as earthquakes are very rare so it’s quite safe. 

What am I ashamed of? Well frankly spoken we are way too soft on criminals in my opinion so our country should fix the law system so that the criminals would get rougher and longer punishments for rough crimes. 

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

I think beers, wines and long drinks are in now? 

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country?

Sweden! It’s a common joke that we are so jealous of Swedes being better people and succeeding in everything and of course in our jokes swedes are the dummies. I think Scandinavian countries do that about each other like Finland vs Sweden, Iceland vs Denmark and Sweden vs Norway *laughs*

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?

But I am born in another country xD Nah no, I wouldn’t change a thingblue eyes would be cool but finns tend to burn in the sun and I enjoy the summer I’m happy like this :p 26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

The latest news about Finland in American media must’ve been that when Trump misunderstood the forest defense thing and said something like Finns are so diligent they rake their forest floors [x] but the truth is that we don’t because our climate is different. Of course we have forest fires too but they are much much smaller than in California. 

27. favourite national celebrity?

I fangirled Antti holma here, he handsome, he funny, he has a podcast  :> 

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?I think a couple of mountains exsist [x] but more rivers and thousands of lakes! I like the lakes, since I’ve spent most of my summers at our summer cottage near the lake. Actually never been in the north but I’d love to go on a roadtrip someday to see them!

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

We beat Sweden and Russia so no one shall mess with our smol country! :p

Fun fact: There is a guy named Simo Häyhä, a sniper who is said to be killed more than 505 men during the 1939–40 Winter War [x]

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

We have a multicultural family tree, relatives from France, Germany, Sweden, Japan and so on :)! 

[catfishofoldin99colours]

With young justice now on Australian Netflix (and with as many jokes I crack about it not being on American Netflix, I sincerely hope it goes back up really soon), it got me thinking about the list of what I love so much about young justice.

Said list is literally 8 miles long, but I’ll talk about one thing I haven’t seen anyone else mention so far, and one thing I love:

Young Justice never assumes it’s audience needs things dumbed down for them. Despite its PG rating, YJ deals with some pretty heavy stuff - abusive families, political mess-ups, public images and how they can be manipulated, origins of a person versus their intents to do good, morally grey characters who have the right idea and are understandable but ultimately go about it the wrong way, children playing the part of soldiers, heavy crime, orphans and what that experience is like, psychological and physical trauma and the effects of that, to name a few. The issues in it are complex and multi-layered, with sometimes no clear answer, and often having multiple characters take multiple viewpoints.

And I remember when watching it for the first time in early 2016 (sue me I’m late to the party XD), never once did I feel like this was a show created to dumb-down the issues it explored for a younger audience. Granted I was 16 at the time, but my point stands. 

Young Justice explores its issues, its stories, its characters in an amazing amount of depth and respect towards the complicated situations it deals with. Not to say any of the characters are actively pitted to have ‘sad backstories’ for the sake of drama, but what does come up is dealt with in an honest and respectful way that doesn’t sugar-coat the complexities of it.  Things like a dictatorship, public appearances of heroes and villains, political coups and child abuse are looked at, in a respectful way that not only shows the issue but works through it so the story and characters all learn and recover from them. Nothing is left out or glossed over because it’s ‘too mature’ for the audience, rather, its explained in a way that makes the situation understandable, so that the audience will have an idea of what’s going on in the context of the story without necessarily needing to know everything about the real-world context it’s drawn from.

This is something I find incredibly important and beautiful to see, because these days a lot of children-directed shows and films are increasingly simple and ‘dumbed-down’. Not all of them are, there are masterpieces out there that manage to do what YJ does in terms of their own stories. But to me, personally, it seems a certain attitude has happened in terms of what kids ‘are’ and ‘aren’t allowed to understand in their own media - there seems to be this idea that kids are simply too young and innocent to understand things like ‘death’ and ‘politics’ and ‘sexuality’ and what being manipulated is or looks like. ((keep in mind this is in my own personal experience, this isn’t to speak for everyone)). And yes, those are rather weighted issues, with a lot of history and different points to them that require a certain degree of patience and critical analysis to understand properly. But that’s not to say kids can’t understand certain aspects of them.

This idea is bad because it not only underestimates the intelligence of children (and kids are ridiculously smart ok, I’m convinced they’re getting smarter every generation) but also disadvantages them in having a voice about anything intellectual or observational. If you tell a child they can’t possibly know something they’re trying to tell you they know because they’re ‘too young’, you set them up to think they’re faking it the whole time, and encouraging them to stay quiet and silent about matters which might be important to them. This could have really damaging effects if a child experiences something like abuse or manipulation, and they know it’s wrong and feels wrong - but because a trusted adult thinks they’re too young to really know what it is, they can be discouraged from talking about it, which helps silence their voice and can make them an easier target for potential predators.

This is why I adore YJ so much - it NEVER glosses over the effects of something, and perhaps those effects are made even more powerful by the fact that the entire main cast is, predominantly, children themselves. There’s something very powerful about seeing kids, super-powered as they may be, deal with issues that ultimately affect everyone, and written to do so in a way that’s respectful of their situations and experiences, in a way that gives children a voice to their thoughts if they feel they have been affected by these things too. 

Take the episodes ‘Failsafe’ and ‘Disordered’ (episodes 16-17 in s1). The entire team is placed into an ‘all-or-nothing’ scenario, where the choices are a retreat and let the world get taken over, or die trying to save it. The situation is ripped out of control by M’gann, plunging them all into a seemingly endless spiral of destruction and death - and they’re all ranging in age from 13-17 at this point. Things go wrong, and nearly everyone dies, till J’onn stops M’gann from her fear-induced nightmare spiral, and understandably, she’s heartbroken that she’s done this. This episode, while terrifyingly sad and depressing, is good because it looks at the issue of the ‘child soldiers’ that the team essentially is, and the lengths they are expected to go to to protect the earth should the Justice League fail. While not explicitly done so, it raises questions about the ethics of the team’s situation and also questions about how they see themselves within the context of their roles - as well as the question of ‘what happens if they’re just not enough?’

The entire next episode is devoted to them dealing with the trauma of that experience. We see different sides come out in all of them - Artemis’s stoic refusal to admit she may need help, even if she acknowledges that that simple fact isn’t weakness, revealing a fierce desperation to prove herself; Wally’s attempt to just brush it all off and ignore what pain may be happening, which reveals a certain level of insecurity about his pain; M’gann’s absolute terror at herself and foreshadowing of her self-hatred and desperation to hide her true self from everyone (’canary: you’ve... gone white! / m’gann: what?! ...oh, you meant caucasian...’); kaldur’s deep concern about his own actions in the heat of battle, which brings up questons of whether he’s the right choice to lead the team simply because he’s the oldest, which in turn brings up major concerns about anyone else being the leader, especially dick being so young; conner’s realisation about his purpose as a clone and the threats to everything this brings, not to mention the fact he comes to terms with his emotions about this and seeks professional help; dick’s stark horror at realising just how ruthless batman, his father-figure, saviour and mentor, can be, and the fact that he’ll be expected to follow those footsteps.

This is all in TWO EPISODES. Granted, these episodes are heavier than most, but that’s not to say any episode is ever pointless fluff. Every single episode of YJ is like this to some extent, and deals with similar issues in exactly the same respectful and fully-articulated way.

If nothing else, Young Justice proved to me that kid’s shows can be complex and deal with the same issues that adults face, with the same amount of respect and attention - all while still ultimately being hopeful, and focused on the beauty of teamwork and friendship and working together, and more than anything, being honest and trusting each other.

TLRD; Young Justice is an amazingly complex show that never ever feels the need to make its content ‘dumber’ so its audience can understand it because it knows they can, and works to help them understand more.