#this is also for myself

[spectroscopes]

Some final thoughts on what happened in 9-1-1 fandom recently because I’m not sure if this has been discussed but I think when the initial accusations against pururing were made the assumption on the part of the people making them was that pururing was a white American. I saw some comments about how the alleged whitewashing was a product of “them” (as in, presumably, racist white fans) not seeing Jee-Yun as human, which of course makes no sense when referring to a Korean character if you know the art in question was drawn by a Korean person.

I think this is really disturbing because it speaks not just to how many people didn’t take the time to look into the allegations once they were made, but that the people making them hadn’t even done their due diligence by looking at pururing’s blog, considering the unusual syntax used in their posts and their request for clarification when the complaint was put to them, the fact that some of the art actually had Korean Hangul on it, and other factors and realised in all likelihood this was not a white person maliciously erasing Jee-Yun’s racial identity but someone from another country and culture who was attempting to express genuine love for these characters. Then once informed of the artist’s nationality, because people were too proud to admit they overstepped, then came all the strange statements and generalisations about Korea and Koreans in order to justify the original accusatory tone and failure to approach pururing in good faith.

9-1-1 is an American network show so I suppose there is less of an expectation of contact with fans from outside the West than there would be in a fandom based on a manga, c-drama, kpop group, or other international media. That said, as @aeraspais pointed out, American media is exported globally and it is not remotely unusual for popular shows and movies to attract fans from all over the world. So ironically (or maybe it’s to be expected) the Americans and Europeans leading the charge on this turned out to be the ones who were not able to see past the borders of their own experience and to recognise the full humanity and cultural identity of someone who is not from the West, and who ultimately spoke of her attraction to Western media as an extension of her enjoyment of cultures outside of her own. In a sense I suppose the accusation that pururing did not see Jee-Yun as fully human was entirely an act of projection that many of the people involved will probably never recognise, and maybe reflects a certain amount of neurosis about Maddie’s whiteness within her ethnically blended family from her white fans.

Anyway, I guess what I wanted to say is that you cannot assume everyone in fandom is either American, Canadian, British, or maybe Australian (all functionally varieties of “American lite” in these conversations) just as you should not assume that everyone in fandom is white regardless of their nationality. Context clues are important, open mindedness is important, approaching people as individuals rather than ideas is important. And if you find yourself saying things implying that the culture of the country you grew up in is more racially enlightened or socially progressive than one you don’t have any personal contact with, it’s time to step back and ask yourself if you’re the one being narrow-minded and in need of a perspective adjustment.

[flogisto]

big fan of stories that, while undoubtedly being about the power of friendship, acknowledge that the power of incredible violence is just as important

the love was there. the love changed everything. the crowbar helped also

[feefal]

Scoliosis gang rise up..!

[corrodedparadox]

We need more walkable cities. I am so tired of my transportation turning to aquatic life. It’s so inconvenient.

Prints

[bookwyrminspiration]

I can behave normally around books

[redstonedust]

i'm not "undiagnosed" i'm largely headcanoned as neurodivergent but with no confirmation in canon. i hear a showrunner said something at a panel last year but it hasnt been leaked on youtube yet.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i had a thought of "do people not know what AUs are anymore?" and then i remembered nobody explains fandom stuff to new people anymore so it is entirely plausible people genuinely don't know what AUs are and nobody has explained it to them, so for today's lucky 10,000:

"AU" stands for "Alternate Universe" or "Alternative Universe" (same difference) and is basically any thought scenario for a fandom that isn't canon and can't fit within the canon universe. If it takes place in the canon universe but something is notably different, that is typically what's known as a "Canon divergent AU," because it diverges from canon.

an AU can be absolutely anything. There's a couple of widespread pan-fandom au scenarios that often get thrown around, like coffee shop aus, genderbend aus, hanahaki aus (hanahaki is a whole thing in itself i'd recommend researching on your own), etc. One you might hear sometimes is "crossover AU" which is when you have characters from one fandom interacting with characters from another.

You can have as many aus as you want. They can be whatever you want and you can do whatever you want in them. It's a sandbox for you to play around in and explore how things would be different or how the characters would act in those circumstances or environments. Maybe they have different relationships with each other. Maybe they behave slightly differently. Or you can just say "Okay, [x] is true. How did they get here? How would things have to be different for this to occur?" which can also be fun.

If you are ever confused about why people ship something that seems completely out of the blue or doesn't make sense to you in the canon setting, there's a good chance they like it in an AU setting! Not everything everybody is interacting with is necessarily the canon! Not everybody wants things to exist in canon and just want to explore playing dolls in a different sandbox and that's okay. And their sandbox might look a lot different than yours, and that's also okay. You have the freedom to make your sandbox whatever you please. Do whatever you want forever. Get funky with it. AUs are fun.

Okay that's my schpeal. everybody go have fun and play nice now.

[spitblaze]

[guy who doesnt watch shows voice] yeah ive been meaning to watch that show

[icewindandboringhorror]

(also feel free in the tags to clarify Why you made the choice you made!! :0c)

[vendetta06]

the world is getting so ugly and bleak and it’s hard not to feel so hopeless. but we have to remember that they want us to feel that way.

it reminds me of this quote by dan savage - “During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night, and it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for.”

joy is resistance. it’s really scary times but we are all in this together.

[bogkeep]

ok so i think that my favourite fantasy subgenre is The Inherent Tragedy Of Being Born Into Royalty. which mostly means that i like to read about gay princes but with some nuance

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

You're just not toxic enough.

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

Please note. The orange one is not included because A. He isn’t a billionaire. And B. Calling him obnoxious is too kind for him.