#when it comes to art nothing should be censored

[paganinpurple]

AO3 Etiquette -UPDATED

Based on both decent and not so decent replies, I have made some changes to my original post below.

It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:

As well as likes, kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished it, you liked it - so kudos.

If you really liked it, you should try to comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don't care, we just love comments.

No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it (so use your notes to say if you want some constructive feedback). Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it's okay. No, posting it online is not an open invitation for that. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity and just want to share. Don't ruin that for them. I've seen so many authors just stop writing coz they can't handle the negative emotions the critism brings, and it's only meant to be a fun thing shared for free (pointing out tagging errors is not included in this).

Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It's tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.

There is no algorithm, it's an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.

For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don't care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.

The tag exception is if you don't want to tag a million things or spoil your story, you can rate it as "chose not to use warnings," and maybe tag the bare minimum.

Don't censor tags. How can someone exclude a tag if the word isn't typed out correctly? There are no content bans for terms so don't censor them.

If the tags are mostly content/trigger warnings, especially if they are things considered very fucked up or graphic, you might want to use "dead dove - do not eat" to ensure people know that you're not messing around with tags and what they get is exactly what you've warned them about.

Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLATONIC, like friendship or family.

Nothing is banned. This is an rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.

People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they "complete" a story. So it's considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.

Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite or an exchange youve written for going public). It's an archive, not social media. No one cares what's the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.

Instead of deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - consider making it anonymous or orphaning it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to your name anymore. If you still want to delete it, fair enough.

It's come to my attention that metaworks ARE allowed on AO3, which is something I wasn't aware of. So if you do post an essay or theory, please tag it as such so others can choose to search for it or exclude it. Art is also allowed.

The only reason this archive works is because NON ONE PROFITS. Do not link to your ko-fi or patreon or mention monetary gain in any way or you violate the terms and risk having your account removed. If anyone does link, it leaves the archive open to people claiming it's for profit and having the whole thing removed.

I KNOW there's plenty more I missed but I'm trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.

I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don't berate.

[rweoutofthewoods]

fanfic/fandom ettiquite guide

Okay, I've seen some things recently that make me think there is some need to make a master post of some general fandom and fic ettiquite just because some people may not know and I think there's a huge wave of fanfic becoming more mainstream especially on apps like tiktok.

If you don't like it, don't engage with it!! I think this above all, is the golden rule of fandom. The internet is made for you to be able to mute, hide, and censor things you don't like. DO THAT! don't make a career off of hating things. This goes along with the three laws of fandom, which u should check out FIRST OF ALL.

DON'T GATEKEEP!! If you're posting about a fic, art, ANYTHING link it, credit it! Don't post a tiktok about a fic and then refuse to give the name. Not only are you failing to credit the creators of this content, but you're taking away from the fact that fandom is a COMMUNITY where content is meant for everyone.

Ao3 is an archive. You're going to see things you might not like or even find offensive or uncomfortable. But fanfic is not meant to be censored. Ao3 is made to be unfiltered, people can post anything and everything. Posting fics on other sites simply to shame their content not only brings MORE attention to it, but it's pointless. If you want a website that is censored go to wattpad. And of course, if you don't like it DON'T READ. You can filter your tags and warnings on ao3 so it won't show you that content.

Along those lines LEARN HOW TO USE AO3. There is no algorithm, it is not tiktok. You don't need to censor words in your tags. Your fics are not magically getting pushed out to people. Make sure you're using "person 1/person 2" for romantic relationships and "person 1 & person 2" for non-romantic relationships. Make sure things like non-con and underage are tagged under the warnings. AND AS A READER, know how to filter ships and tags to find the content you want. You can filter by kudos, certain tags, exclude certain relationships or characters etc. USE IT.

Do not create placeholder fics or other "non fics" on ao3. This is against their terms of service. You can (and probably will) be reported, this annoys people endlessly. We don't want to find a fic and open it to see "I haven't written this yet, sorry!" JUST SAVE A DRAFT OR DO IT IN A DOCUMENT? this seems like way to rack up hits, and it comes across as disingenuous, I don't see a real valid reason to make placeholders.

HOW TO WRITE AN ACCEPTABLE COMMENT: long is not important. A simple "loved this!" will make an author happy. DO NOT say any variation of "update pls?" regardless of how nice you think it is. Authors update when they can.I'm not the only author I've seen unhappy with this. JUST WAIT, either it will be updated or it won't, and either way you will live. If you have nothing nice to say about a fic?? MOVE ON. Don't leave a hate comment.

Do not rate or publicly shit on fanfic! A lot of authors know many people, and the chances of that author seeing whatever you're saying about their work is very high. If you don't like it, click off and read something else. If it's still living rent-free in your mind, that sounds like fan behavior to me. And there is no standard fics are supposed to meet, don't rate them.

Don't cross-post fics. Don't put fics on other sites, don't put translation on other sites. DON'T DO ANYTHING with a fic without checking with the author first. On that note, also don't post fics on GoodReads etc. unless an author explicitly says it's okay.

IF YOU DO NOT MARK YOUR BOOKMARKS AS PRIVATE AUTHORS CAN SEE THEM!! If you're going to say anything that isn't positive, you better mark that as private or better yet, move on. Don't say anything on a public bookmark you wouldn't want the author to read.

YOU CANNOT PROFIT OFF OF FANFIC, don't sell bound fics! Don't bind fics if the intention is to sell them. You're potentially creating a lawsuit for the authors of these fics and putting the existence of fanfic in danger. I've seen multiple authors debating taking fics down because of binding issues, just don't do it. AND IF YOU'RE BUYING BOUND FICS YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. it's selfish and I wish bad karma upon you.

You wouldn't think I'd have to say this but don't plagiarize or use AI to create fics/art etc. firstly making ai write something IS a form of plagiarism. bUT ALSO just write your own content. If you can't, then writing fics etc. is just not for you. No shame about it!

DON'T ASK AUTHORS TO BETA FOR YOU!! You wouldn't believe how many people have asked me to beta their fics for them, I AM NOT A BETA. I HAVE a beta because my proofreading skills are shit. If someone wants to beta they will offer, or go find a blog or somewhere where people are looking to beta. Like @needabeta You can even make a post asking around for a beta, but don't go bug your favorite authors to proofread your fics.

Really just don't harass authors. Of course, don't be afraid to send nice dms, asks, or comments if their inbox is open, but don't spam them especially if they don't reply. Respect boundaries! Don't send nasty anons, everyone knows this is a sign of jealousy and obsession. You're only succeeding in making yourself look bad. Ask yourself why is this author living rent-free in your mind, hm??

If you don't like a ship, stay away from the content geared towards that ship. There's no reason for you to be in people's inbox harassing them over a ship. It's never that deep. If you truly hate it so much, go consume the content for ships you DO like.

Stay grounded. This goes to both fic authors and readers alike. Hits and popularity are not the mark of a good fic. Getting a lot of hits doesn't mean it's good and NOT getting many doesn't mean it's bad. I'm tired of seeing tiktoks asking "so what's the next big fic?" WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE A "BIG FIC"? go look through the ao3 tag and find something you like to read, it doesn't have to be what everyone else is reading.

Headcanons are not law. People can think whatever they want about the characters. If you disagree with someone's hc, just move on... and just because a headcanon is popular, doesn't mean everyone has to abide by it. Be creative!

Don't treat artists and authors like celebs! We're all in this together! We're all losers who like the same characters and ships. Of course, compliment and be kind to all creators because we put a lot of time and effort into creating fan content for you all, but don't worship anyone. Don't treat them weirdly or make a post like "omg x followed me!" that's a bit weird. If you want to be excited, dm your friends and giggle together, but acting like authors and artists etc. are celebs only creates the room for people to stop seeing them as normal people and start acting rude or entitled. And many people are uncomfortable with it!!

TLDR; stop creating so much negativity in fandom spaces. At least in MY fandom it's just constantly shitting on ships, fics, art. It's hate anons, antis, and constant fighting about every headcanon. I'M TIRED OF IT! Learn to filter out content you don't want to see, and move on with your life instead of spreading more negativity.

If you have anything you think I should add shoot me a comment or an ask and I will add it! I'm sure I didn't get everything :) this mostly applies to my own experience being in the hp/marauders fandom for a good 10+ years, and I'm sure it varies slightly from fandom to fandom.

[outkast777]

Right as i logged out of my account sum random ass account posted a doc abt me and my friend cuz they r mad at me for being mean to them and “abelist” and we already had this convo and it went litteraly NO WHERE so they think i was trying to call them out for having a fp (i just stated shi also talks about something over and over again) (nothing directed negativly until shi took it negitively) yes i dont like thise people because after sometime i started to have different opinions about them as any human can. I did get very petty which was not the best idea and the whole misgenering thing was not on purpose and i told hir that so many times because i was typing fast and its one letter and i alwasy use autocorrect so its obviously gonna correct and the ss were taken within the MILISECOND after i sent them and after i edited them so i dont really know what 2 tell ya. I dont have any control over my other friends actions (there name was censored out) (bro my cd its so scratch its jsut stopped playing) i am so sick of them people acting like i and the one sending the things she says shes her own person with her own phone she can text on the whole “NPD” thing was alot of heat of the moment shit that started cuz some one got mad at me for answering when someone said “if you have somthing to say about me say it to my face” and i did cuz tf and then its escalated into things that i definitely should have not said and i do take credit for that and im sorry if any of those were hurt by it. Dragging on this long ass paragraph onto tumblr is the most tiring thing jsut as i thought everyone was done and things were being talked about but take it or leave it i am done

Ive been done for long before this so no i will not be comeing back to this account again outkast is over and has been over no i do not like creepypasta anymore i just want to clarify non of whats above is why i just dont like creepypasta quits. Lawd ive realized over the past month that ss stuff and thrn sending it to tumblr is a wack and bad way of getting people to understand cuz they were simply not there so i will be taking off all the drama included stuff off my page for people who want to still come here for my art. “Outkast is a bad person who hate people specificly with personality disorders and specificly cluster b disorders” is such an annyoing claim and is a big one 2 because i dont?? Just becuase you have it and we havnt been on great terms dosent mean i hate you cuz of that i could litteraly care less and ive told them that multiple times but ik they dont care atp. Soooooo bye i dont know much more to say. Making me type out this long ass paragrah ohh em ge

Also the person taking about getting mad at us for talking about tomb all the time ALSO talkes about tomb all the time but gets mad at us for doing it ehat do you want from me bru

Im very bad at spelling

[prodigal-explorer]

i dont exactly consider myself a pro-shipper but i am VERY anti-censorship. i hate all censorship. absolutely nothing in media should be censored whatsoever, the only exception being media that is marketed towards children because it should be up to parents/guardians/trusted adults to decide what media children are ready to consume.

but when it comes to adults? hell no.

“but but but it’s a problematic ship!!! 🥺”

there are problematic romances in real life. there are abusive relationships and sexual assaults in real life. we cope with these things by reading and writing about them and realizing that we are not alone, we are not crazy, we are going through something real. media is meant to connect people, and with the influx of social media, people don’t connect with each other anymore and censoring stories about sensitive topics purely because they’re problematic is severing that connection even more.

“but but but it’s pedophilia! 🥺”

i am a victim of pedophilia. i know many people who are also victims. again, if we don’t tell these stories, then there will be kids who have nothing to connect to who think that what they’re going through is normal or that it’s something only they will understand. it doesn’t normalize anything. if you read about pedophilia and your first thought is “okay great, now i can be a pedo because i read about pedophilia!” then it’s not the story or the author’s fault. it’s the pedo’s fault because they’ve always been a pedo. they were just looking for something to twist into justifying their actions.

and also the example i just described is something that absolutely NEVER happens. it’s something that antis made up so they could spread their censorship bullshit.

we should read stuff we disagree with. we should read stuff that is disgusting and messy and horrible if we want to. because those are all stories about the human experience. and if we censor one thing, what’s to stop people from censoring everything?

do you antis know about the wales padlock act? in america in the 1920’s until i believe the 50’s or 60’s, there was a LAW that stated that people could be ARRESTED if the media they created had any form of “obscenity” in it including nudity, pedophilia, and oh, you know what else? homosexuality. transgender characters. in fact, a play called god of vengeance by sholem asch was forcibly closed down and all actors and producers were arrested for “obscenity” because it described a beautiful and loving homosexual relationship between two young women.

do you see now? do you get why censorship sucks? you can’t just have some censorship. anybody can view anything as obscenity. bigots will turn ANYTHING into obscenity and lump it in with all the “problematic” stuff y’all want to censor. lgbtq+, interracial romance, etc. it could all be lumped in there and censored too.

i would rather have a few stories in the world that i disagree with or a few stories that make me uncomfortable than absolutely no stories that depict the human experience in a raw, unfiltered, uncensored way because when you censor art, it immediately severs all human connection that could have been formed from it.

so yeah. antis get the fuck off my page unless you want to change. i hate you and all the censorship bullshit you stand for.

[yandere-paramour]

Atalanta Headcanons Part 2

As soon as she sees her Darling, she kidnaps them immediately and Darling wakes up in the penthouse after being drugged and transported. Atalanta will happily and readily explain things to Darling, but she will not consider that there is anything wrong with what she’s doing. Darling is hers so why is this wrong? If you and her are meant to be, and you are, you should be with her as soon as possible and no amount of fussing will dissuade her.

Contrary to most Yandere’s, Atalanta hates being bored and understands that her Darling needs entertainment. During the period when Darling is not permitted outside, she will give Darling a specifically tailored laptop that allows Internet but censors anything upsetting and does not allow Darling to call for help or alert the authorities. Darling is also allowed to watch tv, study, read, or do whatever they like as long as it is safe and inside the penthouse.

Atalanta loves hearing what Darling is interested in and will happily engage with whatever it is whenever she has time, even if she is bad at it (Atalanta is not good at video games and also quite bad at visual art). She will always try no matter how bad she is.

Atalanta does not enjoy having to punish her Darling, but she will if it is necessary. She favors soft punishments to hard ones, and she always tries to step away and reflect before she punishes. She doesn’t want to react in anger. She will never starve Darling or leave marks on them. She cares very much for their health and wellbeing.

Atalanta has two main punishments that she uses for her Darling: “Reflection Time” and Spankings. On the lower floor of her apartment is a completely bare room with carpet and grey walls, no window, and nothing but a cot with a blanket. This is the Reflection room where Darling is left there to think about what they’ve done. For small infractions, Darling will be in there for an hour or two, but if they deserve it, Atalanta will keep them in there for an entire eight-hour workday. She will have lunch brought in for you, don’t worry. If you’ve done something really wrong, she’ll take you out to sleep and put you right back in there the next day.

Atalanta is 5’10 and strong so she has no trouble pulling her Darling over her knee for a spanking. She will not spank when she is mad as she doesn’t want to truly hunt you; she only wants to give you a deserved punishment. She does spank bare-bottomed but she won’t make Darling count them out or thank her for them. She has a heavy hand, but spanking is only reserved for the most serious of infractions, such as running away or causing trouble in public.

One thing she absolutely will not budge on is a hug and kiss every time she comes home from work. She works hard and thinks she deserves some affection from a loving partner at the end of the day.

She is strictly a lesbian. No attraction to men whatsoever. She made that very clear to her parents when she was young and almost dared them not to accept her. She was afraid they wouldn’t but kept a brave face and everything turned out okay; they were totally find with it. She despises bigotry and won’t allow it in the company. She isn’t the complete leader (that's her Mommy) but she is the second in line so she has a lot of sway in who the company supports and what charities they donate to, and she publicly denounces prejudice and intolerance.

[creation-help]

Miscellaneous character design tips (that everyone could find useful)

- Feathers in hair, behind the ear, on the head, in some headress ect? Just don't. Unless you're indigenous I strongly, strongly advise against it, bc native people have criticized this design trope time and time again. Accessories and clothing like this can be very difficult to get right if you don't know what you're doing.

• Also! W*ndigos. Don't. If you wanna design a character that "looks like" (or is what you imagine when you think of a) W*ndigo, just. Design a character that looks like that and call it some other monster (Disclaimer: I'm mainly talking about things like those skull headed monsters with antlers ykno). These creatures have alot of deep meaning to the cultures they're from, and people are tired of them being appropriated and misrepresented. It will cost you nothing to just make a generic monster rather than butcher something from a marginalized culture. (Also, I've censored the word because in the past I've been told that using it's name is bad luck/harmful, so I'm doing this to be respectful)

(Natives/indigenous people are welcome to add on discussion about this if you feel like there's anything I could've said differently)

- Unless your character design is meant to be flexible, up to artist interpretation, or just messy, place patterns and decorative characteristics on distinct, memorable places. For example if your character has spots, put the most notable ones on places that're easy to remember and replicate, like on particular body parts. I'd also advise to make just a bit less of these patterns. Generally, if you're not aiming for a cluttered looking design, prioritize quality over quantity, when it comes to patterns.

- A character design's intent is just as important as the actual character design. You'll see me mentioning this on the previous point as well. Unless we're talking about offensive caricatures, there's teeechnically no such thing as a "bad" character design. Just rather a failed or unsuccessful one. What I mean by that, is that if your design is meant to look cliche, tacky, messy, or just plain unappealing, and it looks like such, that is a successful design! If you designed a character just to be something fun for you to draw, that's a successful design! I often see this point applied more professionally by other art advisors, to mean more like "You should be able to tell what kind of character it is based on the design", which is also true! But intent and purpose matters in storytelling. Obviously, not all aspects of a design need to be there for some very specific reason (looking at the people who ask "Why was this character made fat/gnc/black/poc?" and so on.) just keep in mind what this character is supposed to be. I think it's better to worry about if the character design does what it's supposed to, rather than if it's ""Good""

(And yeah, there are still things that just objectively don't look very good together, according to human perspective and color theory and whatnot, but again, if you're aiming for that, you go buddy!)

- Sorta coinciding with the previous point: Don't be afraid to use "ugly" traits when designing. I think the reason why is obvious (beauty standards can go suck a dick), but there's more to it than just radical acceptance! By giving more unique, weird, or "ugly" traits to your characters, you make them more memorable and distinct from one another. If there's a billion smooth faced perfect pretty characters who are the exact same kind of flavorless vanilla sexy, it gets boring, and they blend together! And please don't limit these traits to just villains or characters who are supposed to be disliked!! My other advice on this point, is, pllllease don't design villains "ugly" and heroes "pretty", I feel like that should be a given, but alot of people may be doing it without even realizing. And that's understandable, but I heartily recommend taking a second to think about it more deeply. Why is this visual trait "Bad", or "Evil"? I just feel like so many artists are deathly afraid of having their characters look the least bit unappealing or challenging. I could go on about this but I'll stop here to keep it concise. Don't beauty police your oc is all I'm sayin

- Reference! I don't necessarily mean take inspiration from other existing character designs, although that can also be helpful. I mean that look around you, think broadly! If you have a certain theme for your design, try to round up all the little things (items, concepts, colors, animals, traits) that could be associated with it! And try to reflect that in your character design. You can get a little wacky and experimental. You can literally just broaden your inspiration to things like everyday objects, a specific fabric texture, an element, or a fungi that lives in moldy houses. Anything! My main point is to try to think outside the box and consider more unconventional things to reference for your character design, you'll never know what might work and look really interesting. Often, a bland design is worse than a weird one. (Disclaimer: Unless you're aiming for bland ofc, per my prev points, but ykno). You can also just go by "Hmm, I'm making a character who is X, what does that remind me of?" or, what I also recommend "Hmm, so X kinds of characters remind me of these things. Let's ditch that and think what one usually wouldn't associate with X kinds of characters!". Ykno, defy convention, think about things you might not usually do. I know it can be easier said than done but once you get into a habit of trying to think more broadly, it'll come to you easier. Don't be afraid to get odd and unusual

- While I don't condemn designing a character in a way that just, is that way, because you designed it like that, I also recommend thinking about how and why the character is like that in-story. Might seem like an obvious tip, but I'll elaborate. I for example, have a pair of bug demon characters who grew up on the streets and didn't have the normal amount of nourishment for their age, so, due to that their mouth pincers and other buggy parts were left much smaller and more "plain" looking than others of their species. They never developed to their appropriate adult size. Things like this will reflect on a character design! And that's just one example. If your character has a habit of nervous picking, or sensory problems, or live in an area where certain resources for clothing aren't available, all of this will reflect on the design! Of course, you can also work backwards from a design and think "Hmm, what justification will I think of for the character having these traits (especially if they're uncommon for their story setting)?"

I may do a part 2 sometime later, I just had some thoughts I wanted to compile for now! Obviously you can have your own design principles but these are ones I consistently use (also the first one being as specific as it is, is just something I particularly wanted to say).

[girlcalledwhatsername]

People pretending to be against censorship of dark materials but still unwilling to actually leave fiction that makes them uncomfortable alone will really enter discussions of censorship to say "noo I totally understand the difference between dark stuff being depicted (Actual Highbrow Art That Deserves To Be Saved) and icky pornographic romanticisation of bad things that people get off to (Morally Corrupt Non-Art That Should Be Destroyed Or At Least Harassed Off The Platforms) and obviously I'm a progressive person who doesn't want to censor the former!!"

like clearly you've first missed the whole point that exploring dark themes doesn't have to be a moral lesson for it to be "allowed" and fantasies ≠ reality, secondly you have decided to become the arbitrator of what depiction is good and what is pornographic ie what depiction is pleasing in a righteous way (tragic) vs in a corrupt way (sexual - which is always corrupt no of course this has nothing to do with my religious upbringing why do you ask) which has an understanding of "harm" not really grounded in reality because it sees fantasies when they are sexual as being harmful for real (so I already know these are people who are progressive only in name but will hate me for my lived reality of being 1. Kinky and 2. Mentally ill with intrusive thoughts), thirdly you've missed the whole point of anti censorship which is that it doesn't matter whether you find something uncomfortable it still has the right to exist, and fourthly this attitude somehow only comes out with sexual stuff bc none of these people are going after dark romanticism when it has cannibalism and the cannibals have a twisted sexual romance with each other or when it's a murderer or a vampire who also has a love story no no this is reserved for "dark sexual themes" because how dare anyone wish to explore that in any way that's not purely clinical, doesn't matter if you're a victim exploring this stuff to cope you're a victim in the wrong way go be sad and submissive instead.

Tldr: "I'm not like the other conservatives I actually know that art shouldn't be destroyed except when it's sexual because then it's meaningless and not art" actually you're exactly like the other conservatives

[caelumsnuff]

Oh boy, aren't you just tired of those damn opinions in your fandom?

If you would like to stop seeing my opinions and those of others who don't think exactly like you, i have a great little tool to tell you about called "Blocking."

By blocking me or anyone else who posts opinions that oppose your own, you no longer have to see our posts and we are incapable of interacting with your blog via likes, reblogs, replies, messages, or asks (unless we operate on side blogs, that is). Unfortunately, blocking someone on tumblr never will prevent them from seeing your posts, so you will just have to live with that fact. (Telling other people to block you does nothing positive for you!)

Here, i'll teach you how using myself as an example;

Blocking on your main blog vs your side blog are two different tasks, but ill explain both.

If you are on your main blog, you will need to click on the blog of the person you are wanting to block. It should look something like this.

You're going to want to click on that small button with three horizontal dots, which will open a drop down menu that looks like this:

Just click the bright red block button at the bottom, confirm your choice, and you can peacefully go about your life.

Blocking someone from interacting with a side blog is slightly more complicated. You're going to need to be on a desktop to follow this tutorial.

On the left hand side of the screen, you should see a bunch of options like this

You're going to want to click the drop down menu for "Account".

It's going to look like this. Click on whatever side blog you wish to block this blog for.

There will be a menu on the right hand side of the screen like so. You are going to want to click the "Blog settings" button at the bottom of the menu.

From here, you are going to scroll all the way down to the bottom of your blog setting. You'll see a bunch of stuff, ignore them, they're irrelevant to blocking. You will want to click the pencil button beside the pixelated pfps of blogs you have blocked.

From here the list of blogs you have blocked will drop down and open like so

You'll want to type the name of the blog you wish to block in the box at the top, like this.

Simply click the block button

and ✨VOILA ✨! Blocked!

Now you never have to see those pesty Different Opinions™ ever again! Though it may be a good idea to remember the usernames of the people you block for this reason, in case in the future you mature enough to be capable of civil, critical discussion with people who don't agree with you. Or don't! That's no skin off either of our backs :)

This tool is also quite helpful when someone posts art, fanfics, head canons, or whatever else you may not like. In fact, it is encouraged that you use the block button instead of harassing others, making call out posts, defaming others, or letting something that frustrates you linger in your head!

You should always use the block button when you see something that is triggering to you or puts you in distress. This alongside using the filtering system that tumblr has can keep you much safer. You can do your own part to help others by remembering to never censor words you use on tumblr.com and instead typing the entire word with no euphemisms. This will prevent your post from winding up on the dash/search for someone who has those subjects/words/tags filtered out.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, and godspeed.

[earthsickwithoutyou]

children...please.

(Miller's Girl spoilers) This is one of, if not the stupidest 'controversy' around a film ever. I only wish there had been a "graphic" or "X-rated" sex scene in this movie, but there ISN'T. There is no nudity and everything is implied. The "graphic" aspect comes entirely from the story being read by Cairo and Jonathan over a subtle and brief fantasy scene. The language is graphically sexual --and hot af -- but the acts described are not fully depicted on screen. Jonathan masturbates while reading the story, which is also suggested and not graphically depicted. What movie are these people talking about, exactly? Where can i see this cut of Miller's Girl which has so scandalized them? 👀 Because it's sure not the one that was released! I feel like these viewers do not know what a sex scene is. Or what a graphic depiction of sex looks like onscreen. As a starter pack, I recommend Lust, Caution, Nymphomaniac, Basic Instinct, 9 1/2 Weeks, Boogie Nights, The Dreamers, Blue is the Warmest Color. An inappropriate power dynamic and a large age gap between two consenting, 18+ fictional characters do not remotely call for this amount of "outrage." It genuinely gives "the children are taking over the internet" crossed with "this must be the Twilight Zone." I abhor this level of censorship-happy Puritanism over a movie which should be viewed for its artistry and story-telling. The "scandal" starts here, where we have viewers insisting that we must get rid of age gap relationships in movies so they don't have to be offended by content which they could easily avoid. But it could easily extend to cover all manner of content which is part of the human experience, whether positive, negative, or in between. And soon enough, going by these "rules," movies would not be able to show sex at all, which is a natural path to movies not existing whatsoever, since the puritans would be left with 'kisses on hands" and "a shot of her ankle" to clutch their pearls over. After that, they'd keep censoring until there was nothing left. Is that what we want for cinema and for art in general? Are we just going to ignore the nightmare stories history tells us about what censorship does to culture? When was the last time we saw this kind of reaction to, say, depiction of war violence in a movie? Yeah, that's what i thought.

[celluloidbroomcloset]

This is more general fic related, but I am curious what your take on it might be. I've enjoyed your thoughts on fanworks and this particular bugbear has been gnawing at me for years.

There's a trend in some fandoms to take a (usually) mlm relationship, both canon and fanon, and turn one party into a cisgender woman. A genderswap AU where both characters are cisgender women (or men, though I have yet to see this specific occurrence with wlw ships) or one comes out as trans are not the same thing as what I mean here. It would specifically be a cisgender woman, thereby turning a queer relationship cishet.

It was popular in the Gotham tv series fandom to turn the canonically queer Oswald Cobblepot into a straight woman and then ship her with Oswald's canon love interest, Edward Nygma*. It was also always Oswald who got this treatment, never Edward. To me, this reads as "straightwashing" a queer relationship to make it more palatable, as though they enjoy the canon dynamic but dislike the fact that it is queer. So they turn one half of the pair into a woman.

So at the end of all that explanation my question is, what do you think of this occurrence? Am I wrong in thinking it happens because someone doesn't like the queerness of some ships?

Also, I am glad to say that I have yet to see this turn up in OFMD fanworks. There are plenty of genderswaps and trans headcanons, which I welcome gladly, but thankfully I have not seen Stede as a cishet woman and Ed as her equally cishet boyfriend...yet.

*Oswald/Edward is canon, though it was only confirmed as romantic on Oswald's part, making him at least canonically queer. Edward's sexuality and the nature of his feelings for Oswald were left open to interpretation.

So I haven't seen this particular thing in action, as my fandoms are generally relegated to OFMD, The Avengers (UK) (very cis het but quite kinky couples), and a bit of Good Omens. So I'm taking this as it's offered and assuming that what is being described here is accurate.

Fandom, and especially shipping fandom, trends female and cisgender (and white, but that doesn't seem to be the thing at issue here). This varies from fandom to fandom, of course, but that's a general trend. It's often hard to really get down to demographics on who ships what and how, in part because a lot of fandom is anonymous and based on people deciding to disclose gender/race/sexuality/etc.

What is being described above does read to me like straightwashing a gay couple/ship to an author's preferences, for whatever reason. This could just be personal desires or interest in dynamics, but it does have the effect of taking a semi-canon queer couple and turning them cishet for the sake of...something. Hard not to see something at least a little problematic going on there.

I think that there may be a bit of self-insert going on, as well, and this is where we get into that problem of cis women placing themselves into gay male ships. This gets into what I would call a porn aesthetic from the perspective of a cis woman - fantasizing about being with/being part of a gay male couple. We gotta be careful there because female fans tend to get marginalized for shipping two male characters together and are often accused of fetishizing gay men, and of course this is all fantasy anyway. But while I do not at all think that the majority of fandom shipping is fetishization, there are times when it does cross over into that and should be considered and interrogated a bit more. I wouldn't apply a blanket statement to it, but consider the media itself, what is canon/what isn't canon, and what the goal is of an individual author/artist/fan. There's nothing really wrong with self-insert, but it does become something we should think about in context of the specific media involved.

(I'm very much someone who believes that fic/art is fair game and that it should not be censored in any way, but also that all fic/art can be critiqued in the same way anything else can, and indeed should be. No art can develop if we're not allowed to critique it.)

[pjunicornart]

I'm gonna go throw up now, thanks.

If you didn't hate AI art already, you're certainly gonna hate it even more now.

CW: disturbing images of (fictional) minors in compromising positions (CENSORED BY ME), and AI art I'm bringing attention to this because I think it's important to talk about. Under the cut is the rant and discussion.

Last night, I was looking through Google images for more stock images of my favorite character, Lewis/Cornelius from Meet the Robinsons, so I could maybe do scene redraws in the future. Or just to have on my phone as reaction images. When I came across this...

In case you couldn't tell (or if the image isn't loading), it's an AI generated image of Lewis. What's disturbing about this one is that his sweater and shirt were up, exposing his stomach. I censored it because I do not feel comfortable showing minors in a position like that. I don't care if nothing SUPER explicit was shown, I still censored it.

Also, it should be noted that it wasn't even Cornelius in a position like that. It was made clear that it was supposed to be Lewis. For context if you're not familiar with Meet the Robinsons, we see this character in two stages of their life. We follow him at the age of 12 (Lewis) for the majority of the movie, since he's the protagonist. Towards the END of the movie, we see his future self (Cornelius) as an adult in his early 40s.

Time travel shenanigans are to blame for what appears to be two separate characters, but they're not. The same character, different life stage. (I'll be using their names as a distinction from now on.) But the reason why I mention this is because I can kind of see where they were coming from by making Cornelius in positions like that. Since he is an adult.

Now, look, I'm not gonna get into the morals of drawing aged up characters in compromising positions here. I have my own set of morals, but I'm not gonna discuss them in depth here. Just know that I lean more on the lenient side, and see things as a case by case basis. I try to approach everything as a gray, not just black and white. (If you need me to explain, totally understandable. Just shoot me an ask.) However, what I'm really strict about? Minors in sexual situations.

Clearly, the image is of Lewis. You can tell by how youthful the face looks, as well as his clothes. Out of morbid curiosity, I visited the site the image came from. Let's just say... the image above was the tamest there, and I need eye bleach.

What I find really disturbing is how the image came to be. Someone had to CONSCIOUSLY DECIDE to write "Lewis" into the generator instead of "Cornelius." They also probably had to write in all the actions the image has (shirt up, heavy blush, etc.). I think this is revolting. Let me remind you, there's more images like it that are MORE explicit.

My stance on AI art is clear: AI "art" is stolen art or images with no value. It should not be used to generate images to sell, trade, use professionally, cheat artists of commission money, or anything of the sort. Most importantly, AI image generation should not - I repeat - SHOULD NOT be used to make images of anybody in compromising positions. This goes for fictional characters, and real life people. The people who use AI to fulfill their gross desires should be reported and held responsible via the justice system, especially if children are involved. I may not like kids and will probably never have any of my own, but that DOES NOT mean I advocate for their exploitation.

TL;DR - I found an AI generated image of a fictional minor character in a sexually suggestive position, and made the following point: AI image generators should not be used to make images of minors (fictional or real) in compromising positions. I will never advocate for a minor's exploitation.

[mickmundy]

a masterpost of some of my medic headcanons! just some of my personal thoughts on his character and things he’d like, dislike, hobbies, etc!

First and Foremost... medic is just Like That. zany and cunning and ditzy and sadistic and etc etc. he’s charming because nobody knows why the fuck he’s Like That but you can’t help but be enamored by him because he’s very dashing… even when he’s being totally morbid!

was a total shithead growing up. absolute delinquent and hellion. only did things that interested him and thought it was funny when others tried to control him. he loved/s his family dearly but he just thought it was amusing that they thought they could ever hope to Contain him!

one of the things that Did/does interest him is baking. he loves to bake. cooking too, but not so much. His specialty is breads and pastries and he knows the recipes and motions by heart. baking is just as much of an art as it is a science.… you know… like… medicine..? sure!

values his friends and teammates. work is important, but you wont get far without willing test subjects! will always come back to and ultimately pull through for his teammates. it wouldn't be any fun if he was extremely loyal /all/ the time, right? he's got to keep them guessing!

he is an absolute chatterbox. it's part of what makes him such a ham. he’ll discuss completely ghoulish things with you - with the most jovial tone of voice - and you can’t help but find it endearing. is also nearly always Monologuing or talking to archimedes.. who can tell!

knows lots of things superficially, very few things in depth. doesn’t often have the patience to learn about everything he wants to learn about; there’s just not enough time!!

will often consult with demoman, sniper, and engineer and seek their expertise on chemistry, herbalism, and mechanics respectively. loves learning new things and hearing other people's insights!

absolutely adores the human body. expanding and contracting of the lungs, how pores work, cardiology in its entirety, why we have so many bones in our feet… he loves it all, no matter how its presented to him. cares little for the external appearances of others, too!

embraces all of his emotions and feelings and never seeks to censor them. doesn’t feel like he should smother or dilute himself for absolutely any reason. if you don’t like him, he doesn’t care. one less dummkopf to worry about!

is quite social, but not “great with people"; he’s very loud, interrupts often and will absolutely Correct you if he feels like you say something wrong. it’s nothing personal, he just values accurate information! it's probably best to not debate him, just to be on the safe side.

loves puns and jokes, but the ones he laughs at might be a little.. off-kilter! you’ll get bonus points if its a medical pun though! likes telling stories, but won't tell the same ones over and over again. the bone-stealing one is always a hit, but ask him about his other ones!

outside of doctoring, he enjoys baking, eating, botany and dove husbandry! he acquires dules of doves by stealing them, buying them, finding them, etc and treats them like family. they are very very spoiled!

is always excited about using his mediguns and furthering his research. it’s a nice bonus that he saves his teammates’ lives on the daily, but he’s often not so concerned about that part! your legs are blown off? "well, just walk it off! HAHA! HOO!"

is extremely capable of holding his own in a fight. has powerful leg muscles and a vast amount of stamina. the bigger they are, the more fun it is to knock them down! he enjoys when people underestimate him; the fight will be more fun for him that way. he does not fight fair!

while he might appear playful and jovial, he can be surprisingly difficult to get close to. he can be argumentative and abrasive, but also gentle and patient. he’s polite to most folks, but typically won’t truly open up unless he has mutual interest in the person too!

If you give him grief, he’ll remember that! Can hold a wicked grudge and enjoys when he can justify (in his own mind) holding one long-term. can be really petty, too. saw-ry!

thinks with his head: very analytical, objective. does not let his own emotions cloud his judgement when it comes to doing his job, no matter how Crazy the job might be. slip-ups are bound to happen though, he’s only… maybe.. human, after all!

doesn’t like things that are uncategorizable, uncertain, etc. He loves things being “messy” and “imperfect” but only in Very Specific ways that make sense to him! if you're "mucking about" by his standards, he's going to have very unsavory things to say to you!

does not live in his lab/infirmary. has a bedroom and utilizes it regularly, but sometimes inevitable workplace naps happen if he’s pulling an all-nighter! his quarters are simple and modest and its where he keeps his instruments and non-professional possessions.

plays the violin and accordion when he has time, and dabbles in piano! enjoys classical, jazz, swing, and klezmer music! if he doesn’t like what you put on, he won’t be shy about letting you know!!

is a great dancer. it was one of the activities his parents begged him to take up in his youth (along with instrument playing), and while he resisted it Just For Fun, he does enjoy it! if music is playing, he will either dance, clap his hands along and sing/hum if he knows the tune!

he’s jewish and while he might not be as strictly practicing as he was in his youth, it’s still a very important part of himself that he cherishes, though prefers to do so privately. It's very personal to him!

If you can teach him something, he’s all ears! loves to learn and thinks our time is best spent applying all of the fun crazy shit we learn!! what fun is being alive if you aren't figuring out how to raise hell every day that you're here?!

loves getting his hands dirty! he likes to iron his clothes and shine his shoes, but there's nothing he enjoys more than plunging his hands into whatever he does. always cleans up his messes, but has little regard for neatness while he's running amok as a doctor!

i think he is closer to doctor frank n furter than he is to any other fictional doctor in terms of personality and zaniness. he definitely has it in him to be/can be/is a sadist, but i don't think that should cancel out his bubbly personality and charisma!

[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.

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

"Wait, why is Loki naked?!?!"

This is The Mighty Thor issue 359, originally published September 1985. I should preface this by saying I have absolutely zero context for this comic. It is the oldest comic, Loki-related or otherwise, that I have ever read in its entirety, so aside from any context provided by the author, I have no idea what happens before or after. My knowledge going into it is this: the cover is vaguely reminiscent of a couple pieces of fan art I've seen (that I do not have sources or screenshots of at the moment, I'm sorry): one, a slightly more harmonious sibling AU with Thor and Loki seemingly willingly kneeling at Hela's feet, and another where Hela says "Kneel before your queen," and Thor kneels at Loki's (in fem form) feet. Additionally, I know Lorelei, and I don't like her. I don't dislike her as much as I dislike her sister, but neither of them are my favorite. Finally, I skimmed this last weekend when I started getting fixated on Sigyn just to see if she was in it. While I don't think I saw her, Loki DOES NOT WHERE A SHIRT for MOST of the issue, and I am greatly distressed (hence the title). This is why I'm actually reading it. Let's get into it. (EDIT: Loki does not actually get all the way naked, but oh boy does he try to get as much skin passed the 80s censors as possible!)

If the "In the service of Loki" doesn't get vaguely homoerotic, I'm gonna be mad.

My God, these old comics have a lot of words.

I guess even macho Asgardian gods were not immune to the fads of the 80s. Those leg warmers, damn, Heimdall.

No, get Amora out of here! She's just gonna make shit worse. Let's see where this goes. Maybe Loki just wants to, I don't know, invest in the arts and institute safety regulations as king. Just a thought.

Listen, I know nothing, so a Sif/Beta Ray Bill romance that ended as suddenly as I was aware it existed comes as out of left field for me as the forty-year-old Fig Newtons ad on the next page.

AMORA! You just wanted to kiss your sister's drugged up boyfriend!!!

I cannot with this fucking bird Lorelei rides. I'm dying.

Amora, you literally just said yourself that he was under an enchantment. What is this going to do?

Uh, RUDE.

Oh, hang on. Loki doesn't even know this is happening? Is that why he's naked shirtless when he finally shows up?

Ookay. He is naked. Because he's fucking Lorelei. Now it makes sense.

Yup. Also this reaction image is so funny, I'm dying!

I am uncomfortable.

I'M SHRIEKING! Why did they reference this weird, random, old comic about a convoluted triangle of seduction where Loki is naked the whole time in Ragnarok???!!! This is the most incredible thing I've seen all week. I'm going to be thinking about this forever. Does he pull this shit with Loki often? Is this a common thing? Is this a coincidence? I don't give a shit; I'm going to tell everybody I know as if I know for a fact that this is just some strange piece of trivia about Marvel and I don't care if it's accurate or not.

"This cloak EMPTY. YEET!" --Thor, probably, if this comic was published 35 years later than it was. (Also it is important to me that you understand: She was not wearing the cloak before he did this. It was hanging up. He comes over to her, takes the cloak off the wall as he goes, then wraps it around her while he does some magical feat of ventriloquy by talking while he full-on snogs her on the mouth. And then he yeets the motherfucker out of the cloak.)

Thor, Sif is also fucking someone else. This is a goddamn soap opera. I'm gonna need to make a diagram.

Thor gets on his knees a lot in this comic. Also the service of Loki byline was a fucking lie. He's not kneeling to Loki on the cover but Lorelei. He speaks to his brother for five minutes and it's while he's threatening to smash his face in with Mjolnir.

Please excuse my god-awful handwriting or the fact that I almost misspelled Lorelei's name twice or the fact that the apostrophe in fuckin' looks like an exclamation point.

[daytaker]

Potential Weaponization of Anti-Ship Culture to Justify Personal Discomfort - An Essay

TW: mentions of shipping minors, censored use of words often used in the context of shipping minors by those who dislike it, some devil's advocation, a critical look at the motivations behind a multilayered and multifaceted movement that includes many people who are there for diverse reasons and whose disliked ships range from "literally there's nothing wrong with this" to "the most toxic and abusive thing imaginable" so please don't take this as me saying everyone's views within anti-culture are morally or ethically equivalent because they aren't, also simping over an anime man, but I'm not sorry for that because he's beautiful. And also potential kavetham slander but it isn't really slander because I never claim that there's actually anything wrong with the ship, but if seeing me say "i don't like that" might upset you maybe give this one a miss.

The reason I was thinking about this subject at all is because of this video essay, which I encourage you to watch if you're at all interested in this sort of thing:

Fandom Policing, Purity Culture and the Death of Media Literacy by E

(also i call this an essay in a tongue-in-cheek way but it's lowkey the length of an actual essay so strap in i guess.)

So I've been playing hella Genshin Impact again lately.

I want to marry Kaveh. I want him carnally. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and say that, actually, I am already married to Kaveh in every sense of the word besides legally. Additionally, I should probably mention that I'm probably the least polyamorous person alive. I simply could never share in a relationship. I would inevitably have a favorite and it would be an ugly mess. I mention this because it provides a bit of context as to why I feel so sad that my husband Kaveh is so ubiquitously shipped with whats-his-name, because I am deeply and intensely in love with him, so seeing him with another man hurts me on a very deep level, and I cannot nor do I want to engage in the mental gymnastics of an imaginary polycule.

So all that said, I was sitting alone, stewing over my dislike of this ship, and something occurred to me. Something disturbing. Because as much as I don't ship this particular thing, there's nothing wrong with the ship. The characters are adults, they're not related, there's no abuse, they just canonically act as if they don't like each other while having a more complicated relationship. You know the type. They're very popular. I've never liked ships between characters that don't get along in canon, so even if I wasn't madly in love with Kaveh, I don't think I'd be a fan of this particular ship. What I'm getting at is this:

What if I gave into my darker impulses and acted like the worst of the antis? I could come up with some rationale for why this extremely popular ship is actually extremely toxic and validate my own discomfort over seeing my lawfully wedded husband getting dicked down by some dude. I could say, "Financial abuse! Kaveh could never be in a consensual relationship with a man who could literally make him homeless on a whim!" I could say "My precious baby is being manipulated by a man who is in a position of power over him due to my baby's decision to value his art over all else and hurling himself into bankruptcy like a moron!"

Then I could declare that the ship is toxic; therefore those who ship it are toxic; therefore those who warn about its toxicity are protecting others from toxic influences. I am morally good. I am protecting the internet from nastiness.

Of course that would be very silly and extremely manipulative of me, because there's nothing inherently wrong with shipping two adults from a piece of fictional media, even when their dynamic is a lot more dubious than the one between these two.

But this brings me back to what I was thinking about before... That is to say, my deep, gut discomfort with the ship for entirely personal reasons. A lot of people, myself included, seem to feel like we need to have logical reasons behind our likes and dislikes. It's not enough just to feel a certain way. We need to be able to defend our views against nay-sayers. This is particularly true when you dislike something, because when you go out into a crowd (the internet) and start broadcasting that you don't like something, it's seen as a little inflammatory.

And with good reason! If I didn't think of all this stuff I wanna talk about, I would have kept my thoughts on this ship completely to myself, because my negativity really couldn't do anything but antagonize people who do like the ship.

I wonder to what extent our culture of extremism has bled into our media consumption even on such an unimportant level as shipping. If I find out someone I know votes Republican, that will change my entire perspective on them. But sometimes we take something like that and translate it to stuff that's a lot less important. Like, "If I find out someone ships two teenagers, that will change my entire perspective on them." (I'm not here to get into the ethics of shipping minors, but I'm willing to stick my neck out enough to say that the above example wouldn't be something I'd be horrified to discover about a friend or acquaintance. A lot of media stars teenage characters, it's just the reality of what we consume, and when people consume media, people ship the characters, it just happens.)

But what if you didn't actually care that they were teenagers, in your heart of hearts? What if you just...didn't like the ship, because you shipped one of them with somebody else, or you headcanon that one of them is gay, or straight, or ace, or whatever? But you're sick of seeing this stupid ship everywhere, and has anyone even considered the fact that these characters are minors? In a sense, by shipping them, you're s*xualizing minors. So in a sense, anyone who likes this ship is okay with s*xualizing minors. So in a sense, anyone who likes this ship is okay with p*dophelia. So in a sense, anyone who likes this ship is a p*dophile. And now, you can hate that ship openly and rather than being an asshole who's ruining people's day, you're a crusader for morality.

You are morally good. You are protecting the internet from nastiness.

Okay, now for my disclaimers, because I'm a fearful netizen!

Now I want to be very clear and say that I'm NOT suggesting that this is secretly the reason why anyone hates any ship. Plenty of ships are nasty for all sorts of reasons. Though I would encourage readers to consider whether that nastiness is grounds for a call-out rather than simply blacklisting it.

Also, some people have strong negative reactions to ships that might seem unproblematic or at least not that awful for reasons that aren't just "it goes against my headcanon" or "I'm lawfully married to Kaveh how dare you". Some people might see real life trauma reflected in ship dynamics that aren't inherently "gross" to other people.

Basically, I want to acknowledge that this is a specific look at a specific subsection of shipping purity culture, and I'm not claiming to examine every potentiality of the issue with complete nuance. But I do want to assert that this is a nuanced issue, and encourage people to discuss it with each other in good faith, not assuming that the other party is intentionally ignoring a perspective or trying to harm or silence another group.

[justhere4kpop]

~Beautiful Stranger~

Chapter 2: We Have a Winner

Pairing: Yunho x Reader. (The guys are involved at some point too but not romantically.) NonIdol! AU

Description: A lonely perpetually single grad student working at a museum is approached by a handsome man, he looks expensive. Maybe this is your chance to get swept off your feet. Maybe he wants something else.

Warnings: I don't censor myself so I don't censor the characters, so Language warning. Let me know if I missed anything.

taglist: @legohwa, @hwaightme, @starillusion13

w/c: 1964

a/n: A shorter chapter but I felt it worked well. Don't worry still a lot more to come!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s been about a month since that date. I should really stop thinking about him, he obviously didn’t like it and that’s fine.

“Is it really fine if you cried for 3 days?” Becka looked at me.

“Well I can’t just force the actual man of my dreams to like me back, Woo said he won’t even talk about it…am I really that bad? Wooyoung told me he didn’t want to talk about the date…let alone talk about me.”

“No…oh babes come here. Guys are ugly and stupid, you did nothing wrong he asked you about work and you answered.”

“Speak for yourself” Will said grabbing a drink from the fridge.

“Yeah but maybe I went too in depth with what I do.” I sighed brushing my hair back. “I should just…forget it and move on.”

“You don’t have to. It’s okay to be upset.”

“I know.” I sighed and got up. “I have to go anyway, class project is due and I need studio space to work on it.”

I left putting on the coat he gave me…I forgot I still had it, if I see Wooyoung today I’ll give it back to him. I hopped on the train and put on some music, getting a little lost in thought for a while. A couple sat across from me…great…and of course they had to be as cute as they could, curled up into each other. This is torture. Modern Day Torture. Getting off at my stop I made my way down the familiar path to the school and went to the art space. I look down for one second to change the song and immediately run into someone sending myself falling backwards.

“I’m so sorry!” we both said in unison. I pulled my headphones out.

“I should’ve been looking, I'm so….Yunho?”I looked up to see the very man I was trying to avoid thinking about.

“Y/n.” he looked a bit stunned but helped me up anyways.

“Hi, sorry I um…I should’ve looked up I…Oh” I shrugged off the coat. “I meant to give this back to Wooyoung and I-”

“Keep it.” he waved his hand. “I have plenty and it looks good on you. Do you know which way is the art building?”

“Oh I’m…I’m going that way I can show you.”

We walked together in silence, I could feel myself biting back tears and words. This is actual torture. Thankfully the building was only about 5 minutes from where we were.

“Did I…Did I do something wrong?” I blurt out.

“Huh? No?” He looked at me confused.

“You just…you haven’t said anything and I..Yunho to be honest that was the nicest date I’ve ever been on and I thought you had a good time but if I talked about work and school too much please just let me know because I promise not to do it again if you’d just let me-” he cut me off with a kiss.

“No y/n..you didn’t do anything wrong, I loved hearing about your life. I still love hearing about it. Y/n, you’re all I can think about right now, your smile, your laugh…the way your nose crinkles when you laugh a little too hard. The dress you wore. How you look in my coat…it’s all so new to me that it..it scares me. I don’t normally think about things that aren’t my job and it’s been a long time since I went on a date and even longer since I had fun on one. It just scares me that I already like you so much.” his thumb rubbed over my cheek. 

“DID I JUST SEE WHAT I THINK I SAW!?” The raven haired boy screeched. “YUNHO!”

Here we go again.

“I’d like to take you out for lunch if you’d let me.” Yunho smiled when Wooyoung left the room.

“I don’t know are you actually going to call me this time?” I quipped back at him.

“Only if you give me your number beautiful.” he chuckled.

“Promise you’ll use it?” I chuckled back and wrote it down handing it to him.

“It’ll be with my most expensive pieces.”

“Oh? Art collector even. I’d like to see it some day.”

“I have some pretty great ones up, you’d like them.” he winked.

“Okay you’re gross go away.” Wooyoung came back. “I step away for a minute to get some water and you two are basically fucking-”

“We’re literally flirting you’re so dramatic.” I rolled my eyes.

“Oh are we now?” Yunho joked. “I thought this was a pleasant conversation.”

“You’re the worst one of all, its like you think you’re some kind of pick up artist.” I giggled.

“Oh now it’s not that bad.”

“You’re practically one line away from ‘If I could rearrange the alphabet I’d put U and I together.’ buddy.” I let out a bigger laugh and Wooyoung fell off his chair he let out a laugh. “What’re you working on so late anyways Woo?”

“Oh just trying to paint that one you like so much. The Gaugain. Oil paints are so hard though I don’t know how he did it.”

“Here I can help, I know the medium okay enough.” I got up from my chair, Yunho had gone silent and pulled out his phone. Probably an important email, he said he works in business if I remember correctly. “Yeah what I like is that they blend nicely and don’t loose any pigment saturation when they’re dry, so they look the same, however they take a while to dry, but oil paints also instantly add value because they look professional. They’re also easier to use for beginners.”

“What are you trying to say ma'am?” Wooyoung looked at me like I insulted his little brother.

“You suck.” I shrugged and laughed.

“Yunho get your girlfriend.”

“Hey it was one date!” we both yelled at him.

“Only one? And you’ve been hung up on her for a month? Man y/n you have some serious game.” Wooyoung joked.

“He has not been.” I pushed him

“You haven’t heard him, I live with him.”

“You do not, you all come bother me at my house.” Yunho sighed.

“We have business meetings quite often at yours.” he received a swift punch in the arm. “Ow!”

“Your friends all work with you?” I chuckled. “I know the feeling it’s how I met my roommates.”

“Yeah, we all work together, although Wooyoung is just part-time through grad school.”

“I’d like to meet them sometime Wooyoung.” I nudged him.

“You’ve met San and Yeosang before.”

“Yes but you make it seem like there's others.”

“There are, a whole gang of us practically.” Wooyoung received another punch in the arm. “Stop hitting me!”

“Stop making us sound like criminals!” Yunho laughed at him.

“Okay okay. Geez now I can’t even lift a paintbrush.”

I spent some time trying to figure out what I wanted to make my piece for the end of the year. I wrote a few ideas in the notebook I had but I never seem to like them, I’m always so envious of people who can figure out what they want to do right off the bat, I didn’t even know I wanted to do anything art related until I was in high school, and even then it was last minute.

“What’re you working on?” Yunho peaked over my shoulder.

“I’m trying to figure out what to do for the showcase at the end of the year, we all put in a piece we work on the hardest and the department critiques it and yeah…you get graded on it too but it’s not like…I don’t know they can tell how much effort gets put in and stuff.” I looked up at him and his very close face. “Hi.”

“Hi” he smiled. “Any ideas so far?”

“N-No…not really.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something great.” he kissed my cheek. “How about that lunch that I owe you then hm?” he stood up and offered his hand

“Oh..sure.” I took it and stood.

“Where are we going?” Wooyoung perked up.

“You’re not invited.” Yunho looked at him. “It’s a date.”

“Lame.” he groaned.

Lunch was more relaxed than our first date at least, it was a cute little local shop that did sandwiches and a few other things, we took our food and went to the park and just, spent some time together. I could get used to looking at this handsome man all the time. We sat there and watched the clouds while he told me a little bit about himself, like where he’s from, how many family members he has, you know the basics, he didn’t specifically say what his job is just that he collects art and deals in business…he says its mostly boring stuff, not that interesting…sounds like he’s secretly a Mobster to me. 

“What are you laughing at?” he smiled.

“You sound like you work for the Mafia.” I smiled. “Hey didn’t I say the second date was on me, why’d you pay for this?”

“I think I owe you that much for ignoring you for a month.”

“Okay fair but seriously..next one is on me.” I nudged him.

“I’ll hold you to it.” he smiled at me.

“Oh shit!” I got up quickly. “I’m going to be late for work, oh crap and my train already left.”

“Let me take you to work” Yunho got up.

“No no it’s fine I’ll…I’ll call them and tell them I’ll be late it’ll be fine. Oh crap I can’t believe I lost track of time.”

“Hey at least we had fun doing it, seriously…let me take you to work.” he smiled and took my hand leading me to that same very expensive very nice car.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m very sure.”

“I can…at least get you in for free today if you’d like. We’re setting up for the new exhibition coming in town soon and…oh man I can’t believe I’m late.”

“It’ll be okay, maybe I’ll take you up on that offer someday.”

“Anytime you want seriously.”

He dropped me off and I made it just in time…for Liz to see me getting out of his car.

“y/n!? Is that you?!” she called out.

“Oh god. Okay see you later, don’t worry just…trust me you aren’t ready to meet my roommate.” I nodded.

“I’ll text you.” he smiled and looked at me.

“Yeah I’ll text back.” I smiled gently at him. He is really cute.

He drove off and of course here I am getting interrogated by my best friend at the desk while trying to do work. Oh god this is going to be a long day, she’s probably told Becka already and now I’m screwed when I go home, they’re going to be up all night asking me questions. 

“Ladies, I hope you remember the Gala is coming up soon, company should be sending out invites this week.” Our boss Marcus looked at us.

“Can we bring a plus one again?” Liz looked up. “Will loves coming to them.”

“It’ll say on the invite but I believe partners are allowed, however if you’d like to work instead it is double pay that day.” he smiled at me.

“Well I-I might bring someone this time, I don’t know….he likes art.” I shrugged. 

Who am I kidding I can’t invite him we’ve been on a date and a half, I’m just So SICK of everyone flaunting their relationships and not working couples events and ugh I just, I want to show that I’m not some lonely hag they think I am! I have a cute guy I’m talking to it’s not like I’m completely hopeless! I’m amazing ok!

I’ll ask him….eventually….maybe….someday.

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