Nor should fandom be your safe space. Fandom is for people to explore all sorts of possibilities in fiction and art. Not all of those possibilities are going to be fluffy, “wholesome,” “healthy,” “uplifting,” or whatever other adjective the Morality Brigade here on Tumblr wants to trot out.
Fiction is not reality. Depiction is not endorsement. No, it may never be “just a movie/fic/artwork,” but that does not make it reality. Fiction serves particular purposes, and one of them is to permit us to vicariously experience certain dangerous or otherwise unpleasant things safely.
If you believe that the purpose of fiction is to “uplift” us and fiction that does not is wrong and bad, congratulations: You’re a right-winger. (Or maybe you’re on the extreme left. When you get that far out to the ends of the spectrum, it doesn’t matter.)
If you think that anyone who writes or reads noncon is a rapist or rape apologist, you are too stupid for words. If you think that anyone who ships an incest ship or an adult/teen ship is an apologist for incest or pedophilia, you are too stupid for words.
It is none of your business what other people write, draw, and ship. Let me repeat that: It is none of your business what other people write, draw, and ship. You do not get to tell them they’re “trash,” you do not get to concern-troll them with passive-aggressive nonsense like “love yourself more uwu,” and you absolutely do not get to harass them off Tumblr or elsewhere.
Also, their past trauma or lack thereof is none of your business, either. Nobody has to present their “cred” as a rape or incest survivor before they’re allowed to enjoy fanworks that don’t meet with your approval. Total strangers don’t owe you their backstories. For that matter, not even your friends owe you every detail of their backstories. Mind your own business.
Don’t want to see all this “problematic” content on your dash or elsewhere? Unfollow people. Learn how to use TumblrSavior, XKit, AO3Savior, and similar tools. Control your own online experience. It is not the responsibility of others on this site to take care of you, who are a total stranger to them. Given how heavily female Tumblr skews, such demands are nothing but reinforcement of the expectation that women are supposed to take care of everyone else but themselves. (Yes, women are still oppressed as a class, even before you factor in intersectionalities.)
It’s amusing how some of you have the “courage” to dogpile, harass, and stalk others on this website whose taste doesn’t meet your oh-so-pure standards. People who create fanworks are soft, easy targets to kinkshame, aren’t they? Especially when, again, most of them are not cis straight men. Women have been policed and shamed throughout history for exploring their own sexuality — including by other feminists. The 1980s were full of feminists policing other feminists:
Often conflated with radical feminism, antiporn feminism grew out of radical feminism in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s—as did its counterpart, pro-sex feminism. The feminist porn wars of the ‘80s are largely forgotten to the general public by now, but at the time they were heated, divisive, and intensely personal. In 1982, Barnard College’s Center for Research on Women held a conference called “Towards a Politics of Sexuality,” which was picketed by antiporn feminists for including explorations of s&m and overall pro-sex viewpoints along with discussions of race and sexuality as well as sexual history (many of which were published in the 1983 anthology Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality).
Yes, sex-positive feminism was eventually co-opted by patriarchal forces, but it started out because a great many feminists were heartily tired of radfems telling them they were “traitors” and “brainwashed” for liking anything but the blandest, most euphemistic, and most painfully egalitarian erotica. (If you like that sort of thing, more power to you. Your tastes don’t make you better than the rest of us.)
Getting back to the here and now, I don’t see you going over to 4chan or Reddit with these morality campaigns. More importantly, I don’t see you organizing to go after big media corporations, especially those whose TV shows, movies, and books help form the toxic backdrop of misogyny, racism, rape culture, homophobia, transphobia, and similar bigotries behind everyday modern life. The occasional blogpost calling out this animator or that author, no matter how many notes it gets, is not the same thing as an organized campaign.
No, harassing David Gaider off Tumblr doesn’t count, not when Bioware makes more of an effort with social justice in its games than any other game company does. You can scream all you want about how “allies suck.” You need them in the real world, beyond the hothouse environment of Tumblr. If people in general could be trusted to do the right thing for the right reasons all the time, without pressure, there would be no need for any kind of activism at all.
Nor does screaming “pedophile” at John Green and insinuating that any grown man who reaches out to teenage girls is “creepy.” Yes, his “cool dad” act is annoying, and his books leave a lot to be desired. Have you considered that such outreach is part of his job as a YA writer? Have you also considered that stigmatizing men for trying to be mentors to adolescents, when you have no evidence that they’re actually perverts, reinforces traditional gender roles?
Tl;dr: Fandom is not your safe space. Tumblr is not your safe space. AO3 sure as fuck isn’t your safe space. People will post things you don’t like in all three spaces, which they have every right to do. Get over it, grow the fuck up, take responsibility for your own mental health, and stop confusing your oversized sense of entitlement with “social justice.”
marketing targeted at today’s youth is so strange because like, they’ve picked up on certain things, but they can’t string the parts together in a cohesive way. It’s like one of those shitpost generators. I mean, yeah, they understand that reaction gifs are a thing, and they understand that emojis are a thing, and they understand that tyler oakley is a thing. but they can’t drive the point home. that is not a proper reaction to finding the right emoji. it doesn’t make sense. they’re trying, really hard, but the nuances of internet youth culture still manage to escape their corporate grasp
no offense but this is literally the most neurotypical thing i have ever seen
Uhhhh… no.
This is what they teach you in therapy to deal with BPD and general depression.
When I got out of the hospital after hurting myself a second time, I got put into intensive outpatient program for people being released from mental hospitals as a way to monitor and help transition them into getting them efficient long-term care.
This is something they stressed, especially for people with general depression. When you want to stay at home and hide in your bed, forcing yourself to do the opposite is what is helpful. For me, who struggles with self harm- “I want to really slice my arm up. The opposite would be to put lotion on my skin (or whatever would be better, like drawing on my skin) the opposite is the better decision.” It doesn’t always work because of course mental health isn’t that easy, but this is part of what’s called mindfulness (they say this all the time in therapy)
Being mindful of these is what puts you on the path to recovery. If you’re mindful, you are able to live in that moment and try your best to remember these better options.
I swear to god, I don’t get why some people on this website straight up reject good recovery help like this because either they a)have never been in therapy so don’t understand in context how to use these coping tactics. Or b)want to insist that all therapists and psych doctors are neurotypical and have zero idea what they are talking about. (Just so ya know, they teach this in DBT, the therapy used to help BPD. The psychologist who came up with DBT actually had BPD, so….a neurotypical women didn’t come up with this.)
I have clinical OCD and for me, exposure therapy–a version of “do the opposite”–has been fundamental. I’ve had huge improvement in the last year, but I’m 100% clear that if I hadn’t done my best to follow this protocol I’d be fucked. I have a lot of empathy for that moment when you’re just too tired to fight and you check the stove or you wash your hands or go back to the office at midnight to make sure the door is locked. But the kind of therapeutic approach outlined above has been crucial for me.
It’s hard to do. I’ve weathered panic attacks trying to follow this protocol. But I’ve gotten remarkable results. I was afraid to touch the surfaces in my house, okay? I was afraid to touch my own feet, afraid to touch my parrot–deliberately exposing myself to “contamination” has helped me heal. I can’t speak for people with other issues, but this has helped my anxiety and OCD.
I feel that tumblr, in an effort to be accepting of mental illness, has become anti-recovery. Having a mental illness does not make you a bad person. There is nothing morally wrong with having a mental illness anymore than more than there’s something morally wrong with having the flu. However, if you’re “ill” physically or mentally, something is wrong in the sense that you are unwell and to alleviate that you should try to get better. While there is not “cure” for mental illness, there are ways to get better.
There was a post on tumblr where someone with ADHD posted about how much you can get done when you focus and was attacked for posting about being “nuerotypical” - when she was posting about the relief she got from being on an medication to treat her illness.
I saw another post going around tumblr that said something along the line of “you control your thoughts, why not choose to have happy thoughts” which again was shot down as “nuerotypical” but while you don’t have control over what thoughts come into your mind, you absolutely can and should choose to have happy thoughts. In DBT we call this “positive self talk”.
I’m in DBT to help treat PTSD stemming from child abuse. The abuse and abandonment I experienced destroyed my self esteem and created a lot of anxiety over upsetting other people. DBT has taught me to recognize when my thoughts are distorting realty ‘no one likes you’ and answer back ‘plenty of people like you, you don’t need everyone to like you, especially if the relationship doesn’t make you happy’, to respond to the thought ‘I’m so worthless’ with ‘you’re really great and have accomplished something’
And it’s not easy to challenge your thoughts, it’s a skill that’s learned and it’s hard to force yourself to think something that doesn’t seem authentic or even seems wrong to think - it’s hard to be encouraging towards yourself when you hate yourself - but you force yourself to be aware of your thoughts and push back when you fall into unhealthy patterns
That isn’t “so neurotypical” that’s recovery.
Not shaming mental illness doesn’t mean shaming RECOVERY.
Pro-Recovery isn’t anti-disability.
Do not shame healthy behaviors as “neurotypical”.
Learning healthy behaviors and taking steps to treat mental illness and disorders including taking medication if that’s what works for you is important. You shouldn’t be ashamed if you have mental illness, but you shouldn’t say ‘well I’m not neurotypical therefor I can’t do anything to get better’ - while there is no cure for mental illness, there is a lot you can do to get better, to function better, to manage your mental illness and be safer, happier, and healthier for it.
HEAD’S UP ARTISTS THAT RESIZE IN PHOTOSHOP. This really saved my life. I’d noticed that gross halo around art whenever I resized something but never knew how to get rid of it til Onta showed me and ahhhhh. I’m just so happy there was a solution to it so I really hope this helps others out too!! (also look at more cute bear faces I drew~)
YOU HAVE SAVED MY LIFE, I do some contract work often and I need to transform objects and layers all the time and I noticed this the other day that the quality of each element was going fuzzy and gross and It made me a bit like “oh crap wtf”
"Black Widow could be with ANYONE IN THE UNIVERSE and she got with the HULK. I’m flying in I’m from the military I’ve got wings she’s like “eh.” She chooses the HULK?!"
After watching Catch and Release, I’ve come to realize something.
Peridot acts much more immature, when in a situation she’s not used to - she’s frightened, she’s aggressive, she loses her social skills. Some have interpreted this as her being childlike, similar to Amethyst’s seemingly “younger” personality in the flashback episodes. But this doesn’t match her previous portrayals, or her mature body type - she’s in no way coded as something that should be treated like a child.
So why does she act like that? Why did Amethyst act like that back in the day? Why would gems act less mature than they usually are? Well…
… Look at how they walk.
Look at how they act.
Look at them when they’re taken off-guard, or frightened, or excited.
Gems aren’t childlike.
They’re beastlike.
All of them, in different ways.
They snap their jaws to show aggression, they show an animalistic combination of caution and curiosity when dealing with new objects and places, they even run on all fours when distracted. Fear makes them not just aggressive, but outright vicious and murderous, like mindless attack dogs. They occasionally have feline and canine physical traits, like fangs and glowing eyes. Younger!Amethyst literally went running after a thrown stick.
Amethyst, Peridot and Jasper, all presumably Kindergarten gems, seem to be the most prone to this, while Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire and Rose appear to be more civilized, likely as a result of having been regular Homeworld citizens trying to survive in a very uptight, controlled society for a long time. They’re used to restraining themselves from acting too savage. Lapis has an animalistic mindset ruled by emotion and impulsiveness, guarded by a civilized facade, reflecting her powers and element. She always seems more mentally present, even when upset, because she almost always has the upper hand and thus doesn’t feel the panic of a cornered animal.
Try rewatching an episode with the mindset of “these are extremely intelligent cats and dogs who were taught human-like standards of social etiquette.” It solves a surprising amount of questions regarding their occasional lack of maturity/manners/empathy/etc., unifying the traits normally associated with different human age groups.
Among them, why Peridot turns into a squeaky, slap-y menace when frightened. She’s got the survival instincts of a wild animal, with none of the strength. She’s like a housecat.
Tl;dr: gems have instincts and traits similar to felines/canines. Moments of immaturity happen when a gem hasn’t developed the social skills to deal with a situation in a civilized manner (due to fear, excitement, anger, lack of self-discipline, etc.), causing them to act like wild animals - which is often misinterpreted as “childlike” because we’re not used to seeing adults react in such an animated, uncontrolled way.
Every time donald trump comes up in conversation I make damn sure to mention that he’s a violent rapist. I don’t want anyone forgetting that.
IS HE not surprising but I’d never heard that before ??
TW for rape, violent assault:
“After a painful scalp reduction surgery to remove a bald spot, Donald
Trump confronted his then-wife, who had previously used the same
plastic surgeon.
“Your fucking doctor has ruined me!” Trump cried.
What followed was a “violent assault,” according to Lost Tycoon.
Donald held back Ivana’s arms and began to pull out fistfuls of hair
from her scalp, as if to mirror the pain he felt from his own operation.
He tore off her clothes and unzipped his pants.
“Then he jams his penis inside her for the first time in more than
sixteen months. Ivana is terrified… It is a violent assault,” Hurt
writes. “According to versions she repeats to some of her closest
confidantes, ‘he raped me.’”
Following the incident, Ivana ran upstairs, hid behind a locked door,
and remained there “crying for the rest of night.” When she returned to
the master bedroom in the morning, he was there.
“As
she looks in horror at the ripped-out hair scattered all over the bed,
he glares at her and asks with menacing casualness: ‘Does it hurt?’”
Trumps lawyer on the incident: “You’re talking about the front-runner for the GOP, presidential
candidate, as well as a private individual who never raped anybody. And,
of course, understand that by the very definition, you can’t rape your
spouse.”
So basically not only did he violently rape her, it was dismissed with the claim that it is impossible for someone to rape their spouse, which we all know is bullshit.
This is horrible thank you for taking the time to find that for me. I am disgusted
He is a terrible human being, racist piece of shit, rapist, and still an overwhelming amount of people want him to be president. Frankly, it’s terrifying. I will move country if he becomes president.
