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pilfappreciator · 5 months

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ATTENTION TROLLS FANDOM!!

This is very important. Mostly to me but maybe you guys have been wondering this too idk but anyways:

How does troll reproduction work exactly?

Cuz I'm genuinely curious. I dont think anyone on the series production team has said anything and so far I've seen absolutely no one touch on this subject but as someone who's always had an interest in the habits of creatures (both fictional or otherwise), I kinda sorta maybe NEED to know this otherwise I'll never be able to sleep peacefully again

Full disclaimer that I'm specifically talking about the whole egg situation, I am NOT ASKING HOW THEY GET IT ON IF I WANTED THAT ANSWER I'D GO TO DEVIANT ART OR TWITTER OR WHATEVER LAWLESS PLATFORM GOD STEERS CLEAR OF. This discussion shall remain STRICTLY educational, thank you very much

But anywho. Let's dive in

So trolls come from eggs. This is basic knowledge. First instance of this phenomenon (as far as I know, I've only seen the movies) is from World Tour.

Egg pops out of Guy Diamond's hair, egg hatches and BOOM, (literal) baby. Now I understand that this whole sequence was probably just a gag and a way for DreamWorks to implement another (merchandisable) addition to the cast HOWEVER this sequence also raises a few questions

First off, as far as I know Guy Diamond has no partner (again: I haven't watched any of the spinoff shows). Either that or maybe the other troll was a sorta one-night-stand/no-longer-in-his-life kinda situation? Which is great either way cuz its shown he obviously cares for his son and we at Tumblr appreciate a loving single father no matter the circumstances, but if my former theory is correct than that would imply that trolls are capable of reproducing asexually. Like onions.

Now if that hypothesis is, as they call it, "cap" then that would mean that some sorta hanky panky has to go down before an egg comes into question. And if that's the case, does this mean that male trolls are traditionally the ones who carry the eggs?

But that can't be right, can it? Afterall, World Tour gave us yet ANOTHER egg scene later on in the movie

In Cooper's flashback, we clearly see Queen Essence being the one carrying the eggs meanwhile King Quincy is eggless. Now, as far as i see it, this could be explained either one of four ways:

1) Quincy was the one who actually produced the eggs and Essence is merely holding them for her husband (since her hair seems more fitting to be a makeshift nest compared to Quincy's)

2) Female trolls are the ones who produce the eggs. Guy Diamond is just a trans icon

3) Troll reproduction differs from genre to genre

4) There is a... *sighs* a/b/o type of dynamic among troll kind where certain trolls are capable of giving birth/siring children depending on a secondary gender

In regards to theory #3, this could also explain why Guy Diamond seems to reproduce and hatch an egg in such a short amount of time (like 5 seconds I'm pretty sure) as opposed to Queen Essence/King Quincy who's eggs presumably went a while longer before actually hatching.

Actually, speaking off eggs, are trolls the only species in their world that reproduce that way?

Because now that Band Together has officially been released, we now know for certain that it's possible for different species to crossbreed. Biggest example? Resident DILF Bruce and his giant muppet wife

(Credit to @captainunderkrupp )

When I saw these two... I swear...

And these two already have a shit ton of kids okay so like... either Brandi was the one giving birth or trollsona Daveed Digs was over here pumpin out eggs, which I mean-

DO YOU SEE HOW BIG THESE THINGS ARE COMPARED TO BRANCH AND POPPY?? Believe me I am PRAYING that Bruce gave himself some serious maternity/paternity leave because my guy is honestly a trooper

But yeah any thoughts? :))

#i made a whole nother tumblr account just to ask this question pls somebody gimme their thoughts PLS-#i want someone at dreamworks to make an educational encyclopedia about the different species of the Trolls Universe im not asking for much #Bruce and Brandi make me feel some sort way #i will not be specifeying what way #trolls #trolls band together #trolls world tour #poppy trolls #branch trolls #spruce trolls #bruce trolls #brandi trolls #guy diamond #tiny diamond #gueen essence #king quincy #but thats just a theory A TROLL THEORY #pilf post

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vulku · 7 months

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just some usfw thoughts.

spock is . . . incredibly strong. yes, he will use that against you. to what degree and how, depends on the dynamic. do you like / want to be thrown around? to be held down? to be used? and with that said, he is very, very much amendable to things being both rough and with kink. simply ask. he likes to bite and mark; be it with his teeth, or leaving bruises with his hands. he also is very receptive to the same being done unto him as well. depending on what his partner can both handle, and is interested in, the severity of the marks left could be significant. even on the softer side, there will still be some bits of evidence left on his partners skin. i dont remember if i mentioned this before but : spock is a switch. i don't know if i would call him a true switch, just bc i'm not sure what that entails, and because it really depends on the situation and then partner. he typically has more dominant traits but those can translate to bratty behavior and don't mean he has to top, but i'd say he probably typically has with past partners. and he also has plenty of softness, of more submissive tendencies that people can draw out of him, if they know what to do and he's comfortable with them. but with what said i don't think spock, himself, has any actual preference on the matter, regardless of his partner's gender. so if you see him leaning toward something or the other, it is out of habit, and your muse is welcomed to readily let him know what their preferences may be -- whether it is a standing preference, or one in this particular moment. he will oblige quite willingly! beyond the obvious [ genitals! ] his hands, ears, and throat are very sensitive to touch / stimulation. i put them in order of greatest to least sensitivity, out of the three. but they are all appreciated. speaking of : vulcan male genitalia is obviously different from humans. i don't think it's insanely different, but! non human for sure. for one -- self lubricating. makes sense, dry desert climate, having that handy-dandy evolutionary trait makes sex easier for everyone involved, regardless of gender preferences. along with that -- i'm kind of half and half on retractable dicks? maybe? again, desert climate, makes sense to keep such a sensitive and vulnerable part of the anatomy safe. i do think, regardless, the testes are inside all the time. mostly for the retraceable thing idk if it would be more of a slit or sheath type thing, which is mostly where my indecisiveness comes but anyway. it DOES have shades of green. some darker, some lighter. but, no one is surprised because he does have green blood. and! there! are ridges. maybe even a knot if you are down for that. so, you're welcome! in terms of dimensions . . . he is more than the average length-wise, but more notably above - average in terms of girth. here is a general idea for the shape. it isn't exact but! for inquiring minds there you go. also pls do not click if you do not want to see a fantasy dildo reference >__> anyway, here's my contribution to sexy sunday. BYE.

#OUTOF.#i should point out that no headcanons are like #ever /required/.#for whatever reason.#i am def happy to adjust things if for some reason you dont #vibe with something ; just tell me!#i think these are all p much popular stuff in fanon SO #it shouldnt be anything unexpected but ye

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completelyandtotalyuneventful · 1 year

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how i would write erisol rant because im gay (bi) and find enemies to lovers extremely interesting in the concept of vacillating between the pitch and flushed quadrants (which is how I personally ship erisol)

Okay so to start off the most important part of their dynamic to me is that at the beginning Sollux does not like Eridan at all. In any quadrant. Or even as a friend. Having a certain level of respect or fondness for your partners good qualities is important for any quadrant, including (and maybe even especially) for kismesis, because if one has no respect or admiration for the kismesis’ good qualities this could lead to a very fucked up Tavris situation with one partner trying to mold the other into something they’re not. Being a kismesis (which is the relationship that i normally see erisol entering before they start to vacillate) is all about wanting to push your partner to be better. You see their potential and you see good qualities in them, but their negative qualities far outweigh the good in your opinion and you want to push the other to improve (at least this is how I see the dynamic, I can also see kismesis as rivals who oppose each other in a lot of ways and find enjoyment in fighting each other. i dont think these two interpretations are mutually exclusive tho maybe theyre just both important parts of the pitch dynamic. anyway-). If Sollux sees no good qualities in Eridan, hes not going to want to put in the time to help him improve. Just as a side note here Eridan already has pitch feelings for Sol, at least thats how I see it, judging by the fact that he tries to get Sol into a kismesis relationship with him at least twice, three times if you count pesterquest. But since Eridan really just wants a relationship with anyone, development here would be him finding genuine attraction toward Sollux other than just really wanting a kismesis and thinking their hate friend dynamic would be the easiest to turn pitch.

So basically I think a huge part of developing their relationship would be for Sollux to slowly start seeing good qualities in Eridan. For example, if Eridan gave Sollux the whole gender rant that he gave the MSPA reader in pesterquest, Sollux would see that Eridan actually thinks very deeply about things and isn’t only an annoying incel. He’s three dimensional baby. Seeing that Eridan is intelligent about subject matter that he cares about and thinks about shit, but just chooses not to most of the time, might spark some drive in Sollux to want push him to be better and start doing this more. I read this one fic that I can’t remember he name of but the main focus is all about Erisol having these deep conversations about the nature of the universe and slowly starting to catch feelings for each other through these arguments. Sollux at the beginning of the fic has been outright avoiding Eridan, but he starts to enjoy their conversations more and more as time goes on just because he’s seeing a more intelligent and thoughtful side of Eridan that he’s never seen before.

I feel like kismesis relationships and matespritships can easily vacillate between each other. If you’ve been pushing you kismesis to improve and they actually do to the point where you now think their good qualities outweigh the bad, you can easily catch flushed feelings for them. I think erisol would flop between the two, as they find each other’s qualities very attractive and still enjoy their rivalry but also sometime times just want to be in a softer sweeter relationship.

Anyways I don’t really know where I was going with this but I’ve been thinking a lot about quadrants recently and how I view my favorite homestuck ships so I wanted to get it out somewhere. Thanks for reading my word vomit lol.

#so obviously theyre in love #and its beautiful #and its messy #and its groundbreaking #and it really wouldnt be so toxic if it wasn't for the hemospectrum #homestuck #erisol #eridan ampora #sollux captor

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a-stitch-in-time-and-space · 4 years

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WRITERS!!! WRITERS IM BEGGING YOU!!!! STOP MAKING JULIAN LOVE-SICK OVER JADZIA SHE’S BEEN WITH WORF SINCE LAST SEASON AND IT WAS NEVER BROUGHT UP UNTIL THE LAST FEW EPISODES IT’S TAKING AWAY FROM ALL OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT WITH EACH OTHER WHY ARE THE STRAIGHTS LIKE THIS??? DO THEY NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR OWN CHARACTERS DO THEY NOT CONSIDER THAT THERE’S MORE THAN FUCKING ROMANCE TO KEEP BONDS BETWEEN PEOPLE TOGETHER DO THEY ONLY KNOW LIKE... ONE PERSON AND IT’S THEIR SPOUSE????

(on that note I am dreading Ezri/Julian, I know it’s coming and I don’t want it)

#like was said a couple of days ago #the straights really cannot comprehend men and women being friends #(for that matter they cant comprehend that jadzia and womanhood is an entirely different concept and would be really interesting #written from a queer perspective but IT'S FINE)#(people who think that queerness is an *extra*#to text - esp in scifi - really dont understand how identities and relationship-definitions shifting is key to human development)#one day i may go on a further rant about the general importance of queerness in scifi #(and also heavily touch upon the fact that a. a bunch of the actors openly read their own characters as queer and b.#they'd already WRITTEN queer text they just didn't realise because they were so unbearably not-queer)#anyway all of this is why i don't trust people judging me/others for reading characters as queer in some way #a dearth of cishet characters is NOT the issue here #ds9 #st: ds9 #julian bashir #oh and also that if you DONT explore gender and relationship dynamics then you're not looking to the future - arguably star trek is #more behind the times than when it was made... the 90s was far more obviously queer than 400 years in the future is what #the writers apparently want us to think #same goes for disco which is just parroting the tamest queer politics from 5-10yrs ago #be forward thinking dammit!!!#the tags are an entirely different entity than the post

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faelapis · 2 years

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since disney discourse is a hot topic still, i have one more thing i wanna say - i dont love how often, when both parents are present, they just slot into traditional 'parent gender roles' of the mother cooking, cleaning, being kind and tender, and the dad being more authoritative, easily angered and masculine, or, in newer films, relaxed, "bro-y", distant / "the cool parent" (because he doesnt have to do any of the feminine emotional work of actually being there or stress about housework).

there's subversions of this, but it usually also follows a very set pattern - if its the dad, he's like a neurotic 'doing his best' self-insert for the male storytellers who never knows what he's doing. if its the mom, she's just... a massive controlling asshole, triton style.

at the very least, i wish they would mix it up in interesting ways. have both parents be stern jerks, or other mismatched parenting styles, or have a soft mom actually take issue with what the dad is like and stand up to him. the most common subversion is just that the dad is softer but the mom is still like a glorified housewife.

i guess by listing different tropes i make it seem like there's actually a fair bit of variety here, but idk, it still feels very... gendered. like no matter the iteration, i look at them and see a very nuclear gendered family setting. its hard to get away from the "castrating nag wife" if the mom isnt completely submissive, or the "bumbling / emasculated dad" if the dad is anything less than an asshole.

to step outside that mold for a bit, think of like... well they're not both present, but think of rose and greg. they kind of have similar "parenting philosophies" of the kid not having to deal with authority, but rose being gone + keeping secrets and greg being too unstructured and lenient for steven's tastes still plays out in ways that don't feel so... heteronormative nuclear mush. they feel like interesting characters who arent Stock Mother & Father Tropes.

i know when the parents are minor characters its kinda hard to make them unique, but idk, i think it could work. it also just plays differently in different contexts - since nemo's mom is gone, marlin (nemo's dad) is caring, neurotic, bumbling and sometimes authoritative without any of those feeling like gendered traits. when we do see nemo's mom, its the rare instance of her actually being somewhat in control, a calming presence while being chill who frets less about the kids than marlin does, almost a female Cool Dad.

idk. this is all a ramble, but i've yet to see a dynamic where both parents were present where it didn't feel super gendered one way or the other. they can still be interesting and make good commentary on that - elinor from brave IS interesting and DOES interrogate gender because of the context of the movie, but the dynamic with the dad isn't my favorite. he's got a serious case of Cool Dad.

anyway, the real "problem" - if it can be called that - is that in most other movies, it just feels like a quiet status quo. like. This is How Parents Are, and we're just gonna keep reinforcing that over and over again. i think it stands out to me in part because i've grown up in a family without strict gender roles, as well as (slight!) cultural differences. i feel like mothers are still expected to behave a certain way in america more than here in norway, and when i still see these stock parent tropes its like... weird to me. it feels like it should be old-fashioned but its just treated like the norm.

#not su /#disney

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cassyapper · 2 years

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hi! i'm v interested in knowing what you like about trans girl yoin,,, please tell us the headcanons im so curious

HI thank u for sending this ask in i'm sorry i didn't get to it now <3 but yes trans girl yoin...

god idk kakyoin is so very gnc and as a trans* person myself i love any hc where he's not cis like look at that fucking guy and tell me he's cis. he's not holy shit the way he even talks about himself is so gnc but anyway

idk if i could describe why i like the hc so much exactly..i just think kakyoin. it makes more serotonin molecules float in my brain soup than trans man kakyoin

AS for thoughts about specific scenarios i think she'd like skirts a lot...like she'd like skirts anyway even if she wasnt trans cause she got long dancer legs so they look good on her no matter what but combined w the gender euphoria whew. she likes long flowy skirts the best. the Drama if u will of long flowy airy cloth...

other than that idk if kakyoin would care All that much about passing in terms of . society at large. but her body type is fairly ambiguous so that helps. she might have hierophant steal some estrogen packages just so she can get a Little more curves but i can't see her going all that far re medically transitioning. she's mostly focused on the social transition me thinks

when she comes out to polnareff polnareff is like "i have a little sister again (:" and kakyoin is like "my coming out is not abt u" "oh...right..sorry" "...but thanks i guess" ":)"

t4t jotakak: trans girl kakyoin and trans boy jotaro flavored also does a lot to my brain. soooo many serotonin molecules. also, in the words of my friend jade, "here's how jotaro can still be straight" HAHAHAHAHA

joseph would treat her a lot like he treated holly as a kid and it kinda disgruntles kakyoin at first cause she is Not holly but also she's really pleased at the same time that joseph could make that mental switch so fast and so easily even if it means she's gotta be associated with holly for a bit

omgggggg ryoko being like "omg ur girl? so we can do girl things (:" cause shes like ten and kakyoin is like "...yes (:" and ryoko paints her nails like pink and stuff and it's SOOO STEROTYPICALY but kakyoin is just so happy her baby cousin is so cool and excited about it...

avdol and her relationship dont rlly change all that much but they'd def get closer as a result of him being so lax abt it. avdol would say some sweet philosophical thing abt "how wonderful, that u exhibit what it means to live in a dynamic world so perfectly kakyoin" and kakyoin's like "yeah. anyway i want tits" ;DJWN;J;SKD

also kakyoin would do this no matter what but when trans girl flavored, she really hones in on calling hierophant/herself "girlie"

okay that's all for now thank u for sending this in <3333

#trans girl kakyoin OHUGHGUH brian molecules flying all over the damn place #cass cries #jjba

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notmanagingmymischief · 3 years

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.... . .-.. .-.. --- / -- -.-- / -... . .-.. --- ...- . -.. / -... . -..- 💕

(i have no sweet or. interesting enough nicknames in my own language, so i hope you may accept some morse code for the time being ;u;)

(also. im gonna have to go to school today, so i need to finish some stuff, get some sleep and then get ready, which leaves me no time to talk rn. so i hope you dont mind me replying back a bit late ^^" if you actually decide to answer this lol)

so. as you were the main conduct to the string of thoughts that originated within my brain regarding miss peregrine (and as youre my only friend who actually knows this character), i am here to ramble about yet again my trans hc for her <3

im unable to stop thinking about how such a narrative would untangle itself around the concept presented firstly through a comment shes made on the movie in which "ymbrynes are all females", bringing up very interesting matters: what would alma feel when first discovering either her own identity or her powers as an ymbryne ?

because to a certain extent, both bring very intriguing questions and are on their own concepts to be already very well formed/constructed, as both lead to the same innevitable path (a gender crisis lol), and are able to be maintained stable and solid enough through most of what could be developed as a properly represented/depicted narrative (given the time period and other additional factors to discrimination in this very universe as well).

i literally cannot stop thinking over this concept, and to imagine a scene in which alma finally is able to put the pieces together and understand the sayings of which she has had engraved oh so deeply into her brain all the way through the process of her life and developing of the environment (and system) around her. that moment in which the out loud exclamation of that very much common "oh" when you finally understand everything that has ever happened before, and the many things that lead to your very own being at this moment.

the sense of frustration followed by the upsetment thats dawns inside of her for recognizing the patterns that she desperatly tried to ignore in a place where all used to put their absolute faith in, and believed to trust and call their home; the hardships of living inside a place where no matter how much you try to ignore, keeps on making that insufferable feeling of unpleasantness creep in.

but also. theres hope. hope that one day this would be over. that all she needed was freedom to actually do what she has been yearning for this whole time: time.

and the way in which, even if through such a tragic happening, she really does earn that. alma is finally able to come to terms with her current reality, mend the broken pieces of her once lost self, and to finally find solace and peace to work through such struggles - albeit in the most unlikely of places. the place that now houses the most peculiar and esquisite children, is lead by the most interesting of them all, seen by some as a derogatory title, but to many others as a honorary one. the woman who, from such a bitter and difficult past, managed to pull herself together and with such grace (well. we both know she is basically a mess on the inside, but just roll with the surface telling of a legend ppl tend to spread amongst themselves lmao) to stand in glory as a survivor not only of the very system they all ymbrynes partake in, but also the many other external forces that go agaisnt herself and her own children.

(this kinda contradicts with a theory of mine in which i definitely do include in a x reader type of scenario a nonbinary mc who actually pursues the same path or has the same kind of peculiarity as her. and by not being a woman much less a completely static gender, their introduction to alma would really set a very peculiar and interesting dynamic between not only both of them, but the children and how they view such an autority as alma - before and after meeting the mc, smth i wanna talk more about, but it would take ages to explain, so in a more general way, regarding status, roles, the projecting of young and impressionable/influenciable figures onto a greater person (aka an adult), the way in which role-models may not always know the truth about even such personal and deeply rooted things - be it on their own mind and body or into the very system they've lived in - but may also lie not only to others who they love and care about but themselves, and the capability of change and learning of new things within an environment that alma had tried to prove unable of such things)

(or well. that whole "clashing of realities" could also just be thrown away if we just end up to hc alma as nonbinary too lmao)

i didnt really think about the whole physical transition part, or the amount of information the children would have over this specific matter, but even given the fact that she might have transitioned rather early in order to actually be classified as a capable person to work and serve whatever is in charge of this whole loop thing (which ill be totally fucked if it ends up being just a huge community, with no actual system behind it. tho it does open the path to more carefree ways of developing her social transition which would be awesome too ngl), but to imagine her slowly coming to terms with her identity and grows as a person while already in the house with the children, letting them also aid and support her through such a process would be so wholesome and actually a really healthy development :") (tho again it would completely butcher the already estabilished relationship the children have with her, and her usual cold, stoic aand cynical personality towards them in a daily routine - as the last scenes from the movie are very extreme and could bring out emotions even from someone liek enoch lmao. and the way that she is represented as generally the type of person to keep certain things (most things, really) to herself and how she likes or is more comfortable in dealing with situations considered more personal and delicate on the company of no other person would definitely not enable for smth like this to happen)

but. uh. anyway !! i. hope you were able to understand at least a bit of these thoughts haha ^^" they have been inside my mind for quite some time, and i just think it would be. nice to share them with someone that seemed to like this concept of mine.

they are obviously not even close to being coherent or complete but ill surely go for more once im able to organize my thoughts better, in a more proper time or really any other time that isnt like. 3am (also, as im sure im gonna find more meaning behind her very perculiarity and alternate form - more specifically regarding birds and feathers, as well as search a bit more about the actual environment in which she lived in, if. thats even a thing. and also take note of some more ideas that may complement this story and concept in general haha)

sorry for any grammar errors btw i just really need some sleep rn lol

(also praying to nature this actually sends as a whole and not like. being cut in half or smth)

Bonsoir, mon cher Jupey. Comment allez vous?

Also...listen, I've been trying to figure out how to answer this with my own five mile long paragraph but I couldn't and so all I can say is honestly

Yes.

#ask #jupey <3

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rainbowsky · 3 years

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Final round-up of fan fic asks

I've gotten a few more interesting responses to the fan fic discussion so I'm going to round them all up here. This will be my final post on the topic until/unless there's a dramatic new development, or a particularly notable response I want to highlight. Thanks to everyone who brought their thoughts and experiences to the topic. I hope everyone at least feels heard.

The biggest piece of advice that I would like to offer is for everyone to focus on what they love rather than what they hate. If we all did that, the world would be a better place. Alongside that, I'd like to remind everyone to please support authors whose work you like. It's so important. Give them a kudos, give them a nice comment, recommend their work to others. You never know what kind of grief and harassment they are dealing with to bring you these great stories, and our support means a lot.

This is in reference to previous posts here and here.

Anonymous asked:

With regard to fandom and fan fic issue, my years of experience being part of very large fandoms has led me to believe that big accounts are v important in facilitating and enforcing the general consensus of the whole fandom. Unless there will be big accs who'll remind everyone of being respectful & just not being a dick over other's preferences, nothing will change.

This is also the reason why I think certain solo fandoms have adapted weird and twisted narratives as their general fandom story because no big acc has tried to police them & and say hey pls be rational. Whether we like it or not, in a place where how far voices, ideas, tweets, posts get heard is based on the number of followers you have, big accs will have the power and influence in creating/curating/shifting the narratives.

So, if you want to know why your/our fandom thinks like this in general, look at what big accs are tweeting/posting, look at what ideas & values they follow, look at their preferences or how strongly they react to certain situations. it's taxing and toxic for big accs given the nature of social media these days, but it's also the reality of system, the more followers/audience you have, the more influence you will have.

So to anyone reading this I hope we all practice more restraint and reflection before we post anything. Remember that words, no matter what medium you write it in, will always carry weight.

So true. It is easy - even for myself who spends a fair chunk of time answering people's asks - to forget that people can sometimes be impressionable and what we say can influence people whether that's our intent or not. I get used to thinking of myself as a regular guy just doing my own thing when sometimes my thoughts and words go well beyond where I initially posted them.

I think it's important for us to be careful what we say, and it's equally important to be careful what we take from what other people say. Especially when it comes to big claims. Always get a second, third, fourth opinion and don't be afraid to ask for clarification if something doesn't sit right or sounds confusing.

It's also important to reflect on how our words and actions might affect other people's experience of fandom, and err on the side of 'live and let live' wherever possible. It's great to have our own preferences and to champion them, but we should try to do so in a way that leaves space for other people and perspectives.

The more unique perspectives and the more friendly, open dialog there is, the healthier the community will be as a whole.

There's nothing wrong with encouraging and guiding growth in the particular areas we are interested in, as long as it doesn't step on, oppress or attack those who are peacefully enjoying something different.

Anonymous 2 asked: bjyx fans attacking gdgdbaby for including zsww/lsfy dynamics in an event named bjyx then turning right around and attacking the zsww/lsfy event organizer for excluding bjyx? god, can you hear my facepalm and sigh of resignation and incredulity from over there? im genuinely not surprised that they're trying to drive an entire part of the fandom out by disgusting them (and me) with these immature tactics. i believe what im about to say next will sound quite bait-y and i respect your decision 1/?

should you choose not to post this. but i do know that it is not only me, in fact there are many out there, that is of this opinion. we just dont talk about it on twitter to avoid the potential mess it will bring lol. okay, here goes nothing. (do note that im talking about the majority here, not every single person is like this) so bjyx fans tend to be cishet females whereas zsww/lsfy fans are more diverse in terms of age and gender, and most of them are part of the queer community too 2/?

i would like to clarify that most of these zsww/lsfy fans are not dynamic exclusive (in the sense that they are friendly and interact with all ggdd fans) they just prefer to "identify" themselves as zsww/lsfy fans (on twitter specifically) just to form a distinction from bjyx fans who mostly are dynamic exclusive (as in; they do not consume non-bjyx content, and straightup refuse to interact with non-bjyx fans, often blocking them). as a result, id say that the zsww/lsfy communiy is way more 3/?

mature and respectful (after all, they're mostly queer people talking about a queer ship) whereas many problems in this fandom, such as the homophobia, adamantly insisting on "drawing lines" between dynamics, stem from the bjyx exclusive fans, comprised of cishet females who "may not know better". so, it is of no surprise to me that they're resorting to these immature tactics of calling gg unsavory names, and organizing retaliatory events with controversial topics in an attempt to "purify". 4/4

I trust that you have arrived at that theory through your own experience and observation. I haven't personally spent much time immersed in this stuff so I can't claim to have any real insight or expertise. If you say that's your experience of it, then at the very least that's how you've seen things up to this point.

I just want to say that I think we should always be careful about making assumptions about people's age, gender/gender identity, etc.

There are plenty of good reasons to avoid doing that; because those assumptions could be very wrong, because those assumptions are often laced with ageism, sexism, etc., because those assumptions - even when correct - might not be an accurate basis for the conclusions we draw.

But the primary reason I recommend avoiding those type of assumptions is because anything that enables us to clump a group of people together in our minds like that will tend to make them easier to demonize and dehumanize. They are no longer individuals who are each responsible for their own unique perspectives, they are now 'the X group' who is known for 'A B C series of easily attackable ideas or behaviors'.

If we attribute undesirable traits and behaviors to a group of people we feel opposed to in some way, that makes us feel more righteous and justified in behaving unfairly toward them, dismissing their humanity and warring with them. It's just risky behavior to engage in, even when it's well-intentioned.

There might actually be some truth to what you're saying. It could very well be that most of these people are young, inexperienced, heteronormative, etc. but if that's the case then we should try to use those traits to better understand and empathize rather than to better dismiss and discredit.

Just my two cents on that.

It can be really frustrating dealing with what feels like other people attacking us, trying to oppress us, etc. - especially when there are more of them than there are of us. In my experience the best solutions to that sort of problem are generally the ones that focus on what we are doing and want to do rather than what they are doing that we don't want them to do.

As I am always preaching, we can't control what other people say, do or think. The only thing we have any control over is what we say, do and think (and how we respond to what they say, do and think).

I have found in my experience that the moment I step out of a conflict mindset and instead step into a problem-solving mindset, everything starts to come together. I feel better, my outlook is more positive, I can begin to see solutions and allies rather than problems and enemies, and most of all, I become more focused on what I am doing than what others are doing.

So I would recommend everyone who is invested in resolving these conflicts focus on that. "How can we best showcase and encourage the types of stories we enjoy?" instead of "How can we stop these other people from doing things we dislike?"

Anonymous 3 asked:

Hello again! It’s anon #3 from the fanfic post. I really do appreciate reading your thoughts on various issues like this, so thank you for always taking time to write in depth. As for supporting without going to war, the simplest way has always been to just show appreciation for the creators, hype them up. Kudos are the easiest way on ao3 but comments in addition are great. This goes for all content—art, fics, vids..etc. Creators love to see and read how people react to their content. Sharing is also great, fic recs are very helpful, just be cautious with art and reposting though. Hope this helps a bit!

Thanks so much, Anon. I think this is excellent advice. And it's true that appreciation is great, but helping to expand the audience is also great. Recommending stories, pointing people to the pages/websites of artists we like (as opposed to reposting), sharing our own ideas and approaches, encouraging people to try new things... all of this helps build healthier communities.

And here's another one: WRITE! DRAW! CREATE!

I urge anyone with creative interests or talents to bring their voices to the community because we all can benefit from hearing from you.

Thanks again everyone for sharing your thoughts on this issue. I hope that over time we can all work in positive ways to improve the situation.

I think this subject has been well-covered now so I'm going to retire it for the time being. If anyone still feels they want to discuss it further please feel free to message me privately. Thanks.

#fan fiction #fandom reflections #ask

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oscar-mildes · 4 years

Note

elvira you know I always see what you're hiding in the tags,, I will always read it if you answer all of them abhsjdbs

nev you asked for this and im going to go thru with it bc im an oversharing idiot like oh you asked me how’s the weather i will tell you about all my trauma instead :D

What do you identify as and what are your pronouns? i’m cis yo i’m she/her. i’m biromantic ace. thats the label i would put on it i guess. i really just refer to myself as gay bc i like pretty boys who look like girls and pretty girls and pretty nb and queer people and basically i just like pretty people ajsfbjf

How did you discover your sexuality, tell your story? theres no story to it. no epiphany or realization. i just always was ok with thinking that girls were pretty and that gay people are cool and it wasnt until recent years that i was like oH SHIT AM I GAY

Have you experienced being misgendered? What happened and how did you overcome it? no i guess bc i’m a girl and id as a girl and have a very obvious girl body

Who was the first person you told, how did they react? i guess my best friend. we’re both very ok with gay shit and we just always made comments about pretty girls and now we’re both pretty gay. i like my big tiddie anime girls and she likes her pretty kpop girl bands

Describe what it was like coming out, what did you feel? i’ve only “come out” to some of my friends. i would NEVER in my LIFE even imagine telling my mom i like girls. shes homophobic Like That

If you’re out, how did your parents/guardians/friends react? uhh see above. my mom, stepdad, family members are all homophobic. hispanics in general are Like That rip. i think my dad would be the most ok with it but he lives in mexico and i dont talk to him often anyway. doesnt matter

What is one question you hate people asking about your sexuality? i hate when people ask me about the ace part. like they have a bigger problem about my not wanting to have sex over the liking girls part tbh. sometimes it’s difficult for me to even describe where i am on the ace spectrum. it’s honestly the more difficult part

Describe the style of clothing that you most often wear. basic nerd. you know those fics like “she dressed in a black t-shirt, skinny jeans, and all star converse” yea that she is me

Who are your favourite lgbt+ ships? ajkfj this is a good question and canon wise i love Ash and Eiji from Banana Fish, Uenoyama and Mafuyu from Given, Nezumi and Shion from No. 6, and Simon and Baz from Carry On. Not canon i love Kurama and Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho, Izuku and Todoroki from My Hero Academia, and Inosuke and Tanjiro from Demon Slayer. Note how most of them are anime i

What does makeup mean to you? Do you wear any? i dont really wear any bc im lazy. if you like it you do you but idrc for it? except for lipstick i LOVE lipstick i have all the colors. i wear it so it distracts people from the rest of my face

Do you experience dysphoria? If so, how does that affect you? ...no

What is the stupidest thing you’ve heard said about the lgbt+ community? i live in the south so ive heard tons of shit talk about gay people. i dont really have any that stand out. my mom just likes to say that we’re going to hell :D so let’s give em a show ay

What’s your favourite thing about the lgbt+ community? i guess i like how we find solidarity in each other just bc we’re not straight. most of the lgbt+ folks i know are pretty chill about everything

What’s your least favourite thing about the lgbt+ community? terfs but they dont count

Have you ever been to your cities pride event? Why or why not? i live in a small town and i could never sneak out of my house for that bc i still live with my mom so no

Who is your favourite lgbt+ Icon/Advocate/Celebrity? theres so many big celebrities now that id as lgbt+ but im going old school and loving my man, my tumblr url namesake mr Oscar Wilde. my man got put in jail for sodomy

Have you been in a relationship and how did you meet? lmao never bc im mean, ugly, and terrible at talking to people irl. i had a bf in middle school? but bc i was 12 i dont count it

What is your favourite lgbt+ book? Carry On and the sequel Wayward Son. (very anxiously waiting for book 3 Anyway the Wind Blows come on Rainbow Rowell)

Have you ever faced discrimination? What happened? for being gay? no. bc im not really out. ive faced discrimination for being a brown woman tho :)))

Your Favorite lgbt+ movie or show? yall i love gay anime: Given, Banana Fish, No. 6, Yuri on Ice yeee. i dont really watch tv with real people but i think that Brooklyn 99 does a very good job with Holt and Rosa yall im love Rosa

Who are some of your favourite lgbt+ bloggers? theres bloggers??? um idk i love u nev so you count right @why-do-you-pick-flowers

Which lgbt+ slur do you want to reclaim? for a while everyone was mad as hell about “im gay for ___” and idk im gay for everything so thats a “slur” i use for myself

Have you ever gone to a gay bar, or a drag show, how was it? ive never gone omg i’d probably be intimidated as hell like i have a lot of problems just existing so to be existing around very flamboyant and extravagant people like that makes me break into a nervous sweat

How do you self-identify your gender, and what does that mean to you? ive always felt like a girl even tho my mom always said “oh you like boy things??? you should have been born a boy” but like, your likes and dislike dont determine your gender. i like “boy” things and “dress like a boy” but i dont FEEL like a boy. ive never had any desire to become a boy or id as a boy. gender is a social construct fuck society

Are you interested in having children? Why or why not? i have a very complicated relationship with children. babies are ugly and toddlers are annoying but i feel like if i had children i would love them obviously because theyre mine. this is gonna be a weird analogy but like i dislike cats. BUT i have cats. and i love the fuck outta them. so i feel like thatd be me with kids. but im ace so like.... who would even have kids with me. i could not. pregnancy seems like a hassle and adoption is... i have thoughts on that but thats for a different post. also i can see myself being married and not having children OR having kids without a spouse. theres just something complicated about having both??? maybe im just fucked in the head idk bro

What identity advice would you give your younger self? you dont hate girls you like them, dumbass

What do you think of gender roles in relationships? fuck gender roles. get pegged, bros. i also have a very specific dynamic if i ever got into a relationship (which you know. wont happen) but like if i dated a guy i feel like i’d be very top. a MAN telling ME what to do??? fuck that. but if i dated a pretty girl??? top me pls

Anything else you want to share about your experience with gender? i think ive already said too much oh god someone is gonna look at this and be like what the FUCK but like lmao dont be afraid to ask me i apparently have no shame

What is something you wish people know about being lgbt+? it’s scary at first because you think “im not normal” but like pray tell me what is normal. do what makes you happy. fuck society

Why are proud to be lgbt+? i’m comfortable with the people i like. i might not be very confident and i have depression, anxiety, self esteem issues, probs adhd or ocd idfk but at least i know if i see a pretty girl or smth im gonna be like wow that girl is pretty and have no bad thoughts about it. it’s just how it be. after a lot of dissecting my past behavior, ive always been this way. you cant change who you are. just accept it

#asks #nev you asked for this #oversharing??? me??? never #lgbt stuff #im gay yall

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rontra · 5 years

Text

ANONYMOUS ASKED:

i really like mwot and was wondering, do you wanna talk/loredump/etc about mwot during this blessed month of pride? (if not that's totally cool!!! i really like the au and am curious about it!)

REPLY:

YES!!!!

umineko spoilers below and LONG POST KSDJDKSKD i really went infodumping......you got me right in an infodumping mood....

also im being very casual in this post so if something is like weird or vague its probably because i got tired of thinking about it and skipped ahead. SKJDSJD

mwot is an umi au and its very gay and very trans because i, a gay trans, decided it was TIME to INDULGE

LIKE A MOUNTAIN WIND FALLING ON OAK TREES also known as MWOT, MW/OT, Mountain Wind + Oak Trees, MW+OT, or literally any combination of its parts, is an eva/natsuhi au, set in a vague modern big city setting

https://rontra.tumblr.com/tagged/mountain-wind-oak-trees

it’s a comedy, mostly? it has elements of backstory transphobia and stuff like that but that’s not really the story i want to tell with it, so i don’t go too deeply into it in the main fic. it’s mostly comedy and Self Care: The Story (once these nerds get around to acknowledging that self care is good, anyway!!!!)

Eva is 20, nb lesbian (though she doesnt know half of it to begin with). generally a bitchard at the beginning but also deeply craving that Validation. Invested in making the fic harder to write due to pronoun shenanigans (shoutout to the lengthy section of intimate emotional scenes that uses no pronouns at all for eva but is narrated by them in 3rd person)

Natsuhi is like 21 i guess because im a sucker for her having like an annoying 1-3 years on eva bc eva would get mad about it. Also she’s trans, gray-ace, hopeless romantic, generally full of “quickly raising your eyebrows and looking away while sipping your drink and thinking Yikes” energy. weaponizes indifference but is no stranger to harder means. she’s a smart cookie

Sayo is also 20, gender clown car living her best life. Presents differently depending on mood and whim

krauss is like 22 or whatever. for housekeeping’s sake, rosa and rudolf are too young to matter (8 and 10, or something like that). dont even worry about it

honestly the weirdest part of the au is eva and sayo being the same age

also this au is the origin point of me & my friends using akikaze as nat’s maiden name. the more you know!

USHIROMIYA GOLD dishes up that yellow metal like you wouldn’t believe. led by kinzo whos so fuckin good at sniffing out that sweet sweet gold people are half convinced the man has psychic powers. Any piece of land he’s got his eyes on, he WILL get his hands on, no matter who owns it right now.

the land kinzo wants At The Moment is owned by the AKIKAZE FAMILY who have been notably on the decline recently. they’re in the economic shithole so this land is basically all they’ve got right now, so when kinzo wants it and it suddenly Has Value, they’re like “oh, shit,

anyway the deal basically shakes out that like, he gets the land and all the gold that may or may not be in it. he offers his eldest son in exchange for this land, to marry their daughter: in the bonds of marriage graciously ensuring a part of the winnings will spill over on them, while keeping them under his control without money coming into the picture.

Everything’s working out great and coming up kinzo. the deal is closed and everyone’s happy (i guess). until ONE DAY, just a few narrow weeks before the akikaze girl is set to move in with the ushiromiyas,

KINZOS

OLDEST

SON

DISAPPEARS

!!!!!

Krauss dislikes being told what to do, and his father’s ideals never lined up with his own. He thinks this entire thing is sort of fucked up and can’t live under his dad’s thumb anymore. That's why, immediately following Kinzo’s agreement with the Akikaze family, Krauss disappears. He’s just kinda left for greener pastures, to unfold his own life and pursue his own interests independent of the Ushiromiya name. He leaves behind a letter explaining it & basically he forfeits both name and inheritance, and Kinzo’s incredible deal is suddenly in jeopardy.....

obviously this is kinzo though, and all of his solutions are like, 20 times more complicated than they have to be? he’s DETERMINED to have this land so he’s like “i need an eldest son. shit rudolf is only like 9. fuck. well okay i have an eldest daughter with a deeply complicated need for validation and success entirely driven by her overall neglect at my hands“ and the rest. as they say. is history (???)

Ushiromiya Eva always saw Krauss as unworthy of the inheritance, and to her, his disappearance confirms this. She grew up always being made to feel inferior to her older brother, usually being ignored in favor of him, and it's bred a complex need for validation in her. Her values and strengths are more like Kinzo’s than her brother’s, and Kinzo recognizes this in the wake of Krauss’ disappearance.

basically he concocts this really wild scheme where eva has to pretend to be his oldest son and marry this girl or whatever so he can seal this stupid gold deal and she’s like “well lol if i get to be family heir” and hes like “yes that’s what im saying” and shes like “awesome let’s do it”

all of the servants are in on it too of course. specifically kinzo enlists SAYO who works there as normal staff and isn’t otherwise tangled into this family’s mess in any way whatsoever. she’s just here to serve tea and looks. anyway he’s like “you work on this with eva--i mean evan, my son, you must have misheard--and eva you have to listen to whatever yasuda says” and eva is like “that last part will not be frustrating for me at all”.

Yasuda as reigning Household Gender Presentation Expert is like “i think i just got orders from the master to bully eva?” and eva is like “i wish i could fire you but my dad just banned me from doing that” and then gradually...over the course of the project......they become....friends.........

(the au is tagged eva & sayo for a reason. they become FRIENDS!!)

mostly its just various combinations of shkanon dunking on eva and its all VERY good.

during all these shenanigans we make some startling realizations like “gender euphoria is a hell of a drug” and stuff, which is extremely harrowing for everyone (note: not for everyone. just for eva, who makes 10,000 realizations every day, and should not have been counted.)

(ok sidenote did anyone else put on their first binder & go like “hmmm. i live here now” because. mood. im projecting entirely into this fic)

Gender Clown Car yasuda (currently as lion) is like “you know there’s like more than 2 genders” and eva’s like “you fucking wehat”.

i also make a REALLY INVOLVED JOKE ABOUT CASTIGLIONI GOLD, THE RIVAL COMPANY, and how BEATRICE’S KID LOOKS A LOT LIKE LION, and EVERYONE thinks this is all VERY funny

(i would like to see it. also kinzo owes beatrice castiglioni $20 and she’s never let him forget it.)

now wrapped up in this stupid impostor scheme AND full of big wild nonbinary energy AND!! WITH AN INFURIATING NEW FRIEND!! IN THE STAFF!!! this one funky ushiromiya is all ready to get in on an arranged marriage or whatever. provided NO ONE EVER FINDS OUT that they’re faking it and replacing the Actual Heir, which would no doubt ruin the scheme AND bring kinzo’s wrath on everybody involved, of course.

AKIKAZE NATSUHI IS READY TO PUNCH HER FIANCE IN THE THROAT IF HE EVEN LOOKS AT HER but she understands what’s happening here. she knows she didn’t have a say in this from the very beginning. that the deal was sealed for her as soon as the name “ushiromiya” was said. she knows her family married her off quick in a bid to get rid of her. if she’s humiliated by this ordeal, she is far too proud to show it. she packs her bags and walks into the mansion with her head held high........and immediately has this exchange with her fiance

and this one

so that’s kind of the energy we’re going for with these two.

(natsuhi’s line in the second cap was going to be removed for being Way Too Intense, but everyone i talked to said it was too hot to cut, so i decided to indulge us all. blame the lesbians)

they IMMEDIATELY don’t get along but they kinda agree to like, mind their business, since neither of them are interested in playing house here. if they can get the wedding to go off without a hitch they can basically go back to never talking to each other again.

natsuhi’s entire angle here is essentially: her family was not that good, and this family likely won’t be better, BUT here she has a chance to build something new for herself. she’ll be out of her parents’ house. She needs this deal to stay for her own sake, but she has to get out ahead of her husband and set up a dynamic that favors her. when she meets evan she essentially gauges the kind of person she’s dealing with and picks her approach accordingly: this is not a soft man, and she has to be hard in turn to avoid being steamrolled.

and its VERY hot

anyway some stuff happens and it eventually they both sorta get each other’s secrets. eva is not the firstborn son and natsuhi is not the card kinzo thought he was pulling from her family’s hand and theyre both toast if word hits the public. directly after the wedding they establish a tense alliance of keeping each others’ secrets....

and then they.....fall...in l

there’s some fun tensions and realizations. eva is like “so im quickly catching on that no praise i ever received from dad was on my own merit and he’s kind of a dirtbag all around and his validation is kind of not worth it” and nat is like “word our parents are chains” & they run kinzo over with the down w cis bus. it’s fine. they get postcards from krauss sometimes. he has a motorbike now.

DID I MENTION THE PRACTICE KISSING

BC THEY HAVE TO PRACTICE! FOR THE!! PUBLIC WEDDING!!!!

and thats mwot i guess. it’s my au where natsuhi’s accent color is red and some other stuff happens too. happy pride month

#mwot #second time's the charm

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gg-astrology · 5 years

Note

hi! do you think one's sexuality and myer briggs personality type has a connection with your natal chart?

Hey there! 💕 I had to take a while to think about this because it’s such an interesting question skdfnskndk 💕 There’s a couple of big topics we should touch on… separately and then together? I’ll make it brief so I don’t ramble for too long 💕

[Below Cut: Romance| Love| Sexuality Asteroids (+ MBTI in relation to Astrology ]

*Note: These are just my own interpretation and what I use, usually I don’t go straight to asteroids but I get some clues from aspect/placements and wants to double check on something. Please use your own discretion when interpreting these (context clues matters)! 💕

Sexuality

So let’s start off here. There’s a broad spectrum of gender/sexuality and generally with regards to astrology sometimes some clues do crop up in aspects/placements (depends on context and what the rest of the chart indicates) – but I usually double-check them with asteroids:

Sapphos [80]

Ganymede [1036]

Vesta

Aphrodite [1388]

Cupido [763]

Amor [1221]

Psyche [16]

Lust [4386]

Lilith

Usually I use these to start off with, I don’t usually check ALL of them I just check what I think the aspect/placements were already alluding to. Since someone’s situation (self-identity, fluidity, whether they’ve come out or not, etc.) is usually something they have to be self-aware of– I usually just check for things that might be helpful for them to know in the future/things that might crop up.

Ophelia [171]

Orpheus [3361]

With these two I rarely check them but sometimes I do, if they need help explaining the last or getting over something. I think these two needs more context in order to make more sense, thus why if something is seriously concerning I check them.

Karma [3811]

Loving [432971]

I usually use these for synastry/compatibility, there’s a few others I didn’t include but I think these are the two main ones for the types of questions I get (sometimes I check Child [4580] too)

Hathor [2340]

Astarte [672]

If the shade of love is something different (I’m not talking about like, gender/sexuality wise but more like dynamic wise) I usually look at these two. They’re more– I usually use them for more future focused stuff? Dynamic related stuff? Honestly context matters a lot so I advice people to look at all the aspects/placements first before looking at the asteroids.

MBTI

As for MBTI— I think that just the fact that it’s a personality test, accessible to people and that it’s pseudoscience TO ME makes it the same type of thing as astrology?

Apparently there’s been debates on both sides with remarks about how the other is fake/less accurate?? I honestly don’t know about this. Because both sides are kind of up in arms about which side is more accurate (”Based more on scientific research”) when they’re both?? equally?? pseudo??

I got a pretty good article aligning the MBTI to the Zodiac Signs (by Emma Hickey) for you though 💕 I’m an ENFP sometimes ENTP (depending on what phase of my life I’m in/my external environment/focus is right now) and so I looked at my Sagittarius ASC 💕 Ofc this is just for fun, so don’t take it too seriously 💕

*ALSO : Going back to the Sexuality thing, I know we’ve been trying to do more research on if Sagittarius/Leo/Pisces/Scorpio placements can indicate more fluidity in gender/sexuality and I?? honestly don’t know about that sdfnksn

I hope this?? Answers your question?? 💕 Somewhat?? 💕💕 Thanks for sending in such a thoughtful and interesting question for me to answer!! 💕💕 It’s been a blast thinking about this ;u; 💕💕 I really appreciate it!! 💕💕

#mbti #asteroids #sapphos #ganymede #vesta #aphrodite #cupido #amor #psyche #lust #lilith #ophelia #orpheus #karma #loving #hathor #astarte #asteroid asks #astrology asks #mbti asks #anon #asks

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zenosanalytic · 5 years

Text

4/20/19 HSE 8

Ok back at it

MEAT 15

Cool Fight; Not terribly surprising.

MEAT 16

Dirk’s as much Rose’s father as Rose is his Mother. I guess maybe it’s more convenient, psychologically, to choose a causative direction and stick with it, rather than accept the Mobial nature of their genesis, but for some reason it bugs me this keeps getting overlooked.

Dirk’s over here talking about how right he is all the time and I dont think he was ever right about anything even once in canon(aside from certain aspects of his talk with Dave, and choosing not to kill Hal) XD The only “plan” of his to work was the one re: entering the Session, and 1)he outsourced it to Hal and 2)it only worked because he managed to improvise his way through every aspect of it failing to go the way he thought it would, and even that probably had more to do with their entry being part of HiC’s plan to use them, so she wasn’t trying to wipe them.

Another Thing: I dont think the Ascent Differential is Aspect so much as Personality.

Another Another Thing: That Rose, when discussing her life-long fear of knowledge as a corrupting and ruining outside force(this being a person who always felt her mother wasn’t her mother, in some sense, and responded to that fear by rejecting emotional intimacy with said mother), doesnt see the connection between that life-long fear and her fear that Ascending will be bad, damaging, and corrupting, is Notable. Perspective continues to be important, and lack of self-awareness continues to hamstring ppl in this narrative.

MEAT 17

I feel like this new narrative belligerence on Dirk’s part isn’t going to work out too well for him with a person as aware and recalcitrant to narrative meddling as John. It’s going to be John and WV all over again. This is also a wonderful example of how personal flaw and specificity isn’t solved by Godhood in HS, and can really trip you up; basically all of this, including the “impotence” applies to Dirk, too, when others disagree with the direction he’s trying to push them in, and this whole rant may be meant, ironically, as an example of dramatic irony: basically, that Dirk’s rant about total control and knowledge reveals the limits of his knowledge and will be followed by examples of how limited his control is, which he can’t be aware of, but which the “impotent” audience will.

MEAT 18

...And, almost immediately, John’s objecting to the narration and doing things before Dirk “writes” him doing them(the sigh).

MEAT 19

“So yeah, I’m gonna allow it” Notice how he asserts power over situations he does not, in fact, have power over.

Which is kind of an interesting dynamic to bring up in the context of authorship? I mean: in the realm of nonfictional works an author can’t “make” things happen, only alter for their audience what DID happen. In some respect this is being written as equivalent to that dynamic; the simple admission in M17 that Dirk is misrepresenting events also admits those events happened another way than he’d prefer, meaning it’s also an admission of his lack of power over actual events. And, of course, all the other things I’ve been talking about, and the fact that everyone’s “character” is rooted in natures established in the original work. But in a fictional work an author’s creative power is absolute, and this is a fictional work; though I suppose a derivative or transformational one, which accounts for the shortfall. Another interesting aspect of this is that the “Author” is presented as a Narrator; Narrators merely describe what happened, they don’t create it. I was going somewhere more concrete with this but it popped out of my head >:T >:T

Ok so other aspects of this: I agree that Jane’s been established as a pretty ambitious person, but she was also always a pretty moral person and the way she’s going about this so far doesn’t seem to be in keeping with that part of herself. And also: she literally wants to create shortages, and thus the suffering shortages will cause, for... what? Nostalgia? Because she think she can run Capitalism better than the adults from before all this?? Because Hierarchy is Neat??? Seems like a whole handful of really petty, selfish, and juvenile reasons to me. Also one guaranteed to cause social conflict; I doubt a civ that’s never known material want is going to react too well to sudden starvation and financially-manufactured forced-labor(which, lbr, is what most work in our world is).

Obvsl, as a snake and member of the storied gens Atheris, I agree with Roxy&Calli that patriarchal human concepts of gender are not the end-all-be-all of identity, but what really jumps out to me here is Roxy’s description of the nature of their love for, and previous sexual interest in, Dirk which I find really True. Like: the sentiment of wanting to see children of a person because you really like that person and think they should continue, or of thinking having the kids you might have with another person would be pretty interesting. Also that loneliness is a hell of a drug 8T

I’m trying to figure out why this conversation would be circumstantially simultaneous with The Furthest Ring being “destroyed”, but I got Nothing :T :T :T

MEAT 20

So yeah, Jade’s merging with her Alt!Selves, not too surprising since it was heavily foreshadowed in Endgame.

Given that Sessions are located IN the Furthest Ring, and Sessions MAKE new multiverses, I find it being made out of “negative potential. The absence of a future” pretty ironic :p I wonder if the tentacle hair bit is a nod towards the Horror-Terrors, and theories about them being Players? Rose and Dirk’s view of Ascension would seem to suggest HTs might be SUCCESSFUL players who eventually abandoned their universes out of fear of the damage they’d do misusing their godhood(as it doesnt solve your personal problems), rather than the old HC of them being failed Players.

MEAT 21

My theory about “The Economy” being code for sex doesn’t stop feeling ever more confirmed by this narrative :|

Dirk’s anger at the idea of anyone not thinking he’s right about everything is Palpable on this page. Also I’d just like to note that This:

Is being said by a person currently in the middle of metaphysically manipulating a friends towards her worst impulses(and also potentially some amounts of self-hatred, give her thoughts re: femininity) for the sake of establishing a dictatorship through which she, as his agency-dimmed puppet, will enforce his personal politico-philosophical preferences regardless of what anyone else thinks and he’s saying it about people who just said This:

which is to say: a bunch of political pluralists who are NOT seeking to impose their morality on anyone but rather to establish a system where EVERYONE can SHARE their moral understanding of policy issues and come to a consensus decision on them, within the context of a political society DEFINED by the equality of all as political actors. There’s just so much that’s wrong, weak, and easily dismissable about Dirk’s argument here. Not to mention his obvs, undisguised, physical disgust for trolls >:T

And he’s doing all this Purely because, given his fixation on “Winning”, he wants to Win. Like: he’s not actually even pursuing what he considered good policy; he is, literally, doing this all for Pure Ego, which he has the gall(and lack of self-awareness) to accuse others of acting from. And this self-deluding buffoon is a person who believes himself “Ascended” and therefore possessed of a “higher” and “clearer” perspective on matters above their “petty” concerns about, oh non-humans being allowed to live as they like, or practice any political agency at all, and all ppls being spared unnecessary and pointless suffering due to entirely manufactured shortages. So much (real, actual)Irony, of so many types, in all of this, all at once.

An aside: I am really liking the political-mindedness of these Epilogues so far; really playing to my Interests uwu

The bit about Hybrid babs and shipnames is funny, and it doesn’t read like a shot at the fandom to me at all; it’s more a joke at Dave’s expense given the obvs distress Kanaya’s in and his inability to stop making the situation more awkward(itself prob the result of Bro’s neglect/abuse)

Oh hey look: it’s Dirk the “Omniscient” being distracted, caught unawares and off-guard by the actions of others, unable to handle the role&work he’s chosen for himself(ie “out of his depth”), unable to split his attention between even just two conscious ppl at once, and not knowing what others are thinking. Given this and his handling of Jade’s thoughts in the last section, I kinda feel like it’s less he can actually sense the thoughts of others, and more that he gets some kind of inkling or hunch, or maybe that’s it’s purely just him guessing(that’d fit real well with his comments on Roxy being “inscrutable” to him), or even just having an awareness of the plot he is narrating(and thinks he’s writing). Of course it could also be some kind of Heart thing; not really even access to their thoughts at all, but a sort of awareness of their Agency? Like: Heart is The Self and The Self is expressed through Agency, so he has, in some way, developed an awareness of “Self-Action”, which is to say, Agency? Kinda like how Dave “feels” Time and Jade “feels” Space and Rose “feels” Relevance. Which, just as an asnide, would be something super-basic powers-dev wise, since Dave started having a sense of Time way back in the early Acts, long before godhood. Though I can see how Dirk developing an awareness of OTHERS intentions(and feelings, potentially, given Heart’s other associations) would seem like a big step for him, given how self-absorbed he is.

Ok that’s it for this one I think. I know I’m not being terribly kind to Dirk in all this but, tbf, he’s being kind of a huge snide Dick in basically every respect, and I also don’t have a lot of Chill in me when it comes to 1)arrogant people or 2)manipulators (:T

#Homestuck #HS Epilogue #Homestuck Spoilers #zA Opinions #analytic posts

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forestsagess · 5 years

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If you don’t mind me asking, what do you think makes chrobin work so well?

That’s a thought provoking question.

I’m not even sure I’m properlyconveying my thoughts here. I thought long and hard on it. I lookedat my own notes. I wrote, deleted, and wrote again. So here, aftermuch editing, is a mini-essay of character development ramblings foryou! Read below!

It should be acknowledged that Robinis, in some ways, a form of self-expression for the players. As theavatar, players are free to impress themselves on the plot and fillin the gaps for Robin’s personality. So for each fan, they candevelop their own private reasons why such a relationship formed asit did! Every Chrobin pairing has it’s own unique moments that makeit work in their respective Outrealm.

Since you are asking my personalopinion, I based most of my reasoning off of key elements I saw inthe narrative to point out why these two work so well together. I saythat not just as romantic partners, but as the famous dynamic duothey are. It’s how I built the dynamic of Chrom and Robin for mystory, anyhow. It’s a basis that allows Robins of all genders,personalities, and orientations to maintain such a strong bond withChrom while all being different characters. Because, hey, let’s faceit, the Robin starring in my story is far different from thetactician in the games! Yet, I still needed to convey that bondsomehow.

The game doesn’t have the luxury of afull blown plot like cinematic ones, but there’s plenty to see insupports and the main chapters. From that, I see two key pillars thatmake up the foundation to their success: loyalty and trust.

Robin embodies loyalty. They awaken onthe ground destitute of anything save for their name. No past and nopeople to turn to. Chrom shows up and asks for nothing in return, yetoffers Robin the world. A home, a sense of purpose, and a shoulder torely on. As the story progresses, that never changes. No matter whatrevelations come to light about their past, Robin is never turnedaway. For that, Robin’s loyalty to Chrom remains steadfast and true.No Emperors or Khans can bribe them away. No temptations of powercould sway their interests. Robin was given a gift to pursue a lifehowever they pleased and free of prejudices that may have driven themdown the worst of paths. Chrom saved Robin in more ways than what isobvious, a fact someone as perceptive and intelligent as Robin wouldunderstand, especially in late game. That loyalty is freely given andthe greatest of gifts Robin could offer in return. Because in doingso, it allows Chrom to rely on Robin in a special way.

That way is trust, Chrom’s greatestvirtue in the relationship. He enjoys a bit more freedom for a royalin that he can travel with his war band away from Court. However,he’s always under the critique of his title. There’s a wall thatprevents him from socializing and acting as he’d like. With Robin,there isn’t anything hidden between them. Robin’s loyalty towardChrom means they remain steadfast at his side. Robin will conversewith Chrom with no fear or inhibition. Chrom is not a prince, nor ishe on a pedestal, untouchable thanks to his lineage with Naga. Chromknows that Robin will always speak the truth with him and converse ona level that isn’t with tainted intrigues or appeals. Robin is alwaysgenuine and working to make Chrom’s goals come true. Robin isn’t aretainer, they are comrade-in-arms. They aren’t just his tactician,they’re his confidant. Chrom can let go of his mantle as prince andsimply be himself with Robin. I’m sure there’s no greater relief thanbeing free to act as he desires without the judgment of the Court andpopulace on him.

Players can fill in the events betweenchapters that form the little steps that build such rapport, but thegame provides the right time frame to do so. As a decision maker inthe alliance, Chrom is going to spend a fair amount of his wakinghours with Robin. Some days Robin is probably the first and last facehe sees. The two are going to talk, philosophize, and dream together.More than anyone, aside from his sisters and maybe Frederick, Chromis going to have very private moments with Robin. Ones where each canfreely share the darkest fears or tenderest wishes. There’s anintimacy that builds in those sheltered moments where the horrors oftheir reality fade away to a small world built only around the tentthey inhabit and the individual opposite them. In this time, they areat their most vulnerable. A bond is built that runs deeper than most.Combined with such trust and loyalty towards each other, I think itallows a type of love to form. It’s a selfless, unconditional onethat is universal and separate from others. In this, the foundationfor any type of additional attachments could form.

Romantic attachments would be ano-brainer for Chrom once he realized his own feelings. He has hisperfect partner already. There’s no doubt in his mind that acourtship with Robin would end in anything but marriage. With thepressure of Emmeryn’s loss and the fatigue of war, passion would burnquick and hot. However, because the strongest aspects of trust andloyalty have already been built, the relationship could only prosper,not flounder when the embers cool down.

Annnnyway, that about sums up my mostbasic thoughts on why the pairing is so strong. It’s not just aboutbeing romantically attracted to each other. There’s a whole separatelevel of strength the two draw from.

(Also, “best friends to lovers” is afavorite trope of mine. I’d say it works just because of that ;) )

#mystuff #inane ramblings on character development #fire emblem #I hope that was a proper enough answer for you Anon!#good question

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a-stitch-in-time-and-space · 3 years

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ok i agree w/ everything you said about those ladies besides, lwaxana gives s*xual pr*dator vibes and that is why i dont like her.

I can see that reading for sure and all things are subjective. I do strongly disagree, but hey, fandom is a space for that! Super chill.

to go a little more into this though, since it's not really so much about what any of us feel, but more about how we engage with female characters (and I'll use your example of why you don't like her - not to drag you, your dislike is totally fair, she's fictional, she won't mind, but just because it's a single line that kinda puts her in a box. And not a very nice box to be in, that's for sure...)

a little tw for mild references to some of the shadier writings of star trek vis a vis sexual assault and otherwise sexist and/or strange relationship dynamics

okay so you know how Riker has like. two? episodes that're suuuper shady in terms of his treatment of women and the rest of the time it's pretty chill. and he's one of my favourite characters, but I have gotta skip those episodes, because whatever they were trying to do, they Did Not Succeed - and there's a reading of him that incorporates those elements and if you do you've gotta contend with the character being quite probably someone who's assaulted women.

or how Worf at times espouses sexist shit that makes me roll my eyes outta my head and you're either gonna say "I don't fucking like this character" (and again, totally fair, I've seen people who don't Vibe) or you've gotta find a way to make this work for you if you want to explore that character - or both of those things, you can dislike a character and want to write about them

Or some of the weird shit the writers have Geordi do (which, Geordi is my favourite character in TNG, but sometimes ya gotta breathe and go "the writers are fucking dumb, the writers are fucking dumb")

or - the spiritual successor of Geordi, Julian Bashir (my favourite character from DS9 - clearly I have a Type). You've gotta go: This is stupid writing. I can make it work with my own read of the character, but first and foremost The Writing Is Dumb!

Or hell, Q - since we're talking about Lwaxana and I assume her interactions with Picard and Odo, let's not forget to mention Q, both in TNG and on VOY with Janeway - some of the more urgh-inducing scenes between Q and Janeway are, I think, meant to be charming and funny? And I'm a massive QCard shipper here, okay, I actually vibe so hard with him as an alien who doesn't get shit about boundaries (this mostly with Picard, with Janeway I have gone: "Hm. This doesn't feel good" a fair few times).

or how the writers of DS9 had Garak be in a very uncomfortable relationship with Ziyal, who was a teenager, then not a teenager within much too short a span of episodes (and actress changes)

or Quark. Remember the episode in which Quark tries to get Kira's likeness so he can put it in a sex-fantasy roleplay that she did not consent to? or how there are two cold opens where his female employees are told they have to sleep with him to keep their jobs

or like... Neelix (okay, I am not a fan of Neelix anyway, but for people who are fans, there are times when you've gotta wonder what in the heck the writers are thinking - not the character, the writers)

what I'm trying to say with the post I wrote is that this same graciousness isn't offered to female characters - especially female characters of colour, but in the case of Lwaxana

she's older, she's an ongoing female guest star, she's very (sometimes uncomfortably) sexual towards especially Picard and for a short while Odo, before they become really good friends.

she's also in-text several times in positions in which men are trying to control her (the episode where she gets kidnapped, the episode in which the guy who's married her is a misogynist) and she uses or tries to use her "wiles" to escape these situations.

She's really more of a faded beauty who's putting a pressure onto her daughter (in a rare interesting, complex, fraught mother-daughter dynamic that I loooove) and refuses to let go of the past, because (and here we get into my read, but mildly supported by canon) it's the only way she seems to have learned how to be loved and have relevance. She's terrified of letting that go, because where does she go next, without everything that's defined her? which is why her final episode with Odo is actually so powerful to me.

Picard is never threatened by her in-text. He's not massively fond of her (at first, she grows on him... like a mold), he would prefer to avoid her, but he's not in a powerless situation here. She undoubtedly makes him uncomfortable at times in a way that - like some of the above examples have made me go "mmmmokay" but certainly not the worst example of this in the writing.

With Odo I also don't like how some of her interactions with him go in the first episode they're in together. But once they're friends and you see how easily she accepts him ("I can swim" is always going to be one of my favourite little chuckle lines) that no longer applies. He clearly likes her and enjoys her company. There's something incredibly lifelong platonic partners in their easiness with each other.

You can argue in both cases (and argue well) that there are scenes that are kinda sus. But there are lots of scenes that offer you depth of character. She's not one-note. She's got off moments.

Some of these guys (and others - I haven't watched as much TOS and Voyager so I don't want to misrepresent anyone, but I feel sure that Tom Paris has made me squint once or twice + I've not seen Enterprise yet) have whole episodes that make me shudder.

It's really - within this fandom for sure - open how we interpret characters and I'm not saying anyone needs to read Lwaxana like this or change their minds and like her.

The point of the post is not to say you have to like any of these characters. Or even to say you have to engage with them regardless of how you vibe or don't vibe with them. It's just... I have listened to several up-until-then-enjoyable deeply analytical podcasts where at some point one of the (guys... always guys... I'm guessing white) makes a sneering comment completely dismissing their value within the series.

My point is that Lwaxana (since we're on her) has value as a character within the Trek universe. She added something important. She's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's a big series, we're not all guaranteed to like everyone.

and in the original post I used "shrill" and "cringy" on purpose, because those are descriptors I've heard. And they are absolutely rooted in misogynist dismissals of female characters no matter what shape they take (Keiko, Lwaxana, Michael, and Ezri are radically different from each other and yet all easily brushed aside regardless of screentime, personality, show, age, role/job).

I'm not making points about having to engage with or like characters. I'm just saying we need to be aware of how easily we specifically look down our noses at female characters (and specifically female characters of colour - apologies, this was just because we were talking about Lwaxana, but some of the shit I've heard about especially Michael and Keiko have made me want to bang my head against a wall... or other peoples heads against walls... you know, for a nice change)

so how much sympathy or analysis of behaviour is afforded to female characters vs their male peers. What judgements are we making and how do they compare to our readings of their male counterparts?

sidenote: I hate using male and female about star trek, my brain is just like "why anyone gender? why do this? you're in space? there are aliens? y'all can't chill with the binary for two fucking seconds?"

different post

#lwaxana troi #tng #ds9 #voy #st: tng #st: ds9 #st: voy #star trek disc horse #I don't want to make statements on TOS or Disco guys - I HAVE seen them I just don't rememberrrr too much #i have entirely avoided any and all opinions by white cis dudes on adira and gray btw because I have F E A R #they're not female characters tho but like... tangentially I'm thinking hooboy about them as well #anon just wanna reiterate I'm not telling you to change your opinion or feelings about her

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arcticdementor · 3 years

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So the NYT newsletter lineup has been unveiled. I suppose the expectation is that I would make fun of this but I’m not moved to do so. Whatever else its problems, and I’m about to lay them out here, the Times does not suffer from a talent deficit. I don’t know what this is all going to look like in practice, or what the financial inducements are for the writers. But I’ll read several of these with interest and I’m excited to see what comes from the experiment. Let writers write. I imagine the Times has some extremely complicated and arbitrary rules about original reporting appearing in these newsletters; I’m told there are a lot of turf issues over there on 8th Avenue. But that’s not my concern. I’m in favor of giving people freer rein to explore their interests in writing, and from my vantage it seems like this setup could result in a lot of cool stuff. I for sure will read Jane Coaston and Jay Kang. I for sure will not read Frank Bruni. For the rest, we shall see.

Of course, what none of these people will do is what no one at the Times can do: publish things that upset the subscriber base. And it’s precisely the willingness to do so that has powered the financial success of newsletters like this one.

If you’re new around here, the basic scenario is that we’ve had a years-long moral panic in which elite white tastemakers adopted the political posture of radical Black academics out of purely competitive social impulses, trying on a ready-made political eschatology that blames the worlds ills on whiteness and men and yet somehow leaves space for an army of good white people and good men to cluck their tongue about it all. Concurrently, the most influential paper in the world emerged from decades of fiscal instability by going hard on digital subscriptions, paywalling more and more of its content and rattling its tin cup more loudly than ever before. The result has been boom times, attenuated only by the end of the immensely lucrative Trump years. (I believe Chris Hayes is covering Trump’s latest spray tan tonight.) The trouble is that this model leaves them even more dependent on a particular social and political caste, namely the educated white professional class that graduates from top 25 universities, moves to Echo Park or Andersonville or Austin, then sends Zane and Daschel to pre-K that costs more than their Audi. Oh and they, like, care about justice and stuff. Conservatives hate read the NYT and thus have traditionally brought in advertising revenue, but they don’t hate subscribe, and the end result is that a paper that was about a 6.5 on a ten-point Liberal Elite Scale when I was a kid has moved to a 9.5. And there’s nothing internal to the publication that can stop this leftward march.

This will invite reprisals for speaking out of turn, but all of the following comes from public knowledge, other people’s reporting, what former and current employees have said, and a little bit of gossip. The social and professional culture within The New York Times is notoriously toxic, the confluence of people with immense career ambitions and total shamelessness about using social justice rhetoric to attack their enemies; watercooler shit-talking and mean-girling has moved to Slack, where it’s somehow even worse than it was before; all of the younger staffers see their jobs as straightforwardly activist positions, and the role of the paper to advance a pro-Democrat social justice ideology rather than to report objectively or to present a range of viewpoints; executive editor Dean Baquet is afraid of his own employees; the Sulzbergers don’t want to have uncomfortable conversations with their fellow white liberal elites at the food co-op or whatever; and in general absolutely every internal incentive within the paper points towards uncritically advancing a Robin Diangelo-approved race and gender ideology, a class-never, deferential-to-woke-norms soggy social justice politics that says nothing remotely challenging to said staffer cliques or the Hermosa Beach soccer moms who now fund the paper. When Bari Weiss resigned the media Borg represented it as all about Weiss, but her story was really about the kind of perspective that can’t exist anymore at The New York Times. I’m sure the blob would deny this stuff, but again none of these are well-kept secrets. If Ben Smith was not paid by the New York Times he would have reported this out long ago.

…

You can talk about Bari Weiss, you can talk about the Cotton brouhaha, you can discuss the inherent and ugly incentives of the subscription model for the paper. But the Donald McNeil firing is truly the bellwether. A reporter with 45 years of NYT experience on an absolutely essential beat said something clueless but utterly anodyne to some spoiled adolescents on a trip that 99% of people their age can’t access. Despite the fact that what he said would have been totally unremarkable even in liberal circles five years ago, the situation caught the staff’s attention and its ire and they vented that ire with the typical absurdist claim that McNeil had put them “in danger” in some incredibly vague way. (On Twitter, of course). So McNeil was duly dispatched, and the basic power dynamic of the modern day New York Times was laid bare: a handful of the paper’s untouchable celebrities can kick up the junior staff into a frenzy, and once that catches fire on Twitter, there is no one in the paper’s leadership who has the honesty and integrity to tell them no. No one. (The NYT’s self-exonerating reaction to McNeil’s defense is quietly hilarious.) The simple fact of the matter is that Baquet has not demonstrated anything like the public courage it would take to face down a Twitter storm prompted by Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., and there’s no reason to think that that’s going to change anytime soon. The media types would reject all of this, if anyone at a big-shot publication had the integrity to write a story about these open secrets. But I’m not lying.

What annoys me about resistance to this narrative, from within the NYT or the media writ large, is that sometimes they admit that the point now is to advance social justice, which is to say to support a specific ideological project associated with one party. Wesley Lowery’s “moral clarity” piece remains a remarkably frank confession on the part of the Times that they have accepted what’s been obvious for a long time, that even they don’t believe in their own vestigial gestures towards evenhandedness anymore, that it’s all a naked pretense to please the last lingering greyhairs involved with the organization and that in due time they’ll be no less explicitly Democrat-aligned than DailyKos. (I think of David Brooks and Tom Friedman at the Times like children whose parents have handed them Xbox controllers that aren’t plugged in.) Watching the establishment media accept the fundamental claim of Lowery’s piece, that elite journalists possess such enormous moral wisdom that they have transcended the notions of subjectivity and embedded perspective, has been pretty wild, for the inconsistency if nothing else. They step from “of course the MSM hasn’t adopted full-throated social liberalism en masse, that’s absurd” to “yes we’re telling the truth now and that’s good and righteous” as rhetorically convenient.

…

In the broader perspective, what incentives are left for careers in media? The fast-then-slow-then-fast internet-enabled collapse of the industry’s financial foundations appears to be experiencing another fast phase. Everybody in the industry is aware that there’s some 22-year-old in the wings who will do what they’re doing for half price. (Those 22-year-olds are rich enough or stupid enough not to care that they will in short order be the one getting undercut themselves.) Covid killed whatever lingering cool NYC media social scene remained. Perceptions of prestige are subjective, but by my lights the indignities of the click-chasing era and pathetic Trump-humping of the past five years have erased whatever lingering prestige was left in writing for, say, The Washington Post. Along with The New Yorker, writing for the Times is one of the last privileges in the business that really walks the dog in the impress-your-normie-uncle sense - and, more importantly, provides clear benefits in the ancillary fields where affluent writers actually make their money. To get to that stage, you have to be liked by the right people. Every industry is influenced by petty popularity, but it’s particularly acute in the news business, and now bullshit me-first social justice complaints have been weaponized to enforce that popularity hierarchy.

This all leaves us in a place that’s utterly inhospitable to the noblest urge in any profession, which is to tell the profession and its gurus to go fuck themselves.

…

The only thing I can do, at this point, is appeal to the integrity of the individuals within that world. They aren’t bad people, most of them, they’re just afraid, financially precarious and terrified of being called racist in an industry which has busily drained professional success of any prerequisite other than popularity with one’s peers. You can understand a lot about media culture by understanding that most of the people within it feel like they’re barely hanging on. Well, let me put it to you all privately, here in this space away from Twitter and away from Slack, where it’s just you and me: was this really what you wanted to do, when you set out to make this your profession? To tell Bradley Whitford’s character from Get Out that he’s right about everything? To nod along with a conventional wisdom that you’re too scared to step outside of? I doubt that’s what you once dreamed of doing. The most valuable thing you can do with a prominent place in media, right now, is to point out how sick the whole business is. It’s only integrity when it hurts, guys. Something you write is only brave when it pisses off all your friends and colleagues. Why on earth did you get into journalism, instead of becoming an actuary, if not because you wanted to say the things your profession and your peers and your culture absolutely do not want you to say?

#freddie deboer #substack #new york times #journalism in action

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