she reds on my cliff til i cannibalize her

It’s probably been said already, but I think the reason I find myself gravitating away from modern western media and towards anime/k-drama/what have you is that I would so much rather watch something that’s maybe a little cheesy and overdone, but fundamentally earnest and heartfelt that knows what it is and isn’t ashamed of it, than something flashy, glossy, and manicured trying to appeal to every possible demographic and above all trying so so desperately not to be *shudders* cringy that it somehow manages to be so in every possible manner

something something transitional period in my life so a new fursona appeared to me a in a prophetic dream. ain’t that just the way

yes he is a crow mixed with [REDACTED] and his name is pigeon. i’m not sure why. like i said, this guy was really a moment where my mind went away for a few hours and i endeed up with a sore wrist and this odd fellow afore me. they eat solely plain, unseasoned toast for 3 meals a day and then wonder why they feel ill.

also if anyone is curious about the maths in the background i just feel like they’d be the type to just doodle on their math homework. they’re a crow so it looks kind of ominous and omen-y but if you squint you can probably make out that it’s just badly drawn warrior cats fanart (definitely nothing to do with my own habits….)

🎵Love the way you hurt me and it doesn’t even cross your mind 🎵

ok but why is Magneto’s costume so fucking cunty

Worm fandom of Tumblr can we convince you to vote for our Cauldron-adjacent moth woman in exchange for goods & services. It has been nearly two years since we have actually read the source media and we don't remember 99% of canon but we can draw bug furries and we can be persuaded to reread Worm with the fresh mind of "we only remember watching Taylor's brainstate getting steadily worse while muttering "oh no that's us" the whole time and we literally could not name anything that happens in canon anymore".

For 1 vote we can be persuaded to rack our brain (full of holes) to try and remember any information about a given character for 1 victory we will reread Worm in a way where hopefully it sticks in our brain this time instead of dissolving out the sieve (maybe liveblogging). This is a serious offer because we take voter fraud very seriously. Please help us rig this tournament horribly so we can do war crimes to a fungus.

Voting link here. We are counting on you to consign us to reading Worm again.

apparently disney+ made a stargirl movie in 2020 and it’s strange i didn’t know about it until searching “lgbt” on disney+ (since netflix apparently has, count ‘em, zero live-action yuri series) which is a whole other can of worms bc unless they adapted the (still perfectly good) story for modern times the only thing lgbt about it is that it follows a girl who’s not scared to look weird. speaking of which

this is how they styled stargirl in the movie. and yeah it’s a little out there and i don’t really remember how her outfits are described but times and styles have changed enough since the early 2000s that teenagers who look like this are everywhere. at a more conservative school yeah maybe there’d be nobody with this cardigan but if i saw this girl on the street i’d just be like aw i love gay kids

It’s endlessly funny to me when a show has had like, five seasons, but ~90% of people have never heard of it. Like who the hell was watching it if no one has even heard of it? My only assumption is that it exclusively appeals to people off tumblr. 😅

tbf this also happens quite often with older shows or shows from countries other than uk/us! but yeah, tumblr has a very specific demographic that isn't the overwhelming majority on other social media, some of these results would be completely different if i posted the polls somewhere else ^^

Despite being the butt of jokes for the past 20 years I think 90s gross, edgy, shock factor media is particularly resonant now and I think we’re going to see a revival and reappraisal of it in the next few years. Specifically because we’re existing in this sanitized media culture that is terribly afraid of risk and all about appealing to as many consumers as possible. Almost a kind of dystopian extension of the 80s pop culture that birthed 90s edge with the added history now of both Obama era optimism and social media self-policing.

Like I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again I’d rather see the most gross disgusting display of my lived experience that uses all the “wrong” words but gets at the core of what it feels like than another non-offensive non-entity that has been focus group tested to appeal to my demographic. And if it’s going to be like that I’d rather it revel in it’s non-marketability as much as possible. And that really was what that fucking 90s grodiness was all about. There’s this weird belief that surrounds conversations of edgy 90s media that it was just like that because it’s cool to be gross and no other reason which. For some yeah. But irony was such a key part as well. You think video games make kids violent? We’ll show you violent. You like capitalist excess? You’re going to see so much excess it makes you throw up. We’re going to make art that’s ugly ON PURPOSE! Try to sell it now.

(Which they eventually did. Oh well)

I think we’re already seeing this a little in the revival of ultraviolent ps1 style games (ultrakill and a reappraisal of the postal franchise) as well as the popularity of shows like the boys (which imo is using its edginess in a very calculated “safe” way but that’s a whole other thing). Anyway I loveeee gross 90s media everyone read transmetropolitan rn

Do you have any headcanons specifically for minato in his dilf era (anytime after naruto)

sure:

minato brings baby naruto into the office with him a LOT. this is because: if kushina lives in the AU, i can't see her wanting to take off a lot of time from her own work. if she DOESN'T live in the au, it's because he feels weird about hiring a babysitter like he's replacing her or something. in both cases he also just likes hanging out with naruto

imagine you come in to hand in a report and the hokage just has a sleeping baby against his chest

this is like catnip to a lot of people bc hello?? handsome man good with children?? we would like five. everyone was aware he's pretty but now there's a whole NEW demographic of people who are like 5x hornier for him

is SO ready to show you photos of his wife and baby. had to remove a family photo on his desk because he kept feeling tempted to do it at WILDLY inappropriate times. (maybe keeps it in a drawer so he can put it out when he's working long hours?)

naruto gets less office time once he's old enough he might start ummm remembering Things

i was toying with the idea of minato randomly pulling naruto out of class sometimes. like i think he'd try VERY hard to make time for his family even with his high pressure job, but he'd fail sometimes, so it tuns into this half-manic "okay naruto i told you a month ago i'd show you a beach and I HAVE FORTY FIVE MINUTES FREE RIGHT NOW, NO I DON'T CARE YOU WERE LEARNING MATH, YOU CAN LEARN MATH TOMORROW, DON'T TELL YOUR MOTHER" and naruto is DEVASTATED by getting weird rando uncool privileges so he's like "DAD NO" even though the beach was pretty cool. now he has to organize skipping class with some other kids to regain his cool point smh

minato and kushina are still disgustingly in love decades into their marriage. would this stop anyone from lusting after the DILFkage? no. does kushina care? no, obviously not, she already won :)

the RPF community fucking loves minato. they write him SO cool. he gets even hotter with age, AND you can write him as a caring familyman OR a dangerous hot smirking guy, so the appeal is broad

despite everything i think sarge would kill it as a twitch streamer. he needs for simmons to manage his setup on top of modding his stream chat for him bevause he isn't very technologically savvy, but in terms of raw charisma specifically in terms of appealing to the twitch demographic, no one does it like sarge

"The people who would get pissed off at Duchamp’s fountain are a very specific demographic!!!! Namely fascists!!! Like the implication of a statement like that is actually absurd. who is the fascist in this analogy, 25 year old nonbinary artists??"

"25 year old nonbinary artists" (nice appeal to identity, lol) are literally agreeing with fascists about what constitutes "real art" when they start talking about the "purity" or "soul" of a piece and assigning spiritual value based on the human who created it, yes. this doesn't make them fascists (great reading comprehension!), but it does mean they agree with fascists on a core tenet of their ideology. i really don't understand how you can correctly identify the link between "fascists" and "claiming Duchamp's readymades weren't art", but not understand the link between the latter and disliking Gay Sex Cats. "it's not really art, it was made for them, they just went out and bought it pressed a button" time is a flat circle

what the hell are you talking about. it’s a core tenet of fascist ideology to get misty eyed about art having a soul???

You don’t see how a comparison between violent rejection of degenerate art at the start of the century, the Entartete Kunst and destruction of modern art galleries BY fascists as a direct motivator for the creation of the Fountain, and like, a largely poor, overwhelmingly minority group of workers asking ppl to reject the use and normalisation of a technology that is going to push them out of a job, being more than a little ridiculous???

Like you can say I’m “appealing to identity” all you want but I’m not wrong, and it’s a galling misunderstanding of why fascism treats modern art the way it does. It has always been a reactionary attack on queer, nonwhite, non-european, degenerate self-expression. The rejection of gay sex cats is a call for solidarity and asking ppl to stop being a fucking scab. jesus christ.

It's kind of dissapointing seeing how the Transformers fandom is dealing with the movie from both ends. And sure, the dogging on the film is pretty bad, but I've honestly seen worse reactions to film announcements in fandoms like Star Wars.

Truthfully I think the reactions from the people who liked the trailer are bordering on worse.

I've seen so many posts along the lines of "If you don't like the new movie in any capacity you're not a real transformers fan" with so many specifically putting bayverse fans under fire. But like, what is the point of that? Transformers has been so many genres over the past 40 years, its held so many tones. It's a little idiotic to think that every version of Transformers is going to appeal to everyone.

There are people who don't watch the cartoons but like the comics, there are people who quite literally only collect the toys, people who like the bayverse films but not the old ones, people who like the old cartoons but not the bayverse films, people who only consume media from the aligned universe. The fandom is so varied that it is astounding, and it is one of my favorite things about the franchise. There is quite possibly a Transformers iteration for every type of person.

It would be like saying "every Transformers fan who doesn't like the G.I. Joe crossover content is a fake fan because so many continuity things have hinged on G.I. Joe for the past 40 years", a completely idiotic argument.

Also, for the people going "it's not made for you, you're not the target demographic", enjoyment of a media can reach out beyond it's target demographic. Though I don't have doubts that they will take a more adult angle than shown in the trailer, after all Hasbro is very aware of the adult demographic of the property (and that it's definitely not lil jimmy who is buying the Super Ultra Collector's 80-120$ figures), I understand the dissapointment as the initial synopsis did not give any indication of it being a comedy.

So anyways, lets stop sectioning off entire portions of the fandom as bad yeah? Please?

What are some major differences that you've noticed between the Japanese and international TWST fandoms in regards to characters they like? Why do you think that's the case? (One I've noticed on the top of my head is Trey being more popular in Japan while he's completely written off as a "big brother" character in the west.)

The main differences in character popularity that I’ve noticed (or at least the most immediate ones I think of) are that Trey is much more popular in Japan than he is internationally and that Malleus is much more popular internationally than he is in Japan.

I think a lot of trends in character popularity (including the cases of Trey and Malleus) can be attributed to differences in demographics and culture. (Please note that everything I say in this post are vast generalizations which are NOT representative of every individual, nor each group.)

To begin with, the JP audience is predominantly older/working women, whereas the EN audience is skewed younger (adolescents and young adults). This age shift between the parts of the fandom can have an impact on general tastes in characters.

I genuinely think a large part of the reason for Malleus’s popularity overseas (and especially in the west, more specifically America) is because he happens to be designed and written in a way that appeals to the demographic of players there (ie younger people). A lot of the media marketed towards adolescents and young adults in the west often involves edgy/dark, brooding protagonists or love interests (bonus points if they’re also some kind of supernatural being). These are your Twilights, your A Court of Thorns and Roses, etc. It’s what people are used to as a trend in western media, and it is what is sold as “desirable” or as “the fantasy” to young, impressionable minds—and it keeps happening because it has proven to be effective. Then here comes Malleus, who is so very close to what many young fans are already familiar with and may already enjoy the tropes of. It just naturally falls into place.

Now, Japan also has a lot of media featuring angsty characters and supernatural beings. A lot of your typical isekai shows and manga/light novels come to mind lookin’ at you, Kirito from SAO. So why is it that Malleus is not as popular in his country of origin than he is overseas?? Well, I’d probably (once again) chalk it up to demographics. The wish fulfillment fantasies featuring edgy characters are primarily aimed at a juvenile/teenage audience, and, as I’ve previously mentioned, this is not the case for TWST’s audience in Japan. It’s mainly older women, and because of their maturity and life experiences, they may be more likely to appreciate subdued/subtle characters that the younger international fans would maybe deem “boring” (like Trey).

I think another reason for Malleus’s popularity, particularly in the west, is because he actively notices Yuu compared to the other characters. A majority of the things that happen in TWST can occur without Yuu really being there; however, because Malleus’s friendship with Yuu is consistently mentioned throughout the course of the main story, it actually lends weight and importance to Yuu’s presence. This aligns with “main character” culture in the west, which emphasizes “standing out” and the protagonist playing an active role in the story rather than being sidelined. I don’t think the “main character” culture is as prominent in Japan as it is overseas because Japan values collectivism over individualism. (This is even reflected in many Yuusonas of Japanese creators not having super fleshed out profiles/backstories, or the designs being more lowkey.) Therefore, Malleus would lose some of the appeal he gets from actually acknowledging Yuu.

Again, I want to stress that these are just my best guesses to explain character popularity discrepancies. These generalizations are not representative of everyone, nor are they entirely accurate.

Paul Graham's "Orthodox Privilege"

I've got a list of essays and articles I read that made me go "...oh that's how it is" (more than a few by SSC) but one of them, that I don't hear many people talking about, is Paul Graham's "Orthodox Privilege"

Orthodox Privilege

I'm just gonna fill it in here below the cut so you don't have to go elsewhere to read it but it's good and fast to read (short + well edited)

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." -Einstein There has been a lot of talk about privilege lately. Although the concept is overused, there is something to it, and in particular to the idea that privilege makes you blind — that you can't see things that are visible to someone whose life is very different from yours. But one of the most pervasive examples of this kind of blindness is one that I haven't seen mentioned explicitly. I'm going to call it orthodox privilege: The more conventional-minded someone is, the more it seems to them that it's safe for everyone to express their opinions. It's safe for them to express their opinions, because the source of their opinions is whatever it's currently acceptable to believe. So it seems to them that it must be safe for everyone. They literally can't imagine a true statement that would get you in trouble. And yet at every point in history, there were true things that would get you in trouble to say. Is ours the first where this isn't so? What an amazing coincidence that would be. Surely it should at least be the default assumption that our time is not unique, and that there are true things you can't say now, just as there have always been. You would think. But even in the face of such overwhelming historical evidence, most people will go with their gut on this one. In the most extreme cases, people suffering from orthodox privilege will not only deny that there's anything true that you can't say, but will accuse you of heresy merely for saying there is. Though if there's more than one heresy current in your time, these accusations will be weirdly non-deterministic: you must either be an xist or a yist. Frustrating as it is to deal with these people, it's important to realize that they're in earnest. They're not pretending they think it's impossible for an idea to be both unorthodox and true. The world really looks that way to them. Indeed, this is a uniquely tenacious form of privilege. People can overcome the blindness induced by most forms of privilege by learning more about whatever they're not. But they can't overcome orthodox privilege just by learning more. They'd have to become more independent-minded. If that happens at all, it doesn't happen on the time scale of one conversation. It may be possible to convince some people that orthodox privilege must exist even though they can't sense it, just as one can with, say, dark matter. There may be some who could be convinced, for example, that it's very unlikely that this is the first point in history at which there's nothing true you can't say, even if they can't imagine specific examples. But in general I don't think it will work to say "check your privilege" about this type of privilege, because those in its demographic don't realize they're in it. It doesn't seem to conventional-minded people that they're conventional-minded. It just seems to them that they're right. Indeed, they tend to be particularly sure of it. Perhaps the solution is to appeal to politeness. If someone says they can hear a high-pitched noise that you can't, it's only polite to take them at their word, instead of demanding evidence that's impossible to produce, or simply denying that they hear anything. Imagine how rude that would seem. Similarly, if someone says they can think of things that are true but that cannot be said, it's only polite to take them at their word, even if you can't think of any yourself.

Orthodox Privilege

I never noticed, until today, the associated time - July 2020 - an so I never, until today, realized he might be talking about the reactions you saw to COVID.

ph trivia time!

you know these small and flat disposable rubber hair bands used for small ties and braids?

i specifically took the above photos from western sites' image results, and they dont have a specific name other than mini elastic rubber bands and other such variations.

what i find interesting is some filipinos specifically refer to them as "sanrio". here's some proof from a local online shopping site :3

i havent found detailed research on the subject but it's fairly obvious to me as someone who's always lived here, so i'll try to explain:

you know the phenomenon where a brand turns into an associated product's common noun, e.g. tupperware? that seems to be what happened here, except.. even if sanrio (the brand) commonly produces hair accessories to appeal to their target demographic, these colorful rubber bands seem too.. generic. non-filipino site results for "sanrio hair band" commonly showed these (this is a mix of authentic and bootleg products):

i also failed to find any official sanrio (brand) packaging that might have sold these rubber bands specifically, and even if they did (or do) at some point, i have a plausible theory for why i doubt they're directly involved.

"sanrio" becoming a common noun for these rubber bands in the philippines likely means it was not sanrio (the brand)'s doing at all; actual branded kids' accessories and toys, regardless of their price, are seen as something for the middle and upper class, because they're often sold in malls and recognizable retail stores. they're also only found in supermarkets that almost exclusively have no off-brand products.

it's far more likely that this happened through the abundance of bootleg and off-brand accessories available through sidewalk / street vendors and the less high-end supermarkets, as well as a few shops found in malls (although these are not as common or are a bit more pricey); sanrio (the brand)'s likeness is within the same demographic that loves these hair bands, and these products are often sold with off-color hello kitty prints, among other known cartoons (see dora below) or just generally cutesy designs to attract young girls. the connection likely spurred on from there because of how unique the sound of "sanrio" is as a word by itself, and i guess we ended up using it to refer to a very specific kind of hair tie that elementary and junior high girls love using :]