And before reposting artworks that didn’t come from yourself, you have to:
search for the actual artist in order to properly credit them
one way to do this is to use the feature on google image (lil camera)
don’t u tell me u don’t know how this works when u’re using tumblr
check whether or not they agree to their art being reposted in the first place
If you don’t have the actual source and the artist’s approval, then you’re basically stealing someone else’s work and credit and that’s plain disrespectful and shitty.
So if you see blogs doing that in the tags, please notify them of their mistake with a quick message or comment, because they didn’t have to be aware that they were in the wrong. However, if they don’t change, feel free to report their blog because they’re definitely not in the right.
You like your fandoms? We all do, so it’s about time we show respect to content creators. Of every kind.
Art thief is the biggest problem, but you have the basic attitude above as to what to do before you consider reposting an artwork that isn’t yours. It’s not because it’s on the internet that it belongs to everyone.
The absolute same goes for:
reposting a fanfiction that’s not yours (yes it happens and it’s stealing),
translating a fanfiction that’s not yours without crediting and asking for the author’s autorization (it happens as well),
using someone else’s translation or theories for your own posts (at least tag the OP or credit them or link to the original post).
– Praise the living daylights out of a show and shove its greatness in everyone’s face
– 2 years later, pick it apart violently and insult everyone who still enjoys it in as edgy a way as possible because negativity is cool
!!!
uhh maybe marginalized ppl were excited at the possibility of a show (such as su) representing them, only to be rightfully angry when the show ends up racist, homophobic etc. anyway, super bad post all around
I feel like a lot of hardcore accusations of problematic and offensive content that get thrown at media that was previously lauded as progressive come from a few sources; first, the creators are often a lot more accessible than the creators of mainstream media. you can message rebecca sugar on twitter personally to call her a racist bitch, but you can’t do the same to, say, jj abrhams or another large-scale creator. likewise, you can’t stand on a streetcorner and scream at people until they agree to stop watching law and order, but you can certainly bully large groups of people online until they stop supporting an independent creator.
second, the fandoms that tend to form around progressive media tend to be younger, more volatile, looking to media and fandom as forms of activism. mainstream media they can write off as garbage, but progressive niche media that makes a sincere attempt to represent marginalized folks must be Absolutely Perfect. the idea that a piece of media can have good parts and bad parts, that it can try and only partially succeed, but that that partial success is still worth something, is completely lost on many young fans. either its irredeemable garbage or its the literal messiah, there’s no in-between. so if a show falls short of perfect, as is inevitable, then it goes straight into the “total garbage” pile and must be condemned by the masses.
genuinely trying to represent certain groups and making a few missteps is not the same thing as being ignorant or malicious. making a sincere effort to mean something to folks who don’t get a lot of things made for them is something to be proud of. would you rather go back to the times when fucking nothing got made for us? when the only characters we saw that we could relate to were only there to be made fun of? you’re spoiled by a rush of new creators who took “go make your own thing then” to heart and set out to make content for people like them, you have the gall to look at what they’re trying to do and spit on it for not being better. no creator owes you shit, no creator has to bow to a bunch of teenage bullies who do nothing but demand and harass, that’s all there is to it.
Dear lord can everyone please read this post because it’s so relevant
i just feel bad for the people who produce and work on the shows bc the fandom is so FUCKING HORNY for performative wokeness that they will tear those people to fuckin ribbons at the drop of a hat all while jacking off to how morally superior they think they are like id be willing to bet that every fuckin s*u fan and v*ltr*n fan who screams abt how shitty the ppl who work on the show are have never attended a rally, have never donated to lgbt causes, have never interacted with the lgbt community in meatspace like, ever
also like if you’re not willing to do the hard fucking work of just BEING A KIND AND SUPPORTIVE PERSON TO OTHER PEOPLE, in real life, every day, even when you’re cranky and scared, then your ‘wokeness’ is just lashing out, not actual activism. like no i don’t care how correct you are about the fucking patriarchy if how you’re dealing with that anger is screaming at women on the internet. i don’t care that you’re right about how horrible racism is if how you’re dealing with that is making life miserable for queer artists. i don’t care that you care, if how you care is to hurt people. stop it. fix yourself first.
wish we could go back to the old days where fandom was just horny sexually instead of horny for wokeness
nothing wrong with being woke, it’s the performativeness of fandom “social awareness” that permeates shit like grease on a paper towel in a real bad way that makes participating in fandom unbearable
a lot of it is bc fandom ppl tend to be bad at interfacing w the real world, myself included, so they (when i say they i mean fandom as a collective) tend to turn inwards n hyperfocus on shit that realistically has absolutely zero fucking consequence in the real world while making it seem SUPER IMPORTANT (ie ship wars) bc that’s the only thing they’re capable of interfacing with n they conflate the message of “representation is important” with “representation means representation of THIS SPECIFIC SHIP IN THIS SPECIFIC WAY AND IF YOU DEVIATE FROM THIS PURE AND FAULTLESS STANDARD U R OFFICIALLY THE ENEMY”
and like i promise u if u ask anybody who behaves in that way “do you actually care about real life people” the overwhelming answer will be “yes that’s why i’m so passionate abt this animation team representing this particular thing in this particular way” and u can respond with “that doesn’t actually help any cause, and being militant about how you feel about a ship is actively causing damage to me and others like me because it’s impairing me from engaging with something that is meaningful to me” and their response will no doubt be “well you shouldn’t be enjoying x thing if you can’t do it in the way i’m prescribing and if you continue to do so you’re part of the problem”
but they just can’t understand that the pot is calling the kettle black
performative wokeness is so exhausting bc
– it is usually fandom based and the thing being argued about has absolutely no real life consequences one way or another
– it’s used to make boring people feel important
– it’s utilised by teens who are scared of literally fucking everything bc of our current social climate and yelling at other people who enjoy something in a way they don’t personally like is the one thing they have control over
– it’s literally censorship and jerking off over purity politics
– it completely fuckin ignores the fact that portraying only shit scrubbed clean and made totally shiny and inoffensive is detrimental to teaching ppl how to identify and handle potentially damaging situations because if nobody gets to see it happening in the first place nobody gets to see how to handle it in a healthy way
– it places super manipulative and fucked up caveats on abuse survivors (ie u can only enjoy/produce this particular type of content or this ship if you are a survivor of x type of abuse and prove to our satisfaction that you were abused and are only creating this kind of fan content to cope with your abuse and for absolutely no other reason and we are the judge and jury on this)
– it’s just fuckin stupid and absolutely ruins the experience for everyone and turns something that should be fun and something that should be a social experience into a fuckin cult like situation in where if you don’t adhere to some very specific rules you better fucking hope you don’t have a facebook that can be easily found and exploited for the purpose of shaming and harassing you and everybody just ends up scared and miserable and fighting amongst each other and it is so, so stupid
there r so many other positive things u could be doing w ur time – donating to a lgbt charity, attending ur local mayoral meetings, getting involved in social work, fuckin helping ppl in ur community, like the list goes fuckin on and on, and yet ur choosing to spend ur time on the internet, making someone’s life miserable bc they ship two characters you don’t personally like shipped together. like get a fucking life, seriously.
The gifset going around about Tom Holland is fake.
He never said he had a partner with they/them pronouns, and it was captioned because it was a fan request from a Tom Holland fanblog.
Furthermore, doing this to your faves makes them look bad if misinformation spreads around. Celebrities aren’t your goddamn plaything, and they lead real lives. They aren’t just a fucking character. It’s disrespectful.
On Twitter people were doing the same thing to gifs and images of Millie Bobby Brown—an actual literal child—making her say all kinds of negative, nasty, and homophobic shit. People thought this was real, and it was getting so out of hand that people were harassing Millie (a child) on Twitter badly enough that it made her deactivate her Twitter account.
Not only is it disgusting to pretend that celebrities are your playthings—characters for your enjoyment to superimpose whatever ideals you want onto them—but it’s inherently terrible when you’re manipulating their image, careers, and lives.
A childwas harassed on Twitter because of it. Doing things like what was done to a gif set of Tom Holland isn’t harmless. It has repercussions. Quit treating actual real-life people like toys for your enjoyment.
I reblogged that post and this makes me really fucking angry
You can’t just play around with actual human people as if they’re characters. Enough with the fanfics, enough with the creepy asks, enough. Those are human people. Fictional characters, go all the way out, do whatever the hell you want. But actual people- celebrities, youtubers, KPop idols, drag queens- those are actual human fucking beings, not fictional characters.
sometimes I just want to talk about media theory and its relation to media criticism. stuff like “criticism of media should be proportional to its source, reach, and context in order to be effective” where:
Source: is the media putting itself forward as an expert, educational, or reliable source? Is the creator seen as knowledgeable? Historical accuracy is very important in documentaries, far less so in doctor who episodes. Documentaries should face harsher criticism than doctor who for historical innacuracy.
Reach: how many people can be expected to see this? How accessible will it be? What are the barriers to entry? highly promoted movies should face harsher criticism than unlisted YouTube videos. Obscene content with no warning should face harsher criticism than obscene content with a warning.
Context: where was this published? How does it compare to other similar works on the same platform and in the same time period? How reputable is the platform and the media shown alongside it? Works published in an online journal should face harsher criticism than tumblr posts. 20 year old editorials should face less harsh criticism for not using modern vocabulary.
Effective: how likely is this criticism to stimulate a productive discussion and potentially effect change? Would a change by the creator and/or audience have an impact that’s worth your time? Spending 48 hours to get someone to take down a post with less than 200 views just isn’t worth it, especially if you increase its reach in the process. Sometimes languishing in obscurity is a more effective criticism than anything you could say.
Sometimes languishing in obscurity is a more effective criticism than anything you could say.
This is something I feel like everyone needs to understand a lot better.
I’ve been thinking about this for some time, well really ever since the Voltron fandom blew up again a week or so ago. With the new Voltron discourse, Klance retaining it’s number 1 spot on the trending ship lists, and a lot of my dashboard being occupied with Voltron art, opinions, disclaimers, and meta over the past few days, it’s left a large proportion of the internet asking themselves:
“How does Voltron: Legendary Defender, which is a show that is just above average, have such a dominating and voracious fanbase? How does something so generic prompt so many people to scream and create content for it?”
And I think I have the answer… or at least… an answer from my own personal experience.
When people ask me “Is Voltron a good show?” I always end up umming and ahhing for a while, because it’s not bad, but I know it’s definitely not good enough for me to have wasted so many hours of my life engaging with it. The worst thing I want to have happen is my friend watches the show, then calls me and goes “THIS? This is the thing you’re so passionate about?”
And I have to dejectedly sigh out “….yeah.”
So when I’m inevitably asked this question, I always defend myself by going “The world and the characters are really charming. Everyone is very likeable. The show has a lot of potential!”
And I think that’s it. That’s the secret of it all. Potential.
You see… I think it’s actually the lack of perfection that prompts so many people to go “hang on…. I think I can improve on this.”
You see, in between Voltron seasons, I was really engaged with Yuri on Ice! I waited every week for a new episode, reblogged the new gif sets that would come out after every episode, read all the new theories about where the plot might go, watch the previews for the next episode over and over and over….
I was, and am, SUPER into YOI…. but I’ve never generated any content for it. none. I’ll talk about it of course! But when the show finished, I had several people ask me:
“Hey! Are you planning on writing any fan fiction for Yuri on Ice?”
And honestly…. no. I had absolutely no motivation, no drive, to write anything for the show. For the series that I loved so dearly, I have never written NOR READ a single piece of fan fiction. And when people asked me why I would always say:
“The show gave me everything I ever wanted. There’s nothing more I can add to it.”
And I think that’s really it. Whilst Yuri on Ice is definitely not a perfect show, it definitely succeeds in giving its target audience everything they wanted. It’s potential is perfectly fulfilled. Sure you could write like a wedding scene, or a honeymoon scene between Yuuri and Viktor, and that would be lovely…. but I don’t need it. I have my closure.
This scene is the perfect ending to an emotional arc. As a viewer, I am perfectly fulfilled.
Similarly, I think of other series that I adore, but have never really had the desire to create content for, or play with AUs or anything like that. In my opinion, the closest thing to a perfect series I’ve ever consumed is Fullmetal Alchemist (brotherhood or ‘03. They’re both really good, but for the sake of this post I’m gonna focus more on brotherhood.)
When I finished Brotherhood every question I possibly had was answered. Every emotional arc came to a close. Again, there’s no where further I could take it. That story is over. Personally, the only thing that left me longing a little bit was the potential relationship between Hawkeye and Mustang… but again I don’t need that. They are side characters, the story does not focus on them, so their ending is allowed to be left open.
What’s up, I’m crying in the club.
Shows like Gurren lagann, Princess Jellyfish, Deathnote, Kill la Kill, Baccano, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, etc. are all varying degrees of excellent, but what they have in common is there never seems to be any unfulfilled potential. They explore every ounce of their worlds and characters, so that by the end, I just kind of dusted off my hands and said “Yeah… you know what, I’m good.”
Things like Harry Potter and Avatar: The Last Airbender (and Korra) are interesting anomalies to me, because while they absolutely fulfilled the potential of their characters, these series’ created such interesting worlds that fans continued wanting to explore. I don’t see that much fan content created using these series’ characters anymore, but BOY OH BOY do I see both of these used as AUs when generating works for other series. Any fandom worth its salt will have a well established Harry Potter and ATLA au. People adore sorting characters into houses and into bender types. I love it. I live for that shit.
So with ATLA and Harry Potter we’re starting to see how the potential of the world they are set in can drive fans to actively participate and engage with these series.
But you wanna know what I think really gets people mobilised? What really gets that fan content flowing?
It’s character and plot potential. Primarily character, but plot also plays a part (again, I’m looking at you Voltron.)
You guys wanna know the first series I ever actively engaged with? the first series I ever followed dedicated blogs and wrote fan fiction for? The series that I still declare my undying love for even though it’s just a silly simple show?
I was thinking about the arguments for and against writing ~problematic~ content for coping and all I can think about was
about 2 months ago I bought a horror anthology. One of the stories was filled with the most horrifying disgusting triggering content imaginable. Literally every possible disgusting thing occurred in the story. It was nonstop nightmare fuel, it genuinely made me want to vomit it just felt so disgusting to read. And i didnt know what to think as i kept reading this horrifying gross content. Why would someone write this?
And then I got to the authors note at the end. The author was a marginalized woman. She had been traumatized in her past. And when she wrote the story she outright said she had been filled with such ANGER that day. So much rage she couldn’t hold in, and she let it out into the story. By filling the black pages with all her rage and anger and trauma. And when she was done? Her rage was gone. She felt better. She had released all her rage in the form of words, and then placed it into the world for others to see.
And then i think, how is that wrong? How is it wrong for her to have released her anger this way? when so many people release it on themselves, on others, or just hold it in. How is it wrong for her to have written it out. Some might argue ‘well she shouldn’t have let it be published then! just kept it to herself!’ but… someone might need the story. The story was horrifying, grotesque, but for someone who has been through a similar situation the writer did, they might have read it and gone ‘oh, i recognize this anger’. They might have used reading this story as a way to release their anger and pain the way the writer used writing it to.
Writing can be cathartic. Reading can be cathartic. I didn’t understand and couldn’t connect to her rage and pain. That story did not help me personally feel cathartic, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless. Because it helped her. and because it can help someone else. I can’t see why some people might write certain content, but someone else who has been in similar situations can.
And so whenever i see the ‘writing problematic content to cope is wrong!’ ‘it cant actually help you!’ arguments all i can think is ‘maybe for you it doesn’t help. but for someone else, it helps greatly to read and write that content, to release their pain or to work through it in that medium. It may not be for you, but it is for them.’
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 