“Don’t like, don’t read” is so exhausting because it acts like fandom can only be harmful if people go out of their way to read triggering fanfic. As if it’s all isolated and underground and easy to avoid. Like. I’ve never read a Reylo fic, but if I search for Finn stuff, there it is. If I scroll the TFA tag, it’s there. Fans write “Finn meta” that tears him down to elevate Reylo (shit, journalists do it too). Finnrey shippers and Finn fans are demonized for noticing any of it.
We can avoid it, sure – if we leave fandom. We’re fans, we’re not going anywhere.
Some good points here. The meta bit is pretty distasteful, and just in general I think people shouldn’t tag character hate, or tag a character just because they show up in a fic if they’re not going to be a focus of it.
That said… being upset because you see a ship you don’t like when scrolling through a tag for the whole fandom is maybe a wee bit excessive. ‘cause honestly, if you find it harmful just to know there are people who write your NoTP, then maybe you SHOULD leave that fandom.
You have a right not to have to read content you find upsetting. You do NOT have a right to demand it be so “isolated and underground” that you don’t even have to know it exists.
You have it a wee bit backward. I demanded no such thing. Do I think reylo belongs in the main tags? No, I don’t. It has nothing to do with The Last Jedi, it’s a white fantasy wankfest that buries posts that are about the movie and erases the inclusiveness of the actual trilogy. There’s nothing I can do about that, the Star Wars fandom has always been racist as hell.
But don’t tell me “don’t like don’t read” when it’s everywhere, making just about every tag a shitshow. I DO have the right to say I don’t like it when I can’t avoid it. Don’t like criticism, don’t shove it in my face.
Do you use Xkit or Tumblr Savior?
Those are browser extensions that work with tumblr (i.e. make it goddamn functional for a change) on multiple browser platforms.
You can use the Blacklist feature in Xkit or Tumblr Savior (and for AO3 this works too, with the AO3 Savior extension) to completely block a chosen tag or keyword.
It might show you something was blocked from your dashboard or whatnot depending on the extension but it won’t show you the actual posts with that tag (some people have also managed to set it up – I think in Tumblr Savior specifically? not sure, I stick with Xkit and haven’t fiddled much with this but I think it has a whitelist option too- so that it would whitelist something so that for example a fandom tag would only show up with say, your preferred ships and not any other content, something the Teen Wolf fandom has made heavy use of in rebellion against canon’s apparent queerbaiting turnaround – I say apparent because I’m not in that fandom, but that’s what I’ve seen some people in it say they did).
If you use an extension like this to block the reylo tag/keyword then you should almost never have to sit through those posts on the Force Awakens or Star Wars tags again, if they’ve been tagged with the ship or otherwise include the ship name in their text they should get blocked. 🙂
At worst, you’ll spot a few “blocked based on this keyboard” notifications but they’ll be like a single text line with no post and no content attached other than mentioning what keyboard it was being blocked for.
Options like this are exactly why a lot of people are okay with saying “don’t like, don’t read” because we CAN filter better now – but if you didn’t know these were common options (because why would you? it’s not like they’re official through tumblr, which hates that third parties attempt to make this hellsite functional apparently) then I can understand your frustration. So I hope this reply helps you out with your annoying reylo issue! 🙂 I don’t tend to browse the main tag for TFA or Star Wars, but I really don’t like that ship either (just?? why??) and so I could see how if you’re looking for neutral content and can’t block it, that could be really frustrating
Unfortunately there is no fix for character hate tagged with just the character name though : that’s a matter of individuals tagging accurately, and that’s in turn a matter of internal fandom tagging practices/culture. I’m sad to hear Finn hate is being tagged with neutral tags, that sucks. 😦 If you spot some common lines that get repeated though you might be able to cut down on it with keyword blocking? Again, not a perfect fix, but >_>
Wow, patronizing. Of course I know about and use xkit on the web. Dropped Tumblr Savior years ago. I know how Tumblr works. I’m on mobile 90% of the time, and yes, I know about Washboard, too. All but one of the examples in the op? Xkit doesn’t fix it.
Personally, because of the nature of my blog, I don’t blacklist or block, ever. It’s important for me to see the reality of the fandom. That’s my choice, yeah. It doesn’t make flooding tags with irrelevant ship content reasonable or above criticism. It’s not that I can’t handle all they reylo, it’s that it pisses me off when fanon ships like reylo sideline Black characters. I’ve used blacklisting, and believe me, seeing dozens of “this post has been hidden” posts isn’t any better.
And why is it so damn hard for this particular fandom to be respectful? Kyluxers, regardless of how I feel about the ship, somehow manage not to infest every corner of fandom, on and off Tumblr. I don’t see them harassing SW directors and actors on social media. It can’t be that damn hard.
This isn’t just like, I don’t want to look at Adam Driver’s face. It’s about maneuvering through a fandom for a trilogy that offers inclusion that aggressively prioritizes whiteness.It’s about antiblackness. A band-aid doesn’t help.
I’m someone who does black list things I hate, and I STILL see them! Part of my problems with my current fandom is that there is literally no way to avoid the problematic stuff without leaving it entirely.
And that’s before getting into all the insidious ways in which hate continues to permeate even after you black list the obvious stuff. i.e. My fandom is tremendously racist towards the main character – which would be fine (or, well, tolerable) if people tagged it. But they don’t, because the fanon has spread so far that people think it’s canon, and thus no one thinks to tag it.
Not to mention microagressions. No one is going to tag their fic or write in a warning that “I took the main character’s good traits and gave them to the white leads while giving him all their bad traits” – but that’s exactly what happens.
One of the biggest problems with things like racism, sexism, etc., is that they most often AREN’T intentional – which means people aren’t going to tag for them. The racism will run so deep that people don’t even see it. The hate will run so deep that people don’t even see it. If you don’t see it, you can’t tag for it, so how are you supposed to block it?
“Blocking” problematic content on Tumblr, AO3, or anywhere else, relies on the person generating that content, AND on *everyone* else reblogging that content, to accurately tag it with what you have blocked.
How likely do you think that is to actually happen when people don’t even think they’re doing anything problematic in the first place?
Exactly. People will trigger warning all kinds of things, but not racism, not unless it’s like a screencap of an “alt right” Twitter rant. Tagging their own potentially triggering posts for racism? Doesn’t happen. People can use fandom to cope, unless it’s coping with racism, then it doesn’t really count. What is upsetting to Black fans is just fandom fun. They wouldn’t even think to tag it as racist.
In any event, I’m not going to expend time and energy on helping to create a space that fosters the comfort of fans who make fandom a hurtful place for fans of color who don’t toe the line. They want me to do the work so fandom can be a nice, happy place where racism can flourish while xkit makes me (partially) oblivious of how shitty it really is? Lol no.
Tag: racism
“The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not. Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn’t care if you are a white person who likes black people; it’s still going to find a way to infect how you deal with people who don’t look like you. Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. And so on. So while I agree with people who say no one is born racist, it remains a powerful system that we’re immediately born into. It’s like being born into air: you take it in as soon as you breathe. It’s not a cold that you can get over. There is no anti-racist certification class. It’s a set of socioeconomic traps and cultural values that are fired up every time we interact with the world. It is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it’s hard work, but it’s the price you pay for owning everything.”
—
Scott Woods (X)
he motherfucking dropped the truth.
(via mesmerisme)
I never thought Tumblr would wake. This is what did it.
my opinions on racism will always be limited as I’m from a position of white privilege, so whilst it’s so important to call out racial inequality and oppression when I see it, it’s also important for me to recognise that my voice should not shout over those who have actually experienced racism and have a far better understanding of how it operates then I ever will
so many people on tumblr dont seem to get this
All my white followers take a gander
“Get Out” Perfectly Captures the Terrifying Truth About White Women
[GET OUT SPOILERS BELOW]
“…As the plot unravels, it seems that Rose is willing to take Chris’s suspicions seriously and, as the title indicates, get out.
And I believed her. I believed her even after Chris discovered a box in her room filled with pictures of the other black men and women she’d seduced for her family before getting to him. My brain jumped to the next “logical" conclusion. Clearly Rose’s mother had hypnotized her daughter into being part of their scheme, making Rose forget each time she’d lured a black person home for them.”
“I held onto that theory until the final possible moment, when Rose turns to Chris as they’re supposedly attempting to escape together and says, “You know I can’t give you these keys.” It was a familiar sensation, one usually played out over a longer period of time. But here, condensed into one 10-minute span, I recognized the sinking feeling of being betrayed by a white woman you’ve stanned for, loved, liked, or even simply been mildly okay with. It’s that feeling when you find out that, after enjoying her in Easy A and finding her bubbly personality lovable, Emma Stone was fine with playing an Asian woman in Aloha. Maybe you went through it with Scarlett Johansson when you found out that she’d accepted the lead role in Ghost in the Shell, an adaptation of a Japanese anime series. It’s the betrayal you feel the first time you realize that women who are labeled pop-culture feminist icons, like Tina Fey, are perfectly fine with gunning for blackface laughs at your expense, or blaming your idols for white girls’ lack of self-esteem. (Beyoncé is many things, but she is not the reason you hate your body.)”
“For some, it’s the 53 percent of white women who voted for Trump, or finding out that the leader of your local NAACP chapter is literally a white woman in disguise. For others it’s finding out that Taylor Swift’s been coasting on America’s fear of black men for years. I feel it every time I realize there’s a white women on my Twitter timeline who will tweet in earnest for Planned Parenthood while sparing only a perfunctory tweet for Black Lives Matter or the Standing Rock Sioux.”
“…White women have always played, and continue to play, a large part in upholding the supremacy. They have not held the best interests of people of color. Putting full trust in them has often been to our detriment. Rose’s willingness to put herself and, essentially, the survival of white bodies above the well-being of black people was as unsurprising as it was terrifying. In Get Out, whiteness trumps all, and the true horror is leaving the theater knowing that, in this case? It’s not just a movie.”
Someone actually wrote a good (scratch that, great) article at Cosmo. Hell has officially frozen over.
this was an excellent article wow..
Cosmo might be on the path of actually being worth something.
Well…
“Get Out” Perfectly Captures the Terrifying Truth About White Women
Yo don’t automatically assume that white people who happen
to be a part of marginalized groups will care about your experiences of racism
by default , or be able to relate to you.In my old fandom, I had a friend who was a trans guy and he
talked to me nearly nonstop about his experiences of transphobia. He talked
about how his strict religious parents would force him to wear makeup and dress
like a girl, he talked about how they were abusive to him, etc…etc…and how him
being trans affected his life and the oppression he got from it . And I listened
to him, because he was my friend. I’d stay up late listening to his struggles and give him advice that would help
him.Well, can you imagine what happened when I tried talking
about my experiences of racism with him and how it affected me? It got him
angry, and in the end it inevitably ruined our friendship. Places in society
where he couldn’t see racism he got mad at me for pointing out. We both enjoyed
a certain author’s works and when I pointed out the racism in said authors
works/perpetrated by said author—he’d get mad and deny it. When I tried to tell
him about my personal experiences of racism since childhood, he’d change the
subject or act like he wasn’t interested. He’d act offended sometimes too.I thought that because he was trans, and someone who knew
what oppression was and faced it from society and even his strict/religious
parents, then he’d understand my life to a degree. And I thought through that
we could grow closer. However, I forgot to remember one thing about him, and
that was that he was white. Not only was he white, but he was rich as well. I thought
that because of his situation, we’d relate by that wasn’t the case. And I think
people need to realize this. It also made me think of the rampant racism in the
lgbt+ community, and how many members of
color have faced racism from white lgbt+ like my former friend.So like, my point is to understand that white people in marginalized
groups (white lgbt+ and white women) aren’t automatically going to take your
side. They are women, they are lgbt+ but they are white first. And we are
fooling ourselves if we believe that by default, they’ll side with and want to
listen to our struggles of racism
Pyramid of White Supremacy
In a pyramid, every brick depends on the ones below it for support. If the bricks at the bottom are removed, the whole structure comes tumbling down.Source: Adapted from Ellen Tuzzolo and Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence’s diagram
This is on my dash quite a bit: a lack of support of shows like Black Lightning because networks like the CW are racist/homophobic (past behaviour/people in charge) and have hurt audiences (without consequences).
There are people who will use this as an excuse for their own racism, that’s just a fact. Is it what it all boils down to? No. But racism is a huge factor in not supporting this. I get the tug of war some have. There’s more to it, yes. As part of the queer audience, I get where the resentment comes from (and I know how angry some people are toward this network). But we’ve asked others to get over theirs to support us. We have to do better. We have to keep challenging our privilege. We’re not going to win anything if we don’t support one another and support representation. We’ve got to bring the margins to the fore. Isn’t this part of how we do it?
There’s so much we despise about this system/that network and it does need to be addressed, but where are we on that? We’re still watching telly. Let’s make it count for something.
Adding here TV Grim Reaper’s ratings post. I don’t think international viewers affect this, and I don’t think this includes streaming views, either.
A guide for white people.
What. Racist no matter what?? ://///
Yes. Those of us who are white need to recognize that we always have more to learn, always have more to do to earn or retain the title of ally. We might think we’ve learned all there is to know – what racist behavior to avoid, what rallies to attend, how to call out other white people – but chances are we will still slip up sometimes, will realize something we’ve been saying was racist or will speak over POC when we should shut up or will fail to act when we should have acted to support POC.
And even if we were somehow to become The Perfect Ally, it is impossible not to benefit in some ways from our white privilege, from systemic racism. I am white, I am trying to learn and be anti-racist, but if I ever pretend I’m “free” from being racist or no longer benefit from racism then I’ve stopped learning, I’ve stopped listening, and I’ve made my allyship about me instead of about POC.
Racism, sexism, heteronormativity, cissexism, xenophobia…all sorts of prejudices are unfortunately in the air we breathe. I don’t think it makes us Bad Mean Bigots to have absorbed these prejudices – unless we refuse to acknowledge those prejudices. When white people pretend we’re not racist anymore, we’ve failed. For another example, when straight and/or cis people pretend they’re not homophobic or transphobic anymore, they’ve failed. When men pretend they don’t still hold some sexist beliefs deep down or benefit from sexism, they’ve failed. And so on.
Those of us who want to earn the title ally need to perpetually work for it, and we always need to be open to correction.
The Doctor Is Out 