#and how many are posted on social media with the wrong IDs

[cripplecharacters]

Disabilities that You Should Consider Representing in Your Writing More… part 1

[large text: Disabilities that You Should Consider Representing in Your Writing More… part 1]

While all disabilities are underrepresented in basically all sorts of media, it’s hard to not notice the trend in what disabilities make up the majority of representation. It’s especially visible when having a blog like this, where we can see what disabilities writers even consider including in their writing, and which ones never come up.

One in four people are disabled. With eight billion people alive it means there’s a lot of disabled people, and a lot of reasons why they are disabled in the first place - but this diversity is rarely represented, even on this blog, and anyone who has been following for a while has probably noticed that fact.

To be blunt: there are disabilities other than “amputee” and “(otherwise invisibly disabled) mobility aid user”. Does that mean that it’s wrong to write either of those? Of course not, and we don’t want to imply that it is. Does it mean that when you are deciding on what to give your character, you should think beyond just those two? Absolutely. Disability is a spectrum with thousands of things in it - don’t limit yourself for no reason and embrace the diversity that’s built into it instead. 

This is, simply, a list of common disabilities. This is just a few of them, as this is part one of presumably many (or, at least three as of right now). By “common” we rather arbitrarily decided on “~1% or more” - so at least 1 in 100 people has the disabilities below, which is a lot. Featuring!: links that you should click, sources of the % that are mostly just medical reports and might be hard to read, and quick, very non-exhaustive explanations to give you a basic idea of what these are. 

Intellectual disability (about 1.5%) Intellectual disability is a condition we have written about at length before. It’s a developmental disability that affects things such as conceptualization, language, problem-solving, or social and self-care skills. ID can exist on its own or be a part of another condition, like Down Syndrome, Congenital Iodine Deficiency, or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. This post covers a lot of basic information that you might need. We have an intellectual disability tag that you can look through!

Cancer survivors (5.4% in the US, about 0.55% worldwide) A cancer survivor is a pretty self-explanatory term. There is a lot of types of cancer and some of them are very common while others are very rare, which makes this a very diverse category. Cancers also have different survival rates. While not every survivor will have disabling symptoms, they definitely happen. Most of the long-term side effects are related to chemotherapy, radiation, and other medication, especially if they happened in children. They can include all sorts of organ damage, osteoporosis, cognitive problems, sensory disabilities, infertility, and increased rate of other cancers. Other effects include removal of the affected area, such as an eye, a spleen, breasts, or the thyroid gland, each of which will have different outcomes. Cancer, and cancer treatments, can also result in PTSD.

Diabetes (about 8.5%, ~95% of that are type 2) Diabetes is a group of endocrine conditions that cause hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) for various reasons depending on the type. The vast majority of people have type 2 diabetes, which can cause fatigue, poor healing, or feeling thirsty or hungry. A diabetic person will use insulin when needed to help manage their blood sugar levels. There are many complications related to diabetes, from neuropathy, to retinopathy, and chronic kidney disease, and there's a lot of disabilities that coexist with diabetes in general! You might want to check out the #how to write type 1 diabetes tag by @type1diabetesinfandom!

Disabling vision loss (about 7.5%) Blindness and low vision are a spectrum, ranging from total blindness (around 10% of legally blind people) to mild visual impairment. Blindness can be caused by countless things, but cataracts, refractive errors, and glaucoma are the most common. While cataracts cause the person to have a clouded pupil (not the whole eye!) blind eyes usually look average, with strabismus or nystagmus being exceptions to that fairly often (but not always). Trauma isn't a common cause of blindness, and accidents are overrepresented in fiction. A blind person can use a white cane, a guide dog or horse, or both. Assistive solutions are important here, such as Braille, screenreaders, or magnifying glasses. We have a blindness tag that you can look through, and you might want to check out @blindbeta and @mimzy-writing-online.

Psoriasis (about 2-4%) Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition with multiple subtypes; it can cause intense itching, pain, and general discomfort, and often carries social stigma. It’s an autoimmune and non-contagious disability that affects the skin cells, resulting in raised patches of flaky skin covered with scales. It often (30%) leads to a related condition, psoriatic arthritis, which causes joint pain, tenderness, and fatigue, among other things.

Stroke survivors (0.5-1%) A stroke survivor is a person who has survived any kind of stroke (ischemic, hemorrhagic, etc.). While the specific symptoms often depend on the exact location on where the stroke happened, signs such as hemiplegia, slurred speech, vision problems, and cognitive changes are common in most survivors to some degree. When someone has a stroke as a baby, or before they are born, it can result in cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and other disabilities. We have a brain injury tag that you can look through!

Noonan Syndrome (about 0.1-1% - mild is 1%, severe 0.1%) Noonan Syndrome is a disability that is almost never mentioned in any context, but certainly not around the topic of writing disabled characters. It’s a congenital condition that can cause cardiomyopathy, chronic joint pain, hypermobility, short stature, facial differences such as ptosis, autism, and various lymphatic problems among other things. Some people with Noonan Syndrome might use mobility aids to help with their joint pain.

Hyperthyroidism (about 1.2%) Hyperthyroidism is a condition of the endocrine system caused by hormone overproduction that affects metabolism. It often results in irritability, weight loss, heat intolerance, tremors, mood swings, or insomnia. Undertreated hyperthyroidism has a rare, but extremely dangerous side effect associated with it called a thyroid storm, which can be fatal if untreated.

Hypothyroidism (>5%) Hypothyroidism is an endocrine condition just as hyperthyroidism is, and it causes somewhat opposite symptoms. Due to not producing enough thyroid hormones, it often causes fatigue, depression, hair loss, weight gain, and a frequent feeling of being cold. It’s often comorbid with other autoimmune disabilities, e.g. vitiligo, chronic autoimmune gastritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Extreme hypothyroidism can also be potentially fatal because of a condition known as Myxedema coma (or “crisis”), which is also rare.

Deafblindness (about 0.2-2%) Being DeafBlind is often considered to be an extremely rare disability, but that’s not really the case. DeafBlindness on its own isn’t a diagnosis - it can be caused by a wide range of things, with CHARGE syndrome (congenital), Usher syndrome (born deaf, becomes blind later in life), congenital rubella, and age-related deafness and blindness being some of the most common reasons. DeafBlindness is a wide spectrum, the vast majority of DeafBlind people aren’t fully blind and deaf, and they can use various ways of communication. Some of these could be sign language (tactile or not), protactile, the deafblind manual, oral speech (aided by hearing aids or not), the Lorm alphabet, and more. You can learn more about assistive devices here! Despite what various media like to tell you, being DeafBlind isn’t a death sentence, and the DeafBlind community and culture are alive and thriving - especially since the start of the protactile movement. We have a DeafBlindness tag that you can look through!

It’s probably worth mentioning that we have received little to no asks in general for almost all the disabilities above, and it’s certainly not due to what mods answer for - majority of our inbox is amputee-related, and we haven’t had mods that answer those for somewhere around four years now. Our best guess is that writers don’t realize how many options they have and just end up going for the same things over and over.

Only representing “cool” disabilities that are “not too much while having a particular look/aura/drama associated” isn’t what you should aim for. Disabled people just exist, and all of us deserve to be represented, including those whose disabilities aren’t your typical “cool design” or “character inspo”. Sometimes we are just regular people, with disabilities that are “boring” or “too much”, and don’t make for useful plot points.

mod Sasza (with huge thank yous to mod Sparrow, Rot, and Virus for their contributions with research and data!)

#mod sasza #disabled character ideas #writing guide #writing resources #writing help #writing advice #writeblr

[blackbackedjackal]

The amount of skulls that are mislabeled on ebay/etsy/etc. has gotten completely out of hand. Tanukis labled as foxes and raccoons, arctic blue foxes labled as red or gray foxes, dogs labled as coyotes, and that's just the canids.

I'm gonna work on a bone ID chart eventually. Just something simple to help new Vultures and oddities collectors distinguish the differences. The issue with arctic blue fox skulls saturating the market is absolutely excessive. They're often purchased in bulk from highly unethical fur farms and then sold without the correct ids and imported/exported illegally.

#even I made the mistake of getting a few from US sellers that mislabeled them as ranched reds and corsac foxes before I found out #they're difficult to ID for a number or reasons but thankfully I caught on #and I've been holding onto them ever since because of how many I started to see saturating the market #and how many are posted on social media with the wrong IDs #it's gotten legitimately difficult to find wild reds and grays because of this oversaturation and mislabling #jackal's journal

[reiningsoral]

why don't you support israel? I can understand not liking how the conflict is being managed but zionism is based on the belief jewish people should have an ancestral home land, a place where they can truly be safe without antisemitism occurring. Many pro Palestine supporters deny the existence of israel and deny that jewish people should have an ancestral homeland and that is antisemitism. Everything, all the culture, the beauty of judaism is seen in Israel, and wanting to abolish that will just cause for jewish people to loose a part of their identity. Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties, the objective of Israel is to destroy Hamas, not Palestine. And Palestinians are not weak either, they have money to promote themselves and gain publishing around the world, other countries have faced horrible economical, social and political crises yet they don't get as much attention as Palestine does. Someone is paying them for that money. So I understand you may disagree with how the conflict is being handled, criticize Netanyahu and the politics but denying the existence of Israel DOES NOT make you an advocate for human rights, it makes you someone who is guided by what the media says instead of having a clear ground and in these times you should always be skeptic of the information you receive, not everything is black and white, Israel has the right to exist.

i cannot express, in any language, with any amount of words, how angry this has made me, anon. please never fucking interact with my blog again, thanks.

firstly, Isr*el is not "managing conflict." what they are doing is called ethnic cleansing (that's what H*tler was doing to jewish people) and thats a fancy was of saying genocide of a specific ethnicity.

the reason i dont support Isr*el is because i dont condone genocide. murder of an entire race is fucking wrong no matter how you put it. they are killing thousands of people every day. children are fucking dying. mothers are dying. literal infants are dying.

to address what you said "Isr*el is trying to avoid civilian casualties, the objective of Israel is to destroy Hamas, not Palestine." tell me, anon, was there a Hamas base inside of Hind? was there a Hamas base in the mothers they murdered? the answer is no, and i hope you fucking know that. they bombed Rafah while they were airing their fucking propaganda during the superbowl.

the ICJ is posting tiktoks of themselves that are proving they have zero fucking remorse for killing anybody.

they arent trying to avoid civillian casualties.

they are murderers.

never once, have i ever erased the exsistance of judaism or Isr*el. being pro-Palestine (i.e. against literal fucking genocide) is NOT antisemitism. i believe people should be allowed to practice whatever religion they want, and i believe that people should be allowed to practice judaism.

that does not mean, however, that i think zionism is okay.

and to the people who are saying shit like "well Palestine would kill you for being queer" id like to say, Isr*el is killing queer Palestinians every day. and just because people live in a place with a homophobic government does not mean they should be murdered.

anyone else who sends asks like this will have their ask deleted, and if you agree with anon here, i want you to unfollow, block, and never interact with me again.

#anti zionisim #pro palestine #free palestine #fuck israel #fuck the icj #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #palestine #free gaza #gaza #genocide #israel is a terrorist state #israel is committing genocide #and a special fuck you to you anon <3

[isjasz]

Hey so, tomorrow (or today depending on where you live.) is the end of the strike and well hate to be bearer of bad news but rest and doodles isn't assured when you return to regular posting. In literally TWO days from now, a new bill will pass called the KOSA bill, and it will cause MASS CENSIRSHIP across the media! Now this bill claims to "protect kids" but in actually it will cause more harm than good to everyone since kids won't have readily availible acess (or even at all) to content that can actually help them, people would not be able to educate themselves as access to some information or topics would be deemed "innapropriate", freedom of expression would be revoked especially lgbtqia people, a lot, privacy wouldn't be respected because you would have to verify yourself, and most importantly fandoms would cease to exist (or at least have trouble existing).

Now this is only a simplified list of things that might happen if the bill does get passed. I highly recomend that you do your own research and that you spread the information you have gathered to your friends, family, and most importantly governers (last two are kind of oppotional if you don't have a good family life or you don't live Canada or the U.S).

Please respond.

Hello, this seems very important I'm looking at this so uh

The links below are what I end up finding. I don't think it WILL pass 2 days from now and be applied immediately? (If I'm wrong and am not finding the right sources absolutely lmk but yeah I cannot seem that find that information)

The bill MIGHT pass on the 26th, but even then it will have to pass in the House in the US Congress to be really implemented. (Source + other various news articles I read)

And honestly if it would require people to validate government IDs on socials that would. That requires some kinda worldwide government cooperation or smth (unless it only applies to US users?) so yeah it's probably not a two days freak out thing from what I'm seeing SHAKJWAJ?

But yeah that is a real problem if it really gets passed passed. It's gonna censor so many things Jesus Christ and government ids on socials just sounds out of the world

Here's another post I found that has links to how we can help

#is.asks

[dra-and-sdra2-hot-takes]

Harassing your best artists does not a good fandom make

disclaimer: i won't be naming the two artists who were harassed for obvious reasons, and i won't be naming any of the specific person(s) who did the harassment both because they* don't deserve credit and because i don't want to start a fight with them* but to give a lesson to both them* and people who stood idly by and let it happen.

these two artists are some of my favorite in the fandom. while they're both still somewhat active in the fandom, [artist A] has said they* feel disillusioned with the fandom based on its treatment of them* and, well, i can fucking see why! and while i haven't seen [artist B] comment on the harassment directly, i can imagine they* aren't enthused either.

i've had multiple people in this fandom tell me personally that people have come into their inboxes and told them to unfollow/block A and/or B because they're* "problematic" for reasons including but not limited to "drawing nsfw of the another cast" [as if they aren't fucking confirmed to be adults]

and, to top this layer cake of the disgusting treatment of these two artists, i have literally seen, and i am not the least bit joking here, someone's DNI including the line "if you support [artist A] or [artist B]... DNI, they're gross" the audacity. the fucking nerve. to put two random tumblr/social media users in their* shitty little '~do not interact~' list. two users who have done nothing wrong and whose only crime is drawing fiction

setting aside that harassment is.... you know.... always wrong, all the time. this is not how you build a good fandom. there are other good artists in the fandom. but A and B are my as well as many others' from what i've observed. they do a lot of good in this - and i cannot stress this enough - very small fandom.

if you do not like these artists (or any other artist), say it with me now, block and move on. add their usernames to your "filtered content" list if you absolutely musn't see them*. although the claim i've seen of their* mere mention being horrifically triggering for certain people is... odd, to say the least, and reeks of attempted ostracism, just like the backtalking they* recieved in random people's dms.

and of course it is not just these two artists experiencing bs like this in the fandom but their situation speaks to how such a toxic fandom like ours treats even our best and britest.

conclusion: stop harassing people. that's the bare minimum. perhaps don't mention people by name in your 'dni lists'. and realize building positive community is necessary for this and any other small fandom to thrive.

*they/them/theirs pronouns used exclusively to anonymize the people involved in this story because the identities of the people here is not the point. i'm not trying to use an incorrect pronoun for anyone involved here, just protect their identities.

p.s.: i don't control you, dear readers, but i can at least ask you please don't speculate about the identities of anyone i mentioned in the post. kthx

[ID: This blog has no DNI. Please be civil and respectful to everyone under my posts!]

#fire a take!! #dra #sdra2 #danganronpa another #super danganronpa another 2 #dra fandom #sdra2 fandom

[leidensygdom]

Ur strength is definitely color and line work. Something I would say needs some work is definitely your full body drawings and poses. Your poses are always static and rigid and (especially when in motion) it takes me a moment to figure out what the character is supposed to be doing. Your anatomy is fine, its the stiffness of the over all pose thats the issue. It makes your pieces lack energy and any real umph. Your beautiful use of color and line usually covers for this but for me (someone who also struggles with this) it pops out like a sore thumb.

To practice, id suggest doing gesture drawings (1 minute sketches of action poses) to really understand how the body moves fluidly and to practice capturing that energy. Id also suggest doing 5-10 minute studies of full body figures in which you specifically observe how the pose affects the distribution of weight. How the torso curves in relation to the pose (your torsos are often very vertical and stiff) and how their muscles, fat, and clothing stretch, bulge, or fold depending on the pose.

Try to keep things loose during these studies and focus on capturing the energy of the pose over perfect anatomy. Focusing on anatomy can often be a distraction and can actually detract from capturing the fluid movement of a pose when you are first learning. You dont want to be thinking about anatomy during a 1 or 5 or 10 minute study if that is not what you are trying to learn.

While doing gesture drawings, its important that you move fast and dont get hung up on details. Get the line of action in there and the general shapes of the figure. Focus more on the movement of the figure over anatomy or details. Feel the rhythm in the pose and do your best to capture it. Id suggest doing 10 or 20 of these at a time. Sites like Line of Action are great for studies like this.

For 5-10 minute studies you want to build on the rhythm you developed during the 1 minute studies. Again, you want to focus on the movement of the pose over the details. Keep shapes simplified and force yourself to think in the abstract. A vibe i get from looking at ur art is that you get focused on the small details while losing sight of the big picture (might be wrong bout this but its something i also struggle with lolol) so during studies its important to keep ur mind on the bigger picture. Focusing in on small details adds to the stiffness of a piece as instead of one singular piece, it’s made of many smaller pieces. Idk if that makes sense lololol. Id do 1 hour of these 5-10 minute studies.

But yea id say this is really the main thing holding you back right now. Once you figure out how to capture the rhythm and energy in a pose id say ur golden lololol good luck! I hope this helps XD

oh gods yeah I need to whip some referencing for poses and specially dynamism, I tend to make things a bit too stiff. I think I cornered myself into making very static poses since I do a lot of character ref oriented work, and showing the design and outfits is a priority over the dynamism, and like, I need to get working on that.

It sucks to realize how I've let social media performance guide a bit on what I draw and I practice. People like their fullbody character designs with a grey background, and I've let a lot of What Isn't That fall apart, and it's bad! I gotta get better!

I need to find a way to maybe get a way to do these practices and still post it, bc even when I've done them, they stay in a folder and never get to see the light of the day. (Also, I saw the other ask and I'm gonna check that one soon! I struggle so much finding good refs for that!)

#artstyle crisis #long post

[chicspo]

Hey i was wondering if you have any advice on dealing w social media / content addiction? i feel like i follow so many ppl whose style i like that finally i have no sense of my own self! it’s so difficult for example i want to use instagram just to see what ly friends are up to but i get suggested posts, reels, ads no matter what i do and it’s so distracting! i feel like this started after i started using twitter(i have stopped now but the trauma remains lol), i was just a lurker on hf twt (where i discovered u) but god are the ppl there vicious!! like in general conflict-oriented and selfish and so materialistic as if everything is done for the photo and everyone is basking in their own individuality / ‘originality’ !! it made me super anxious to post anything anywhere and even irl the friends i attracted were of the more superficial kind and it seems soc media / trends is the most important thing for so many. sorry for this rant, literally just wanted to share. but really, if you have any tips on how to centre yourself ig or just be confident and protect urself from such energy (yes i know im probably insane)

i completely understand what ur saying. dont worry u can get out of it!! the most important thing to keep in mind is that u dont need a definitive style. u dont need to settle on a specific aesthetic or whatever. forget labels and avoid trends. dont try to fit urself into a box or niche because it takes away from ur own actual individuality and personality. with style and clothes id say two things: first notice what u feel most comfortable and confident wearing. not styles but simply pieces. are u more of a jeans or skirts person? what fits ur body better? what makes u feel like u stand out the most? and second what is it that u wanna let the world think of u based on ur clothes. style is a form of non communicative language. people will assume a lot about u based on what u wear. do u wanna be perceived as more elegant? more laid back? more feminine or more masculine? its all up to you. theres no right or wrong answer. all id say is present urself to the world as if u were the brightest star in the universe dont be afraid to outdress or outshine others. not everyone has the confidence to pull that off but if u can u will definitely be more admired and respected

[verdict]

posting this here essentially because im embarrassed of it + dont want many people to see it, but also want to get it out of my head and somewhere people could Theoretically see: (it is a DID fictive vent, it likely will not make sense to a stranger and this is intentionally vague)

existing in a way so different from my normal is honestly anxiety inducing and shameful. new experiences and feelings feel like a failure to who i was.

and also. i existed like "this" before. but i am not how i was then and there is shame in that. if in every way i should technically be... mentally capable of things i was previously unable, why am i still "wrong"? i feel guilt in a way. even though there i am "like this" i am not how i was when i was "like this" before. as far as having more emotion, motivation, etc.

there are so many mixed up feelings. im alone for it. i cant tell anyone i feel like this, because its shameful. our partner, maybe. except id have to "spoil" my source media that they are still reading. and then theyd never finish it and id really have nothing.

...i hate being here. i am trying to find joys and there are some, but i miss my life before despite all odds.

i guess its fine. i hated that person. but in another way am i betraying myself? im not who i was "then" and im not who i was before i was here. and its confusing and stressful

i dont like being alone like this. socializing isnt bad but i wish i had the people from before. im desperate for something familiar and i feel bad for that - the people here are fine. good, even

i want comfort, honestly. i feel the worst for that. its weak to want support and affection, but i desperately do. i have no idea how to ask for it. what if i make someone uncomfortable?

[theroetical, non-literal, not directed at reader] just... please. tell me im not a failure. tell me im not "wrong" or "inaccurate" because of all these emotions i didnt have welling up. tell me youre proud of me. im trying so hard.

i eat when i dont want to. i sleep when i dont want to. i talk to people and i try new things and i read and i write. i do so much and it is hard and i just want someone to care. i got so spoiled, having people who cared about me. now i dont. my support system is gone.

and i had already lost so much of myself. why did i have to get here and lose even more?

+ if youre fine with it interacting with this or mentioning it to me (if you know me) is fine. letting you know boundaries-wise this post was meant to be read but i didnt want to *ask* someone to listen...

...i have issues

#this is embarrassing but its fine. i just want it out of my head #eidolon gabs

[feyariel]

I'm so fucking sick of the lightbox preview.

On the app, you have to open a photo in lightbox in order to download its original size. If you don't, you get some weird, random resized version that will be shrunken and might not be clear.

However, loading the lightbox is risky. Half the time (literally), it doesn't load. Sometimes, this will go in spurts; just now, I tried to load the same photo in lightbox twenty times and only got a black screen. I had to reload the app twice to get the lightbox to work. Conversely, if the lightbox does work, there's a chance that the app won't return to normal when you exit out of it; it will instead be black, won't load anything, and won't respond at all, so you'll have to close out of the app and reload. This, of course, resets your feed (because we can't have nice things like FEEDS ONLY RESETTING ON COMMAND), which can mean scrolling through hundreds of posts (depending on how many blogs you follow, how frequently they post, and how often you check) to get to where you were.

Some photos won't load properly at all on the app. I don't know why.

On desktop, the issue is similar. If you want to download a photo, you have to open it in its own tab. However, you also have to get it to load in such a way that it isn't in Tumblr's (relatively recent) photo display tab style, which will only allow you to download a shrunken, often distorted version of the photo. It used to be that you could open the photo in a new tab without a problem.

"But art theft!" Bullshit. I have absolutely no sympathy for this. First, if you're worried about your art getting stolen, don't post it to social media that doesn't have strict protections for such. And 90% of the photos on here aren't the blogger's art. They're selfies or porn or memes or otherwise taken from other websites. More importantly, if you want to, say, throw an image into a reverse image search (Yandex, TinEye, or Google Images [using the proper exploits to the latter anymore]) to find the original, you're likely barking up the wrong tree. Yandex no longer allows you to link directly to a Tumblr photo when it's in the lightbox on desktop. The resized versions often won't get IDed properly because they're screwed up somehow, while the ones that are direct file transfers of the original upload very well might. Plenty of "artwork" (though not often called such outright, it's presented as it) on here is putting someone else's full-color photos of people into grayscale (another peeve of mine) or cropping photos, almost always without credit, neither in a way that does anything meaningful to the original itself.

You should be able to tap (on the app) or right click (on desktop) a photo as it appears in your feed and download the original uploaded version directly from Tumblr. If you're worried about people stealing your art, you should have an option to disable this for your blog's original posts.

[owlbloop]

Neurodivergent coding and correlations with stereotypes

Neurodivergency coding is very common both intentionally and unintentionally in media. It's important to realize what stereotypes and archetypes are rooted at least partly in neurodivergency, particularly autism.

Marcy Wu's a solid example of ambiguous unintentional coding. They read as neurodivergent because the nerd achetype is very heavily based in neurodivergency. The clumsiness, hyperfixative areas of interest, over expressiveness, social obliviousness, feeling ignored and isolated from friend groups, scientific interest, rambling, much of that was formed with autism and neurodivergency as a basis. Which isn't much of a problem in amphibia but if we look to other media often that accidental "coding"(though I don't really consider it true coding) gets used to turn a character into comic relief.

General rules of thumb for writing nerd archetypes:

-Research the origins and real life application (Honestly applies to all character archetypes)

-Nerdiness can be used for jokes but be careful not to portray most of the archetypal traits as being a laughing stock, weird, or something messed up/wrong

-Just try to be aware of how things come across

-Be extra careful writing robots

If you want to write autistic characters:

-Inexpressive, monotone, or oddly expressive does NOT equal emotionless

-Socially inept does not equal rude or not trying

-Low empathy is not the same as uncaring or low compassion, plus many with autism actually deal with mirror and hyper empathy

-Probably not a good idea to make an autistic character a morally grey mad scientist if you aren't actively researching the autistic community AND have at least one sensitivity writer if posting or publishing to a broad audience

-Do your research but note that most "charity's"(Looking at you autism speaks) don't have our best interest at heart

-Endearingly clumsy and be easy to make minimizing, just note that clumsiness can leave you with scrapes and bruises not just a comedic scene

-We aren't all friendless loners

-Research comorbidities

-We are very disportianatly gay and trans

-We have senses of humor, we just suck at picking up other people's

-Research the less commonly known traits

-We have broader ranges of morality than for science. In fact while our morals tend to be different than non autistic people we tend to hold to our morals a lot stronger than others

-Be careful not to write us as inspiration porn for neurotypical people

-Non speaking, hyper verbal, and semi speaking are often fluctuating traits. I'm physically incapable of speech at times, have a speech impediment, and almost all A's. Intelligence and how good we are at academics doesn't correlate much with whether or not we can talk at all or well(A lot of autistic people struggle with academics and being non speaking is disproportionately met with people with IDs, which is fine. Very belatedly in hindsight I realize that was poorly phrased. Sorry.)

-HYPERSENSITIVY IS A BISH

-Most of the community doesn't want to be fixed or have a cure, just be accepted and have the world recognize we have different needs than others

-We don't just lean towards math and robotics, all the sciences and creative fields tend to be quite alluring. Also we don't all like the same things

-STIMMING, STIMMING, STIMMING!!!

-Stop making us either have zero agency or only villains/morally grey

-Please PLEASE be careful not to infantilize us

#actually autistic #media representation #representation #autism #neurodiversity #neurodivergency #sterotypes #writing autistic characters #writing neurodivergent charecters #social justice #disabilities

[thebreakfastgenie]

Since this has come up again I gotta say I disagree with you about the use of the word. I think it’s bizarre to call it a slur that is extremely offensive to use and then also say it’s been “defanged” in the same breath. I also think it’s strange that I’m sure I have seen you reblogging posts about why people ID with slurs but then you also say that use of slurs is just “edgy” and “white noise”.

I assume you’re not really interested in a good faith discussion about it but the gist of it in my opinion is as follows.

1. Many people have had these slurs weaponised against them and using them in a casual context or self-identifying with them allows them to reclaim them in a positive way and take away the power of them. I.e. this isn’t a scary word because it was shouted out a car window at me or used by the person who assaulted me. I am not scared of this word. This word is who I am and I am okay with that.

2. Some people find that words commonly used as slurs feel more true to their experience than the polite, socially acceptable versions of the words. This can be for a variety of reasons but one I’ve commonly seen is that they feel as though the softer word is shying away from how they identify rather than facing it head on.

3. It can be a way to make people pay attention and get your point across. This can be wielded politically like in protests or pride parades or in pseudo political protests like online calls to action. As in, “the people who hate me call me a [slur]; well, this [slur] has something to say”.

4. Some people feel rubbed the wrong way by rainbow marketing (I.e. big corporations putting rainbows on things in June and talking about how inclusive they are while not actually doing anything meaningful to support the community and sometimes actively working against them in other ways, purely in the interest of getting the gay dollar) and like to self identify with words that squeaky clean corporations are never going to sell back to them.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it covers a few of the common reasons that I have seen. And it’s certainly not just the f word for gay men that gets used this way. Consider Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For, a piece of lgbt pop culture so entrenched that the term “the Bechdel test” is commonly used in media criticism. It certainly wouldn’t have been improved, in my opinion, by being named “Lesbians to Watch Out For”.

I think I was pretty clear that a word can be defanged in one context and remain a harmful slur in the other. The crux of my issue with using that word is that I do not know how it is being used when a stranger says it to me. As I have mentioned before, I live with two gay men, one of whom does use that word, and when he does it I am comfortable with it because I know him and I know the context in which it is being invoked.

I do not know that context online and I am not going to assume a stranger on the internet is a safe community member just because "tumblr is the gay website." First of all, it isn't, and I don't make a habit of assuming strangers' sexual orientations without strong contextual reasons to do so (e.g. gay bars, and even there it's not a guarantee). Secondly, people can be members of the community and still use slurs inappropriately.

I do not feel that everyone who is using slurs on tumblr is reclaiming them in any meaningful way. It looks much more like this is the cool new word, like a bunch of second-graders who just heard the word fuck for the first time. This is why I talked about it being defanged. My reference to white noise was because the word "gay" has been overused so much on this website (e.g. "gay little [x]") that it barely means anything anymore. It's practically a filler word. The alternative used to be "queer," but now that's been overused and sanitized because it was adopted by the mainstream and corporations found it. People picked up on "fruity" for whatever reason, probably because it's a bit old-fashioned and not used much by serious homophobes anymore, and also just sounds kind of funny. And that was quickly overused, the way memes are run into the ground.

But here's the thing: there is no word that is safe from rainbow marketing. There isn't. Maybe they would never use f*ggot now. Give it time. If you want to outrun mainstream society, you will always be hopping to a different word. Especially with the internet. People become desensitized very quickly to memetic language, simply due to saturation.

Tumblr users did not reclaim f*ggot. They turned it into a meme. They did the same thing with the limp wrist. And yes, gay people do these things with each other. In private. In gay spaces. Not on the public internet. Even if tumblr were a gay website (it's not) content from this site ends up on twitter, instagram, tiktok, and facebook. I do believe the use of slurs on this website is edgy. I won't speak for individuals, but as a trend it is at least partially motivated by being cool and getting clout. My point in saying it had been defanged was it was no longer accomplishing its purported goal of reclamation. Some of the reasons you listed for using slurs--facing things head-on etc.--rely on shock factor, and therefore have a naturally limited lifespan. People still say "queer as in fuck you," but when queer is the standard academic term and has been adopted by mainstream institutions, does it really hit the same way?

Each slur has its own history. I'm a fan of Dykes to Watch Out For. I attended a Dyke March last year. I am personally uncomfortable with f*ggot because unlike other slurs, I have personally experienced this one being used by homophobes. I think it was fairly popular in the United States in the 2000s, so many people have this experience, and therefore it is still more strongly associated with homophobia. This is still true outside tumblr, regardless of the defanging I observed here.

I am concerned about the eagerness of some to use slurs and engage in "ironic" homophobia (e.g. limp wrist) at a time when many countries are facing such a serious homophobic and transphobic backlash. I am concerned about slurs for the LGBT+ community in particular, because the idea of "who can reclaim them" is more fluid than with racial slurs and many other slurs. Someone can be raised in a homophobic environment and be a homophobe who calls people f*ggots, then come out as gay themselves and continue calling people f*aggots but it's "okay" now, whether or not they ever had any self-reflection about it. I am not accusing specific people of following this exact path, but this pattern is responsible for a lot of internalized and intracommunity homophobia.

I do believe that reclaimation is a conscious, active process. A lot of talk about reclaiming words on tumblr sounds like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy: I didn't say it, I declared it.

I hope I've explained my opinion a little bit here. Contrary to your assumptions, I am interested in a good faith discussion. The person who asked if they could call me a f*ggot was not.

#i did anticipate people claiming i was being contradictory before #which is WHY I included the point about context

[lambdadeltaa]

texas passed a bill protecting minor's use of the internet and its sooo fucking bad oh my god.. i just skimmed it and its a fucking doozy

honestly i cant imagine this thing holds up against a court at all, the wording is so broad and yet defined in all the wrong places.

for example just check out this section here:

shit like this being baked into laws makes me clench my bootycheeks, because its so fucking broad you just know its going to be used for malice!!! "as determined by the district or school" is just a free pass to bring down the censorship hammer and further demean the line between church & state.

some of it feels reasonable but you can't justify these means when its coupled with little landmines.

additionally, as far as i read there is no section outlining actions an online service provider should take in order to circumvent minors simply.. putting a different age?

basically, if you say you're under 18 and a known minor, online service providers will no longer allow you to adjust your age once set (in other words, if you put like 2010 as your birthday, its stuck as 2010 until you turn 18.) this shakes out since most websites don't allow you to change your birthday anymore anyways (or they allow like 1 adjustment at most, which is another baked in way for minors to circumvent age restrictions until they turn of age too but whatever).

my problem with this though is once again, if the minor simply just lied, there's literally nothing stopping them from getting away with that unless:

a.) as provided in the section, the verified parent disputes the registered age of the minor

or

b.) if digital service providers begin requiring IDs to register an account.

either option is disastrous for sure. don't think i need to spell out how many levels of violated i would feel by any social media asking me for my ID, when they already sell plenty of my data without that to begin with.

this bill all banks on the degrees to which parents follow through on their responsibilities to ensure online safety. while it does create an obligation for schools to provide online safety materials to parents, by no means does that secure any sort of followthrough by said parents to assume that duty. i can't imagine providing a legal avenue to assert that right is going to do anything to somehow change that. in other words, you can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink.

one of the only notable highlights of this bill in my opinion i'll provide a snippet of as well, although a later defined section provides protection of trade secrets

i think that digital service providers absolutely need to be held accountable by third parties to dash any chances of another elsagate moment. also, i like that this bill asks companies to share their safety techniques with each other, even if that's never put into practice.

ultimately this isn't any type of call to action or intensive unpacking of all this bill entails so feel free to read it here, i just found it interesting and unnerving and wanted to articulate my own thoughts on it somewhere.

Oh right and just before ending this post, if it couldn't get any more transparent that this is a weird surveillance state thing, this bill is also called the SCOPE act.

#politics #texas HB 18

[lovingdreamworld]

Dream's Apology

On May 7th, 2022, Dream released an apology following his past videos come to light. In them were harmful racist and antisemitic jokes.

I have not been able to find this apology on tumblr, nor the original link. I believe it is necessary for me to post this here as a point of reference, especially with how easily misinformation circulates and resources are lost. As always, please use your own judgement.

Image ID below cut.

[Image ID: Screenshot of Dream's Pastebin 'Past' from May 7th 2022

"I’m writing this just as the thoughts come to my head so sorry if I ramble at all.

Just thought I’d readdress some things I’ve talked about before, and in turn, current events. The elephant in the room, I had bigoted humor, and some very privileged and bigoted views before Youtube. Point blank. I’ve talked openly about how YouTube changed me for the better, going from a very sheltered life to talking to people from all over the world, from different cultures and countries and communities. This is something I don’t mind talking about at all because I think growth is important, and that acknowledging that having done racist things, or other things of that nature, doesn’t make you racist. It’s your actions after knowing that what you did was racist or offensive that defines you. making sure you never do those things again, and recognizing that they’re gross, and completely unacceptable. that is what defines how you are as a person. Whether it’s a full blown racist ass “meme”, or just a micro aggression against a marginalized community. Recognizing it was wrong, and moving forward knowing that.

Some people grow up surrounded by only love & kindness & understanding and don’t realize how blessed they are to have been fed the things they were on social media, and things they were taught in school, from their parents, their friends, their local government, who all their role models were. Everyone has a different upbringing, and until you get out in the world and you meet people, you’re always a lot more ignorant. I didn’t have a twitter until 2018/19, a facebook, an Instagram, or any social media. Being able to talk to people in an instant, and have people not afraid to challenge my view point, or that didn’t have the exact same views as my friends or my family or my city, was something completely new to me. Something that at first I rejected completely, and didn’t try and LISTEN. I would listen just to know how to argue back, not to try and actually understand. Once I learned that there’s more to listening than just hearing what someone’s saying, I matured a lot and slowly but surely I met more and more awesome people and feel like a completely completely different person to even just 3 years ago when I had no social media at all.

Everything that people have been bringing up recently are things that are from videos that I deleted while I was learning and growing. There’s a reason you’re viewing it on the way back machine, and not my channel, and that they’ve been deleted since early 2020 or even 2019.

I’ve talked to fans of mine from all kinds of places and cultures and plenty of times that’s resulted in me deciding to take a video down, even if it was only one person I had a discussion with in private. A lot of my “humor” came from the YouTubers I watched growing up, and so knowing that, I’ve always strived to make sure my content is as friendly to people around the world as it possibly can be. No matter who it is. I feel like it’s my responsibility. I don’t want a kid to end up being accidentally hateful because it’s something that I made them feel like was okay. I’m not their parent, but sometimes creators can have more of an influence on someone’s heart than even their parents. I only want that to be positive.

It is upsetting seeing clips that I have removed long ago being brought up, because obviously they were removed for a reason. But like I’ve also talked about many times before, that’s going to unfortunately happen. When people see stuff like that, they will want some reassurance that you don’t hold those views, or that you were uninformed or being ignorant. but the fact is, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, you were just being racist. You can be being both ignorant and racist at the same time.

I’ve done racist things. I’ve done bigoted things. I’ve never done anything with the intent to harm someone, but I have definitely harmed groups of people without caring, or without understanding the effect my words or actions could have on that group. What struggles they have to deal with on a daily basis, and how me as a teenager didn’t care enough to understand that or realize that I was adding to hatefulness in the world. It sucks, it sucked, and I’m sorry.

It’s heartbreaking to see long since deleted clips resurface, because it’s paraded as if these are my current jokes, or my current positions, or that I am a horrible bigot, and when that happens, the hurt that my past self inflicted on probably a very small audience, now gets brought up again and amplified to hurt more people. It breaks my heart because I’ve always learned from my mistakes, and part of that has opened me up to being a lot more empathetic. It hurts seeing some of the random memes or jokes that I made growing up, because now I understand that they weren’t just jokes, they were harmful and they had real impact on those around me, even if I didn’t know it. People don’t need to see idiotic gross things that I did at a young age, or while growing up and finding myself as a person. that being said, I don’t want to just brush it off, because I feel like everything I’m saying here is important for you guys to hear, and it doesn’t matter how long ago something was, it’s bound to pop up at some point.

So I’ll just finish this by saying that I have nothing but love for everybody out there, I don’t care who you are, if you hate me or love me, where you’re from, or anything about you. you have value and worth, and you deserve to be listened to and understood. I’ll always do my best to learn and grow from my past mistakes, and listen to people when I make new ones, because I will. I ask that everyone judge me by my current content, my current character, and who I am now as a person, because that’s all I have to offer, and the best anyone can do. I’ll do my best to always be the best version of myself possible.

So I’ll just finish this by saying that I have nothing but love for everybody out there, I don’t care who you are, if you hate me or love me, where you’re from, or anything about you. you have value and worth, and you deserve to be listened to and understood. I’ll always do my best to learn and grow from my past mistakes, and listen to people when I make new ones, because I will. I ask that everyone judge me by my current content, my current character, and who I am now as a person, because that’s all I have to offer, and the best anyone can do. I’ll do my best to always be the best version of myself possible.

See you soon - Dream" End ID].

#dreamwastaken discourse #dreamwastaken mcyt #dreamwastaken #important #resource

[kangbi]

literally no matter how many times i say “not interested” and “don’t recommend this channel” and “i am not interested” on posts, i keep fucking seeing johnny depp and amber heard shit on my explore pages and social media timlines and its always people dunking on AH for stuttering or misspeaking or making some sort of face whether it be good or bad or neutral and it’s just like shut up shut up shut up oh my god you’re all so silly praising this man and talking abt how he could tell you to sit like a dog and you would happily like what the fuck id wrong with you all for eating up what this abuser does

TERFS AND RADFEMS FUCK OFF AND DIE

#p

[raspberryslut]

Maybe don’t use the word f*ggot? what tf is wrong with you...

hi. so just out of curiosity i searched my own blog and the only time i have used this word recently was in regards to a silly gerard way video (and honestly, probably the only time i personally have ever done so on this blog). in my opinion, in this post, i think its obvious i am saying this as a funny way of expressing my shock and love and exasperation at the pagentry of a celebrity--who has gone out of their way to align and ally themselves w lgbt and queer ppl--doing something thats uhh pretty significantly flamboyant and campy. i can understand how this can be misconstrued.

i am gay. i id as a lesbian. im not cis. i am a queer person. i need this to be clear here. i understand that there has been discussion of who can "reclaim" slurs in the past but it is not discussion i am taking part in here because it is irrelevant. i understand what youre saying when you say "dont use this word" ; youre saying dont be mean and callous towards people who you do not share experiences with, when you have not experienced the same level of animosity and aggression that they have and can experience. i acknowledge that i maybe i havent experienced ALL of the same things that people who have been called fag or queer or any other of the number of slurs that exist for gay men, effeminate men, men who dare to embrace a little bit of femininity.

at the same time gay history and culture are not something to shrink away from. gay people have called themselves """slurs""" as long as those slurs have been used against them by aggressors. and i am not using it in a negative connotation in that post, i am using it because i am happy someone who i look up to a little bit is doing something fucking hysterical and funny and it is bringing me--a lesbian, some unknown and confusing flavor of trans--joy and euphoria at seeing someone else bend gender norms and embrace parts of femininity i have struggled with.

there are people out there who are using this word as a slur, and using it demeaningly and as an aggressor in situations that are dangerous for people like me. i am not one of these people. there are so many more people to be worried about than a single blogger on a social media platform who used the word 'faggotry' on a post that did not get circulated widely.

in the same vein tho i understand what youre saying. and im sorry if me using it did upset you or trigger an upsetting memory, sincerely. that isnt something to be taken lightly. ill think a little harder in the future before i say things.

now considering the fact that i posted that. oh idk like a week ago, im pretty sure you dont follow me, which means you were probably looking thru the notes of that post. at a certain point i cant be responsible for what people who dont follow me end up seeing. i know this is the internet and everything lives forever but you are beholden to curate your own experience a little bit.

if you are following me tho, i mean. id suggest unfollowing. i do subscribe to a theory of uh. idk radical queer and lgbt liberation and strength and pride? im not afraid to rb and interact with people who toss around words deemed as slurs. if you dont want to be faced with that, because it triggers or upsets you, itd be in your best interest and safety to unfollow. thats understandable and honestly! i want you to do whats best for you. i want you to have an enjoyable internet/escape from the horrors of irl. truly!

i know this seems like a lot of words for someone who has like idk maybe 100 active followers. i know this isnt that serious. but it kinda is that serious to me! so again, sorry! but also im not apologetic about being like, a whole gay person who is very much in love with gay culture and strength.

also. i mean its gerard way if u think they havent heard and embraced much worse idek were even doing here at this point.

#speaketh #ask #anon #idk.

[treeprince]

hello! ok 1. i love your writing <3 found you from ao3. amazing work *round of applause* 2. i wanted to know how you recommend finding fics / fic recs or promoting your own work? i have heard a lot of ppl say that tumblr doesn’t rly discuss fanworks like they used to and most of that discussion (esp with writing) has moved to discord but i feel like from an outside perspective its hard to stumble upon unless you have friends in the server? idk just wanted to get your thoughts :) have a lovely day!

ive been sitting here on this one all day like,

are... are you in the right place??? did u click on the right blog for this ask??? thank you?????? made my day and also got me v confused

but to answer your questions, ill do it in 2 parts: one for fic recs and the other for fic promos.

theres a couple different ways i look for fics, and im sure both of these are the most common, but the first is using ao3's filter system. i can pare down any particular thing im looking for in a fic with the filter system ao3 runs on, and the tag wranglers (bless them) have made sure that even the vaguely worded tags end up where they need to be under the larger umbrella tag its associated with. you can also peruse the bookmarks of authors on ao3 in their profile and filter those fics down to specific fandoms or pairings or even timeframes it was written!

the second is a combination of using friends recommendations- publically or in private servers- and fic recs on tumblr, usually thru the ship tag (if im following the tag, and if the author chose to promote their fic on tumblr, or a fic rec blog promotes it as some fandoms do)

it also depends on how large the fandom is when you come into it, and what specifically you are looking for, but if you have friends in that fandom who keep bookmarks of their fav fics or know of ones youd enjoy, id recommend going to them if the tag system isnt providing quite what you're after, as id trust a friend over anything else (word of mouth literally is the best promo)

there are also sometimes fic rec blogs, who's entire modus operandi is promoting works at large, so following a few of those (if there are any) can help bring new content to your door as well

as for promoting your own work, you really kind of have the world before you. make a link post on tumblr with a similar tagline to the summary and tag it accordingly. share the link in discord with friends or in fandom spaces. share the link on twitter and tag it so it gets seen. ao3 is not a social media website, so as long as you are the most recent post in the tag, youll always be at the top. theres no algorithms there like there are on other socmed platforms, so really the choice is up to you how and where you want to promote it! reblog the link as many times as you want! its up to you!

and youre not entirely wrong that discussion of fanworks doesn't take place on tumblr anymore, but it really depends on the fandom youre in. i follow several authors and fic rec blogs for one fandom who do regular fic promos of other writers works and gush about them, but in the way that youll see a blurb in the jacket cover of a book. its really just to keep the content coming back to the top here, and helps bring to the surface fics that didnt get a lot of readers in the first run, perhaps bc its an older work or a lesser known pairing.

discussion about fandom works themselves has turned private namely for the sake of reducing drama and hurt feelings in public spaces, and i dont blame them. ive been in ficbook clubs on private servers that were some of the best times ive ever had bc we were allowed to talk freely about an authors work without airing our opinions out for all the world to see, and frankly i much prefer that style of discussion over public ones, but thats me and i cant speak for everyone.

theres also just been a steady shift away from author engagement on socmed bc of how easy it is for them to get hit by negativity there. the culture just isnt the same as it used to be for fic writers as it was in the last decade. hell, in the last year alone, youd be hard pressed to find an author who hasnt experienced some kind of harassment over the course of their career on socmed, if we're being honest. my honest advice to you is: if youre following an author you like, and u want to know more about how they use their creative process, ask them! they may not all answer these days, but it doesnt hurt to try! just be polite, thats all anyone can hope for.

i hope this helps you anon, and thank you for the kind words! if you have more questions or are just looking to get recs, feel free to hmu!

#long answers for long questions im afraid whups #im maybe not the best person to answer these questions either but im also insane about how i browse for fics #catch me in the ao3 filters digging for specific timeline of fics from april 2013 to november 2014 #also curious how you found me thru ao3 lol #and which fic it was that brought u to my door #hope u have a lovely day anon