A request for blog recommendations that do not support fandom antis

[gravityspiker]

Almost every single aro-focussed blog on Tumblr that I have found is either explicitly or implicitly supporting the 'anti' movement in fandom. I've felt chased out of every aro space because of this; I've received death threats and suicide baiting from self-identified antis and do not feel comfortable in spaces that don't condemn this behavior. I'm looking for some blogs that do not do this.

 

(For those who may not be familiar with the anti movement, it is a group of mostly young people who claim to be protecting children and trauma survivors from things they (the antis) find repulsive. This often escalates into demanding people disclose their trauma to be "allowed" to write certain kinds of fanfiction, death threats and rape threats sent anonymously, and outright censorship ("[x type of content] is gross and disgusting and should be banned"), as well as harassing people out of fannish spaces altogether. I also want to make it clear that these people often ignore well-tagged warnings to engage with fanwork they find objectionable solely to harass the content creator(s).)

[Coyote]

On 6/14/2019 at 11:36 PM, gravityspiker said:

Almost every single aro-focussed blog on Tumblr that I have found is

 

So you're looking on Tumblr.

Is this an absolute requirement for you?

 

On 6/14/2019 at 11:36 PM, gravityspiker said:

A complaint / request for resource(s)

 

[...] I'm looking for some blogs that do not do this. 

 

Are you looking for resources, or are you just looking for blogs? "Blogs" is a lot bigger/more numerous category than "resources," to me. "Blogs" is also a bigger category than "blogs on the Tumblr platform, specifically." At the moment it's not completely clear to me what you want. You could have a discussion, here, on Arocalypse, about aros in fandom & what you want the aro community to look like, and that would be a different kind of thread from a request for blogging recommendations, but for blog recs I would need more details about what specifically you're looking for -- and atm I'm actually not sure which one you're actually angling for between those two possible paths.

 

On 6/14/2019 at 11:36 PM, gravityspiker said:

I also want to make it clear that these people often ignore well-tagged warnings

 

Speaking of warnings, given that this is a fraught/sensitive subject for a lot of people, it would be polite to give this thread a more indicative title.

[gravityspiker]

16 minutes ago, Coyote said:

 

So you're looking on Tumblr.

Is this an absolute requirement for you?

I am looking for a page to add to my feed that discusses aromanticism in fannish contexts without supporting censorship and harassment. The key phrase is "add to my feed" rather than it being Tumblr-specific.

 

[Coyote]

Quote

A request for blog recommendations that do not support fandom antis

 

Much more direct title. Thank you.

 

24 minutes ago, gravityspiker said:

I am looking for a page to add to my feed that discusses aromanticism in fannish contexts without supporting censorship and harassment. The key phrase is "add to my feed" rather than it being Tumblr-specific.

 

Aha. I see. I was going to say, if the objective is "aro blogs that don't specifically support [folks who are pro-... harassment? you call them 'antis' here but don't say anti-what and seem to define them more in terms of what they're in support of]" -- then that could mean both "aro blogs that explicitly take your side on the matter" and "aro blogs that don't address it," but "blogs that talk about aromanticism in fandom" is already much, much narrower than that, without even getting into any other ideological stances. Granted, I'm not well-versed in aro blogs, but I don't know that I could think of an aro-specific blog that posts much about fandom (at the meta level) to begin with.

 

hmm. Is it a requirement for the blog in question to have RSS? I ask because Pillowfort doesn't have RSS at the moment, and I know that's a problem to some people. Granted, of the aro bloggers and communities there, I don't know of one that's got much on fandom & aromanticism as a combination specifically, but, if you're looking for stuff to read, you might possibly be interested in this discussion of unshipping.

 

This could also potentially make for a good prompt for a Carnival of Aros, by the way, if you're interested in spurring more discussion on the topic. A step down from that, in the mean time, I'd also be happy to try and get some more people blogging about it, if you could help me with some prompt ideas. Some possible angles -- let me know how much these do or don't match up do what you had in mind:

• How does your aro spectrum identity impact how you engage with fandom?
• Are there any fictional characters that you interpret as aro?
• Have you read/watched anything with a canon aro character?
• Where/how have you observed amatonormativity in fandom?
• Do some fandoms feel more aro-friendly than others?

[gravityspiker]

3 minutes ago, Coyote said:

 

[...] you call them 'antis' here but don't say anti-what and seem to define them more in terms of what they're in support of]" -- then that could mean both "aro blogs that explicitly take your side on the matter" and "aro blogs that don't address it," but "blogs that talk about aromanticism in fandom" is already much, much narrower than that, without even getting into any other ideological stances. Granted, I'm not well-versed in aro blogs, but I don't know that I could think of an aro-specific blog that posts much about fandom (at the meta level) to begin with.

'Anti' is usually a self-applied term short for, variously, "anti-shipper," "anti-kink," "anti-darkfic," or other similar topics. If you're not familiar with the anti movement, tumblr user freedom-of-fanfic has some informational posts that are generally useful (regardless of how much or little relevance the other views expressed on the blog have). Some relevant quotes: 

Quote

anti-shippers: 
nice definition: fandom members who self-identify as being opposed to fandom interest in, discussion of, or depiction of romantic or sexual interaction between two or more characters on moral grounds and believe in stopping content creation by any means necessary.  

in simpler terms: they don’t want the ship they oppose to have any fan content whatsoever because they believe it is harmful to the moral fiber of fandom spaces, and they’re willing to go to great lengths to stop creators from creating for it.

this blog’s take: fandom members who subconsciously use a person’s ships as an excuse to ostracize and bully them out of a need to assert control over a part of their environment.

and 

Quote

antis: anti-kink, anti-dark content, and anti-shipping in aggregate. anti-shipping frequently features anti-kink and anti-dark content arguments (all ships they oppose are ‘incest’, ‘pedophilia’, or ‘abusive’, by dint of twisting the meaning of these words to apply to whatever ship they want.)

 

13 minutes ago, Coyote said:

hmm. Is it a requirement for the blog in question to have RSS?

I'd strongly prefer it. My main platform is Dreamwidth and the RSS feed is the primary way to subscribe to non-Dreamwidth pages (apart from crossposts on Livejournal).

 

14 minutes ago, Coyote said:

if you're interested in spurring more discussion on the topic

I'm less interested in starting or moderating discussion and more interested in having a place to access current and older discussions of aro(spec) experience in fandom (and contribute if possible, in comments as on DW or reblogs as on Tumblr) without having to follow a feed that often expresses approval or support for the anti movement. However, if this is a topic you're interested in pursuing, I would be interested in following that sort of thread. The first bullet point you give is mostly what I'm interested in; the others tend to have been rehashed a few times and, while it's great to see new opinions and ideas, I don't want that to be the only point of engagement.

[Coyote]

19 hours ago, gravityspiker said:

'Anti' is usually a self-applied term

 

Is it?

 

That hardly aligns with what I've seen, but alright.

 

19 hours ago, gravityspiker said:

If you're not familiar with the anti movement,

 

I'm plenty familiar with it being explained to me second-hand, actually. The more people talk to me about it, the more I become convinced that referring to the group you're speaking of as "antis" is a strategically unsound choice. "Anti-shippers" is also silly, but that's for the separate reason that, according to one harassment account I've been directed to on this topic, some of these people are shippers themselves -- basically participating in a ship war.

 

19 hours ago, gravityspiker said:

more interested in having a place to access current and older discussions of aro(spec) experience in fandom (and contribute if possible, in comments as on DW or reblogs as on Tumblr) without having to follow a feed that often expresses approval or support for the anti movement. However, if this is a topic you're interested in pursuing, I would be interested in following that sort of thread.

 

I see. In that case -- I don't know of much, but I recently started another PF discussion on this topic ("How does your aro spectrum identity, romance aversion, or romantic ambivalence impact how you engage with fandom?") that's gotten over a dozen comments now. You might also be interested in tumblr user beranyth's old posts on Growing Up Aromantic: The Half-Read Book and also this reblog-chain on dehumanization.

 

[gravityspiker]

5 minutes ago, Coyote said:

The more people talk to me about it, the more I become convinced that referring to the group you're speaking of as "antis" is a strategically unsound choice.

I'm not going to debate lexical ambiguity; I'm using a generally accepted term regardless of how you or I personally feel about that term in order to communicate as effectively as possible.

7 minutes ago, Coyote said:

19 hours ago, gravityspiker said:

'Anti' is usually a self-applied term

 

Is it?

 

That hardly aligns with what I've seen, but alright.

Most people who label themselves 'antis' will put it in their blog url or description (as "[character]-against-pedos" or "[sexuality/orientation]course" or "[noun]-anti"); others will simply put "no freaks" or similar in their bio, then clarify that "freaks" means "anyone who ships something I consider unacceptable / anyone who thinks it is acceptable to produce darkfic".

 

9 minutes ago, Coyote said:

"Anti-shippers" is also silly, but that's for the separate reason that, according to one harassment account I've been directed to on this topic, some of these people are shippers themselves -- basically participating in a ship war.

No, that's absolutely correct. They're anti-[x ship], not anti-[shipping as a whole]. It's been pointed out several times that this is a development of ship wars being couched in social justice terms to prove who is the most progressive via fannish interaction. 

 

13 minutes ago, Coyote said:

I don't know of much, but I recently started another PF discussion on this topic ("How does your aro spectrum identity, romance aversion, or romantic ambivalence impact how you engage with fandom?") that's gotten over a dozen comments now. You might also be interested in tumblr user beranyth's old posts on Growing Up Aromantic: The Half-Read Book and also this reblog-chain on dehumanization.

I appreciate the links. I'll probably be keeping an eye on that pillowfort post; I'm finding the responses pretty interesting. Thanks for taking the time to do this. :g: