You know, an interesting tumblr transformation that's happened gradually, and which I've seen no one talk about: ask-culture has essentially dropped off to nothing.
By which I mean, asks used to be WAY more of the tumblr economy. They used to be more common to send, and receive, and see. They were integral to the collaborative, forum-like behavior of old tumblr communities, not even to speak on the HUGE number of ask-blogs that used to exist to only be interacted with in ask-form.
I'm not saying this in a vying-for-attention way but instead in an observational way: I used to get way way more asks in like 2015, even with a fraction of my follower count. I wonder if it's due to the homogenization of social media sites? There's a lot more of this divide between "content creator" and "consumer" instead of just a bunch of peer blogs who would talk to each other. "Asks" aren't really a thing on twitter, are they? And as I understand it, the closest thing to an "ask" on instagram or tiktok would be a creator screenshotting some comment and responding to it in a new reel or video or whatever those content mediums are. Are asks just too tumblr-specific? Is that aspect of the site culture dying out as more and more people converge to using all their social media sites in the same way?
if you’re a baby gay and this is your first pride, watch your drinks! men are trash across all sexualities
It's her!!!!! Finally a full piece :']
Wow me posting omori again? Expect more of it tbh
they’ve taken over my brain as with everything
and they were roommates :0
since theres a homestuck renaissance; white ppl, yall should remember abt the racist stereotypes in the webcomic and try to do better this time when portraying the characters in what you make
its upsetting that i have to see literal racist caricatures in some artwork of certain characters, and its even worse seeing artwork of the alpha/beta/humanstuck trolls being drawn with sickly green desaturated skin
im tired of seeing one thing mentioned when we talk abt the racism in this fandom, so im going to make a huge post regarding the red flags and white supremacist dogwhistles that are noticed and unnoticed within the comic:
EDIT 7/22/22
hey yall, just wanted to clarify something about the strider part of this post.
the part about the striders is not me trying to tell you guys to draw them as any specific race nor is it a stereotype. it’s my fault for not clarifying in this post that it isn’t a stereotype. i’m not black so i won’t talk about what you should and shouldn’t draw them as. it’s just there as a way to inform you guys about instances where black culture is used mockingly. my girlfriend has no opinion on this either, so it’s really just a mixed opinion thing as I’ve seen people have different thoughts about this.
originally there was not a lot about the megidos and there was only damara but thanks to some people who reblogged this post and informed me about it, I was able to edit it. if there is any misinformation let me know in my ask box.
and finally, a lot of poc were mentioning how the condesce looks like minstrelry so I decided to add that in.
thank y’all for informing me about this, and if there’s misinformation or information you would like me to add on, please let me know in my inbox.
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content warning for poc// there’s going to be mentions of racial stereotypes, slavery, and hanging.
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the makaras and chucklevoodoo
gamzee is a black stereotype. his father is never around, he speaks in aave that is constantly mocked and berated as “unfitting”, he does drugs, he does voodoo, he becomes violent when he’s off drugs, and later on in the story, he basically abuses the cop who is obsessed with hanging things.
him speaking in aave isn’t necessarily racist on it’s own, it’s how it was written to mock black culture. which is a common trait you see within the webcomic.
https://commonwealthtimes.org/2021/02/18/aave-is-not-your-internet-slang-it-is-black-culture/
after the webcomic was completed, he was written to be a pedophile and was involved in some weird racist cucking fetish plot point.
kurloz doesn’t talk at all, but he is portrayed as some magical, mysterious voodoo master, which is a stereotype on its own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro
voodoo, as always, is mischaracterized to be evil and mysterious in the webcomic, when in reality it has nothing to do with those things. it’s a real, closed religion, and as a person who family does voodoo, it’s really annoying seeing people appropriate my culture, or make it out to be evil because of a dumbass webcomic.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/voodoouniverse/2015/09/5-voodoo-stereotypes-that-wont-die-help-me-kill-them/
the peixes
the condesce is described in the wiki to “speak like an italian mobster” when in reality she uses aave, which is another example of it being mocked. it’s used as irony because she’s a ruler who talks “informally” and is perceived as ghetto.
she is under lord english’s control. which basically means, she’s a black woman being enslaved by a white british guy.
a lot of people have realized that the condesce also looks like blackface in most of the panels she’s in.
meenah uses more aave than the condesce and is also said to “speak like a mobster.”
a common thing in the fandom is that feferi, despite literally being related to the both of them, is portrayed to be either lighter than them, or just white. this is an issue because feferi is the only one who is portrayed as nice and doesn’t speak “informally”, so it easily comes off across as extremely racist and colorist.
the megidos
damara is also another racist stereotype. she’s portrayed as a japanese girl who speaks in broken english and japanese google translate. she is also sexualized to hell and back within the dialogue and is basically used as just something sexual.
https://nnedv.org/latest_update/stereotypes-asian-women/
a lot of the different versions of the megidos are wearing chinese garments despite literally being japanese. not only that, the young handmaid is basically a servant to not one, but two white men.
the striders
while not a stereotype, the striders are characters whos personalities all have to do with black culture. they all rap and use aave from time to time. (not to mention dave literally used the n word in his blog which was being written by a white guy)
https://www.epidemicsound.com/blog/hip-hop-the-heart-soul-of-modern-black-history/
while white people can like rap, the striders were written intentionally to be white and their whole personality, that revolves around rapping, are another example of black culture being treated as a joke. they are written to be white despite being aracial.
andrew hussie himself & the fandom
a lot of these stereotypes were written by andrew hussie, and a lot of the plot points used with them give off extremely weird white supremacist ideals.
the issues with these stereotypes is obvious. it’s a white person writing them and treating culture as a joke constantly.
and while white people can easily relate to some of the characters, it’s hard for poc to do because every 5 seconds your culture is being mocked.
it’s hard to be in a fandom where nobody really wants to talk about the racism. it’s extremely difficult to call out the racism when you do see it because nobody takes you seriously. and when they do, they just look at you like you’re crazy. for instance, my girlfriend, who is black, educated some people (who were white) on the fact that the condesce was black, and in return they called her hostile and violent.
so when someone educates you on the racial coding of characters, please listen to them. purposely being ignorant to the racist stereotypes because you want them to be white is EXTREMELY racist and disgusting.
the whole point of this post was basically to say: let’s treat poc right this time, let’s be aware of the racial stereotypes homestuck has, and let’s stop using a racist as a reliable source.
me:
my brain: hey you ever think about how when the operator showed up in their apartment and alex’s IMMEDIATE reaction was “get amy to safety”? like, his top priority was getting her the hell out of there, promising he’d be right behind her?
ever think about that photo of amy that jay and tim found beneath the pillow in the attic where alex had been hiding out? you ever think about how that was probably the one comfort item/the one thing from his old life that alex held on to? how he wouldn’t have just held on to that for no reason? eve think about how much he must have missed her? (incidentally, remember that one video clip you saw months ago where joseph delage said he wants to believe alex DIDN’T kill amy?)
even think about that phone call in the car where alex told amy he was thinking about transferring to her school, partly b/c the film classes there were better, but also/mostly because he didn’t like being far away from her?
ever think about how alex’s first film he wrote was a cheesy romance?
ever think about how good of a boyfriend alex was/tried to be? and then the operator came along and ruined everything?
DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT ANY OF THIS?
me: …dude, i haven’t had any caffeine yet, i don’t have the spoons for this, it’s WAY too early.
Aha who would've thunked that this would make me break my almost one-two year hiatus on here??? Hehe
THIS IS BASED OF @corrupted-sav3 CAUSE OMGOMG RAGARAHARAH I love anything creepy and my brain gravitated towards it so quickly :Dc
Hey. Minors following me. Internet safety is key!! NEVER include these in your bio/byf:
Medical diagnoses - this is nobody's business but yours. You don't owe anyone an explanation for why you are the way that you are
Trauma - same reason as above
Triggers - people can use these against you! Don't give people tools to hurt you. No one has to know what tags you block. Just block tags to stay safe!
Age - age is okay for adults to include but is iffy when you're a teen. Predators want this information, don't give people more than they need. Just state that you're a minor, that's all that anyone needs to know.
In general: stay safe. If you're not comfortable with every stranger out there having access to this information, you shouldn't post it on the internet.
Play devil's advocate and ask yourself about what would happen if someone searched for your information with intent to hurt you. You do NOT owe anyone an explanation!