So Wait Are Livestock Guardian Dogs To Their Flocks Like… Clark Kent Among The Residents Of Smallville?

crisp glass of water moodboard

Source 

fresh, clean no-terf version for reblogs!

Your mom and aunts aren’t on tumblr.  Please warn them about this as well. 

Come into a fandom late. Leave early. Write 100 fics. Write 1. Write none. Read every single fic written in your fandom. Read only your OTP. Write only your OTP. Write every pairing under the sun. Make gifs just for your friends. Make gifs to share with everyone. Make art. Make nothing.

Cheerlead from afar and keep to yourself. Join a groupchat. Yell about headcanons with your friends. Leave kudos. Leave comments. Make fic recs. Bookmark everything. Read or watch and then forget it.

Treat canon like gospel. Treat canon like a dumpster fire. Only read/write/art coffeeshop AUs. Decide your corner will be all hurt no comfort. Decide your corner  will be all fluff no angst.

Fandom isn’t one size fits all, and there is no one right way to do it. So find what works for you, and don’t worry about all of the outside noise. It doesn’t matter how everyone else does fandom.

All are welcome.

TBH been looking for how to do this for a while. 😂

Hi if you are new her and are coming from twitter and use tunblr on mobile PLEASE DO THIS or you will get bamboozled:

Tinestamps are hidden by default.

Tumblr is a platform where 10+ year old posts still circulate. You absolutely will need timestamps or you will most likely fall for out-dated information or scams.

which one of u was going to tell me that tea tastes different if u put it in hot water?

I’ve seen a lot of posts on my dash tonight about users who are threatening suicide, with other Tumblr members posting in effort to try to get ahold of them. I think you all should see this:

IF THERE IS EVER A TUMBLR USER WHO HAS POSTED A GOOD-BYE MESSAGE, SUICIDE NOTE, VIDEO, OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, PLEASE FOLLOW THIS POST.

1. Scroll to the top of your dashboard.

2. See the circular question mark icon at the top? It’s the third one over from your home symbol. Click on that, and a screen similar to the one in the picture will come up.

3. Where you can type in questions, the box with the magnifying glass at the top, type in the word “suicide.”

4. Click on the first link that shows up. It should say, “Pass the URL of the blog on to us.”

5. Type in the user’s URL and tell Tumblr admin that the user is contemplating suicide and has posted a message indicating that they are going through with it or will be attempting. Hit send! Tumblr administration will perform a number of actions to contact the user and take the necessary steps to prevent the suicide.

TUMBLR: THIS COULD SAVE A USER’S LIFE. PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE SUICIDE THREATS.

Reblog this to keep other users aware. Suicide isn’t a joke, and neither is someone’s life. If you didn’t know this, someone else may not, either. Pass it on.

What Fandoms Need To Know About Literary Theory

A lot of the controversy and toxicity in fandoms today comes from people who assert that their perspectives or interpretations are superior to all others, that there are certain inarguable facts about a character or story, and anything that contradicts that is “bad” or “wrong”. As an English teacher, this bothers the hell out of me. Here’s why:

In the world of literary criticism, we call the perspectives from which we approach a piece of art “lenses”: we might look at something through a queer lens, a feminist lens, a marxist lens, etc. The reason we have this term is because it is necessary to acknowledge that we are approaching the work with a specific focus, and anything we determine about the work will be affected by that focus.

A lens warps your perspective: it emphasizes some things and blurs out others, makes some things disappear but might make visible what was before unseen. The best, most interesting, most amazing parts of analysis come from working with these lenses, but we cannot forget that our perspective of the work is being affected by the lens we choose to use.

In short: When you are looking for something specific, you are more likely to find it. A feminist lens will reveal feminist themes; an LGBT+ lens will reveal LGBT+ themes; a psychoanalytical lens will reveal mental health themes; and so on. All of these could use the same evidence to support them. All of these are valid.

Fandom creators make fascinating, profound, valid assertions about their media that are thoughtful and possible, but too often, they don’t realize that their theory – indeed, any theory outside of the established canon – is not the absolute truth. They become more concerned with having the “correct” interpretation and don’t realize that in true analysis, all of these interpretations can be simultaneously valid, even if they contradict each other.

The text – in this case, the show / game / film / novel – always supports multiple different perspectives, readings, and interpretations. One interpretation of the evidence is not the only interpretation of the evidence, because there are so many diverse perspectives to come from.

And that is a good thing! If there was one absolute truth, fandoms would have nothing to draw and write and create! Multiple perspectives exist, and that is okay. If we start insisting that all interpretations come from one perspective, that is extremely limiting and even discriminatory.

Fandoms should stop looking for an absolute “truth” that does not exist, and start celebrating all of the possible interpretations and perspectives that analysis gives us.