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A Statement on Being Anti-Harassment and Pro-Tolerance in the ATLA Fandom

I think everyone in the Zutara community is aware that there was recently some very targeted harassment directed at shippers on Twitter and Tumblr by an account that has now been exposed as racist—if the behavior prior to that wasn't enough to indicate they were not an individual to be supported in any way, shape, or means. The account in question built a following on quote-tweeting, harassing, and serial stalking accounts of people who’d already blocked her to screenshot their tweets out of context for dogpiling purposes. The following is the final line being crossed: a KKK "joke" next to a Black Power GIF...

There are some that are shocked that such an account could ever think weaponizing the KKK as "slander material" was permissible, to which I think we need to be frank and honest.

Can we agree that she thought racism and anti-Blackness was permissible because her echo chamber had defended and downplayed every other form of bullying/bigotry until now?

DON’T ENABLE HARASSMENT. DON'T DEFEND HARASSMENT. CALL OUT BAD BEHAVIOR. DON'T BE A BYSTANDER.

It is very good to see that people are correctly denouncing her now that she has shown herself to also be anti-Black, but this was a clear pattern of escalating dangerous behavior enabled by a negative feedback loop of support. This didn't happen in a vacuum.

If these statements don’t apply to you, let them fly. All KAs are not a monolith and should not be generalized as such. But there was a sizable amount that were vocally and enthusiastically supportive, and that enabled an environment of monitoring -> screenshotting -> dogpiling -> rinse and repeat. Various tweets that were screenshots/quotes of my moots’ tweets (despite them having the anti blocked) garnered thousands of likes and a sizable amount of retweets, in addition to the many accounts who not only commented in support of the anti’s actions but also sought out the original tweet to directly harass the original poster. This is not a case of just one "bad apple".

"BUT the KKK thing is "too far" like the bar was ever supposed to be "Don't invoke a terrorist organization that still kills Black people." That's not a high bar. That's a floor. And it still had to be spelled out."

Very well said, @kore-dani!

This is the sort of environment the anti built/encouraged and many others eagerly took part in until an undeniable line was crossed. It is horrible that explicit anti-Blackness was what it took for people to see the situation clearly: a negative blight with no place in fandom spaces.

An environment of vitriol and toxicity is something that should be impermissible in every fandom. Harassment, hate, and the constant violation of boundaries stand in direct contradiction to the spirit of fandom itself: a community built by fans for fans to come together to create transformative works such as fanart, fanfiction, fan edits, etc.

Aligning with others based on harassment is NOT camaraderie. It is not community. It is not fandom. Rather, it is emulating this meme in real life:

Ingroups, Outgroups, and How We Become Polarized Because of Tribalistic Mindsets

I'd like to use this as a jumping off point to introduce the idea of how important practicing TOLERANCE is. This situation is a clear instance of Ingroup/Outgroup, us vs. them thinking. The following is quoted from EBSCO's "Research Starters" page on Ingroups and Outgroups:

"Ingroups and outgroups are sociological concepts that describe the dynamics between groups of individuals based on identity and social interaction. An ingroup refers to a group that individuals identify with and feel an emotional attachment to, often contrasted with an outgroup, which is the group that ingroup members oppose or view with resistance. This binary categorization fosters an "us versus them" mentality, leading to loyalty among ingroup members while simultaneously creating misunderstandings and stereotypes about outgroup members. The existence of outgroups enhances ingroup cohesion, as members often define themselves in opposition to others. Social Identity Theory posits that individuals derive a portion of their self-concept from their group memberships, influencing how they perceive themselves and their own group compared to others. Ingroup bias is a common phenomenon, where individuals favor their own group over others, which can manifest in positive self-image for ingroup members and negative stereotypes of the outgroup. Political and social contexts can exacerbate these biases, potentially leading to conflict. Understanding ingroups and outgroups is crucial for addressing issues of prejudice and fostering intergroup relations in diverse societies."

The sections on Ingroup Bias, Moral Authority, and Perceived Threat Among Groups are of particular interest, as well as the mention of Gordon Allport's Intergroup Contact Theory.

From The Nature of Prejudice, a work commonly touted as "probably the most read volume in the history of social psychology", Allport's contact hypothesis essentially states that "tensions between two groups can be reduced if members of one group have positive contact with members of the other." Reading through this study published on PubMed, a database maintained by the United States' NIH, is quite fascinating. The findings are in line with Allport's original claim, and they even discuss how this theory relates to online interactions.

TOLERANCE plays a critical role in successful social contact between different groups. That is further explored here if you're interested. Lest I get more verbose than I already plan to, let's refocus on the topic at hand. Put a pin in the ideas of tolerance and ingroups and outgroups.

Apologizing retroactively for the impact is fine and all, and please hear me clearly when I say I do think many people are being sincere in their denouncement. But we cannot ignore the ill-intent behind the anti's actions including but not limited to serial stalking, harassing, and repeated crossing of boundaries. A situation like this did not just happen out of the blue; it was expected by everyone who knows how to spot bullying and dogpiling behaviors in action.

Quoted from a moot:

“From the very start, the intent behind that account was already nasty but they kept hyping that account up. now suddenly they are denouncing them as if they weren't enabling them in the first place. IDK it doesn’t come off as a sincere reflection on their end. It sounds like they simply got concerned that this is gonna affect their image considering how some of them are saying “We now look as bad as ZKs”. And it shouldn’t have taken this long to call out the bullying.”

Again, I'd like to make an effort to say again that I am not generalizing KAs as one hive-mind that all supported this. But escalation to the point that happened the other day was certainly expected by those of us who watched as people defended her as she emphatically doubled down on justifying her harassment of an Iranian Zutara shipper who'd tweeted about a headcanon over perceived inactivity. This Zutara shipper has "Persian" in her bio. Her display name contains a popular Iranian political rallying cry: زن زندگی ازادی. It's not hard to make the connection that perhaps an Iranian individual might be offline for...BEING IN AN ACTIVE WARZONE? People went to bat defending the anti for this, by the way, which consequently emboldened her.

Do you see the Ingroup/Outgroup thinking in this circumstance?

It was this constant positive reinforcement from those who actively supported and downplayed the vitriol she was spewing daily that empowered her to decide that the invocation of the something with the historical magnitude of the KKK was even remotely permissible. Others have covered how the anti's defense of "not knowing" what the KKK was does not check out when taking into account the context of its invocation was as "slander material"(their words, not mine)...

For anyone who does the reasonable thing and looks up supposedly unknown words before using them, here's the second result after the KKK Wikipedia page when Googling "KKK":

This series details the work of the FBI to protect the American people—especially minorities—from the evils of the modern-day Klan.

More resources are linked at the end of that FBI article for those not fully educated on the KKK's role in systematically discriminating against and perpetuating abhorrent and inhumane levels of violence toward Black Americans for the "crime" of existing with different skin tones than the people doing harm unto them.

Do you see the Ingroup/Outgroup thinking in this circumstance?

Not so fun fact, but lynching was JUST made a US federal hate crime in 2022. There were over 4,000 confirmed lynchings between 1877 and 1950. Over 200 previous attempts to outlaw lynching had failed. Nothing about the KKK should ever be weaponized in any manner of supposed “levity”. EVER.

There is a clear aggressor AND clear enabling behaviors on display here that led to a line being crossed that should have never been approached in the first place. I do not want to hear anything about “both sides” in this situation. This is real life and real harmful rhetoric was being spread and propagated all over which two fictional characters from a 2000s cartoon two groups would prefer together...

Whatever business Zutara shippers were getting up to on AvatarSpirit.net back in 2008 does not justify harassment in 2026 of people who had no part in that.

Just as KAs are not a monolith, Zutara shippers are not a monolith either.

I certainly do not condone personal/ad hominem attacks directed toward real people over fictional material. Real people matter more than pixels. Period.

Not a soul is asking you to “convert” to ZK over any of this—just that you call out racism/harassment when you see it. Even IF the person in the wrong is someone who ships something you ship: CALL THEM OUT WHEN THEY CROSS A LINE. Never be scared to stand against bullying, harassment, and targeting of real people in the name of…pixels. By being a bystander or even worse, an active participant, you are doing real harm to real people in the name of pixels that inherently can feel no harm by any perceived “slander” (usually just critique regarding a character’s writing or functional role in a story). At this point, I will reiterate the importance of tolerance and respecting people's individual preferences.

Critiquing a fictional character does not warrant personal attacks in retaliation. One person's opinion of your favorite character doesn't diminish your enjoyment of your favorite character. You're still allowed to like them. No one is taking your enjoyment away from you by holding a different opinion.

More on Critiquing Writing Choices and People Falsely Perceiving That as a Personal "Attack" to Themselves Later...

But calling real people SLURS over pixels, attempting to claim that a real genocide is somehow on the same level of importance as a fictional genocide, and generally trivializing concepts like colonization, imperialism, racism, genocide, misogyny, etc. to feel as if you can get a leg up in a silly ship war? I just have to ask—how do people genuinely put pixels over people? That type of thinking reaches a level of disconnection from reality that is hard to wrap my head around.

A Singular Example of the Dogpiling Behaviors Displayed by the Anti and Her Followers: A Case Study in Mob Mentality

Read from left to right, top to bottom. This is just one example of how the anti and her followers were moving DAILY on multiple tweets on multiple accounts. I feel the need to call back to this cycle I already delineated:

"But there was a sizable amount that were vocally and enthusiastically supportive, and that enabled an environment of monitoring -> screenshotting -> dogpiling -> rinse and repeat. Various tweets that were screenshots/quotes of my moots’ tweets (despite them having the anti blocked) garnered thousands of likes and a sizable amount of retweets, in addition to the many accounts who not only commented in support of the anti’s actions but also sought out the original tweet to directly harass the original poster."

Observe that cycle in action here:

Notwithstanding the very casual and unprompted mocking of Zuko's facial difference/disability from the individual in the second row, let's count how many ad hominem attacks Clarissa was dealt by "mariah" all to defend poor Aang (not a real person who can't feel harm, by the way) from a bald joke. 1 + 2 = 5 for some it appears. Or at least five wrongs make a good argument? Yeah...

"Not really??? There's no way you're this ret*rded and you're racist like" "The airbender culture is very much a real thing? You're playing slow on purpose and yes I'm gonna call you a t*rd because that's exactly what the fuck you are"

No need to commentate on those. I think they speak for themselves. Let's continue on. The number continues to climb.

Do you see the Ingroup/Outgroup thinking in this circumstance?

I'm going to ask you to put another pin in the idea of being able to differentiate between fiction and reality, in addition to understanding fictional characters are just pixels. We are getting to that, I promise.

Who Is the Other Dogpiler? The Switch-Up!

Are you wondering "Where did this account with the red profile picture come from? They came in swinging for the fences with the whole "cracker" and "misogynistic" attacks LOCKED and LOADED! What does this account tweet about in their space?”

Duh...duh...duh...

They're all up in the anti's comments.

But not to fear. As quick as that account was to dogpile and insult a stranger on the order of the ringleader, they were just as quick to turn on the deposed ringleader. On the left are tweets of support left as recent as four days ago. Two days later, it's a completely different story.

Do you see the Ingroup/Outgroup thinking in this circumstance?

I do not wish any ill-will to this individual. They were just the first account that showed up under the original thread that presented as a prime example of why I mentioned this at the beginning of this post:

Aligning with others based on harassment is NOT camaraderie. It is not community. It is not fandom.

A "friendship" is only as strong as the foundation it was created upon.

REAL PEOPLE Matter More Than Pixels

As to why it is dangerous to treat fictional characters as more important than real people...Grab that pin now and buckle in.

If the insensitive obduracy behind attempting to morally grandstand on serious, impactful, real life concepts for the purpose of fighting other people online over pixels isn’t already evident, let’s put this into perspective using another real life atrocity that the anti and her followers have weaponized. A real, ongoing, decades-long genocide that everyone around the world is witnessing and has bared witness to since Resolution 181 was adopted in 1947.

More than 73,000 Palestinians have been murdered since October 2023, with 922 having been killed since the "ceasefire" was announced last October. Hundreds of thousands are wounded, and countless more are trapped "in an endless cycle of suffering". Almost two million Palestinians have been displaced in the Gaza Strip, in addition to around 40,000 more people in the West Bank. As of 2024, approximately 134,000 Palestinians and Arabs had been killed both inside and outside Palestine since 1948.

In no world will I care more about pixels than the horrors that real people are being subjected to in Gaza 24/7 for the "crime" of existing with different religious beliefs than the people doing harm unto them.

Do you see the Ingroup/Outgroup thinking in this circumstance?

Some very broad generalizations are being made here considering Zutara shippers span pretty much every demographic you can conceive of. Indicators that the line between fiction and reality doesn't exist for some of these individuals are on display too. Perhaps they need to check back in like Peeta Mellark post-hijacking on what’s real and what’s not real. Let's see...Peeta says "Fictional characters are NOT REAL."

Fictional Characters are NOT REAL

If you disagree, respectfully get offline and reconnect with real life. Touch grass. Go to a political demonstration, pick up a picket, and put your money where your mouth proclaims to be online. Real life will always take precedence because REAL PEOPLE CAN BE HARMED. Pixels cannot. Real people come first and prioritising real people has no correlation to being allegedly "insensitive to him [Aang] being a victim of genocide too." No one is denying Aang is a genocide survivor, my goodness. These whataboutisms to deflect from any critique about how Aang was written in the story are just about ridiculous.

And really, all of this over some random stranger tweeting about a personal headcanon, a normal fandom activity...You, another random stranger, don't have to like it or support their headcanon, but to call into question a whole group of people's right to live over a cheating headcanon? Get real. Touch grass. Play Peeta's Real/Not Real game.

Do you see the Ingroup/Outgroup thinking in this circumstance?

Just going to leave this here...

Let's Be Clear, I Don't Hate Aang

I like Aang. I think Bryke dropped the ball with his arc in Book 3. Critiquing how the Deus Ex Rockina to end all Deus Ex Machinas is a weak writing choice that undercuts Aang's character arc and strips Aang's narrative agency from him isn't "hating" or "attacking" Aang.

Just another reminder, Aang is not real. Everything Aang does in the story is dictated for him by real people making deliberate choices. Aang is a pixelated puppet/vehicle/a plot device that the ATLA writing team utilized to craft a story. Just as every other ATLA character was/is.

Say it with me. Critiquing writing choices is not an "attack" on a fictional character, nor does my opinion diminish your enjoyment.

ALSO, SHIPPING IS NOT ACTIVISM

Stop tying your real life morality to which fictional characters you like and dislike. Stop acting as if your ship of choice means that you are somehow "ethically good" compared to the dastardly, evil, and corrupt "others". I'd ask you now to recall the tribal meme from earlier.

Do you see the Ingroup/Outgroup thinking in this circumstance?

You lot are starting to sound like Javert from Les Misérables. You lot would've HATED Jean Valjean with the way some of you hold such a rigid, black-and-white worldview and moralize every single fanfic, fanart, headcanon, etc. in fandom spaces. ALL NORMAL FANDOM ACTIVITIES IN CASE YOU ARE NEW. The Javerification of fandom spaces. Never thought I would see the day, but I shouldn't be surprised.

Javert would be so proud of us buying into the concept of the social panopticon. Some of you lot are out here policing yourselves and others over thought crimes (aka headcanons). It's absurd to think you can control other people like that. You all make Javert's job easy. SIGH.

Ultimately...

To reiterate, the biggest lesson to be learned from all of this is TOLERANCE. It must be accepted and acknowledged that everyone has their own individual preferences, and that we should respect their freedom to do so even if they are polar opposite of your individual preferences. Don’t yuck on other people’s yum in their clear eyesight. Don't try to police their preferences. Keep it pushing and focus on yourself. And understand that critiquing the writing choices behind a popular, published work in the public mainstream is not at all equivalent to the targeted tearing down of the output of individual fans in fandom spaces. Don't like a fanart? Scroll. Don't like a fanfic? Close the tab. Don't like an edit? Move on. Don't like someone in a fandom? Block and ignore. Don't want to see a certain topic in your feed? Hit "Not Interested" or block the tag.

A lovely meme made by a lovely moot:

Scroll and block if you don’t like something in order to curate your space to your preferences. And utilize Tumblr’s wonderful tagging system. I hope that we can all move forward without constant scrutiny and without approaching one another with an attack-first, consider others as real people with feelings-second mindset. I hope that tolerance can be the word from now on. Happy shipping! :)

One last thing while you're here...

Make sure to drop a like, leave a comment, and support this modern masterpiece of a Zutara art! Truly one of the most beautiful fanarts I've ever seen.

#zutara #pro zutara #anti anti zutara #fantastic well said!!

Sometimes I think about how the ATLA fandom would be if Zutara won over Kataang. I don’t mean to patronise KA fans, but I feel like a lot of them simply ship it because “it’s canon”— at least, that’s how a lot of their arguments sound. So, if ZK was canon, would they be supporting ZK wholeheartedly instead of KA? I suppose it’s my own bias, but I can’t quite get myself to believe that people would feel so strongly about a non-canon KA the way people do today about the non-canon ZK. Would KA fans post back-to-back meta essays and deep-dive videos on what could have been for KA, would they be going through interview and extras with a fine ruler in order to find “proof” of KA being considered?

Most importantly, would the state of the shipping war be as bad as it is now, if ZK was canon? Would the drive of “possibility” push KA fans as much as ZK fans are being pushed by it?

I have a lot more thoughts on this, but I don’t have it in me to write a whole essay right now….

#zutara

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