Jacksepticeye:
"Actually, the one thing I would delete off the internet is anti-fans. Back in the day, it was like, if you liked something, that's fine. Other people don't like it, they move on; they like their thing. And you can shit on each other, back and forth or whatever. It would be competitive. Like, console wars were such a big thing when I was growing up. But, I think there's such a big movement now, that some people don't even partake in the thing they don't like. They just don't like it. And they want to destroy it, and burn it to the ground, and all the fans should just disappear for it. And I think that wave of things that are happening now, is really just detrimental to any sort of artistic forum. That they need to fuck off."
Source: https://x.com/Alanin_8/status/2025993400131129368
Penguinz0:
"It's so embarrassing! Like, there's a group of people in every fandom that for some reason take it so seriously, that they put the achievements and the accolades of the property that they're a fan of on their own soul. So in this case, there are people whose entire identity and personality revolves around being a defender of Breaking Bad and ensuring that this 10 out of 10 remains unsullied by anything else coming close. And they'll fight tooth and nail for it. It's just so embarrassing. Because like, they feel personally attacked because another show has an extremely good episode. Like in this case, A Knight Of The 7 Kingdoms, with 'In the Name of the Mother'."
Source: https://x.com/josiah_awkward/status/2025812024593179076
Y'know, as someone who grew up, contending with gender expectations, and alongside a brother who i admired for not letting gender expectations keep him from getting into childcare and cute things (Pokémon, My Little Pony), and who encouraged me to be unafraid to publicly like cute things, it annoys me when society acts like "the only reason men can like something is for sexual reasons". They did it to the Bronies, when they assumed all Bronies only like MLP:FIM because "they must ALL be sexualizing the ponies". Some people did buy weird body pillows. But that wasn't everybody! "Heaven forbid" a man enjoy a good show for being wholesome, well written, and entertaining! 😮💨
We complain about men being nothing but sex pests, but we don't allow men to be anything but sex pests. 💢
Back when I was trying to figure out my gender, one of the big reasons I was sure I couldn't ever be male (aside from intrinsically feeling so definitely female), was because I didn't envy the pressure society put on boys. They're not allowed to feel anything. And yes, at the time, I was doing that repression to myself, but if it wasn't for the fact I was female presenting, then everyone around me wouldn't have encouraged me to have healthier emotional expression, constantly. The emotional repression expected of males is pretty dumb.
Let them like cute things and be into "girly" stuff without assuming weird reasons. My brother always has. And he taught me not to be afraid of my "feminine" side. Him being a a former football linebacker, visibly enjoying romance genre media and cute things, is a lot braver than that overcompensating "machismo" that kid-me tried to live up to.
Forcing even creepy assumptions along with all these limited expectations is a dumb way to do gender.
Yeah, social media and even speaking itself are for sharing opinions, but there's a way to do that with politeness, tact, and compassion. Do they not have the empathy or the imagination to understand what it's like to be excited for something, just to have people who hate it, barge in with nothing to offer but their hate for the thing?
Haven't you ever gone to an anime convention, all excited for your hobby, especially during the years when we still had to hide our affinity for anime or else be mocked, only to overhear randos---who actually paid to also attend the anime convention---loudly badmouthing anime? Just unabashedly saying aloud, in the middle of an anime convention, that they don't like anime? This isn't hypothetical! I've heard it many times! It is such rain on a parade, only outdone by how little sense it makes. Please imagine liking ANYTHING, being in the middle of enjoying it, just for weirdos to interrupt with their rants about how stupid and gross they think it is.
But at the same time, these people advocating for "social media to be for expressing opinions" probably wouldn't walk into a sports stadium, telling everyone there how they hate sports. You don't go to the tomato soup club to shit on tomato soup. You go to the tomato soup club to enjoy tomato soup with others who enjoy tomato soup. In reality, I don't even like tomato soup, but I have the imagination to imagine what tomato soup fans might feel if haters of their specific favorite thing, just killed their buzz with their unsolicited hate comments. It would be one thing if they could give their opinions with consideration and empathy, but some people who decry "So I'm not allowed to share my opinions?!" often aren't interested in using empathy when they interact with others. ...Maybe trampling on others' feelings is more important to them than their actual "opinions". Otherwise, they'd learn tact, persuasion, and at the very least, how to express themselves with consideration for others.
In case it wasn't clear:
Don't tag your hate posts with the name of the character/series/thing you hate. It's more natural to assume that everyone who uses that tag, loves that thing. You don't want to be the asshole who barges into the cake store for cake lovers, just to blather about how you hate cake. Please make up your own "#anti[thing]" tag.
But also, in the specific case of the original post. I don't think that saying they dislike tomato soup, into the general void of the internet, is the same thing as breaking into the tomato soup club, just to rant about how "tomato soup sucks". Now, posting with #tomatosoup, just to say "tomato soup sucks"...THAT would be barging into the tomato soup club, just to rant and ignore empathy and consideration.
But also, I get how the comic artist in the quote retweet might be part of the population that sees the dislike of tomato soup (or other subjectively dismissible thing), as such an inconsequential thing, that going through the effort/trouble of mentioning it, when it seems not worthwhile to even mention, can feel like impoliteness.
I've seen multiple posts tonight about Jayvik size difference, and it makes me suspect there's been some discourse lately about JayVik "size difference". It reminded me that I've had some aversion to this trope. But the funny thing is, I'm fine with this trope in JayVik.
I think it has to do with how I come to know a couple. When I give a new BL title a try, I don't know them. The only thing I know about them, is their character design, what is symbolized by their character design, and that the narrative will get them together, because it's a Romance genre.
Mangaka have admitted multiple times, that they have to rely on tropes as shortcuts in their industry, to try to convey the most information, as fast as possible, to someone flipping thru their book, with a zillion other choices. A manga only as a few seconds to get a potential buyer's attention. It's why something eyecatching is usually in the panel on the page and part of the page that is most easily seen while flipping pages, quickly skimming thru a manga. It's also why a lot of BL starts with smut, to grab the reader's attention (even if often at the cost of a narrative that prioritizes consent). Mangaka have to use shortcuts.
Unfortunately, that means, that after years of exposure to the conventions of BL (and frankly, also true of Shoujo manga), I've come to recognize the most likely tropes represented by character design. "The younger, more fem-looking character is the uke." "The shorter character is the uke." (In Shoujo manga: "The short girl is infantilized, while the guy is made to look too much older...and maybe often treat her like a child/dependent.") "The shorter, more bishounen character will act passive, or fill stereotypically 'feminine" roles from heterosexual Romance genre relationship dynamics, or they will get the short end of a power imbalance, often including dub-con." Tropes like that, keep happening, connected to character design, and often accompanying the shorter and/or smaller character. Tropes are used as shortcuts to represent and symbolize certain character traits and relationship dynamics' roles. It's a shortcut. The problem is that sometimes, I get tired of these character designs, because they repeatedly hint at certain expectations and tropes, that I don't like much.
If going into a Romance genre story, I see a size difference, I can often expect (and dread) a power imbalance. Personally, I don't prefer a power imbalance. But often, when I get into these new stories that I haven't read before, the character designs are my only introduction to the characters. It may take a while for the story to portray their characterizations. But often, the character design does most of the heavy lifting, up front. Maybe because most BL are short stories. Maybe using character design, physical appearance of a character, to directly correlate to their personalities and their roles within their relationships, is just good, functional character design. But that does mean I've been conditioned to recognize a pattern of power imbalance when the couple has a size difference. And that's not my preference. (Which is why I often prefer couples of similar heights, in the BL manga, and relatedly, M/M ships, that I get into.)
It colors my expectations for how the characters and their relationship will be portrayed. When I have nothing to go by but their character design, before the story gives me enough, to learn about the characters, then I'm going to use the symbolism provided by such character design to anticipate the tropes, that I have been repeatedly conditioned to expect.
Which brings me to a theory for why I'm okay with Jayvik's size difference: I got to know them, before I was subjected to a narrative, that was racing to couple them up. Firstly, a lot of purely Romance genre stories, and especially BL/yaoi, move VERY quickly to pair up a couple, or to at least get them in bed together. Meanwhile, I am a "slow burn" preferer. I like couples with such ambiguous love, that they spend most of the story being friends, growing feelings, and postponing love confessions and officially becoming a romantic couple, until very late in the game. Because Jayvik's romance is subtext in the canon, because they are technically a non-canon ship, I felt like they had more of a "slow burn" than a rushed relationship. It gave me time to know them and understand their relationship, for a long time, before even mentioning romance. I wasn't stuck with a rushed narrative, relying on the symbolism within their character designs, to foreshadow tropes (that I disliked).
When I see JayVik, yes, I see Viktor is fairly short and slim, while Jayce is very tall and broad-shouldered. But I don't see them as the immediate representation of the "passive uke in a power imbalance with a dominant seme". I see them as Jayce and Viktor. They happen to have a noticeable size difference, but I also don't fixate on it much. I see them as individual characters, that I got to know. I see their relationship that grew slowly (in terms of romance). I don't see their character designs as foreshadowing the expected dub-con trope from a pushy seme. Instead, I see Viktor and Jayce, who have dreams as individuals, who sync up so well together, and admire and care for each other so much. To me, their size differences are incidental. Honestly, I often don't think about it.
