#whumptalk

[dailywhump]

Woken from a Deep Slumber

Hey whumpers!

In case you all haven’t already been annoyed by the askanswer spam that’s been all over your dashboards tonight, I, DW, have broken a long absence from tumblr with a brief visit to clean out my inbox. Apologies to anyone who asked me a question months ago which is no longer relevant. I tried to answer everything anyway.

I found myself breaking my self-imposed exile mostly to prowl for canon whump recs. I have been terrible about hiatuses and letting suggestions and requests slip my mind, so I don’t know how many of you missed me (I might not miss me if I were y’all, frankly) but I can say without a doubt a doubt that I’ve missed this community. These days I feel a little like a ghostly presence in the whumperverse, just fading in and out of existence and eavesdropping on the goings on.

To be totally honest, while I’ll pop my head in the door every once in a while to answer asks, and will post writeups here and there if the stars align, life commitments will probably keep me from updating the Daily Whump on any regular basis ever again.

I know. It bums me out too, my friends. Deeply.

But to be equally honest, I’m not so sure I’m needed anymore. I surf around on the #whump tag these days and I see so many amazing, dedicated people working for the community, collating canon whump, trading fic recs, sharing h/c writing reference guides, and chatting in really cool and intelligent ways about the whumping instinct, what it is, and how we should feel about it.

I look at all that and say

I remember wondering a few years ago if I should even bother starting this blog. Would I announce my weirdness to the world and find I was the only one? Would folks even be interested in this sort of content? Who would openly participate in a community centered around something so stigmatized and misunderstood? Since then, I’ve had a lot of folks write me echoing all these same sentiments. We felt alone. We felt weird or wrong. And we felt like we could never share this aspect of ourselves with anyone.

I am so ecstatically happy that what started as a little project to distract me from my schoolwork has helped create and/or expand a space where whumpers can just be whumpers. And I am even more grateful that, now that I’ve exited stage left in most regards, there are so many amazing bloggers out there keeping that community alive for everyone.

Whump on, my friends. Whump on.

[dailywhump]

Hello! I'm a mostly identifying as female asexual, and I really love injured characters. I mostly prefer men being hurt (I lean towards heteroromantic) but oddly enough, not all of my favourite characters. Some I prefer over others, and some just don't do anything for me. I don't think it's of a sexual nature, as I'm not attracted to anyone in that way, but damn if I'm not going to find someone in pain over a gunshot wound or a broken leg, more sexy than the thought of having sex with them.

Thanks so much for weighing in! I always find it fascinating when folks explain their specific whump “draws” and preferences to me. In my original post, I felt I was on shaky, non-expert ground in going into stuff like homo/heteroromantic vs. homo/heterosexual, and the fact that even asexual folks might have romantic preferences which have little to nothing to do with their sexual preferences. So thanks also for bringing out a great example of that divide.

More than anything, I think this shows that with whump preferences and sexual orientation preferences, a lot of the same rules apply. Just as your gender presentation and sexual orientation fluctuate on separate axes, I think people’s whump preferences move around on a sliding scale that isn’t necessarily related to one’s sexual preferences. While for a certain chunk of people, I can easily imagine that their sexual preferences might inform their whump preferences, they don’t necessarily have to, and for some folks, like our anon, they clearly don’t.

I also think that just like with sexual orientation, the worst thing that we can do is apply morality to any given preference. Nobody’s a bad person for having their sexual preferences factor in to what whump they like. And certainly nobody is a better person for liking whump independent of all that. We’re all just people who like what we like. End of story! And that’s what makes this community cool - we all may enjoy whump for different reasons, but we’re all here, enjoying it together, and I think that’s pretty neat.

Thanks so much for sharing, my dear anon! I’ve really loved having this kind of discussion - it’s the sort of thing you think about, but never have a chance to talk out.

~ DW

[dailywhump]

Hi there! Just a fellow whumper here, who has this question. As girls, we obvioulsy like the 'guy whump', the ones we are, or at least to some extent, attracted to. But are there guys who like whump? And if so, do they like 'girl whump' or stick with guys? I personally haven't had yet the ocassion to spot a male whumper, and I apologyse if I insulted anyone.

I should probably preface this with the fact that I *am* a “male” whumper.

Awkward. :)

But moving on, think this kinda goes back to the question of whether whump is sexually based or not, and honestly, I’ve heard both answers you would expect. A lot of folks only like whump of folks they find attractive, which leads back to the question of who you prefer. If you’re like me and you’re up for pretty much anything, you have a lot of possibilities, and I tend to like male, female, and anything in between whump as long as they fit my other criteria (i.e. sarcastic, stoic, etc.) In those kind of cases, it seems easy to assume that it’s based on attraction.

However, I’ve also heard from some non-binary preferences, especially asexual folks, who enjoy whump and whose orientation precludes them in certain cases from having that motivation/fascination with whump. So you can’t assume. And just to get on my LGBT pedestal for a minute, you can’t assume heteronormativity either! *puts a gold star on today on the advocacy calendar*

Anyway, I hope that answers your question. I’d love to hear from other folks in the community, though. Does anyone out there know a male whumper and know their preferences? Any non-binary orientations out there have whump preferences to share? Let us know!

Thanks for the question, anon!

~ DW