“oh we don’t wanna consume problematic media–” i unironically think everyone should consume problematic media at some point in their life. obviously not to say that people should monetarily support hp or aot or that, but i think it teaches you critical thinking skills when you say “yeah, objectively kingdom hearts has a lot of issues with the writing of their female characters” instead of “if you play kingdom hearts you’re a sexist”, you know?
if the only thing you consume is cookie-cutter “good“ than how are you going to act when something bad happens irl? when you do something bad irl? what do you do when your favorite Pure media suddenly a Not Good??? cause that’s the thing, NOTHING is perfect. NOTHING and NO ONE. we’re all flawed people and the stuff we create is going to be flawed and that’s what makes us human. stop trying to be perfect, it’s literally impossible, and learn how to say “this thing has problems and i’m willing to look at and discuss them, but it’s also something i enjoy and i am going to also celebrate the good”
i just. when i was a kid i was That™ warriors kid on the playground. running around on all fours hissing and doing clan meetings with my friend group on the slide. i read every fucking warriors book that existed, which is not an easy feat
looking at it now, i can tell you the treasure trove of Problematic Content™ it has. the rampant sexism (despite all the authors being women??), lack of care for continuity or exploring the world outside of our protags, one-dimensional villains, indigenous stereotyping/appropriation, even more sexism, the age gaps and incest-y relationships that the authors either don’t notice, refuse to acknowledge, or defend for some fucking reason, the INSANE ableism and heteronormativity… it’s a MESS.
i’m still glad i read it. i still reblog fanart of hollyleaf and leafpool, still point at cats and give them warrior names, i still think fondly of the island in the lake behind my friend’s house that looked exactly like the meeting spot in the books, still joke with friends about which clan we’d be in or our favorite characters would be in
as a kid, i didn’t notice all the issues, but there were others i could spot. i could spot the accidental incest and say “that’s weird, i don’t like that.” i didn’t notice the sexism in the way the female characters were always shoved aside and ended up becoming Doting Mothers™, but i did notice the ableism of assuming cinderpelt and jayfeather couldn’t be warriors despite their disabilities not being something that would stop an irl cat from finding a way to hunt or fight. and i was able to say “i don’t like these parts, and there would be a way to do them better.”
contrast to when i was in… fourth grade? third? i remember i was in public school, and i borrowed a book from the library that offhandedly mentioned a ouija board. i asked my mom how to pronounce this strange new word and she immediately took the book from me until it was time to return it. this didn’t teach me what my mom wanted me to learn, which was “we don’t fuck with demons in this house,” it just taught me that i couldn’t go to my mom with questions about books i was reading because she would take them away.
it was way better for my young, learning mind to say “what is wrong with this, why does it feel wrong, and what could they have done better” than to just take the Problems™ away
and obviously i dont think people should actively seek out shit media, but like. reading or watching something with Problems™ isn’t the end of the fucking world
SO funny how people in the notes are like “but what about media that’s actively harmful like hp or aot???” as if i didnt mention them explicitly in the first post lol
tell me u cant read without telling me u cant read
also for everyone saying “consume media not made for children”: fun fact my original draft of this post was talking about shit like 1984 and Lolita but long story short 90% of the internet hasn’t read past a 4th grade level so i figured warrior cats would make my point better lol
Now that I thought of it on another post, an @/ list of URLs for tea blogs would be a really good idea. We can all block them and feel a little less tense going through the tags or scrolling our own dashes.
You can blacklist the URL itself and then anything to do with that blog will no longer show up anywhere. You can do this with Tumblr’s tag filter system (recommended if you use mobile) OR get Tumblr Savior, a browser extension for desktop Tumblr.
Reblog or Reply to this with any tea blogs you know of with “@/” so you don’t actually tag them. I will edit and update the OP of this post with URLs so you can find them neatly instead of hunting through the notes!I have this post bookmarked on my laptop so reblog/reply or send me asks with tea URLs ANY time (please specify they’re a tea blog) and I will add them to the list!
Please DO NOT put this in the main jse tag!! Lets keep the tag free of this kind of stuff. Doing so might keep the tea blog owners unaware they’re being blacklisted as well, which means they can’t do anything to retaliate or get around it!
Also, if you know for a fact a certain person is an owner of one of these blogs, tell me privately because I’d personally like to block them without outting them publicly.
Here’s the blogs I know of:
Note: I don’t know if any of these have or will deactivate so any and all URLs given to me will remain on this list just in case.
@/jse-communi-tea (there are TWO of these I believe)
I was up all night watching vids about number stations and creepy broadcasts then drew this. Just felt like drawing something alittle spooky. Why is radio stuff so interesting yet so scary ^^;;;
