Lessons from Early Tumblr
Mar. 26th, 2025 08:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingBack in the day, I used to study Japanese self-published fancomics. Like literally study them, with research funding.
While I was in Japan, I set up an account on Tumblr dot com, which I used as a free metadata-enabled image storage service (meaning that I could upload my fanzine scans and tag them for future reference).
But at the same time, I followed a few other accounts. One of the first blogs I followed was called something along the lines of “Fuck Yeah Anime Lesbians,” and it reblogged wholesome sapphic content and also sometimes posted art from Pixiv.
One day, the account started reposting Pixiv art of Maka (who is female) and Crona (who is nonbinary), two characters from a late-2000s shonen series called Soul Eater.
I recognized the art from having read the artist’s fancomics, which I’d bought because I liked the pairing but then immediately put in the garbage because… How to explain this.
I understand that everyone has kinks, and that’s cool, but there was something deeper and more disturbing going on with this artist. The three comics I had were all about Maka (the girl) force-masculinizing Crona (the nonbinary kid) by exposing their penis and then sexually assaulting them, all the while viciously mocking them for identifying as trans and nonbinary. Again, kinks are normal and healthy, but these fancomics were definitely not for me.
(Also, they weren’t properly marked or shelved as pornographic. I’m not going to get into what was going on with that, which has to do with how the Japanese subculture of fancomics used to be structured according to gender. Suffice to say that I didn’t know what I was buying.)
(Also, Maka would never.)
In any case, the work of this artist wasn’t what I would call “wholesome sapphic content.” So, like an absolute fool, I sent a message to the blog on Tumblr to warn them. I was familiar with the fancomics of the artist, I wrote, and they definitely weren’t drawing the characters as “lesbians.” I wouldn't want anyone following the Pixiv link posted along with the art to see anything they might not be expecting.
The blog replied with a mile of messages telling me to kill myself, get a lobotomy, etc. I blocked them, but the experience was unsettling.
I didn’t realize this at the time, but the person running this blog must have been aware of what they were posting. And also, a lot of the “wholesome content” they reblogged directly from Tumblr now strikes me as proto-TERF bullshit. In other words, I think they were posting trans humiliation art as a subtle way to attack amab nonbinary people and transwomen. What I suspect is that, when other people on Tumblr liked and shared this reposted art, the person running the blog would feel validated for secretly spreading transphobia.
Or who knows? Maybe this blogger was trans and getting off on that particular kink. Which is fair, but still. They had other issues.
I assumed this experience was nothing more than a weird blip on the radar, but alas. It was not. Because I didn’t yet realize that this interaction wasn’t just one unhinged person but actually indicative of a broader pattern of toxic behavior enabled by Web 2.0 platforms like Tumblr, I went on to have more unpleasant experiences. To my dismay.
These are the three lessons I should have learned:
(1) Upsetting content is none of your business.
(2) Very few people “accidentally” post bigotry.
(3) Some people are just unhinged and unpleasant.
In conclusion, the Block button is your friend. 💖
While I was in Japan, I set up an account on Tumblr dot com, which I used as a free metadata-enabled image storage service (meaning that I could upload my fanzine scans and tag them for future reference).
But at the same time, I followed a few other accounts. One of the first blogs I followed was called something along the lines of “Fuck Yeah Anime Lesbians,” and it reblogged wholesome sapphic content and also sometimes posted art from Pixiv.
One day, the account started reposting Pixiv art of Maka (who is female) and Crona (who is nonbinary), two characters from a late-2000s shonen series called Soul Eater.
I recognized the art from having read the artist’s fancomics, which I’d bought because I liked the pairing but then immediately put in the garbage because… How to explain this.
I understand that everyone has kinks, and that’s cool, but there was something deeper and more disturbing going on with this artist. The three comics I had were all about Maka (the girl) force-masculinizing Crona (the nonbinary kid) by exposing their penis and then sexually assaulting them, all the while viciously mocking them for identifying as trans and nonbinary. Again, kinks are normal and healthy, but these fancomics were definitely not for me.
(Also, they weren’t properly marked or shelved as pornographic. I’m not going to get into what was going on with that, which has to do with how the Japanese subculture of fancomics used to be structured according to gender. Suffice to say that I didn’t know what I was buying.)
(Also, Maka would never.)
In any case, the work of this artist wasn’t what I would call “wholesome sapphic content.” So, like an absolute fool, I sent a message to the blog on Tumblr to warn them. I was familiar with the fancomics of the artist, I wrote, and they definitely weren’t drawing the characters as “lesbians.” I wouldn't want anyone following the Pixiv link posted along with the art to see anything they might not be expecting.
The blog replied with a mile of messages telling me to kill myself, get a lobotomy, etc. I blocked them, but the experience was unsettling.
I didn’t realize this at the time, but the person running this blog must have been aware of what they were posting. And also, a lot of the “wholesome content” they reblogged directly from Tumblr now strikes me as proto-TERF bullshit. In other words, I think they were posting trans humiliation art as a subtle way to attack amab nonbinary people and transwomen. What I suspect is that, when other people on Tumblr liked and shared this reposted art, the person running the blog would feel validated for secretly spreading transphobia.
Or who knows? Maybe this blogger was trans and getting off on that particular kink. Which is fair, but still. They had other issues.
I assumed this experience was nothing more than a weird blip on the radar, but alas. It was not. Because I didn’t yet realize that this interaction wasn’t just one unhinged person but actually indicative of a broader pattern of toxic behavior enabled by Web 2.0 platforms like Tumblr, I went on to have more unpleasant experiences. To my dismay.
These are the three lessons I should have learned:
(1) Upsetting content is none of your business.
(2) Very few people “accidentally” post bigotry.
(3) Some people are just unhinged and unpleasant.
In conclusion, the Block button is your friend. 💖
