A Beginner's Guide to Tumblrisms

[GREEDY FIREMAN]

Wow! Thanks everybody, you have all given me a lot to work with! I've been a little busy with a winter storm, but I'll try to get this all put together soon.
One question: does Truscum refer specifically to transgender people who insist on the medical definition or can it be anyone who does so?

 

[Chan the Wizard]

I've seen it used for both.

I got viciously attacked by one transwoman for making the mistake of saying that I think it's good idea for there to be some kind of therapy or evaluation before taking life changing pills or having surgery just to protect the individual. I was specifically talking about plastic surgery and the guys who spent tons of money to look like Justin Bieber and a Ken doll, but it transitioned into transgender gate keeping.

 

[Vitriol]

I'd just like to chime in to give the original definition of patriarchy to contrast with the tumblr definitio: patriarchy is a legal system in which substantial rights (typically over property) are given to the senior male in an extended family (in practice normally the grandfather.) this definition was used rather loosely by 1st wave feminists to describe legal systems where men held more rights than women. This was then bastardised by later generations to describe societies that culturally, though not legally, favoured men. This further devolved on tumblr to a general scapegoat for all the problems in society.

 

[Positron]

Whitewashing -- a term whose established meaning (to conceal a scandal) is ignored by Tumblrites. To them whitewashing means giving a fictional PoC character a lighter skin tone. Accusations of whitewashing are especially rampant among the fandom of Avatar the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, and used to be leveled against people who drew Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony) as a non-black person.

Social Construct -- something that is arbitrary or "a matter of opinion". Usually refer to gender, biological sex, the concept of obesity, or the whole discipline of science.

 

[Cubanodun]

i still dont understand the appeal for all this social justice thing and sexual identity, they cant rant all their want but they cant deny that they are humans and male/female, doesnt matter if they want to "believe" they are womens/fox/ducks/angels etc, reality is inevitable /period

 

[Soren]

Social Construct -- something that is arbitrary or "a matter of opinion". Usually refer to gender, biological sex, the concept of obesity, or the whole discipline of science.

Which is funny, because 1) they use it as if it was the ultimate discreditor for a concept - synonymous to "it doesn't exist"-, which is... just amazingly stupid, 2) human society is made of social constructs - which is why we call it a society, and 3) if scientific facts were social constructs, their opinions would be a hundred times so, and could therefore be dismissed a hundred times as easy.

 

[osooolemiiio]

Now if only anyone could define uvu/uwu, bae and flower crowns... Out of all tumblrisms, these ones bug me the most and I plain fail to understand them.

 

[melty]

MRA: Men's Rights Activist. What was originally a group that wanted to bring to light male-targeted domestic abuse and pushing for fathers to get better custody of their children, devolved over the years. It now houses a group of angry, bitter misogynists that believe that all women (or at least ones from 1st world countries) are evil, manipulative whores who run a matriarchy to keep men down. It's like a reverse version of radfems.

On Tumblr, it also doubles as an generic insult meaning "anyone who isn't 100% pro third wave feminism," also known as literally Hitler

Has anyone done "literally hitler" yet? Not sure if that is a Tumblrism or a jab at Tumblrisms.

A lulzy clarification on the nounself pronouns: I've seen self-appointed otherkin authorities claim rather stridently that only non-binary otherkin are allowed to use neo-pronouns. If you are a cis-otherkin fuck you for wanting to refer to yourself in a way you feel comfortable with; keep your filthy paws (or tentacles, or claws, or astral wings, or what the fuck ever) off the made-up pronouns.

Why do Otherkin alone get special access to nounself words? Like, most animals are either male or female, like humans. Unless maybe you are a wormkin or one of those animals that changes gender but 99% of otherkin aren't.

ETA: Thought of one

Blackface: In the past, this was the practice of white actors and actresses wearing heavy black makeup, usually to perform an insulting caricature of a PoC on stage or in a movie. On Tumblr, this usually means a white person who tried to make their Korra cosplay more accurate by caking on bronzer.

 

[seagull]

Now if only anyone could define uvu/uwu, bae and flower crowns... Out of all tumblrisms, these ones bug me the most and I plain fail to understand them.

uvu and uwu are basically little smileys. If you're having trouble visualizing it, the 'u's are closed eyes and the 'v' or 'w' is a smiling mouth.

Bae - Usually in context it means about the same thing that "babe" would. I think it might be AAVE.
http://time.com/3026192/this-is-what-bae-means/

AAVE - African American Vernacular English. This is the way linguists describe African American slang. This is a divisive topic on Tumblr because a majority of users use random bits of AAVE, but the SJWs view that as cultural appropriation.

Flower crowns - This is a Tumblr fashion trend. Not only will Tumblr users wear flower crowns for outfits they post to Tumblr, they will also draw or photoshop flower crowns onto pretty much every male character of whatever fandom they're involved in. I don't entirely understand it myself, but I think it's supposed to be both ironic and a weird sort of expression of their adoration.

 

[Meowthkip]

Flower crowns - This is a Tumblr fashion trend. Not only will Tumblr users wear flower crowns for outfits they post to Tumblr, they will also draw or photoshop flower crowns onto pretty much every male character of whatever fandom they're involved in. I don't entirely understand it myself, but I think it's supposed to be both ironic and a weird sort of expression of their adoration.

It might have started in the Hannibal fandom? I know the shows creators have taken pictures of cast members wearing flower crowns.

 

[seagull]

It might have started in the Hannibal fandom? I know the shows creators have taken pictures of cast members wearing flower crowns.

To my knowledge, it happened the other way around. Hannibal's creators took those pictures in response to seeing photoshopped images and art involving flower crowns on Tumblr. I'm also fairly certain that the trend has been around longer than the show.

Edit: These links will explain far more than I ever could.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/flower-crowns
http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/hannibal-comic-con-flower-crown-slash/

 

[JU 199]

Columbiner - Twisted, sad motherfuckers who think the Columbine kids were "just dreamy" and make extravagant posts on how wonderful they were, making people like this motherfucker, who lived through the faggotry Columbine caused, feel like humanity has failed.

Man that's sad.

 

[RecordStoreToughGuy]

Why do Otherkin alone get special access to nounself words? Like, most animals are either male or female, like humans. Unless maybe you are a wormkin or one of those animals that changes gender but 99% of otherkin aren't.

Non-otherkin can also use neo-pronouns, as long as that person is non-binary gendered, or so they have decreed. It's less an Otherkin thing and more a non-binary thing, but I have seen cis otherkin who identify as a non-gendered thing using neo-pronouns unironically.

I should really start taking more screenshots.

 

[Ancani]

Q: Does anyone know the origin or etymology of tucute? Is it a tongue-in-cheek term that Tumblr somehow took seriously, or did they really think they're being naughty and "cute"?

And why it is tucute rather than trucute (following the example of truscum)? And am I wrong in assuming there is logic behind it?

It was coined by a Tumblr user then known as idislikecispeople (she's since changed her URL, but her blog can be found at softcisphobia.co.vu). She's a genuinely vile excuse for a person, even by SJW standards, and possibly deserving of her own thread at some point.

But yeah, she's the one who coined it, if memory serves me right.

Anyway, I think it's also worth noting that the concept of racism is completely different on Tumblr than it is pretty much everywhere else. On Tumblr, "racism is power plus privilege." This works somewhat when describing institutionalized racism, but Tumblr has decided that it applies to any form of racism, including individual acts and views.

In other words, if you're white, it is impossible for you to ever experience racism, even on an individual level. This argument is generally used, in my experience, to justify racist rhetoric towards white people.

Also worth noting, of course, is that this view is RIDICULOUSLY Amerocentric, and even from a sociological perspective, it doesn't apply in much of the world. Tumblr in general is insanely Amerocentric in its "activism," of course, but its definition of racism is a particularly blatant example.

 

[Meowthkip]

To my knowledge, it happened the other way around. Hannibal's creators took those pictures in response to seeing photoshopped images and art involving flower crowns on Tumblr. I'm also fairly certain that the trend has been around longer than the show.

Edit: These links will explain far more than I ever could.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/flower-crowns
http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/hannibal-comic-con-flower-crown-slash/

That's what I meant, I fucked it up.

Thanks.

 

[osooolemiiio]

To my knowledge, it happened the other way around. Hannibal's creators took those pictures in response to seeing photoshopped images and art involving flower crowns on Tumblr. I'm also fairly certain that the trend has been around longer than the show.

Ah, I see. It wouldn't bug me that much if they just remained in the Hannibal fandom and not spread like bubonic plague. I have trouble reading anything ~cutesy~ (not "cute", the saccharine "cutesy") as a huge-ass "GO A-LOG ON ME" neon sign. X(

On a side note, is it just a coincidence that a big part of tumblr lolcalves happens to be obsessed with pastel colors and pixels? Even if this is an unspoken tumblrism and I'm not sure if it counts, a fairyland design + sailor mouth combo looks rather laughable.

 

[Hummingbird]

I've noticed a lot of tumblr people are Sailor Moon fans as well.

 

[Charlie's Chaplin]

I've seen it used for both.

I got viciously attacked by one transwoman for making the mistake of saying that I think it's good idea for there to be some kind of therapy or evaluation before taking life changing pills or having surgery just to protect the individual. I was specifically talking about plastic surgery and the guys who spent tons of money to look like Justin Bieber and a Ken doll, but it transitioned into transgender gate keeping.

Can also add the belief that an individual always knows better than medical professionals (see also self diagnosing); and that doctors who diagnose differently or suggest otherwise are discriminating/evil/stupid, delete where appropriate. I remember seeing a post (not on Tumblr, but a Wordpress site) that compared the patient and doctor relationship between that of slave and slaveowner.

 

[Ace_Reloaded]

Microaggression: a small, seemingly innocuous event that becomes annoying after many repeats. (A person with an ambiguous accent being asked where they're from, or a cashier hearing "It must be free!" 50 times a day, for example.) To sjws, they are the constant tiny reminders that the world is out to get them. While everyone has nitpicks and things that annoy them, most of us accept that sometimes things are annoying and generally people have good intentions. This is not true of tumblr's idea of microaggressions. According to tumblr, they are deliberate attacks, calculated to wear you down and break your spirit and not allow you to ever rise up against the patriarchy/white people/heterosexuals/capitalism/Hitler.

Edit: Aw shit I forgot my favorite tumblrism! How could I!
Thin Privilege: the idea that thin people are more privileged in society than fat people. While one could arguably claim that a thin attractive person will get more positive attention than a frumpy fat person, tumblr, as usual, takes it over the edge to claim that things like "fitting into an airline seat" and "not being told your heart may give out by 50" are thin privilege. Tumblr apparently truly believes thin people never have health problems/never have doctors badger them about their weight, always find their size in clothes and have no right to feel down about their appearance for any reason. Should a thin person experience any of these things, they will be shouted down and told they don't have it as bad as fat people and need to shut up.

This concept is so popular that there's even a version of it where a "smallfat" (a person who is plus-sized) has more privilege than a person who is very obese.

Also, some terms or trends you might often see in tags:

Scopophobia: the fear of being stared at/watched. In reality, a relatively rare phobia where people fear that other real people are watching them/judging them/plotting to harm them to the point that it causes detrimental anxiety. On tumblr, if you don't tag ANY picture that includes eyes with it, you are a shitlord trying to trigger the poor scopophobes. Thus it's a very common tag. The amusing (or not so amusing) thing is that a REAL sufferer of scopophobia took to tumblr to say that the phobia only applies to real life because literally nobody is going to assume that picture of that anime girl has a living human brain behind it capable of judging or plotting against you. She pointed out that tagging comics, cartoon characters and stick figures with it is degrading and essentially making fun of the phobia. Much of Tumblr ignored her.

Like if you read- well known to followers of Vade, this attention-seeking tag is unfortunately growing in popularity. It is essentially demanding that you like someone's post, so that the person can then either bask in asspats or post another post to whine about how nobody cares about them, and the lack of likes is proof.

A SHITTON OF COMPLAINING TEXT: this is a habit rather than a word. If a tumblrite disagrees with something or wants to whine about someone's post, rather than respond to the post they will reblog it and put their complaining in the tags. One might assume at first that the person in question wrote their essay in the tags by accident and didn't want to re-type it, but no. It is always deliberate. This is the equivalent of a 5-year-old being pissed about something and talking loudly about it to a stuffed animal, ensuring of course that everyone can still hear them.

Sigh////: Yes my friends it's tumblr's stress sigh. Often used to tag woe-is-me posts, posts about how sad they are that people are not liking-if-reading, and to punctuate long ranting tag clusters. It exemplifies the martyrdom and exhaustion of the long-suffering sjw after a hard day of fighting the patriarchy and microaggressions. The more ////'s that are added, the more you'll know they're suffering.

 

[melty]

Anyway, I think it's also worth noting that the concept of racism is completely different on Tumblr than it is pretty much everywhere else. On Tumblr, "racism is power plus privilege." This works somewhat when describing institutionalized racism, but Tumblr has decided that it applies to any form of racism, including individual acts and views.

In other words, if you're white, it is impossible for you to ever experience racism, even on an individual level. This argument is generally used, in my experience, to justify racist rhetoric towards white people.

Also worth noting, of course, is that this view is RIDICULOUSLY Amerocentric, and even from a sociological perspective, it doesn't apply in much of the world. Tumblr in general is insanely Amerocentric in its "activism," of course, but its definition of racism is a particularly blatant example.

Whoever came up with this idea has to be a legendary troll. I've seen countless Internet arguments starting with "you can be racist against white people too," and devolving into hours of people arguing about Irish people and what it's like to live in a foreign country without anyone participating realizing they're just arguing over a different definition for one word.