This is a very interesting post, because I've definitely noticed this trend on tumblr especially with Frozen and that genderbend Disney. Appearantly I was reading into the latter wrong, because when I found the art I was all "huh, the princesses as dudes, I wonder what all their male counterparts would look like as women?" Then I found one cross post complaining that little girl's female character focused media was under attack because fangirls were injecting it with the gays (I admit I've got no knowledge if the recent Disney genderbend trend started as guy-on-guy fantasy or what, I just liked the redesigns). And with those additional issues you mentioned, it's left me terribly confused if I ever want to reblog anything to do with it again.
Wait, I thought kink-shaming was the act of a bad fan? I guess that's all so 2008 now. I wonder if this is why the larger fandom themed Kink-memes are anonymous and have multiple modposts of how "wank over _" isn't allowed. I mean you can get some really really weird prompts and kinks that you might be embarrassed to immortalize on the interweb as being yours, but it likely started because of flamewars over choices in content. Possibly which devolved into the shaming and personal attacks.
It's not going to drive me out of fandom, though. What it is going to do, what it's currently making me do, is to tune out of the dialogue about some of these issues. This is definitely how I've reacted to it. I joined tumblr to follow art blogs and then, hey cool, fun fandom peeps, but the "REBLOG IF YOU TRULY CARE ABOUT RELEVANT ISSUE/FOR AWARENESS" I just can't take seriously. Most times they're preaching to the choir, and when not, the maintenance crew will be contrary just on principal of being preached at...if there's even preaching with authority.
I'm out of university and working, but the "finding problematic" issues within everything reminds me of all the Literary Theory classes I went through where if one had enough quotes or sources to apply, all problems could stick to a text. Critical analysis is an important skill, but if you're tearing everything apart for that express purpose alone you won't enjoy anything or accomplish anything constructive. I really don't know if tumblr can reach a level of affecting social justice, but they certainly can come off as obnoxious.
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I wonder if this is why the larger fandom themed Kink-memes are anonymous and have multiple modposts of how "wank over _" isn't allowed. I mean you can get some really really weird prompts and kinks that you might be embarrassed to immortalize on the interweb as being yours, but it likely started because of flamewars over choices in content. Possibly which devolved into the shaming and personal attacks.
This is definitely how I've reacted to it. I joined tumblr to follow art blogs and then, hey cool, fun fandom peeps, but the "REBLOG IF YOU TRULY CARE ABOUT RELEVANT ISSUE/FOR AWARENESS" I just can't take seriously. Most times they're preaching to the choir, and when not, the maintenance crew will be contrary just on principal of being preached at...if there's even preaching with authority.
I'm out of university and working, but the "finding problematic" issues within everything reminds me of all the Literary Theory classes I went through where if one had enough quotes or sources to apply, all problems could stick to a text. Critical analysis is an important skill, but if you're tearing everything apart for that express purpose alone you won't enjoy anything or accomplish anything constructive. I really don't know if tumblr can reach a level of affecting social justice, but they certainly can come off as obnoxious.