boatsexual and proud

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> opens my email

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> launches a software

And sure, you can dismiss these people as lazy, as stupid, as being elderly and so who cares. But from my 17 years of experience, I can tell you that technical instinct and ability varies widely across the entire adult spectrum. And I can also tell you that people have different strengths, and that just because someone isn't good with computers doesn't mean they aren't smart as hell.

And I can also say, again, that it really doesn't matter.

lake inferior

lake normal

lake offtario

lake hurton

As we all know, thanks to the support of the good people of Tumblr, Tylenol has experienced a meteoric rise to second place. Even though her competition is stiff, I believe in Tylenol's ability to go the distance.

But let's take a look at the competition:

Elmer seems to be a lovely boy. I have no qualms with Elmer, and think he would look fantastic on a beer can. But what about Elmer's campaigns? Who is the power behind the throne here, and how have they managed to find such breakout success on this competition?

A handful of wealthy donors are trying to buy this competition.

At the end of the day, all donations are good donations here. This is a charity event so every penny earned is going to help animals in need. But it's not lost on me that Elmer's current ranking is thanks entirely to a few individuals with the financial means to put their thumbs on the scale.

Tylenol's donors, comparatively, are small and numerous, mostly $1-10 donations from many passionate believers in what she stands for (autism and pain relief I think).

Overall, the donations tell a very different story than what the base ranking shows you. Elmer is held aloft by just 24 donors and bolstered by a few wealthy patrons, whereas Tylenol has won the hearts of literally hundreds of people. Even the current third place, Abby, owes her ranking to numerous small contributions rather than one or two large ones.

A very tiny percentage of creators go on to be famous, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t remember little things you did for years and years. Who came up with most of the world’s most famous jump rope rhymes? Who coined some of the famous idioms we use in daily speech? Who made up ‘Jingle Bells, Batman Smells?” Somehow, all of these things stuck and spread around.

When I was a small child, I saw a high school put on a production of the musical HONK. In one song, the mother duck describes various dangers that her baby should avoid in the water, including fishing line, which could strangle him. A member of the ensemble played the role of fishing line, doing a maniacal laugh and over-the-top strangling motions, and I found it hilarious– and to this day, that’s an example I often think of when talking about how ensemble members can still stand out in theatre. The guy who played the role might not even remember that he did that, but I do.

I took Suzuki violin lessons as a kid. The teacher made up lyrics to some of the songs, and she let her students make some up, too. Now whenever I hear the instrumental of one of those pieces, I always remember these ridiculous lyrics about a skunk that we sang in violin class. I don’t even know which student invented them!

In middle school, I found a video about atoms parodying Bill Nye made by some kids for a school product. It probably had less than 1,000 views, but I think of quotes from that video all the time. They had a parody of “We Will Rock You” with the chorus, “Protons, neutrons, electrons” that I think about a lot.

Let's take sinners for example. There is a white guy with like 2 lines exclusively about hating minorities in this movie. His name is not Ray, it's Bert (I had to look that up on imdb), he is the kkk-vampire and not a single person on earth is writing self-insert fic about this guy. They are writing self-insert fic about the central antagonist, who is also a vampire. Girls like villains, what else is new.

And sure, maybe I am being to literal here, but yelling at people that they are liking a thing in the wrong way is just the fastest way to kill a fandom. The underlying things this post is pointing at are real and they do exist. Societal beauty standards center white people, a lot of (white) people have are harder time sympathising with people of color. But those things are not fandom problems. They are just general problems of living in white supremacist society and they show up in all facets of or society including fandom. But you are not gonna fix them by telling people they are somehow bad for liking the sexy vampire.

Am I “making up a guy to be mad at” if by your own admission you are a fan of a character that fits the hypothetical scenario that I described in the original post? That you brought up, because I didn’t bring up Sinners (2025).

You admit that societal beauty standards favor white people (an odd thing to bring up), and in turn white people have a harder time sympathizing with people of color (a poor excuse for racism), and yet you think this doesn’t factor into fandom? You think white ppl, from the society that you acknowledge has racist biases, will somehow leave those same prejudices when engaging in fandom? You think that the “real world” is a completely separate vacuum from the art that leads to fandom?

“Girls like villains” a very strange, pointedly projective, and dismissive of the main point of the post: racism. You think women of color like racist villains? Or is it just white women? Because that’s what we’re talking about here: racist characters, specifically. With this line of thinking, you put forth that either the women in a fandom, Sinners (2025) by your example, a predominantly Black led piece of media which centers Black women as they’re integral to the story, should categorically like the “sexy vampire” despite the fact that he’s terrorizing Black people throughout the movie just because he’s the villain. Or you put forth that there are no women of color in the Sinners fandom, which would be an odd thing to think given the previous points.