#shitlistgate

You’ve only been in the fandom about a month? Oh you sweet summer child. You’ve missed some interesting drama lol. (though to be fair what I’ve heard out of the VLD fandom, this may be nothing compared to some of the crap the VLD had done.) This explanation is gonna require some backstory. This may be long-winded, I’m sorry. 

First of all, there are a couple ant/ blogs that have the phrase “without the shit” in the url. Two blogs in particular, an art one (so “y0i art without the shit”) and a fic one. (More recently a general blog and a gif blog have popped up, but they’re not important to this story.)

On their blogs, they only reblog “safe” art and fics. That’s their entire theme and purpose. They only reblog safe and pure fanworks. Of course, this means no 0tayur1 (or YP/JJ, or any ship with “minors and adults” aka any Yurio ship because these people don’t like shipping him with anyone). They don’t reblog works that “sexualize minors.” Etc. You get the gist. 

They won’t even reblog fanworks from people who are guilty of those things. Even if the subject of the post itself wasn’t a Bad Ship. This artist drew a cute, pure, fluffy v1ctur1 piece? Nope, they won’t reblog the v1ctur1 art, because that artist drew 0tayur1 making eye-contact once upon a time, that artist is now forever tainted as a gross pedophilic shipper. Even if they have problematic ships in other fandoms, they won’t reblog from them. “This artist supports a sha/ad1n ship? Nope, they’re a nasty artist and will never be reblogged on this blog. They like KS or capt1v3 pr1nc3? They’re a Bad Person too.” 

The two blogs are run by two different people, so they have different lists of what is and what is not allowed. Ranging from “no 0tayuri” to no stripper AUs to no omegaverse to no genderbends to no“problematic or homophobic tropes.”

These Bad Tropes include such hits as:

“Yurio Calling V1ctur1 Disgusting” (for being all lovey-dovey and flirting with each other I assume… apparently Yurio being grossed out or annoyed by them having PDAs is homophobic)

“Yuuri Being Cold to Viktor”

“V1ctur1 Having Sex at the Banquet”

“Viktor Trying to Get Yuuri Drunk”

And my personal favorite Bad Trope: “Viktor and the fucking dishes.” 

There’s been a running gag since early on in the fandom, that, once they start living together, V1ctur1 will get into small arguments over dishes. Like Viktor will forget to do the dishes, and Yuuri will get annoyed with him and tell him to wash the dishes and like hold a kiss over his head until the dishes are done. Just a stupid, harmless joke about being domestic. Right?

Welp I’ve legit seen people argue that this is heteronormative. (Do same-sex couples not wash dishes? I didn’t realize arguing over whose turn it is to wash dishes was a straight couples thing. I guess college roommates all over the country are straight couples.) And according to ant/s, it’s homophobic somehow too.

So the dishes trope is problematic because it’s… idk, I guess v1ctur1 isn’t allowed to have normal silly domestic spats over chores? 

I guess, according to ant/s, it’s unhealthy to sometimes argue over chores and couples should never argue at all…even though they’re human beings and misunderstandings happen no matter how in love you are with someone because no one is perfect, and so long as you communicate and talk after an argument, it’s healthy and normal. To ant/s and their purity culture, v1ctur1 are too superior to have something as mediocre as the occasional disagreement in their relationship.

I can understand why people are annoyed with the dishes thing. It’s a tired, unfunny joke. But it’s nothing to call a “problematic trope.” It’s annoying and dumb at worst, but it is not problematic or homophobic. Like come on people, please go outside.

So yeah, that’s where “Viktor and the dishes” comes in. Sorry for the novel.

Some further backstory to complete this saga though. 

Around May, it came out the the fic blog had a “shitlist.” A private list that they shared with other ant/s so they would know which writers to block. Someone posed as an ant/ to get their hands on this list, and released it, and exposed the fic blog for having a “shitlist” of writers in the fandom.

That little incident brought more awareness to these “without the shit” blogs, both the fic and the art blog. Some people were aware of their existence, but not many until this shitlist came out. 

Some people had a field day with this drama and were more amused than anything, trying to create art/fics to get onto the shitlist, like some badge of honor. Others were understandably pissed at these blogs for quite literally calling certain fanworks “shit.” People work hard on their art and fics. It’s so wrong for these ant/ blogs to call their work “shit” just because they don’t like the ship.

Now I can imagine running a blog with a complex tagging system, that way people can blacklist things that trigger them and also easily find art and fics that will suit them. But that was not the case with these blogs obviously. I hate to use the word “discriminate” so lightly, but they were essentially discriminating against 0tayur1 shippers under the guise of “this blog is a safe space and only reblogs safe works!!”.

let me tell you a thing about your fandom history. back in the good ol days of livejournal, strikethrough/boldthrough were a series of purges done on livejournal blogs and communities done out of a moral panic raised by a right-wing internet watchdog group. in fact, one of the main reasons behind the founding of the organisation for @transformativeworks and the archive of our own is because of this -- because fandom needed a space free from censorship.

fandom also left livejournal for this blue hellsite because of strikethrough and now, ten days before the 10 year anniversary of strikethrough, that entire shitlist wank has gone down in yoi fandom. 

anyway

i just wanna say i would be totally down to do something on the 29th. to commemorate the 10th anniversary of strikethrough, i suggest we all post a fic to ao3 that day that specifically features at least one of the shitlist criteria.

while i do think they should be held accountable for their actions, sending death threats is never the right thing to do. approach this with a level head, and if you’re feeling hot about the whole thing, take a step back from tumblr to cool off.

I said I was going to go out on a walk, but instead I’m gonna contribute to the discourse about That Blog, and That List. I have my priorities in order.

So, TL;DR, I came into the YOI fandom partly as a refuge from my Twitter feed. Part of what made me realize I needed to step back from Twitter was the way that the short communication form tended to boil issues down to all-or-nothing snippets, and the way that righteous fury over a cause--even (and often) a good cause--could create this sense of dark mania and excitement.

Here’s the thing: it felt good to react against the injustices of the world, whether real or perceived. It was exhilarating to be angry and talk about these things, and retweet other voices. It makes you feel like you’re a part of something important, like you have something to contribute to the world. It’s exhilarating to confront an ignorant person on the systemic sexism in video games, or the exclusionary elements of Taylor Swift’s type of feminism, or the way someone’s fave is problematic. It’s a fight, and for a while it feels like a good fight. It very often is. That’s where I think a lot of people in this fandom are coming from, and I see it partially as a function of age and maturity, because I’ve been there. I’ve been on those breathless crusades. But if you do this, it’s very easy to become angry all the time about everything. And being angry all the time doesn’t change the world; it just changes you, and always for the worse.

Rage is a fire. It will burn you up.

There’s something about the sentence your fave is problematic which I think people often forget, and it’s the word fave. It’s the same thing that trips up people who are confronted with their privilege for the very first time. Your fave is problematic, sure; but it’s still allowed to be your fave. The important thing isn’t stamping out all problematic elements forever for absolutely everyone; it’s about recognizing them, sitting with them, understanding how they are intertwined with the good bits of the very same piece of media.  It’s about being aware, the same way you need to be aware of white privilege. In both cases, if you let that part consume you, and if you mistake that discomfort for the real work and start trying to consume and control other people, it will stop you in your tracks and prevent true forward motion.

It’s uncomfortable. But discomfort is part of life. It’s far more interesting to learn to make friends with it than to turn your back and cast it as simply evil or wrong.

You are allowed to enjoy things even if they’re problematic. You’re allowed to enjoy the problematic things, too, as long as you’re aware of them, and other people should be granted the same respect. Policing people isn’t going to bring you joy; it’s just going to keep fueling the rage. Are there times when things should be called out? Yeah, absolutely. But this shit is complicated. It is not easy. It is not easy. It will never be easy.

I do not condone sending death threats or “kill yourself” messages to any person except the Orange Overlord and his friends, and this applies to silly children making whiny lists on tumblr. Don’t send hate over stupid things people

What is even the point of being on the shitlist and having fifteen minutes of fandom fame (infamy?) if my fics aren’t gonna get more comments come ooooon

Apparently anti-otayuris are now also harrassing people on twitter, gee, what a nice, safe fandom, as we all know shipping cartoon characters >>>>>>>>>>>>> harrassing real people in terms of what’s gonna get you to hell faster, what is logic even

Don’t send death threats to people, even if they’re being assholes. Block them and move on with your lives. Let them be stupid little babies in their corner of the internet, they’re not worth your time

As always, feel free to send in fics for a prompt even after the “deadline” has passed. I’ll absolutely post the links :)

a kiss for a dish by this has been cary ( @cary-onmywaywardson)

Yuuri was sick of Viktor continuously leaving dishes in his and Phichit's apartment, and was going to do something about it. For a week, Viktor only got as many kisses as dishes he cleaned, unless he did them all. Also, they're in college, and three of them are strippers.

you can have my everything by spookyfoot ( @katsukiyuuristrophyhusband )

It’s not until they’re lying in bed—sweat cooling on their bodies, Yuuri’s head cradled on Victor’s chest—that Victor realizes all of his meticulously curated props and costumes are lying abandoned all throughout their apartment.

“Yuuri?”

“Mmmm,” Yuuri mumbles into Victor’s chest.

“Did you do that on purpose?” ___________________

3 times Yuuri strips out of self interest and 1 time he strips out of love.

Featuring: high-stakes Monopoly, novelty aprons, aborted role-play, and a lot of banter. It's approximately 80% banter.