Yeah, like--I haven't done the in-depth study of TERF communities on Tumblr that you have, but the gatekeeping you've been keeping an eye on was in full swing back in 2010 as fandom on Tumblr was beginning to take root, too. I've mentioned a couple of times being traumatized by the waves of anti-asexuality brigading c. 2010-2012--it comes up a lot in the archives of Writing From Factor X, which I was publishing at the time--and that kind of pushback was flowing out from other corners of the blogosphere before Tumblr ever ascended. We were calling it out as linked with biphobia very early!
I think that Tumblr has played a role in traumatizing people and creating more fear around appearing not pure enough by appearing to shine spotlights on everyone and making public call-outs and angry misunderstandings very common. But that kind of toxicity is fully capable of making its home on Livejournal and Dreamwidth, too, and in these cases you can wind up with friends-locked content, gossip about who said what, and weaponized secrecy as tools instead. Are you by chance familiar with the Winterfox/Requires Hate/Benjanun Sridaengkew saga? There are a lot of lessons there to be learned about both how Tumblr-style toxicity was mainstreamed--in many ways Winterfox piloted a lot of later staples of harassment from the left--and also many lessons about the ways in which platform features are not a panacea.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2018-12-18 09:01 pm (UTC)I think that Tumblr has played a role in traumatizing people and creating more fear around appearing not pure enough by appearing to shine spotlights on everyone and making public call-outs and angry misunderstandings very common. But that kind of toxicity is fully capable of making its home on Livejournal and Dreamwidth, too, and in these cases you can wind up with friends-locked content, gossip about who said what, and weaponized secrecy as tools instead. Are you by chance familiar with the Winterfox/Requires Hate/Benjanun Sridaengkew saga? There are a lot of lessons there to be learned about both how Tumblr-style toxicity was mainstreamed--in many ways Winterfox piloted a lot of later staples of harassment from the left--and also many lessons about the ways in which platform features are not a panacea.