happy birthday Nona!!! she’s thinking about how pretty she is

Some Sandman fan art.

I never, ever want context for this.

The way I understand it then, it’s basically just a more amusing way of saying “don’t like don’t read”?

I would say it’s best understood as an intensifier  to Don’t Like Don’t Read.

Just for example, say a series has some implied cannibalism in it. 

A given fic for this series might tag with “cannibalism warning” just because it’s in the canon and the fic acknowledges or discusses  it. Some people might be okay with discussing it in the abstract, even if they don’t want to see it represented explicitly.  Others might be uncomfortable with just the concept, and the author might add “don’t like don’t read” to remind those people that they may not want to engage with the fic at all.

But if you see both “cannibalism” and “dead dove do not eat” the author is telling you that in the course of this fic, a character is going to straight up chow down on some dead bodies, onscreen.

To refine on that “intensifier” concept slightly, I interpret “dead dove: do not eat” as an intensity modifier. The presence of a tag itself doesn’t necessarily tell me exactly how that content is going to be handled (which is not to say it’s not useful, just that it’s incomplete information). “Dead dove: do not eat” suggests to me that it’s going to on the darker, more serious end of the spectrum, and I shouldn’t read it if I’m not prepared for what may be a psychologically intense or harrowing treatment of the tagged material.

You know what! This conversation has gotten me thinking about the concept of “intensity modifiers” all this morning, and I think it’s actually a fascinating subject we should talk more about!

Because I started off by thinking “DDDNE serves as an indication of subject intensity, which is an important purpose and it’s a shame that we don’t have other things like that” but then I realized, we do! They’re just slightly less formalized than other kinds of tagging systems modern fandom tends to work with.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of intensity scales in common use in modern fandom.

The first is the violence/sex intensity scale, which tends overall to be conflated with or used as a shorthand for the intensity/maturity rating of the fic itself. And people have talked in detail about the difference between an M and an E rating, in terms of how explicitly the sex act or violence act is described. 

But sex and violence are not the only topics that warrant an intensity scale. There are plenty of topics that people (myself included) are okay with when talking about in an abstract or general way, but if the narrative starts to dig down into the real nitty gritty of the topic I might only want to read it if I’m in the right headspace, or not at all. 

And though there isn’t an official G to E scale, fandom has implicitly recognized this need and filled it with canonical tags – such as Implied/Referenced X, Canon-Typical X, or Dead Dove Do Not Eat. 

1. Implied/Referenced X tells the reader that topic X is going to be discussed, but not shown explicitly on-screen. Unless the whole broad topic is a trigger for a reader, it’s probably okay for them to read.

2. Next step up from that is Canon-Typical X, which can generally be understood as the base or standard level of intensity for topic X in fandom Y. Exactly what level of intensity that is varies from fandom to fandom – ‘canon-typical violence’ for The Avengers is probably going to be a different level of intensity than ‘canon-typical violence’ for The Witcher, just to name two offhand. But it is generally understood that if you’re reading fic for fandom Y in the first place, the level of X present in the work is probably not going to be too much for you.

3. And then at the far end of the intensity modifier scale is Dead Dove Do Not Eat, where a topic is explored in such  detail and intensity that even fans of Fandom Y will have to decide whether they’re okay to read this today, or maybe at all.

see this is the kind of quality content that keeps me coming around here on tumbler dot com.

so. how does anyone ever have the time or energy

Executive function Georg, who lives in a cave and accomplishes 10,000 tasks per day, is an outlier adn should not be counted. 

How does he have time between eating spiders?

The task is eating spiders

This is the quality content I come to Tumblr to see.

1986: its hip to be square

2022: its based to be cringe

. 𝔻𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕞 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕤 

[ …i finished a new painting ] 

instagram: @winterofherdiscontent 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NONA 🥳☠️🎉☠️🥳☠️🎉

YOU are invited to the WILDEST book birthday party for the sweetest mystery girl in lesbian-necromancer-space-adventure-horror literary canon! Make sure you bring: 

Nona the Ninth by @tazmuir releases today. 

We pray the tomb is shut forever.

#drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was ghosts TOR PLEASE

Credit for that banger line goes to Tamsyn 😉

i should have known!!!!!!!

also everyone read Nona immediately, i need to scream with other people about it

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NONA 🥳☠️🎉☠️🥳☠️🎉

YOU are invited to the WILDEST book birthday party for the sweetest mystery girl in lesbian-necromancer-space-adventure-horror literary canon! Make sure you bring: 

Nona the Ninth by @tazmuir releases today. 

We pray the tomb is shut forever.

#drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was ghosts TOR PLEASE

honorary badge for all of us

tears of the kingdom, my beloved

Never ask a girl if she wants to become a werewolf because she’s always going to say yes because girls love tearing things apart with their teeth and ripping people to shreds with their claws, it’s a foregone conclusion, an immutable fact of our universe really when ya think about it.

The evolution of our vision of werewolves.

do it for her (your thirteen year old self)

The Midterms: Voting & The Disability Community

Join @whenweallvote, the American Association of People with Disabilities’ REV UP Voting Campaign, and The Whole Person to ask questions about the upcoming midterm elections, how you can register to vote, and all you need to know about Election Day.

September 12-16, 2022 is Disability Voting Rights Week, a time for advocates and communities to build the power of the disability vote through voter registration, voter education, community engagement, and more! The disability community is one of the largest voting blocs in the country, with over 38 million eligible voters with disabilities in 2020.  The community also faces access barriers at the ballot box: only 17.7 million voters of the 38 million eligible voted in 2020. This September 16th, get your questions answered about the intersection of voting and the disability community and how to make voting more accessible to disabled folks. 

What are you waiting for, Tumblr? Ask them a question, and head back over here on September 16th, 2022 at 12 PM EST to see their answers. 🗳️Don't forget to get registered to vote (HERE)🗳️!

MEET THE PANEL

Priestley M. Johnson (She/Her), Director of Strategic Community Partnerships, When We All Vote

Priestley M. Johnson the Director of Strategic Community Partnerships and is responsible for When We All Vote’s partnership program that delivers voter registration tools and resources to hundreds of partners across the nation. Ms. Johnson is a passionate advocate and avid relationship builder dedicated to using her skill set of strategic partnerships, project management, business development, and event planning. With previous experience in the Obama White House and the International Women’s Forum, Priestley is passionate about advocating for more resources for those in need and building capacity through fundraising. A proud Howard alumna, Johnson is committed to moving the needle. 

Lilian Aluri (She/Her), REV UP Voting Campaign Coordinator

Lilian Aluri started off interning at AAPD in the summer of 2020, as a NYU VOTE 2020 Fellow, getting out the disability vote in the 2020 elections. Lilian then began a contract with AAPD and has since been working together with the REV UP team to continue to build the power of the disability vote, research voting accessibility issues, and also support AAPD’s broader advocacy. In her current role as the REV UP Voting Campaign Coordinator, Lilian supports the national REV UP network, facilitating trainings and webinars, convening the advisory committee, organizing national voting initiatives and collaborating with REV UP organizers to advance the power of the disability vote. Lilian also manages AAPD’s blog and a weekly email digest highlighting disability in the news.

As the older sister of a young man with Down syndrome and as someone with some mental health disabilities, Lilian values her role at AAPD as a chance to help create a more inclusive and just society in which all people with disabilities can thrive.

Kendra A. Burgess (She/Her), Public Policy Coordinator, The Whole Person  

Kendra A. Burgess joined The Whole Person in 2019 as Public Policy Coordinator, where she currently advocates for issues impacting people with disabilities at the city, state, and federal levels of government in Kansas and Missouri. 

Prior to this role, Kendra served as a congressional staffer for the Honorable U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill for several years, where she handled a portfolio of federal issues, including labor, healthcare, and housing. Additionally, she lends her voice to elevate issues impacting people with disabilities by writing opinion articles for regional news outlets, educating the public through press interviews, and collaborating with community partners to offer Diversity Equity and Inclusion Programming. Learning to thrive through her own invisibly disabilities, Kendra is a volunteer women’s health advocate by serving as the Kansas/Missouri Representative for the Worldwide EndoMarch, an organization seeking to advocate for those living with Endometriosis.

Photography by Xuebing Du

Instagram: xuebing.du