Thread by @devauric

i'm gonna do a thread replying to this because of how surreptitious i found this article, but it really deserves a rebuttal in my own happy unvetted medium article where i share cherrypicked screenshots of reylos calling finn abusive for grabbing rey's hand one time

https://twitter.com/InFormalMajesty/status/1217481176270692366

Check one: begin by pretending some kind of scientific, unbiased report without disclaiming that you are a #Reylo

I've been in fandom for 15 years (😰), and I started in male-heavy anime fandoms, back in those days where there wasn't such thing as antis and slurs were uncriticized common tongue. I love unpopular ships. I've never experienced this. Maybe I haven't been a big enough jackass?

Uh-oh! "Fictional space wizards" alert! Add a tick to the "it's not real, okay, calm down" column, which we may just find incompatible with the thesis of this article ...

If it has "nothing to do with Reylo", why are Reylos being targeted, then? There's a later argument about Finnrey shippers being out for blood, but this isn't about ships, right? I think we can all agree Reylos aren't the only women in fandom, so how can it be about their gender?

I don't disagree with this assessment of the alt-right as a hate group, but the alt-right are not just a misogynistic hate group; they are also, predominantly, RACIST. This seems a glaring oversight, particularly since this article aims to sum up racial divides in fandom (!) too

I won't dive into "some of us had issues with TLJ for progressive reasons" because that's not really relevant; instead, I want to highlight this acknowledgement that major, coordinated attacks to cause harm are all coming from the alt-right, misogynists, etc.

Admitting bias: I do think the worst of the antis really are just bullies who use fake outrage to justify calling people crackheads. That being said -- Oh, things were just as ugly in the old days (a lot happened irl, at cons, or on dead sites) - we have fandom_wank for a reason.

This GeekDad article cited by our writer sums it up, though: We can criticize media and how it affects society, but unfounded accusations dilute the discourse and make 'abuser' and 'paedo' as stinging an insult as crackhead or nutjob.

In fact, read this from the author of that GD article, and the tweet he's agreeing with from Shatner: "If you are comfortable with the fact that you ship politely then those words shouldn’t affect you."

"Reactionary"? Of all things? First, Fandom Politics Are Not RL Politics, because they don't track exactly along lib/con lines. Second, if you've been reading along, you'll see that what this author/anti-antis want is a return to a more "comfortable past." Reactionary, almost ...

So, if this is generally not wrong, then isn't the onus of the article NOT on proving that people who bully Reylos/Boyega The Doxxer are misogynistic reactionaries, but to prove that the specific accusations against Reylo(s) aren't true and being exaggerated and misinterpreted?

Fun fact! "Pearl clutching" was, afawk, coined for new slang by the gays! As a joke! Now people use it to make fun of others for being too sensitive. Hmm. Pearls ... over-sensitivity ... flamboyant gays ... I think women are the ones targeted here, but NOT by the pearl-clutchers.

INB4 "Pedant!" The author cites times in history women were victims of moral outrage for liking stuff. What she doesn't cite is that perception of prohibitionists as "pearl clutchers" ignores that pro-women orgs wanted no alcohol because it was considered a leading cause for DV!

I think the most telling thread in this article to show the author's bias is wanting Reylo to be known as VERY POPULAR, LOTS OF FANS, but also claiming mass hate campaigns have destroyed them and you can get [links to 'clout' definition cornily'] for hating them. Eh?

No, of course, I can get clout if I were to tweet something like "Chris Pratt loves paedophilia so much he joined a Christian cult" and receive many 😂👏 but at the end of the day, I think we can all agree that any clout I get from that doesn't give me the power to destroy Pratt.

Simply: CANCEL CULTURE ISN'T REAL. The worst people can keep on doing their thing & be rewarded, even after being #exposed. Almost as if years of Reylo hate since TFA didn't stop TLJ from giving them a sensual Force bond, or TROS from having them kiss & be prophetic soulmates.

This can't be twisted to "Antis are the Pratts of this metaphor, Reylos are victims!"

A) Reylo wasn't harmed in canon by fandom hate (interestingly, leading man Finn's lack of screentime came after those alt-right hate campaigns ...)

B) Biggest Ship Ever!s aren't marginalized

"Enemies in an epic myth." Because if there's something epic myths have in common, it's sipping respect women juice and loving healthy relationships! This is not a, 'There is no abuse', it's just, 'But Hades and Persephone were SEXY.'

Strange way to say "Reylos were shipping Reylo before TFA came out, refusing to see black man Finn as the leading man (and romantic option) he was written to be, and likely they have done this with other ships, and mostly just show token interest in Poe & Rose as weak defense."

So this is about the Laying The Pipe Saga. Reylo fanfic isn't the All of it (tho having read my share of it, there's a lot of weird traditionally heterosexist narratives to be found) -- there has been plenty public sharing of nasty Let Kylo Pound That Virgin Pussy thirst tweets.

Some examples since cherrypicked screenshots and correlation != causation data are the tool of trade here:

Yeah, as I said. So why the hell is this a point!

Beauty and the Beast (animated) is my favourite Disney movie, and I tell ya, this can only come from someone who somehow missed BatB live action coming at and whipping up the Beast and Belle Are Stockholm Syndrome crowd (and people going What the hell, no, in response.) #OUTRAGE

Check to the 'It's Fiction So I Doesn't Matter But Also You Can't Tear This Dark Fairy Tale That Helps Women Explore Their Feelings From Them' column, and more words arguing a generality without *specifically defending Reylo.* And how do we think The Culture spreads its lessons?

Okay lol. The CCA was based on the ACMP, whose comics code (48) was inspired by the Hay's Code (30-68). '47 was when that whole HUAC thing was going on, leading to a censoring of Hollywood and imprisonment over pro-commie sentiments. Please consider the Hay's v. Comic's Code.

Some points to consider:

-HC is veeery strict on that whole Enforce Racism and Segregation Thing
-CC doesn't mention race
-The 'portrayal of illicit relationships' could cover interracial for both, but since we're talking about Seduction of the Innocent: NO GAYS!
-CC evolved
...

Aside: Wertham = progressive. Born in Nuremberg in an Ashkenazi family. Moved to the US in 27. Opened a free clinic in Harlem to help black youth; his essays comparing segregation to the Holocaust/showing the psych. impact racism had on black communities were used in Brown v. BoE

All of this together means: CENSORSHIP. THESE STORIES ARE ABOUT CENSORSHIP. Censorship, as we must constantly remind mad conservatives, is only something the government can do. Trying to frame the Comic's Code to Reylos Being Oppressed with Wertham as an evil patriarch is absurd.

Beliefs don't exist in a vacuum. 'Wertham twisted results' != studies agree that violent media has no impact on social violence (they still do those studies, and guess what!) Reylo is 'mythic' huh? Do we think there's a reason hetero dynamics like this keep being perpetuated?

This thread is gaining traction! Please know I'm not done, I'll be doing the whole article. For your consideration in this announcement tweet, please also read this. It's an account of a black fan in the Star Wars fandom, with discussion of the ships:

diversehighfantasy.tumblr.com/post/190278683…

Now when she starts going in on Boyega, things get extra dicey and by dicey I mean "racist" and also "the most unfounded speculation of all." So feel free to keep a mental checklist like this one they give young students for every time we get into puppets and malicious intent.

Oh it's called Star Wars? 😰Bad Things Happen In War, and One Side Is An Oppressed Minority and the Other Side Are Fascist, okay! Vader and Luke have a very healthy relationship because that whole Being At Opposite Sides of an Ideological Conflict doesn't really MEAN anything.

(An exchange I keep having with Reylos is that they think SW's anti-fascism message is a B-plot to the main story about Tragic Sad Boys & the Families Who Love Them. I won't assume that's whsy the author believes, but I am concerned that it seems so meaningless to many of them.)

She says she doesn't want to ascribe cruel motive to Boyega, but how is claiming he INTENDED this tweet to start a hate barrage not saying exactly that? Reread that sentence. It has two actors: "bullying barrage" and "it" (read: Boyega.)

Proving someone is a sock won't be conclusive with any of the 'proof' forthcoming, so add this sock theory into the 'opinion' column, as every reference to a puppet in here could be replaced with 'Vladimir Putin' and make as much sense.

The conspiracy theory continues. "Instead of being a Reylo it was Putin!" to which I say, "Even if it was Putin, the fact that a Fake Inflammatory Racist could fit right in to your community is not the save you think it is."

From here out I'll be sharing a lot from the Daily Dot's article on the situation, which delves more into the racism of the situation than I can:

dailydot.com/parsec/john-bo…

And so Putin came with the tweet that broke the internet, AKA, Bias: I think this was funny.

All Boyega said here was Finnrey are set to bone. Setting aside the hypocrisy of Reylos, this is no more vivid than saying "do the horizontal tango" or "make the beast with two backs".

Again, I'll quote Anna Maria Ward from the DD (dailydot.com/parsec/john-bo…)

Those two examples I provided (3 with 'bone') would be mild enough for anyone; I would be interested to see if Reylos find those terms equally 'aggressive'?

Some direct links for people:
sex-and-race.livejournal.com/374708.html
(Angela Davis's "Women, Race, & Class")
keywords.ace.fordham.edu/index.php/Ange…
(Same essay in academic context.)
opportunityagenda.org/explore/resour…
(How media affects perception of BM, linked by the DD article at "chattel slavery-era stereotypes".

With that in mind: It simply isn't responsible of a journalist (which this author very much wants to be seen as) to present this interpretation belonging to "some people" when everything about this writing, WITHOUT providing the context of the black male rapist stereotype.

"Clearly"? Clearly, according to whom? All that's been provided is 'Putin didn't tweet a ton' (not indicative of who they are) and 'Putin changed their handle' (not indicative of who they are) and 'Putin also encouraged hate of Daisy' (not indicative of who they are.)

The author cites an amorphous "antis" of correctly identifying Putin's blackfishing, without getting into specifics, like DD did. (This article also pops up first when you search "reylo pretends to be black woman" so it's not hidden away.) Why not credit?

"Why not credit?" I'm joking that's wholly rhetorical I know why! Only by blaming it all on Putin the Anti, can the author continue this "Antis misuse social justice to beat up Reylos, even tricking innocent good social justice people of thinking Reylos are racist!"

So at this point, to believe the conspiracy the author is spinning, you have to take her opinions on the following things as facts:

-Putin is an Anti
-Putin wanted to make Reylos look bad
-Putin started the WHOLE backlash to Reylos responding poorly to Boyega's joke

And ...

... implicitly:

A Reylo wouldn't benefit from pretending to be a BW, even though Putin uses their status as a "black woman" to gain the 'permission' to criticize Boyega, a BM, over misogyny.

This article enforces that Reylos are called racist for 'some reason' -- wouldn't this be a way to dress up their beliefs in a 'socially acceptable' way? Also, many don't want to drag their main thru mud starting shit; they turn to Putin to express their opinions 'safely'.

The source for that would be the exact site that the author links to when defining sock puppet, btw.

People use socks to create a narrative that benefits their own side, even if it's in a way that seems non-intuitive (like the trend of hating on yourself so you look better.)

At this point, I want to point out another insidious tactic she uses: Skewing the timeline (following Vulture's skewed timeline, which she links to.)

Reading it her way, it goes: Out of nowhere, Boyega chuckled at Reylos. Fan then found him, so random!, joking on Instagram.

In reality? Look at the timestamps. Laid the pipe easily before 11am EST/31. Then replied to the backlash Reylos were already dealing him, and then, in face of all that Black Male Rapist trash he was getting, posted 4 caps of Reylo's canon interactions with a cheeky caption.

Now I'm out the door to see a show with a friend, so I'll finish when I return. One more point:

If sharing people's handles and tweets is DOXXING (Boyega's vile crime) then why does the author of this article feel comfortable sharing names?

Journalism != "I censor handles (most of the time) (unless I think they're Putin)" on easily searchable tweets, or using handles of people who were "tricked" into judging Reylos. Only Celeb Names, Ok? You are not hiding the 'fandom beef' aspect at all.

Oh, and there's this:

"left-leaning talking point" Interesting! Setting aside "For charity" because everyone does charity, here is Driver talking about his experience with the Marines. Is it a baseless "accusation" for people to feel uncomfortable with how Driver talks about this aspect of his life?

So, the conspiracy: This is Putin, paired with very firm opinions that had to be redacted at the end. If the whole thrust of the narrative you're weaving is "Putin is an Anti", hiding the fact that your baseless accusations harmed someone into this part is misleading.

More dishonesty; disingenuous removal of criticism from context to make it sound baseless; but why did someone say that about Reylo? Half the story is missing, but if shown, the author would be admitting her narrative doesn't start where she wants you to think it did.

Some of that history conveniently missing: this tumblr set up 3 months after TFA was released. The 'Boyega Brigade' was formed to try and counter the negative flooding of Boyega's sm, and addressing the erasure of Boyega as the male lead.

boyegabrigade.tumblr.com/post/143847012…

Focusing all on twitter fandom is itself a strange choice since it was still new and all the main shipping (+drama) was happening on tumblr.

(I just backread way too many pages of the Reylo tag to get to the start, and it's a fascinating mix of outrage and sex jokes.)

Roughly, #Reylo is like this:
-Finn and Rey are platonic. We like Finn! Stormpilot! Finn's condescending to Rey. And boring. But cute!
-"Incest isn't a bug, it's a feature"
-Sexy mind probe interrogation
-"Ew Reylo don't ship that"
-Age difference? Han/Leia did it first!

Shipping Finn/Poe & Rey/Kylo was common, and though you can see antis and know of "hate" it's mostly ascribed to some amorphous 'them' (maybe Finnrey, but there was little proof of that specific group doing anything). Reylos called themselves trash.

Selection above for fun. I don't think random out-of-context cherrypicked caps are an argument, I just include them as a "And yet," to the article's "proof". Also, I mean, Reylos weren't all squirrely about incest and there are concerning takes on the interrogation scene.

The first pages of these mortal enemy ships (as the article 'not about ships' posits.) Mess around with a timestamp generator to get an unfiltered look at what the early fandom looked like:

tumblr.com/tagged/reylo?b…
tumblr.com/tagged/finnrey…

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood ...

(timestampgenerator.com)

Back to the article: This ends the "Everything Started By Boyega & Putin Conspiracy" section of the article. The next section? Framed by a tantalizing suicide cliffhangers (neat!) and Reylos are the only women ever bullied in this particular 'war'.

This next section is "statistics" and by "statistics" I mean "A selection of data, picked by a biased researcher, presented with 0 context, that is loosely correlated and not even always relevant because if you just search "Reylo+die" not all your results are death threats, hm?"

Going to finish up tomorrow because I'm starting to believe this "data analyst" is really a "social media manager who can search twitter trends." Unless she's operating on a kind of Bayesian interpretation of the data, what's presented is more, well, this:

Hi! Links:

https://twitter.com/harlequinn823/status/1217575182874882048

(I linked post earlier but here's her twitter!)

https://twitter.com/JoltStudios/status/1212574802101207040

(Great read, shared quote below)
stitchmediamix.com/2020/01/01/qui…
(Previous article links this one, great comprehensive look over Boyega's history with fandom, also quoted below.)

(If anyone has more links with write-ups/threads about this article/the racism surrounding it, please reply and share. I'll keep looking too.)

Back to the article. It's amazing how someone could take a tweet from a black man who says, "These people are tormenting me, over this shit," and turns that into, "Boyega dogwhistled ""reactionary"" leftists and the ALT-RIGHT into hating on women" and be taken seriously at all.

She will insist she doesn't assign motive to Boyega, but if this were the case, why is he featured so prominently in this narrative? Why a rehash of his greatest (perceived) sins? If this has nothing to do with ships, why is Boyega clearly lumped in with Antis/FinnReys/etc.?

To cap it off, we have clout chasing put on the same level as a PURGE, yes you read that right, a PURGE of all women from fandom, which I think every woman in fandom who criticizes Reylos (myself included) is baffled by.

Now, the data. Initial problems:

-'Reylo' & 'Reylos' are separate things.
-“pro-Reylo” tweets = other half of the story, which an analysis of Fandom v Reylos should include. What was the tone of the discourse?
-Negative/neutral (!) comments about a ship are not abusive content

This is just funny. "Text mining." You used the advanced search function, and as I've already shown, you found results that are irrelevant to a "drive women out of fandom" narrative.

So we have metrics & their numbers:

Hate: 2.2k (x31.4)
Abuse: 1k (x38.7)
Racism: 1k (x35.4)
Sex: 1k
Mental: 602 (outlier that should not be counted)

We also have a hypothesis: People with larger platforms tweet targeted attacks, nobodies share generic hate.

More Boyega the Instigator.

If most of this hate came from people with small platforms, how relevant is it? Where's the correlation? A Reylo can speak ironically. A Reylo could also, say, be tweeting about "hate" in a variety of contexts and that would show up in 'Reylo+hate.'

If, across the political spectrum, a similar (but importantly not the *same* as this article says) reaction is seen it's less an ideological war on women, and more being on sm while Clinton is running for President. She's hated for a variety of reasons, but there are valid ones.

As a high school girl who felt like she was living in the Twilight Zone because other girls would call you a jealous bitch and threaten violence at you or anyone else who pointed out the abuse & racism & sexism of the books, I say this isn't a "gotcha."

jezebel.com/racist-trolls-…

You know, those times racist fans of a white man who got famous playing an abusive character they all want to fuck can't even tolerate the idea of the actor dating a black woman.

Yes, the alt-right sure is nasty! A female fan saying "reylos die" after she sees Boyega falsely accused of harassing Daisy Ridley by a Reylo is obviously motivated from the same place as people who hate fat sjw neo star wars fans who love representation!

I've watched videos from the Hate All New Star Wars crowd & funnily enough they hate things that "Antis" support. Or can the author show the *actual belief overlap* between we be presented the overlap of "Antis" and "I'm Not Against Diversity But--! Assholes."

This also brings up a point: I find the use of "alt-right" odd in this article because there are things I do credit to them, like those shared two tweets up, and certain videos, the campaign to get rid of the Black Stormtrooper, etc. ... but they aren't just "fandom weirdos".

Like every other part of this article where a Reylo complains about being called racist abuse apologists, we have very serious things being used as a battering ram, as she accuses Antis of. The alt-right isn't a catch-all for conservatism or sexist bros, they are NAZIS.

What's as bad as Nazis according to Katie McCort? This fucking tweet.

(And not everyone is on sm 24/7 weirdo.)

Oh! Extremist parallels! Like comparing people who take the mickey out of Reylos with Nazis? Can't imagine!

If deleted tweets aren't data, WHY INCLUDE THEM? This is that point in all courtroom dramas where the defense goes "Objection! Speculation and hearsay, Your Honour!" This is just an attempt to smear the character of someone calling you out with 0 context or even the actual tweet.

Ah, yes, the "Obsessed.mp3' argument. This isn't a stalker hate meltdown. This is a direct response to *Reylo behaviour at the time*. I'm sure I will be on this list of DOXXED NAMES if she were to update it today. But would she care to address my actual argument?

("Boyega's New Year's Eve incident" not blaming him, yes.)

Tweeting about Reylo 1,150 times in 2 years is no stranger than tweeting about Reylo 1,150 times positively in 2 years. It's not real! And they're fans! They're allowed an opinion about a pairing the movies focus on.

More narrative twisting and refusal to actually own up to half the story. They don't call Reylo "abusive" because they wanted an excuse to hate women. They call Reylo abusive because it is a skewed power dynamic with emotional manipulation and violence *started by Kylo.*

Oh and pretend it's just Tee-hee we are mature women and we can DISCUSS it TRANSFORMATIVELY when every valid point about the Reylo relationship has been deflected or celebrated by Reylos since TFA came out.

No, the author wants you to believe Reylo is called abusive because "some" fans wanted Kylo and Rey to be cousins. Hm! Rey Skywalker was an absurdly popular theory, which is why she uh ends the trilogy called ... Rey Skywalker. And again, incest was considered by Reylos too!

Dataracer being a miserable asshole doesn't mean every single cap of his is fake, particularly since he often recounts stories the rest of us were there for. Like how Driver's wife was treated by a subset of Reylos. Dataracer screenshot, then mine:

Or this incident I found from a DataR, where a Reylo talks about being treated with "toxic" abuse and harassment from *other Reylos.* So Reylos were called toxic by DataR ... linking to a Reylo calling Reylos toxic?

// (tw for CSA, brutal, lynching-like anti-black racist imagery) //

Or this 'fun' dive into Dark Reylo Culture: A fic that as I understand caused a rift between those who think the author was a racist shit and ignoring criticism & others who think it's just fanfic, ok!

Or this reaction to people, Reylo & Anti, who were displeased about the Gaston!Finn fic I'm sure I'm either sadly reminding you of, or ruining your day by telling you it exists. Cw for Disgusting Tags. Highlight: "Gaston Finn Because He's Still A Fucknut" (Removed from tags now.)

Taking a break from attacking each other, here's Reylos cancelling E.K. Johnston (Star Wars novelist) in 2018 and threatening harassment and boycotts (!) because she doesn't like Kylo Ren, Fascist Scary Man!

https://twitter.com/reylo_arg/status/1026589500384796673

https://twitter.com/reylo_arg/status/1026622214798487552

Reylos are a well-reasoned sisterhood & would never hate a woman for ... saying she's triggered by the abuse & assault coding of Kylo's treatment of Rey? And want to end her career? Wow!

Here's a personal post from Johnston, MASSIVE TW FOR ASSAULT, and a Reylo reply. And then more Reylos reply, and no, none of them took issue with this disgusting, insensitive, RAPE APOLOGIST trash. (Sole 'fuck you' response from an anti-Reylo. Weird!)

kylosroboarm.tumblr.com/post/177007452…

So for everyone who isn't neck-deep in fandom, take a look at this post from an "Anti" who thinks Reylos are abuse apologists blaming Kylo's problems on mental illness, calling them The Worst of The Worst, *in the context* of the kind of reactions from Reylos I've just shared.

Okay, sure, Reylos bully each other & novelists, but where's the proof they've attacked Boyega? After all, the author assures us REYLOS HAVE NEVER DONE THIS EVER.

sjw-bill.tumblr.com/post/143878874…

Do you think Ridley enjoyed seeing this shit about her friend?

Because she knew she & Boyega would be targeted for harassment like this!

Or that she doesn't want to antagonize Reylos by expressing a simple opinion?

And even she didn't get the 'women can be privileged' thing.

I jumped ahead in the article there, so roling back to the "Racism" sub-section. Anyone who read this far in the article should know damn well it's not really about misogyny. "Yes, everyone needs to hold themselves accountable. No, I won't share anything Reylos say on race."

"Isolated incidents" should be a familiar turn of phrase to you if you pay any attention to race relations & the alt-right's talking points. I'm not equating the 'incidents' in question but I am comparing how this language is used to minimize ugly truths.

Who cares if Reylos talk positively about Reylo? Nobody is accusing Reylos of being racist against Reylo. Someone could tweet "i am uwu soft about reylo" evey day & this terrible pool of data wouldn't show they also tweet "i gag whenever i see fn2187 touch rey" (a mild example)

Do you think, "Calling Finn, a person forcibly assigned a number when he was abducted & stripped of his identity, fn 2187, is evil because we know about slavery and the Holocaust."

If you think that, you passed a low-bar standard for decency. Yet it's a big hurdle for Reylos.

Inb4 some idiot with access to the clown emoji blames it all on parody --

A) What the fuck.
B) A very cool thing to keep saying when it genuinely upsets people for obvious real life reasons that everyone knows, you worm.
C) That one picture.

Though those are recent, the 1 Reylo who read this far will argue that people change. Ok, here's one!

From a brave Reylo revolutionary fighter, promising to cut all the bitches back in 2015, now, a retired inbred who apparently failed to notice all drama before Dec 31st 2019.

We have Reylos who threaten. Who harass. Who see Boyega as pure aggressor. Who terrorize women authors. Who send hate. Who accuse even each other of being toxic racists. Who love to call a black man his 'slave name'.

And we're supposed to believe those just "isolated incidents"?

According to this article and its supporters: Yes! I'd have to go to the trouble to find 7k tweets that may or may not be related to my point and break them down into bite-sized categories so people who want to avoid accountability can use it as a shield of victimhood. Science!

Now we dive into sex. (I know.)

I'm pretty sure most psychology programs today have a required Dab on Freudians 101 class, but even accepting that Freudian analysis, "analysis" is not a get out of jail free card.

Women can perpetuate misogyny. We live in a society. Reylos don't care about other women interpreting something as a rape, but want you to believe that their 'meta' about Virgin Mary Rey's fertile womb and Kylo's sexual domination 'awakening' her has no real life connotations.

The thing is, we're talking about *fantasies.* This isn't an academic discussion. It's not analyzing & exploring things in a protected way. You are on public sm platforms that anyone older than 13 can legally be on, sharing sexual fantasies dressed up as a ship from a PG series.

With fanfic & cuts & clear labelling, posted places people can't find without trying to, have fun with your fantasies. But exposing other people to that, child or adult, and trying to make your kink political instead of how you get your rocks off, that's intensely disrespectful.

Like of all fucking things, women be antis and antis be having sexual fantasies and posting those too & I hold them to the same standards and, like, Reylos, you are not the only ones who get horny and want to talk about it. THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU BEING ENLIGHTENED SEX WIZARDS.

The most cowardly thing about this article is that she refuses to say she thinks Boyega was wrong. Now you know & I know & she knows that *she* thinks it suggested that, but oh the framing: Actually, his fans took it that way first and Reylos were coming in to save silly women!

Huh. Hm. HMMMM.

As a general note, it's never a good sign when quotes from you that were written earlier in the very same article directly expose you as a hypocrite.

There's evidence, but talk about an insidious belief: "No slurs? Not racist!". Ignoring that Finn being sidelined as leading man parallels their rejection of him for a reason: They refuse to see a black (or latino!) man as worthy of "having" a white woman & the "status" of that.

Bias! Or, y'know, a LIE. I see Finnrey stuff often! Anti-Reylos together create more content than Reylos do. And if I were qualifying fandom from my corner, it would be "Everyone loves the prequels, we all ship Lux/Korkie, and Maul is the best." But those aren't facts. (Sadly.)

Bragging about having a bigger fandom is obnoxious, tone deaf, and like Reylo is big because more newbies jump on since it's the default white het promoted ship. And again, not everyone who dislikes/is neutral to Reylo ships Finnrey.

(Isn't this NOT supposed to be about ships?)

Someone teach this author that "suggests" doesn't work as a "I'm not claiming!" when you don't provide reasons why it could NOT be true. You know why it could not be true? Maybe they don't obsessively use their shipname in every tweet like Reylos have made a brand of.

I've been over this; they have, and they continue to. Again, ignoring the insidious attempts to malign him from his own franchise and bragging that the New Year Eve Incident means he'll NEVER WORK AGAIN! But no let's blame everything on the alt-right again.

Funny that the alt-right gets a starring role and are introduced as misogynists, when MRAs are ones with the bigoted movement mainly focused on women. Makes ya think!

Solved it! Alt-right = racists. Reylos = women called racist. We need a scapegoat & MRAs aren't famous racists!

Missing evidence? It's your job to find it. Present a concrete result of 0 Racist Reylo Bullies in order to say "no evidence." Or: "No evidence I didn't search for, or didn't include because was it REALLY that bad when we accused Boyega of judging KMT when he stood up for her?"

This lie is so bold I think she knew none of the "validate me uwu" Reylos that read this far would care and any reasonable person reading this far would have so much other shit to discuss it could take them 2 days to get here to be able to post a laughing Kermit in reaction.

Love that the first tweet doesn't even say Reylos & the second is a joke that says a truth: The Antis feel like they've been in an endless war because of "You are lying. You are lying. You are lying." Reylo party line did its best to shut down any of that 'bullying' ie criticism.

It's not presented as evidence. It's a general reference to a lot of actual evidence that is strewn across Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, Instagram that Reylos know about and Antis know about and only someone intent on selling their narrative would pretend doesn't exist.

I won't share the suicide baiting story because it's a minor, and it shouldn't be used as a weapon.

I will say that there is NO situation where suicide baiting is okay, and the antis involved are disgusting for doing it. As with "all Reylos die" tweets, it desensitizes death.

This is the issue with discourse. I didn't do this thread to say antis do no wrong, or that misogyny isn't involved because it's always present, due to the 'society' thing, unless we change. That's the thing about this article: it implies that women who disagree can't be victims.

With that behind us, let's read the cherry on top of this insidious narrative sundae. Here is the conclusion: Antis have instigated every hurtful thing. Reylos are innocent, and would never do these things (which they definitely have.) There are wrong women, but it isn't us.

It's too easy, really.

This is a disingenuous claim because Reylo positivity is the popular message. It's brought up every interview as a tantalizing possibility. It shapes the spread of magazine shoots. It's why I have to read multiple headlines about Driver's raw sex appeal. Why Reylo got to kiss.

Love that self-aggrandizing good journalists avoid because it's presumptuous, fallible, and makes you look like a jackass. This isn't about misogyny. It's about a ship war and white racism/guilt Also, you didn't search for evidence not provided. Myself and many others did.

The sheer irony of this. A black man has been targeted by racist bullshit and he puts caps of things sent TO HIM in a video where you just see handles = violence! But ME, an unqualified Reylo with hurt feelings? I can try a witch hunt based on my Putin conspiracy theory!

Thinking her actual work should be double-checked after the dreck of inaccurate data and fake statistics I just had to wade through. I can bullshit my research to sound like a grant application too, doesn't change that we were both just using the search function.

Because this, right here, is why ALL THE DATA IS POINTLESS. Anyone can use these words. ANYONE. And by dismissing ones from Reylos, not only are you leaving out context, you are providing a bunch of screencaps that YOU CAN'T PROVE A REYLO SAW unless they were directly engaged.

You know what this also can't prove? That you didn't work backwards due to bias. 1,074 tweets containing "hate" could be Reylos saying "I hate Antis" but you wanted to find anti-Reylo abuse so you assumed each of these words defined Anti tweets. Again: they don't.

ANTIFA? ARE ANTIFA BEATING UP REYLOS?

Also smell the cowardice of having such a short list in the keyword group for Racism. While simultaneously having 16 for Mental, only to declare that it turned out the least results (602) and was mostly alt-righters. Huh!

("Satanism" lmao.)

Oh yes I didn't include the one they're specifically talking about Reylos harassing Boyega, nothing to see here, I am unbiased and this metric makes sense.

My screenshots:
-From a friend who was tearing this to shreds with me
-Knowing how to use Advanced Search
-Knowing how to use Search
-A timestamp generator & a willingness to put myself through 2015 Reylos giggling about incest and mind probes
-Articles also saying you are wrong

You know, there are actual academic articles about womanhood, fandom, and misogyny (Twilight and 50 Shades have both led to it.) They don't even disagree with the overarching point of this articles. But no, have some Reylo manifestos instead.

"It's not about a ship."

Shoutout to legend Bianca Joseph who has taken top comment spot, and really nails the whole thrust of this garbage article. If you have a Medium account give her some claps!

Next comment? A Reylo who buys into it and says "custodians of our own history" as if history isn't plagued with one-sided narratives to prop up the feelings of racists. You know a story has two sides.

So that's all for now, folks. Please share any more articles or fan experiences from those who suffered abuse, hate, and racism from Reylos.

Personally, I have no eel in this race, for as I've said, my fandom experience is removed from Reylo antics, so I know I've missed plenty.

My ultimate hope is that people will see this because my distance means I'm likely not on a block chain. People with large platforms have shared this uncritically, and I want anyone who tracks it to the source to find this thread and the amazing pieces written by others!

tumblr.com/tagged/finnrey…

And if you want to see Finnreys creating content and celebrating their ship, check this tag, as Holly Quinn pointed out.

https://twitter.com/harlequinn823/status/1218338835588964353

(Tbh finding Finnrey stuff on Twitter is a lost cause because it's just football dads misspelling Finney.)

yinza.tumblr.com/post/190296669…

And I'll plug this I saw recently because I think it's a really beautifully tender piece.

Thank you so much to everyone engaging with this thread! I have more resources & points to share, and I'll credit those who pointed me to them.

@Ladyjosephine24 recommended @stichomancery's podcast; I linked a post of hers earlier, but this made me realize how much more great content Stitch has on fandom & racism.

stitchmediamix.com/2020/01/13/sti…

("We're only 12 days in(to 2020)" at the start is mood.)

Further reading list I strongly recommend, and her Youtube, with a video

OOPS

A video called "#WhatFandomRacismLooksLike The Star Wars Fandom's Nonsense"



That's a hashtag she uses here on Twitter too:

twitter.com/search?q=whatf…