Come Together: When Tumblr Collaboration Becomes Awesome

One of Tumblr’s main features is that any user can add to any post. They can add comments, sources, pictures, reaction GIFs, anything that will supplement the original post’s message, prove it wrong, make it funnier, etc.

A lot of the time, Tumblr users create art based off of a text post to add an element of visualization, such as in the following examples:

Tumblr user hauriret was inspired by nonbinaryeldritchhorror‘s post to create a piece of art and cited it as the stimulus for the artwork.

The vision of the original user came to life with a work of art done by a different Tumblr user. The same thing happened in the next post. Suncalf created the text post, and dorirosa added the art to go along with it, uploading it directly to the original post.

While some Tumblr collaborations result in amazing fanart, others add just the right touch of humor or wit to make the original post much funnier than it originally was.

One of the most well-known examples of adding to a Tumblr post to make it hilarious is Tumblr user perchu’s addition to the “Moreos” post. His addition to shslvalkyrie‘s post made him Tumblr-famous and he in essence became his own meme.

The original post can be found by clicking the screenshot below. It featured a fake advertisement for “Moreos,” which separates the cream and cookie segments of Oreo cookies and allows the consumer to combine them in whatever quantity they want. Perchu’s reaction to this idea is interesting to say the least.

Perchu’s intense use of profanity was part of what made his rant so hilarious. Completely overreacting to a post about Moreos made perchu extremely well-known on Tumblr, and to this day his username is tagged in multiple Oreo-related posts.

Finally, there have been some amazing audio posts created based off of text posts. On Tumblr these appear as audio files, but unfortunately I can’t transfer the audio files to WordPress. I’ve included links to Youtube videos which contain the full audio, and you can also click on the screenshots to see the original Tumblr posts.

This one makes me cry laughing. The original text post makes fun of the style of A-Ha’s song “Take On Me,” and the audio makes fun of the text’s posts interpretation of the style. It turns into a hilarious manipulation of the song.

This post is one of my favorite examples of Tumblr users’ creativity. It started with a simple yet brilliant manipulation of FUN’s “Some Nights.” Lovelyklaine changed the lyrics to make the song apply to Tumblr users, and merryblangstmas (now found at the username brickshack) took the one verse and created a Tumblr-themed version of the entire song.

 

The lyrics and merryblangstmas’ addition can be found here. If anyone ever asks you what Tumblr is about, this song is actually a pretty good description of the life of a Tumblr user.

Let me know if you have found any other examples of Tumblr collaborations!

Men-Haters or Rights Activists? Views on Tumblr Feminists

Feminism is a hugely controversial issue today, especially on the web. The Twitter campaign #YesAllWomen, Emma Watson’s speech at the HeForShe Campaign, and Time Magazine’s inclusion of “feminist” in its list of words to ban in the new year are a few of the recent feminism-related topics that have gone viral this year.

The users I follow are largely pro-feminism. Just like with social justice bloggers, there are feminists who treat the issues fairly, cite their sources, and attempt to raise awareness, and there are feminists who aggressively attack opposing views and express hate toward men and anti-feminists. 

Recently, a Twitter campaign related to feminism has spread to Tumblr as well. According to this Huffington Post article, a Canadian writer named Anne Thériault was inspired to  give lines from the classic movie “The Princess Bride” a feminist twist using #feministprincessbride. Here are some examples:

"I smell nothing." "What you do not smell is called misogyny. It is among the more deadlier poisons known to mankind" #feministprincessbride

— Anne Thériault (@anne_theriault) November 12, 2014

"Never go against a feminist when equal rights are on the line!" #feministprincessbride

— Hope Cimenski (@HopeCim) November 16, 2014

Good night, misogyny. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning. #feministprincessbride

— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) November 13, 2014

"I always think everything is a tool of the patriarchy until proven otherwise. Which is why I'm still alive." #feministprincessbride

— Emmy Bengtson (@EmmyA2) November 12, 2014

While many Tumblr users loved this campaign and came up with their own examples of feminist Princess Bride quotes, others complained that feminists were ruining a great classic.

There are two general views regarding Tumblr feminists, and both are represented in these two videos. The first represents the negative view of Tumblr feminists, the second the positive view. Both of them contain swearing, so view at your discretion.

As is often the case on Tumblr, users create humorous posts to make a point about controversial issues. This Twitter account mocking anti-feminist views has been circulating Tumblr recently. Here are some of examples of tweets from this account.

I don’t need fimeisns there are some things i NEED men for, like lifting heavy things or making me feel uncomfortable at bus stops

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 14, 2014

I don’t need femism because there is WOMEN’S STUDIES at colleges but where is the MEN’S STUDIES besides in every history book ever written??

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 13, 2014

i don’t need fesimes i believe in TRADITIONAL VALUES like men being men, women being women, and people ignoring domestic violence

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 6, 2014

I don’t need femismm it makes sense we warn WOMEN not to get too drunk in public because men never do anything violent or bad when drunk!!!

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 5, 2014

This comic, from dorkly.com, makes a point about what often happens when women reveal their gender on Xbox Live… and the consequences of misunderstanding what the male players are trying to tell them. It still comes up on my Tumblr dashboard every once in a while. 

Check out the feminism tag on Tumblr, and you’ll start to get a sense of the opposing views people have on Tumblr feminists and what being a “feminist” is actually about. Let me know where you stand on this topic!

Raising Awareness: The Positive Side of Social Justice on Tumblr

When I first joined Tumblr, I expected to find a lot of posts related to my favorite TV shows, movies, and books, and I did. But I, like this Tumblr user, also ended up gaining awareness of extremely significant social issues as a result of “social justice bloggers.“ While this term has both positive and negative connotations on Tumblr, in this post I’m going to focus on the positive side.

Although not all Tumblr posts are 100% accurate, and not all online sources can be trusted, several social justice posts have simply made me more aware that certain issues exist when I would not have known about them otherwise. Here is a good example of one social issue those with disabilities face:

The picture leads to a post by Tumblr user neecygrace. Neecygrace’s friend has an invisible illness, or one which is not physically noticeable. This is one of around 30 handwritten notes this user’s friend has received. The writer of the note believed the friend was misusing a handicapped sign simply because the writer could not see any obvious visible handicaps when the woman left her car, such as a wheelchair or a crutch. But invisible illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are not obvious handicaps. This post was one which educated me on invisible illness, something I had never thought about before.

This somewhat humorous post was taken from the YouTube channel College Humor. Tumblr user jonsnowflakes posted a link to their video “Diet Racism:”

The video is presented in a humorous light, but it is a critical commentary on the more subtle forms of racism in our culture today. This video has over 100,000 notes on Tumblr. Jonsnowflakes’ posted the video and added that “Collegehumors’ new video is on point as always.”

The official Huffington Post Tumblr page also recognizes Tumblr’s attitude toward raising awareness of social issues. The page used GIFs from a video sponsored by FCKH8 to advocate for awareness of racism today, particularly in respect to the issues in Ferguson. Click the post to see the full version with GIFs.

This post is a good example of a news organization using Tumblr’s unique features (such as GIFs) to promote one of their stories as well as recognizing the topics Tumblr users generally care about. Posts updating users on the current situation in Ferguson continue to appear today, a few months after the events occurred.

There are several other examples of Tumblr users positively raising awareness of social issues such as cultural appropriation, feminism, and sexuality. These topics will be discussed in later posts. While social justice bloggers often go too far, as discussed in one of my earlier posts, I do know that I have learned a lot about societal issues from browsing Tumblr of which I would have remained ignorant had I never joined the site.

It’s Time for a Revolution: Staff Changed the Tumblr Layout (Again)

When I was on Facebook throughout middle and high school, every few months there would be some huge update which would completely change the layout and style of the site. One of the biggest changes was the addition of Facebook’s timeline in September of 2011. When the changes were implemented, everyone went crazy. The people I followed on Facebook hated the change, and it took a long time to get used to it.

This happens on Tumblr as well. One of the running jokes in the past year or so was that, every time the staff made a minor change, Tumblr would rally for the real change they needed: improving the video player, which took a ridiculously long time to buffer videos. Recently, the video player was changed, but Tumblr still isn’t satisfied; the new player starts videos automatically, much like Facebook’s video player, although you need to click for sound.

The most recent change came last Thursday, October 30. Here’s an example of what the new layout looks like:

I scrolled down my dash, but one of the differences is that the top bar now stays on the page as you scroll. On that Thursday, the staff sent out a post explaining the “li’l” changes they had made:

The post from staff.tumblr.com

This article explains one of the main problems with the wider posts: user’s graphic images are now distorted and most of them have to be updated, which takes a lot of work. The sticky header is more of an irritation which users will likely grow accustomed to very soon, just as Facebook users eventually got used to the timeline feature.

However, other Tumblr users have taken advantage of the fact that they can now make the background of posts the same color as Tumblr’s background rather than have a white border around it. I’ve included some examples below. You can still click the links for the original posts, but unfortunately they are best appreciated on one’s dashboard. Let me know if you see any more examples of these great new posts!

It’s good to know that even an awful layout change won’t affect Tumblr users’ sense of humor. If you’re curious about what Tumblr looked like in previous years, check out the screenshots on this post.