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  1. Home
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  3. a tumblr book: platform and cultures

a tumblr book: platform and cultures

Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch, editors
Open Access Open Access
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  • Overview

  • Contents

  • Funder Information

This book takes an extensive look at the many different types of users and cultures that comprise the popular social media platform Tumblr. Though it does not receive nearly as much attention as other social media such as Twitter or Facebook, Tumblr and its users have been hugely influential in creating and shifting popular culture, especially progressive youth culture, with the New York Times referring to 2014 as the dawning of the "age of Tumblr activism."

 

Perfect for those unfamiliar with the platform as well as those who grew up on it, this volume contains essays and artwork that span many different topics: fandom; platform structure and design; race, gender and sexuality, including queer and trans identities; aesthetics; disability and mental health; and social media privacy and ethics. An entire generation of young people that is now beginning to influence mass culture and politics came of age on Tumblr, and this volume is an indispensable guide to the many ways this platform works.
  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Chapter 1. You Must Be New Here
  • Section 1. #The Rules of Tumblr
    • Chapter 2. Lost in the “Dash”
    • Chapter 3. Going Down the Rabbit Hole
    • Chapter 4. Blackout, Black Excellence, Black Power
    • Chapter 5. Under the Radar
    • Chapter 6. Reblogs, Monsters, and Erotic Amphibians
    • Chapter 7. Divine Fools and Ridiculous Mystics
    • Chapter 8. Tumblr Time
    • Gallery: @Staff
  • Section 2. #Privacy and Ethics
    • Chapter 9. Screaming into the Void
    • Chapter 10. The Challenges of Doing Qualitative Research on Tumblr
    • Chapter 11. We Are More Than Footnotes
  • Section 3. #NSFW
    • Chapter 12. Walled Gardens, NSFW Niches, and Horizontality
    • Chapter 13. NSFW as an Intervention
    • Chapter 14. Fandom Surgery
    • Chapter 15. TumPorn Is Dead, Long Live TumPorn!
  • Section 4. #Fandom
    • Chapter 16. A Roundtable Discussion about the Cultures of Fandom on Tumblr with Flourish Klink, Rukmini Pande, Zina Hutton, and Lori Morimoto
    • Chapter 17. Kitten Thinks of Nothing but Murder All Day
    • Chapter 18. Lesbian One Direction Fans Take Over Tumblr
    • Chapter 19. Ships, Fans, and #beatingthedistance
    • Gallery: #Fan Art
  • Section 5. #Activism
    • Chapter 20. A Social Good Brand
    • Chapter 21. Tumblr, XKit, and the XKit Guy
    • Chapter 22. Digital Decolonization
    • Chapter 23. Queer Tumblr IRL
    • Chapter 24. Behind the Scenes of a Popular Trans Youth Resources Tumblr
    • Chapter 25. Queer Tips
  • Section 6. #Identity/Affinity Networks
    • Chapter 26. Tumblr as a Space of Learning, Connecting, and Identity Formation for LGBTIQ+ Young People
    • Chapter 27. A Conversation about Gender/Sexual Variant and Transgender Labeling and Networking on Tumblr with Abigail Oakley and Avery Dame-Griff
    • Chapter 28. Developing a Black Genderfluid Feminist Critique via Tumblr
    • Chapter 29. #Spoonielife
    • Chapter 30. New Ways of Seeing
  • Section 7. #myAesthetic
    • Chapter 31. On the Value of the Social
    • Chapter 32. Unofficial Archives of Urban Life
    • Chapter 33. Beyond the Pale Blog
    • Chapter 34. Tumblr’s Gallery of Loops
    • Gallery: #Original Art
  • Index
This Open Access edition is made available through financial support from Depaul University, Middlebury College, and the University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow's Research Fund
Citable Link
Published: 2020
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-90129-6 (open access)
  • 978-0-472-07456-3 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-05456-5 (paper)
Subject
  • American Studies
  • Media Studies:New Media

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  • Chapter 134
  • Chapter 162
  • Chapter 178
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  • Chapter 192
  • Fan Art Gallery6
  • Chapter 203
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This meme features a close up photo of the Willy Wonka character smiling knowingly, with written text superimposed reading ‘YOU MUST BE NEW HERE’

Willy Wonka Meme

From Chapter 1

Fig. 1.1. Willy Wonka meme

This image is a Tumblr written text post by user thefemaleofthespecies in which the user compares Tumblr and Facebook advertising strategies

Tumblr written text post by user thefemaleofthespecies

From Chapter 1

Fig. 1.2. Post by thefemaleofspecies, reblogged and tagged by a tumblr book contributor The-Cimmerians

This image shows a copy of the Tumblr.com web landing homepage.

Tumblr landing Page (5/2017)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.1. Tumblr landing page (5/2017)

This image shows the topics a user can select to represent their interests as part of Tumblr’s “new user” orientation page.

Second stage of User registration process (5/2017)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.2. Second stage of user registration process (5/2017)

This image shows the Tumblr Dashboard.

Tumblr Dashboard (5/2017)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.3. Tumblr Dashboard (5/2017)

This image shows the “preview” menu of a blog on the Tumblr Dashboard.

Tumblr Blog Preview (7/2017)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.4. Tumblr blog preview (7/2017)

This image shows a copy of a Tumblr blog, with the Tumblr Dashboard faded in the background.

Tumblr Blog with Faded Dashboard (7/2017)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.4. Tumblr blog preview (7/2017)

This image shows what a post looks like on the Tumblr Dashboard. The authors added a box around the “notes” portion to draw attention to it.

A Tumblr Post (5/2017)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.6. Notes section on a Tumblr post (5/2017)

This image shows what a post looks like on the Tumblr Dashboard. The authors added a box around the “tags” portion in order to draw attention to it.

Tags on a Tumblr post (5/2017)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.7. Tags on a Tumblr post (5/2017)

An “imagine” post with three horizontal panels: a user-written “Imagine,” a media image of three Supernatural characters, and many user-created tags.

Supernatural Imagine, with a full roster of tags

From Chapter 3

Fig. 3.1. Supernatural Imagine by Impossiblyxdelightful, with a full roster of tags

Discussion between two Tumblr users addressing racial disparity in consequences for domestic violence

Discussion between two Tumblr users addressing racial disparity in consequences for domestic violence

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.1. Racial disparity in consequences for male celebrities’ crimes

User posting about Black health issues

User posting about Black health issues

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.2. Discussing health practices

A written conversation in four horizontal panels among four Black users testifying to the excuses white people give for racism

Rote phrases used as excuses by whites (excerpt from longer post)

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.3. Rote phrases used as excuses by whites (excerpt from longer post)

Written post in all caps about sexual objectification of dark skinned Black women.

Sexual objectification of dark skinned Black women

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.4. Sexual objectification of dark-skinned Black women

A written conversation in four horizontal panels among four black users testifying to colorism by Black women

Colorism perpetuated by Black women

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.4. Sexual objectification of dark-skinned Black women

Media stills from ten different films, television shows, and music videos arranged vertically, each with a caption at the bottom of the image.

Black representation in popular media - 1

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.6. Black representation in popular media

Two versions of the login page background. One photo is a fashionably dressed Black man, and the other is a fashionably dressed Black woman.

Blackout photos on Tumblr login page - 5

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.7. Blackout photos on Tumblr login page

A GIF set of 5 horizontal media images depicting scenes from the film The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water gifset - 1

From Chapter 6

Page 72 →Fig. 6.1. The Shape of Water GIFset by gayjamesmcgraw

A GIF set of 5 horizontal media images depicting scenes from the film The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water gifset - 2

From Chapter 6

Page 72 →Fig. 6.1. The Shape of Water GIFset by gayjamesmcgraw

A GIF set of 5 horizontal media images depicting scenes from the film The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water gifset - 3

From Chaptter 6

Page 72 →Fig. 6.1. The Shape of Water GIFset by gayjamesmcgraw

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