a tumblr book: platform and cultures

by Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, Indira Neill Hoch

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472901296
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	10/26/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	404
Sales rank:	214,498
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Allison McCracken is Associate Professor and Director of the American Studies Program at DePaul University.

Alexander Cho is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Louisa Stein is Associate Professor of Film and Media Culture at Middlebury College.

Indira Neill Hoch is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Theater Arts at Concordia College, Moorhead Minnesota.
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Chapter 1 You Must Be New Here: An Introduction Allison McCracken Alexander Cho Louisa Stein Indira Neill Hoch

Section 1 #The Rules of Tumblr

Chapter 2 Lost in the "Dash": How Tumblr Fosters Virtuous Cycles of Content and Community Nicholas Proferes Katherine E. Morrissey 23

Chapter 3 Going Down the Rabbit Hole: An Interview with Amanda Brennan, Head of Content Insights and Social, Tumblr 37

Chapter 4 Blackout, Black Excellence, Black Power: Strategies of Everyday Online Activism on Black Tumblr Kendra Calhoun 48

Chapter 5 Under the Radar: A Conversation about Tumblr in the Public Sphere with Aja Romano Elizabeth Minkel 63

Chapter 6 Reblogs, Monsters, and Erotic Amphibians: The Process of Critical Analysis on Tumblr Indira Neill Hoch 69

Chapter 7 Divine Fools and Ridiculous Mystics: Tumblr Humor as an Act of Defiance The-Cimmerians 75

Chapter 8 Tumblr Time: How Tumblr's Temporal Features Shape Community Memory and Knowledge Milena Popova 81

Gallery: @Staff Indira Neill Hoch 91

Section 2 #Privacy and Ethics

Chapter 9 Screaming into the Void: Re conceptualizing Privacy, the Personal, and the Public through the Perspectives of Young Tumblr Users Julian Burton 103

Chapter 10 The Challenges of Doing Qualitative Research on Tumblr: Experience and Advice from Three Scholars of Young People's Tumblr Use Akane Kanai Crystal Abidin Matthew Hart 114

Chapter 11 We Are More Than Footnotes: Black Women and Intellectual Theft Aisha Mahmud 127

Section 3 #NSFW

Chapter 12 Walled Gardens, NSFW Niches, and Horizontality: A Conversation about Tumblr Porn with Susanna Paasonen Noah Tsika 135

Chapter 13 NSFW as an Intervention: The Case of Sexy Selfies on Tumblr Katrin Tiidenberg 142

Chapter 14 Fandom Surgery Morgan Fisher 154

Chapter 15 TumPorn Is Dead, Long Live TumPorn! Shaka McGlotten 158

Section 4 #Fandom

Chapter 16 A Roundtable Discussion about the Cultures of Fandom on Tumblr with Flourish Klink Rukmini Pande Zina Hutton Lori Morimoto 167

Chapter 17 Kitten Thinks of Nothing but Murder All Day: Tumblr Text Post Memes as Fandom Détournement J S. A. Lowe 181

Chapter 18 Lesbian One Direction Fans Take Over Tumblr Jessica Pruett 194

Chapter 19 Ships, Fans, and #beatingthedistance: Queer Intimacy and the New Genre of Interactive Memoir on Tumblr Annie Galvin 201

Gallery: #Fan Art

Carated Louisa Stein 212

Contributions Hannibal byxloOn

Steven Universe by Corinne Reinert/calonarang

Dragon Age OC by Nobbie

Protesting Princesses by Amanda Allen Niday

Beyoncé by space_mementia

Yuri on Ice by Morrindah

Section 5 #Activism

Chapter 20 A Social Good Brand: An Interview with Victoria McCullough, Lead, Social Impact, Tumblr 227

Chapter 21 Tumblr, XKit, and the XKit Guy: Toward an Extended Platform Ecology Lesley Willard 240

Chapter 22 Digital Decolonization: Reclaiming Tumblr's #Latina Tag Emily Rauber Rodriguez 251

Chapter 23 Queer Tumblr IRL: An Interview with Joe Varisco 257

Chapter 24 Behind the Scenes of a Popular Trans Youth Resources Tumblr Lee Brown 263

Chapter 25 Queer Tips: Using Tumblr for LGBTQ Sex Education and Outreach, an Interview with Maureen Kelly 270

Section 6 #Identity/Affinity Networks

Chapter 26 Tumblr as a Space of Learning, Connecting, and Identity Formation for LGBTIQ+ Young People Brady Robards Paul Byron Brendan Churchill Benjamin Hanckel Son Vivienne 281

Chapter 27 A Conversation about Gender/Sexual Valiant and Transgender Labeling and Networking on Tumblr with Abigail Oakley Avery Dame-Griff 293

Chapter 28 Developing a Black Genderfluid Feminist Critique via Tumblr Strugglingtobeheard 302

Chapter 29 #Spoonielife: A Conversation about Chronic Pain Expression and Alternative Social Worlds on Tumblr EJ Gonzalez-Polledo Jen Tarr 307

Chapter 30 New Ways of Seeing: Tumblr, Young People, and Mental Illness Natalie Ann Hendry 315

Section 7 #myAesthetic

Chapter 31 On the Value of the Social: A Conversation with Researchers about How Artists Use Tumblr with Carla McCutchin Devon Murphy 329

Chapter 32 Unofficial Archives of Urban Life: How to Rewrite the Canon of Cities Annette Koh 336

Chapter 33 Beyond the Pale Blog: Tumblr Pink and the Aesthetics of White Anxiety Christine Goding-Doty 344

Chapter 34 Tumblr's Gallery of Loops: GIF Art Beyond Reaction GIF Culture Jennifer Malkowski 355

Gallery: #Original Art

Curated Indira Neill Hock 367

Contributions:

Bad Girls Do It Well by nimehime

When Life Gives You Lemon by Ruby Eliot | rubyetc

Busós by Julian Miholics | jomadraws

Self Portrait Crying, San Francisco, 2012 by Vivian Fu

Gianna Dating Sim Headshots by Finn Alpin

Forest God and his Human Daughter by

Valin Mattheis | strange-gods Pathways: Chronicles of Tuvanaby Elaine Tipping | Triaelfg Index 383

What People are Saying About This

University of Illinois at Chicago Adrienne Massanari

“Tumblr has long been home to those on the margins, a kind of a queer carnival of fandom, activism, and porn. a tumblr book in turn archives, critiques, and celebrates the creative potential of this understudied platform and the communities that inhabit(ed) it. This collection of essays, interviews, art, and ephemera is a must-have resource for anyone who wants to understand internet culture in the twenty-first century.”
—Adrienne Massanari, University of Illinois at Chicago
 

University of Texas at Austin Suzanne Scott

“I have been waiting for a book on Tumblr for many years, and this collection far exceeded my high expectations. Tumblr can be a notoriously opaque platform, and not only does this vital collection make it legible for a general readership, it makes a clear and compelling case for its significance as a subject of study. This book will be essential reading for scholars working on Tumblr communities, but more generally it offers an exemplary model for those embarking on any form of platform analysis.”
—Suzanne Scott, University of Texas at Austin
 

University of Georgia Shira Chess

“a tumblr book covers a wide breadth of topics and includes more irreverent themes to match the platform. Overall, the Tumblr love is felt deeply in this book, and it is a nice example of how fandoms and scholarly work can mix.”
—Shira Chess, University of Georgia