ranking tumblr's most chaotic moments for the culture 

wait as a former tumblr gif maker who graduated from the 2014 class of tumblr graphic design... the reason those gifs were so grainy and compressed was because... for the longest time, tumblr had a 500kb limit for gifs so we had to ruin the quality to capture a full scene and then we color graded it to shit so that the graininess could look *aesthetic* and purposeful

Carley reading the forbidden John Green tumblr post word for word wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card

he WAS iconic & he WAS slay!! thank you for your kindness then & your kindness now

As a former Phan proofer I fully believe that teenagers should not be allowed on the internet. I am so sorry to those men

you missed marina's electra heart era. she was THE tumblr girlie and all the iconic lore to this iconic album was posted there

The amount of times I’ve been called a homophobe for not shipping Larry as a bisexual gender queer person

it is criminal that the oncler fandom is not on this list, because that whole thing was one of the most wildest things i’ve ever seen come out of tumblr

The Marauders fandom being so influential that every single fancast actor of the main characters knows about it is just iconic

I am pretty sure that multiple times as a middle schooler I genuinely complimented someone’s shoelaces and they said, “thanks I stole them from the president” and I just laughed and didn’t know the context until like five years later

There’s actually a huge amount of academic study on why women like to interact with gay slash relationships, it’s mainly to do with being able to work through desires whilst detaching from misogyny and experiencing what they can’t actually have in real life due to the patriarchy. Henry Jenkins is probably the biggest writer on this currently

just as a testament to how dedicated the mauraders girlies are: i found out about “all the young dudes” bc i was on a plane and someone next to me had gotten it printed and bound as a paperback book for themself and i happened to be curious & look up what it was. it’s not a published book in print, this person just had it made for themself so they could have it as a physical book

As a marauders stan i truly need a deep dive into this fandom because the amount of content that came from literal crumbs is insane.

I still use Tumblr and I refuse to get over how we all faked a movie with fanfiction, and fan art.

just 30 mins of carley proving why she deserves a phd in tumblr

As someone who is still actively in the marauders fandom, you can't even imagine how much deeper the fandom goes like its insane. The babygirlification of barty crouch jr needs to be studied asap and characters who's names are only mentioned once across the whole seven books have been given the most intricate lore ever. I highly recommend looking into it if you're interested because whether for good or for bad it will change your life 😅

I think I was on a different side of tumblr lol. my iconic moments would be obama's "then perish" eyes, "surprise bitch, I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me", "they crave that mineral", and the pastel goth bruises and cigarettes aesthetic.

obsessed with carley's mike's mic green screen ranking era, we are not worthy

joined tumblr the day before mishapocalypse specifically to seek out other supernatural fans. i was not at all prepared.

I took a Literature & The Internet class in college and we actually DID study why M/M ships are so popular in fandom, especially among queer femmes! These were some of the reasons we came up with: (1) The reason you yourself gave: it's sometimes less complex/confusing to fictionalize a romance when it is removed from yourself/your own identity. (2) F/F content can be fetishized by cishet men, making it riskier to engage with. (3) Maleness is socially perceived as the "default" and male characters often have more depth/complexity than female ones. (4) There are often way fewer female characters in these popular shows and when they do exist, they hardly ever interact with one another. (5) A sliding scale ranging from queer solidarity to M/M fetishization. Overall, it's a fascinating phenomenon in queer/gender studies. Yet, discussions should always be mindful of misogyny in order to make sure we aren't just pathologizing/demonizing queer femmes, since they are prone to being labeled "weird/cringe" for having interests!

With Klaine you also have to remember that Darren Criss originally hit the tumblr scene when A Very Potter Musical went viral. As a Starkid alum, he had a special place in the heart of tumblr nerds and I think there were folks who went hard for Klaine out of pride.

i was H E A V Y in the sherlock fandom back in 2012-2015ish. just hearing superwholock said out loud sent me into a full body cringe. no regrets but holy shit that was such a time

We can’t leave out when someone said “I like your shoelaces” you were supposed to respond “thanks I stole them from the president.” So random, so quirky 🤪

don’t forget the ‘taylor swift wrote all the young dudes’ theories and fandom - THAT is something which deserves a whole video

Another fun Tumblr thing from the Johnlock fandom was that Tumblr groupthinked so hard they created Sherlock and John's son named Hamish who became such a central figure in the fandom that I still have to remind myself that he does not exist at all.

ngl a lot of folks who were "into shipping" back then as teenagers, now come out as queer adults bc it was also a form of self insert so there is some saving grace ig

im a marauders stan but ur right it is an absolutely unhinged fandom

The "not like other girls" one though 😂 People ended up shipping the blonde girl with the reading girl and there was SO much adorable fan art of the two of them. THEY WERE GIRLFRIENDS!! A great way that tumblr reclaimed a cringe and misogynistic post and made it sapphic ❤️🏳️‍🌈

John Green being back on tumblr is so brave. I asked him what he thought of destiel going canon and he like you was like I don’t wanna get into that lol

queen carley was so real for moving the marauders fandom to god-tier. also died at the john green part. what was that-

I had so many friends around that same age group (14-16) who were completely obsessed with multiple gay ships and wrote many gay fanfics. They played my sexuality for laughs (I identified as bi back then) and used it to "get tea" about who I was into etc. because it was trendy and scandalous (its uncommon where I live). Then, at 17 I actually started dating a woman and they all cut me off and would be openly rude to me. So that whole obsession with queer people is just for drama, entertainment and objectification.

“You’re nothing. Do you hear me?” I’m sorry, but this made me audibly laugh. In your own words: “is it bullying? Absolutely. But sometimes.. bullying is funny.” Stay strong, Queen. ✊🏻

Starting with miku binder jefferson is a bold choice and I applaud you for it

Johnlock being god tier and superwholock being "i wish i never saw this" is counterintuitive and also exactly right

The way u said "are you following" when talking about the marauders fandom.... I laughed for like five minutes straight we NEED you to do a full video on that if youre up to it. Im not even in the fandom i just want to hear what you have to say about it

I used to be in the Larry fandom... but I thankfully recovered when they started doing megathreads of why Louis' son was a fake baby 😭 like they would say it was a baby doll and the pictures were photoshopped 😭 There's nothing like teenage girls with freedom on the internet, we were insane.

I was so obsessed with the marauders to the point i didn't even want anything officially made about them bc it would ruin the perfect dynamics built by the fandom lol

taylor swift: we were like the mall (tumblr) before the internet (tiktok) it was the one place to be

the marauders being in god tier is so valid

So, the best part of the "not like other girls" art and comics that were posted in "2014 era tumblr" is that a few years later people started creating alternate versions of them where, depending on the original, the "popular girl" and "weird girl" were in love or friends. In the case of the picking up the book one that you showed, the five girls are in a book club together. Highly recommend looking these up!

as a marauders stan (and mostly a jily stan) who’s been on tumblr since 2011, i can’t explain how insane it’s to hear someone talk about how our fandom is based on nothing because i CHOSE to forget it. they’re real. and the og james potter is aaron johnson in the john lennon movie, i swear that changed my whole personality. back then, wolfstar didn’t exist and the fandom was mostly jily + sirius and remus with made up characters that were lily’s friends like dorcas and marlene.

I did take a literal university course back in 2015 that was a gender and women’s studies class on fandom and I actually wrote a paper on female characters who “didn’t reach their full potential” as a collective examination of gender and fandom…so I literally got college credit for being a Tumblr girlie and I don’t know how to feel about that now

the amount of power i felt when i told all of my middle school friends i liked their shoelaces was crazy.

I once had Larrys on twitter telling me that I shouldn’t assume their sexualities and force them to be straight (despite Louis publicly stating he was) and when I pointed out they were doing the same thing but for them to be gay they responded to me that they were just trying to “help them be their true selves”

As a person who was in the onceler fandom I was almost offended that that wasn't in your video....but then I have to remind myself that I'm an adult and those days are far far behind where they belong

The fact that this started out so chaotic from the first second is exactly what I'd expect from a Carley x Tumblr video

she really is blessing us with a 30min video on this sunday. everybody say thank you mommy

Just a correction, Acacia isn't a mommy vlogger anymore. She actually got a lot of shit for showing her kids online, especially Rosie, and she does not post about them at all anymore. She is basically back in her Tumblr era and really focuses on fashion & aesthetic content. She really seems like she is in a better place. Edit: also Only Fans

I think the funniest part about that “not like other girls” image in particular is that the original context of the image was transformation fetish art.

The fact that there are two separate decades long well written stories chronicling the wolfstar relationship released within the last five years makes me so happy and cringe so much, you don't understand

You can't call yourself a tumblr expert, a tumblrina if you will, if you're not in tumblr right now.... I've never left that hellsite, the cultural seismic moments still happen, to this day... can i get a shutout for Goncharov (1973)?

“sometimes . . bullying is funny” carley you have me by my neck 💀💀

The obsession with Destiel was crazy and honestly concerning but can we all agree that Twist And Shout on AO3 is incredible and a literary masterpiece. That story changed me when I was fifteen.

I remember the mishapocalypse so vividly I will never feel a part of something so strongly again

This was great, i remember so many of these things. But HOW is destiel itself and the 5th of November 2020 gay angel goes to super hell after confessing to Dean not part of this? Lmaooo I remember how so many 2014 former Tumblr users CAME BACK to the website for the sole reason to participate in the madness of destiel being canon.

“Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner… in a big way” is something I didn’t know I needed to hear 🙃

Superwholock was like. The closest thing I think I'll ever feel to having tasted a cult mindset. Loved every minute of 2013 tumblr.

so glad we earn college credit in tumblr history directly from dr. carley 🤩

I was a student at Columbine during the peak tumblr era and nothing pissed me off more than those sickos who idolized and wrote fics about the shooters. I remember there was a period of time where I’d go out of my way to berate and pick fights with those people on tumblr, they were so vile and made me so angry.

this brought back vividly skin crawling memories, i was in the arctic monkeys fandom being an outcast of 1975 and 1D stans because one could simply not be like other girls.

Every time I see those One Direction imagines, I simply lose consciousness. That Niall one is so fucking funny 💀😭

I can’t believe you forgot to include the fallout of someone allegedly peeing in the tumblr ballpit

As somebody who never had tumblr, every time I come across something from the era it feels like I had accidently entered a masochistic and satanic group chat. But I knew about the marauders because wattpad became like tumblr 2.0 in 2016/17

As someone who missed Tumblr's most unhinged era, let me just tell you how confused I was when I joined a writing critique group wherein 50% of the girlies wrote exclusively fetishistic sort of MLM stories, most of which were barely concealed Harry/Draco ships, but set in a modern-day contemporary high school and both have abusive dads who don't accept their sexualities and that just... kept happening. I vividly remembered googling "women only writing gay men trend" and getting negative helpful hits on google at the time. This provided a lot of context ngl.

I was never a Tumblr girly because my parents were teens when I was born, so they knew what the internet had to offer. So watching these kinds of videos I get a alight feeling of fomo because I feel like I was left out of a pop culture moment, but also I had the confidence of a God all through out high-school probably because I didn't get indoctrinated from early RU-vid, Tumblr etc. I remember people pointing out insecurities from these sites and me just not getting what was making people think these things were bad

girlie we need a part two with modern-era tumblr chaos starring icons such as the ever given and goncharov (1973)

god the not like other girls image will never cease to make me laugh given its origin as bimbification fetish art. like someone just reversed the continuity of the image and it went from fetish porn to viral misogyny

I would love to see you do a video on the marauders. I only recently got into it (a few months ago) and it’s legit the most insane fandom I’ve even experienced. The way it’s entirely created from nothing is WILD to me. It so fascinating. Another thing is how most people, myself included, just completely exclude canon and pretend it like doesn’t exist. I was for giggling when you brought up Grant bc I legit fell in love with his character when I read ATYD….he’s legit barely even in the fic at all. And ofc how most marauders people absolutely HATE jkr (as we all should) and have basically scratched her name out of marauders to create something totally new. Never have I seen another fandom like it. It’s amazing honestly

25:35 my favorite fact about the art used here is that it’s actually debimbofication fetish art :) also one of my favorite tumblr moments was the hamilton fic author who faked having hiv and being a sex trafficking victim (plus like a bunch of other things)

Destiel and Johnlock were my entire personality for a couple of years. Am I proud of that? No, but oh well 🤷‍♀️

“we’ll never know, will we” *misha collin’s name is literally on the screen*

im a current tumblr user and a marauders fan (although not an all the young dudes stan) and you are so right. we are fucking iconic and so god damn delusional. like marlene is mentioned ONCE in the books but she has a slytherin girlfriend (dorcas) and shes a rockstar girly. like what?? and i kid you not, i can only think of ONE straight ship in the fandom-

The reason so many ships were m/m is because the (mainly female) shippers were attracted to both of the characters and didn’t want a woman to be involved, since it was easier to imagine a fictional character you like being gay than in love with another woman. essentially “wish you were gay” by billie eilish. But in the process they ended up objectifying gay relationships as you pointed out

As a tumblr user, can't over all the comments here referring to it in the past tense like we died or just vanished mysteriously or something lmao.

i felt the “i have to be an individual so i read a book from a deceased knight” SO deep in my soul. the way i was a terror to the superwholock fandom like “ummm actually the hounds of baskerville is not faithful to sir author conan doyle’s source material” GOD

As a Marauders fan, the most popular fanfiction right now is literally a Hunger games Au in which James Potter dates Sirius‘ brother and Wolfstar ofc lmao

the 'not like other girls' mindset sucks but what i love is when people take those 'me vs other girls' graphics and draw the two characters dating ❤ the 5 girls in the debimbofication meme are in a book club together, actually

I am now a full adult with a 401k but this unlocked deep memories for me. I can’t believe how much of this I still know about. But I will admit I’m still a huge fan of the Marauders and Next Gen, we definitely need a video on that!!!

sometimes I’m scared we get a hinged Carley video, but then the sentence “I’m doing riddles now” drops and I can breathe again

this was an absolute masterpiece. as a hardcore marauders stan i am on my knees begging for an entire video dedicated to the power of the fandom. i honestly thing my life would be forever changed with an uncarley/marauders segment.

As a currently-active member of the fandom, I am viciously humbled every time I hear someone explain the concept of the Marauders fandom out loud.

I was so obsessed with johnlock and the phandom as a 13-15-year-old. I logged into my old tumblr one day, and oh boy. it was all gifs of disney, dan+phil and superwholock, and ofc, so much fanfiction. now as an adult I am so embarrassed that I shipped real people so hard. but I kinda look fondly back at the other stuff, It truly was a simpler time

There is actually a video essay on youtube of why we were obsessed with gay ships. I remember the internalized misogeny, but there were many factors

you: next is post editing me, knowing exactly what's about to happen: oh no no no carly no please

I was on tumblr from 2012-2018 and I am so shocked that you didn't include homestuck in this video...I was in the homestuck fandom on tumblr and it was truly something else fr

It’s like you read my mind. I needed this deep dive into my trauma.

Bless you for taking the time to hilariously explain the context behind every one of these I had blacked out of my memory

you are so brave for reading the full john green textpost out loud

Tyler Oakley interview with One Direction being Carley's Pearl Harbour AND the best day of her life will never cease to be funny to me

It's not a paper or based on any real research but this is why i think mlm ships were, and still are, so much more popular in fandom spaces: 1. Fetishization of queer men. It's like a real issue. 2. Male characters and relationships in media are just more complex and interesting. Wish it weren't the case but men really do get such better writing in popular media, especially back then. All of the main Tumblr fandoms were male led and even works that had a woman as a main character quite often didn't have other hugely important and deep female characters for her to bond with.

As a former Tumblr Girlie™️ I have to say...every single ranking was 1000% correct

you said superwholock and a wave of complete anguish just erupted in me

something that tiktok did is revive the marauders fandom in such a massive way, i am very grateful. i have never consumed any fanfic, but every time i get a tiktok I'm like yeah no this is so remus coded like wow lmao

i have only just introduced myself to tumblr, so i will be taking notes from this crash course. thank you Carley for sacrificing your time to educate uninformed peasants like myself.

Okay girl. lord. PLEASE do the Marauders (is that how you spell it) video because as someone who never really interacted with Harry Potter it is SO fascinating to me.

Girl I love it. I feel like if we’re ranking tumblr movements, hipster v. fandom blogs should’ve been on there

as someone who was deep into the marauders fandom in 2020/2021 you simply cannot understand the level of craziness and insanity that goes on there. like i would love you to do a video about the topic but i feel like you must be required to have had a stan account on twitter in that era for you to understand it

Girl after that john green one there’s no way this is staying m0nitized 😭😭😭😭😭

As a black person whose last name is jefferson, seeing the hamilton fanart made me feel emotions i didnt know existed.

my best friend is in the marauders fandom and it’s insane. we were going through her notes app yesterday and she writes reviews/reactions of different fanfictions she reads, and she has (for one specific fanfic, a hunger games au) a 10,000 word review just there on her notes app. that’s the longest review but there are MANY others around the same length. she also makes canva slideshows about the fanfictions and designs covers for them, too. i love her she’s so insane 💗 also i have the no it’s becky shirt and i wore it when i went to the eras tour lol 😭

the way this exact 5sos collage was my actual wallpaper for years 😭😭 so many memories unlocked holy shit