You know how in those isolated parts of your country you may come across someone whose language, while technically the same as yours, is so loaded with the local accent and slang that you can barely understand what they say? The echo chamber that is Tumblr has accomplished in just a few short years what normally takes decades or even centuries to do in the real world.
Understanding this bizarre dialect is key to figuring out just how crazy some of these Tumblrtards really are. Now I'm hardly an expert on Tumblrese so I would like to ask our Tumblr refugees for assistance in compiling a list of odd words/phrases commonly used on said site.
I'll keep updating this post as more information comes in.
Understanding this bizarre dialect is key to figuring out just how crazy some of these Tumblrtards really are. Now I'm hardly an expert on Tumblrese so I would like to ask our Tumblr refugees for assistance in compiling a list of odd words/phrases commonly used on said site.
Notes:
Many Tumblrisms are phonetically the same as their English language origins, but the exact meaning has been altered to support a certain point of view. For the sake of simplicity I will stick to Tumblr's definition. More detailed information on these terms can be found in the posts below.
Some words are often used to end arguments that someone feels they may lose. These will be tagged as an "IWB" or "I Win Button."
AAVE: African American Vernacular English (black people slang).
Ableism/Ableist: IWB - Discrimination or mistreatment of a person based solely on a mental or physical disability. Often applied to such words as 'crazy,' 'dumb' or 'stupid.'
Allistic: Not autistic.
Allosexual: Not asexual.
Aromantic: You don't fall in love with every single person you meet.
Asexual: You don't feel like having sex all the time.
Auxiliary Pronouns: Common pronouns (he/she/they) you may use instead of someone's neopronouns.
Bae: Slang (possibly AAVE) for "babe".
CAFAB/CAMAB: Coercively Assigned Female/Male At Birth. The doctor saying "it's a girl/boy!"
Check Your Privilege: IWB - "You have more privilege, therefore your opinion is invalid." See Privilege
Cisgender: The opposite of transgender.
Cishet: Slur - Short for Cisgender Heterosexual.
Cisphobia: Hatred of cisgender people. According to Tumblr, this is not real (die cis scum!).
Columbiner: Someone who idolizes the Columbine mass murderers.
Cotton Ceiling: The barrier between transgender people and those who do not want to have sex with them because of their physical genitalia. Similar to the Glass Ceiling, just replace 'upper level job positions' with 'contents of someone's underpants.'
Cultural Appropriation: Stealing a different race's culture by wearing certain clothing or hairstyles, learning their language, etc.
Demisexuality: Sexual attraction based on closeness in a relationship.
Dysphoria: The feeling your physical body does not match your inner self. See Otherkin and Trans*
Feminist: Someone who works for the fair treatment of women. On Tumblr this translates into blaming all of society's ills on MRAs, the Patriarchy or all men who have ever existed.
Flower Crowns: Tumblr fashion trend of wearing flower crowns and Photoshopping them on other pictures.
Gatekeeping: Deciding who can or cannot be part of a certain community. Most often applied to transmedicalists.
Headmate: Separate personality living in your brain. See Median/Multiple System
Internalized (X): IWB - Having a different viewpoint than a social advocate while being of the group they claim to advocate. "You've been brainwashed by society to think this is how things should be."
John Money: Psychologist often cited for his research on gender as social construct involving David Reimer.
Kintype: The exact type of kin someone identifies as. See otherkin
KMS/KYS: Kill Myself/Yourself. Appropriate response to someone who disagrees with you.
Latinx: Gender neutral term for people of Latin heritage.
Male/White Tears: A joke referring to the "fact" that a man's/white's problems could never be as bad as what women/PoC face.
Mansplaining: A man explaining something to a woman.
Median/Multiple System: Two or more personalities living in the same body. Similar to but distinct from Dissociative Identity Disorder/Schizophrenia.
Microaggression: A small, seemingly innocuous action that provides subtle reinforcement to racist/sexist/whatever-ist oppression.
Misandry: Hatred of men. According to Tumblr, this does not exist (kill all men!).
Misgendering: IWB - Using an unapproved pronoun.
Misogyny: Hatred of women. Often used as an IWB.
Monosexuality: Sexual attraction to only one gender.
MRA: Men's Rights Activist - Someone who works for the fair treatment of men. On Tumblr this translates into blaming all of society's ills on feminists, the Gynocentric government or all women who have ever existed.
Neopronouns: Pronouns invented by someone who feel common pronouns (he/she/they) do not apply to them.
Neuroatypical: Having a mental disorder/illness.
Neurotypical: Not having a mental disorder/illness.
Otherkin: Someone that personally identifies as something other than themselves: animals, mythological creatures, planets, etc. The connection ranges from feeling you have lot in common with something to believing you are said thing trapped in a human body (see Dysporia about the latter).
Patriarchy: The cabal of old white men who keep women oppressed in every aspect of life.
PoC: Person/People of Color (not white).
Polysexuality: Attraction to more than two genders but not all genders.
Privilege: An innate benefit someone has because of their race, religion, gender, sexuality, place of birth, age, etc.
Problematic: IWB -Views/attitudes different from your own.
Rape Culture: The idea that all men are rapists just waiting for the right moment to give in to their desires and that any interaction between a man and a women has overtones of rape.
Safe Place: A setting where people of whatever group you belong to can feel free to express themselves and support each other (unless you happen disagree with whoever runs the Safe Place on something, no matter how minor).
Sapiosexuality: Sexual attraction to intelligence.
Scientism: IWB - Reals > Feels.
Scopophobia: The fear of being stared at/watched. Often used to tag pictures with eyes to avoid triggering scopophobes, an act that most scopophobes consider retarded since the fear involves the concept of judgement or plotting harm, which someone's imaginary waifu is incapable of doing. Tumblr has yet to listen.
Self-Diagnosis: Diagnosing oneself with a (usually mental) disorder or illness instead of going to a health professional.
Shaming: Saying something bad about one's appearance, hobbies, fetishes, etc.
Shitlord: Slur for anyone who disagrees with you.
Signal Boost: To raise awareness about a problem by reblogging.
Skeleton: A script was created that replaced SJW with Skeleton. Disrespectful to Skeletons everywhere.
Social Construct: Something that is arbitrary or "a matter of opinion". Can refer to gender, biological sex, the concept of obesity, the whole discipline of science, etc.
Spoon: Metaphor for physical/mental effort. (Origin)
SWERF: Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminist. Essentially anybody who points out that the bulk of self-representing sex workers online are higher up the privilege scale and don't represent the state of sex work globally.
TERF: Trans-Exclusional Radical Feminist. Does not believe that Transwomen are a legitimate front for feminism, being essentially former males. Often derogatorily called "Trans Exterminationist Radical Feminists" by their critics.
Tone-Policing: IWB - "Quit trying to control the conversation by telling me to stop being obnoxious!"
Toxic Masculinity: Stereotypical male traits such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, reliance of logic, and dismissal of emotions. Strangely, these are sometimes considered positive traits in women.
Trans*: A blanket term that includes transgender, but attempts to apply the concept to anything and everything: ethnicity, species, weight, etc.
Transmedicalist: Someone who insist on the medical nature of transgenderism, particularly on gender dysphoria: the - often intensely - uncomfortable feeling that your brain's wiring and your body's plumbing don't match.
Transmisogyny: Hatred of transwomen. Often used as an IWB.
Transphobia: Hatred of trans* people. Often used as an IWB.
Trigger: IWB - Something that upsets you.
Truscum: Slur for transmedicalist.
Tucute: The opposite of a transmedicalist, a tucute believes that gender is a choice and that anything can be a gender.
Tulpa: A particularly vivid headmate. Word originates from Buddhism (see Cultural Appropriation)
uvu/uwu: Tumblr smilies, the u's being closed eyes and the v or w being a smiling mouth.
Whitewashing: Giving a fictional PoC a lighter skin tone.
Wom*n/womxn/womyn: An attempt to remove man/men from woman/women.
Many Tumblrisms are phonetically the same as their English language origins, but the exact meaning has been altered to support a certain point of view. For the sake of simplicity I will stick to Tumblr's definition. More detailed information on these terms can be found in the posts below.
Some words are often used to end arguments that someone feels they may lose. These will be tagged as an "IWB" or "I Win Button."
AAVE: African American Vernacular English (black people slang).
Ableism/Ableist: IWB - Discrimination or mistreatment of a person based solely on a mental or physical disability. Often applied to such words as 'crazy,' 'dumb' or 'stupid.'
Allistic: Not autistic.
Allosexual: Not asexual.
Aromantic: You don't fall in love with every single person you meet.
Asexual: You don't feel like having sex all the time.
Auxiliary Pronouns: Common pronouns (he/she/they) you may use instead of someone's neopronouns.
Bae: Slang (possibly AAVE) for "babe".
CAFAB/CAMAB: Coercively Assigned Female/Male At Birth. The doctor saying "it's a girl/boy!"
Check Your Privilege: IWB - "You have more privilege, therefore your opinion is invalid." See Privilege
Cisgender: The opposite of transgender.
Cishet: Slur - Short for Cisgender Heterosexual.
Cisphobia: Hatred of cisgender people. According to Tumblr, this is not real (die cis scum!).
Columbiner: Someone who idolizes the Columbine mass murderers.
Cotton Ceiling: The barrier between transgender people and those who do not want to have sex with them because of their physical genitalia. Similar to the Glass Ceiling, just replace 'upper level job positions' with 'contents of someone's underpants.'
Cultural Appropriation: Stealing a different race's culture by wearing certain clothing or hairstyles, learning their language, etc.
Demisexuality: Sexual attraction based on closeness in a relationship.
Dysphoria: The feeling your physical body does not match your inner self. See Otherkin and Trans*
Feminist: Someone who works for the fair treatment of women. On Tumblr this translates into blaming all of society's ills on MRAs, the Patriarchy or all men who have ever existed.
Flower Crowns: Tumblr fashion trend of wearing flower crowns and Photoshopping them on other pictures.
Gatekeeping: Deciding who can or cannot be part of a certain community. Most often applied to transmedicalists.
Headmate: Separate personality living in your brain. See Median/Multiple System
Internalized (X): IWB - Having a different viewpoint than a social advocate while being of the group they claim to advocate. "You've been brainwashed by society to think this is how things should be."
John Money: Psychologist often cited for his research on gender as social construct involving David Reimer.
Kintype: The exact type of kin someone identifies as. See otherkin
KMS/KYS: Kill Myself/Yourself. Appropriate response to someone who disagrees with you.
Latinx: Gender neutral term for people of Latin heritage.
Male/White Tears: A joke referring to the "fact" that a man's/white's problems could never be as bad as what women/PoC face.
Mansplaining: A man explaining something to a woman.
Median/Multiple System: Two or more personalities living in the same body. Similar to but distinct from Dissociative Identity Disorder/Schizophrenia.
Microaggression: A small, seemingly innocuous action that provides subtle reinforcement to racist/sexist/whatever-ist oppression.
Misandry: Hatred of men. According to Tumblr, this does not exist (kill all men!).
Misgendering: IWB - Using an unapproved pronoun.
Misogyny: Hatred of women. Often used as an IWB.
Monosexuality: Sexual attraction to only one gender.
MRA: Men's Rights Activist - Someone who works for the fair treatment of men. On Tumblr this translates into blaming all of society's ills on feminists, the Gynocentric government or all women who have ever existed.
Neopronouns: Pronouns invented by someone who feel common pronouns (he/she/they) do not apply to them.
Neuroatypical: Having a mental disorder/illness.
Neurotypical: Not having a mental disorder/illness.
Otherkin: Someone that personally identifies as something other than themselves: animals, mythological creatures, planets, etc. The connection ranges from feeling you have lot in common with something to believing you are said thing trapped in a human body (see Dysporia about the latter).
Patriarchy: The cabal of old white men who keep women oppressed in every aspect of life.
PoC: Person/People of Color (not white).
Polysexuality: Attraction to more than two genders but not all genders.
Privilege: An innate benefit someone has because of their race, religion, gender, sexuality, place of birth, age, etc.
Problematic: IWB -Views/attitudes different from your own.
Rape Culture: The idea that all men are rapists just waiting for the right moment to give in to their desires and that any interaction between a man and a women has overtones of rape.
Safe Place: A setting where people of whatever group you belong to can feel free to express themselves and support each other (unless you happen disagree with whoever runs the Safe Place on something, no matter how minor).
Sapiosexuality: Sexual attraction to intelligence.
Scientism: IWB - Reals > Feels.
Scopophobia: The fear of being stared at/watched. Often used to tag pictures with eyes to avoid triggering scopophobes, an act that most scopophobes consider retarded since the fear involves the concept of judgement or plotting harm, which someone's imaginary waifu is incapable of doing. Tumblr has yet to listen.
Self-Diagnosis: Diagnosing oneself with a (usually mental) disorder or illness instead of going to a health professional.
Shaming: Saying something bad about one's appearance, hobbies, fetishes, etc.
Shitlord: Slur for anyone who disagrees with you.
Signal Boost: To raise awareness about a problem by reblogging.
Skeleton: A script was created that replaced SJW with Skeleton. Disrespectful to Skeletons everywhere.
Social Construct: Something that is arbitrary or "a matter of opinion". Can refer to gender, biological sex, the concept of obesity, the whole discipline of science, etc.
Spoon: Metaphor for physical/mental effort. (Origin)
SWERF: Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminist. Essentially anybody who points out that the bulk of self-representing sex workers online are higher up the privilege scale and don't represent the state of sex work globally.
TERF: Trans-Exclusional Radical Feminist. Does not believe that Transwomen are a legitimate front for feminism, being essentially former males. Often derogatorily called "Trans Exterminationist Radical Feminists" by their critics.
Tone-Policing: IWB - "Quit trying to control the conversation by telling me to stop being obnoxious!"
Toxic Masculinity: Stereotypical male traits such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, reliance of logic, and dismissal of emotions. Strangely, these are sometimes considered positive traits in women.
Trans*: A blanket term that includes transgender, but attempts to apply the concept to anything and everything: ethnicity, species, weight, etc.
Transmedicalist: Someone who insist on the medical nature of transgenderism, particularly on gender dysphoria: the - often intensely - uncomfortable feeling that your brain's wiring and your body's plumbing don't match.
Transmisogyny: Hatred of transwomen. Often used as an IWB.
Transphobia: Hatred of trans* people. Often used as an IWB.
Trigger: IWB - Something that upsets you.
Truscum: Slur for transmedicalist.
Tucute: The opposite of a transmedicalist, a tucute believes that gender is a choice and that anything can be a gender.
Tulpa: A particularly vivid headmate. Word originates from Buddhism (see Cultural Appropriation)
uvu/uwu: Tumblr smilies, the u's being closed eyes and the v or w being a smiling mouth.
Whitewashing: Giving a fictional PoC a lighter skin tone.
Wom*n/womxn/womyn: An attempt to remove man/men from woman/women.
I'll keep updating this post as more information comes in.
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