I know this is out of left field but I knew it would be an interesting discussion of sorts as it deals a lot with outside perception away from us #crazy fans.I personally am not surprised by any of this, it's pretty normal tumblr behaviour, which imo it doesn't make it right. But as someone who, before getting deep into the phandom, was a casual viewer and mostly saw stuff about Deppy on tumblr, I understand the confusion. Everything I learned of d&p was after I saw hundreds of gifs of heart eyes and closeness and fondness and heavy shipping.kinemacolor wrote:Haven't posted in a long while (I started as a dirty lurker from the days back on the old site, rip), and I'm sorry to dump such a long post on all you guys, but something a little odd and sad came across my tumblr dash tonight. I've searched backlogs and couldn't find anyone talking about this on here, so sorry if it's been discussed already (I got back into reading idb in June), but ignoring the shitty tone of the original post, the comments and discussion underneath it were particularly disheartening and a bit distressing (I'll put some screenshots in a spoiler but there are hundreds of comments and tags that are fascinating if you can pull them up on a desktop setting). I know we like to see how an outsider views dnp, and a lot of the replies and comments in the post are exactly from that: outsiders.
[tumblr] <div class="tumblr-post" data-href="https://embed.tumblr.com/embed/post/YoZ ... 9397146885" data-did="88e992614857786a2bf01c8b48f8aad98447143b">[/tumblr]
Usually these kinds of posts just kind of makes me roll my eyes, but the amount of (super)casual fans actually discoursing and what their opinions and facts to work with were was quite interesting. Something that's seemed to take root is that a lot of people think Dan is bi, and they take it for fact, having not been a part of phandom to begin with. Also in the comments, I saw a lot of these casual fans dismayed at learning they were "straight", and it sort of made me double-take. I've always been under the impression anyone but hardcore fans thought they were straight, but I guess finding out there's a portion that really do think they are really queer/in a relationship is kinda shaking my world, and not in a good way. The post is from April, but it seems to be making the rounds again, and I hope it dies off soon tbh.
I guess what I'm getting at is how do you think dnp would hypothetically navigate a discussion like this personally and outwardly in how they approach a "PR", if you will. Having a large portion of queer public opinion turn against them because of a catch 22 of sexuality and relationship status sounds like a fucking nightmare to be honest, but I almost can see it happening precisely because of this sloughing off of previous boundaries and being more comfortable with one another (ugh). It almost seems like this blanket of people believing they were a couple and coming to this conclusion themselves, staying mum and out of the way of content and the phandom, kept them "safe" in a way. Nobody prying because the fact of a relationship is cemented in their head, along with a generally positive outlook on them as a queer couple. This may sound brash, but having a group of casual/nonviewers like that to underlyingly support them because they are a queer couple and then being told otherwise probably felt like a slap in the face, and I get that. And yet on the other side, it also seems to actively put them back in the closet, and in a shitty one where they can't do anything without it being seen as queerbait (that discussion is dead and I don't want to revive it, just pointing it out) I do wish those people would understand dnp never attempted to really create an illusion of a relationship though, and I think all of us here understand that. The knee-jerk reactions are just fascinating and saddening to me.
Obviously, those questions are hypothetical; I don't think dnp are ones to change without a long, slow fight and their methods are pretty sealed. They seem happy and their content is #thriving, and a shitty tumblr comment won't change that (hopefully).
There's also a lot of good comments defending them in the post I'm neglecting (as well as a plethora of unsupported hate, but heyo), but it was just the amount of "wait they're straight???? This changes everything" and the actual amount of discourse from casual/non-fans that's going on in the post that I've never seen on a tumblr post in my 2 and half years in the phandom that's kinda making me
(I didn't screenshot usernames bc I didn't want it to get messy, but they're all real and you can check the post replies if you don't believe me)
I need a 2 week cleanse after going through all these comments jfc
LtrllySusan wrote:I am so curious what they are up to in the next days. Previously we only knew that they weren't attending SITC (Aug 4-8), but now that Dan implied that he's not doing a LS next week (which would be on Aug 8), we can assume they are actually... doing something else. Not just not attending SITC for strategic reasons or cause they rather chill at home.
If this whole hype turns out to be nothing, I would be so disappointed
This, especially the last two sentences, is exactly what I think about queerbaiting and Dan and Phil's relationship but have never been articulate enough to actually say. I just want to +1 on all of this, you're my new hero. There are other things that make me think the boys might be together, but the nature/closeness of their actual relationship with one another doesn't automatically make it so for me. After all, if two women had the same type of friendship as D&P (and had insisted in the past they weren't a couple), no one would be insisting they actually were a couple. I feel as though a lot of people in the Phandom - not necessarily on here though - are totally happy to bust out double standards/gender stereotyping when and only when it serves their cause.Katka wrote:
New Queerbaiting thing: Man, I’m over it. Dan and Phil have never pretended to be together. People looking at them, assuming they're together and then flipping their shit when they realise they might not be are ridiculous and need to get over themselves. Dan and Phil didn’t lie to you. You assumed something and that’s all. I think it’s wild how two men having a close friendship and not giving a shit about how men are supposed to act towards each other apparently eludes to “playing up the gay” now. Everyone always wanna break gender roles but once two men have a friendship that defies gender roles, everyone calls them queerbaiters. Funny that.
Regarding sitc, I've been thinking about this a lot after reading though the post talking about how they're fans pretty much mobbed the audience the last time they were there on stage, what if they're theoretically banned from sitc because of how big a crowd they draw in? Like it was a mutual agreement that both them, they're management and then runners of sitc agreed on for the safety of both the audience and them? I mean when compared to events like vidcon and playlist, security isn't as big/available and since most youtubers who go have under at least say 2 mil and have a significantly smaller fan base. If Dan and Phil are say "banned", they probably don't want to say they are banned because people will think that Dan and Phil themselves did something wrong when in actuality, its to keep people safe.LtrllySusan wrote:I am so curious what they are up to in the next days. Previously we only knew that they weren't attending SITC (Aug 4-8), but now that Dan implied that he's not doing a LS next week (which would be on Aug 8), we can assume they are actually... doing something else. Not just not attending SITC for strategic reasons or cause they rather chill at home.
If this whole hype turns out to be nothing, I would be so disappointed
This made me think about them going outside, in regards to doing a DITL in cities/crowded places but also in general. Like. Do they still go on days outside or do they plan this, like avoid young people as most as possible. Or only in small chunks. Not whole days of having to meet potential fans. I can't imagine them strolling around the city all day, I don't think they're really able to do that anymore. They have to plan potentially meeting lots of people that know them. Or if they're in the open then people hoarding that place.LtrllySusan wrote:How likely is it that we could get a DITL London 2.0?
dan howell gives me life 
I relate to this so much! I still sometimes cringe at myself for accidentally misleading tourists who were on their way to the airport several years ago. It almost keeps me awake at night to think about them possibly missing their flight because of me.BuffyFiona wrote: I used to live in NYC and this was me ALL THE TIME! Especially when there are so many tourists who speak a different first language from mine, and I'm such an ineloquent person, I always felt like my directions were probably super confusing, even when they were correct... there may be people lost in the subway system right now still trying to figure out my directions...
anyway thanks for that #relatable content, Phil!
Having been to SITC 2 years running and seeing Deppy there the 1st time, I can well believe this. SITC love Deppy though I don't assume it's an awkward thing at all, they've probably told them they can't accommodate them and the boys have agreed. Because they deffo can't. There just isn't enough ways to get peeps to panels securely and the Excel isn't big enough to handle the massive amount of queueing for anything Deppy is in. I'm not going this year but I don't expect to see Deppy there ever again and I genuinely think it's a mutual agreement where both parties are happy with it for their own reasons lol.confusedpanda wrote:Regarding sitc, I've been thinking about this a lot after reading though the post talking about how they're fans pretty much mobbed the audience the last time they were there on stage, what if they're theoretically banned from sitc because of how big a crowd they draw in? Like it was a mutual agreement that both them, they're management and then runners of sitc agreed on for the safety of both the audience and them? I mean when compared to events like vidcon and playlist, security isn't as big/available and since most youtubers who go have under at least say 2 mil and have a significantly smaller fan base. If Dan and Phil are say "banned", they probably don't want to say they are banned because people will think that Dan and Phil themselves did something wrong when in actuality, its to keep people safe.LtrllySusan wrote:I am so curious what they are up to in the next days. Previously we only knew that they weren't attending SITC (Aug 4-8), but now that Dan implied that he's not doing a LS next week (which would be on Aug 8), we can assume they are actually... doing something else. Not just not attending SITC for strategic reasons or cause they rather chill at home.
If this whole hype turns out to be nothing, I would be so disappointed
Just out of curiosity, would deppy's names be the biggest headliners at SITC or is it merely just a precaution of behalf of the phandom? I mean, big names would still garner a lot of attendees but for some reason the phandom always seems to be the concern for the organizers over any other "group". I'm just wondering about the history of online creator events, and also how deppy are/have been treated overall.human wrote: Having been to SITC 2 years running and seeing Deppy there the 1st time, I can well believe this. SITC love Deppy though I don't assume it's an awkward thing at all, they've probably told them they can't accommodate them and the boys have agreed. Because they deffo can't. There just isn't enough ways to get peeps to panels securely and the Excel isn't big enough to handle the massive amount of queueing for anything Deppy is in. I'm not going this year but I don't expect to see Deppy there ever again and I genuinely think it's a mutual agreement where both parties are happy with it for their own reasons lol.
