categorized and generalized all the types of tumblr aesthetics i have come across.

aleatoryalarmalligator:

I have been going through archives for the last five years on tumblr now, and i can’t help but notice that a lot of blogs are the same. There seems to be a pattern in the sorts of aesthetics i run up against. So, in my exhaustion, i tried coming up with all the different aesthetics, and i tried to put them into certain categories. Obviously, some of these categories are mixed with others.

PORN TUMBLR

-general porn

-lesbian/gay general

-kinky stuff

-daddy dom stuff – tied up boobies

-bears

-just unrealistic nudes

-just realistic nudes

-vintage porn, and occasionally porn that is so old that it was drawn by someone in the 1800′s

– hentai and erotic animal people
cartoon characters going at it

-person who took about five pictures of
themselves naked five years ago who has not come back

RICH KID TUMBLR

-super modelesque kids in their super
rich cool kid clothes and fashion in Starbucks taking pictures of
their food and their trips to Europe in 1^st class

– incredibly expensive looking sunglasses

-rich kid travel blogs with hundreds of
thousands of notes of pictures from rich people buildings

-quotes that say ‘be happy’ or stuff
about saying anyone can just travel anywhere at any time, just the
general advice you might get from someone who doesn’t know how the
other half lives

– cats

VINTAGE TUMBLR

-the greatest generation stuff,
forgotten early hollywood actors/actresses, very old movie gifs,
Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Carol Lombard, early Joan Crawford, Gone with
the Wind ect..

-50’s, 60’s and 70’s, Nancy Sinatra,
Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn – generally a lot
of Audrey Hepburn

-Posts old advertisements and old cars,
sometimes old toys, a few pinups, vintage comics, kinda weird

– vintage toy blogs – just toys, named and dated

-sometimes retrospace stuff

-sometimes just old comic book stuff

FEMINIST/ GENDER STUDIES TUMBLR

-intersectional feminists who post
mostly text and back and forth writings, sometimes they fight 

-radfems and turfs, unpopular minority
of angry at the intersectional feminists

– Fat Acceptance movement, chubby
bunnies

-other girl’s selfies, lots of girl
power related drawings of gender symbols and the like, Grimes, being
a witch, Courtney Love, sailor moon, and so forth, sometimes bleeds
into soft grunge

-topics on transgender, gender fluid
and others that have informative 

– asexual community

BLACK LIVES MATTER TUMBLR

-black lives matter awareness, police
brutality, pointing out flaws in legal system

-lovely stylish selfies

-call outs of racism, lots of dialogue,
and the extension of twitter

80’s + 90’s GIF TUMBLR

-like gifs of scratched up VCR obscure
film openings, and repetitious obscure 80’s gifs in general,
everything is fuzzy and looks like it came from an 80’ infomercial,
kinda makes you feel scared

-90’s gifs of Pee Wee Herman, Catdog,
Clarissa Explains it All, Chucky Cheese, Fruit by the Foot, Beavus
and Butthead, Bart Simpson, and so on

HIPPIE TUMBLR

-just like the rich kidz, only they
have white kid dreads and post a lot of vanlife stuff, lots of
festivals

-mostly psychedelic gifs, with
occasional trippy art, Foster the People is their favorite band

-real hippies, who post pictures of
communes and people making tyed dye things, nonsexual nudes with
hairy women, Grateful Dead stuff

-Buddhist and Hindu quotes, sometimes
lilies

SOFT GRUNGE TUMBLR

purple and pink skies, water,
windows with lace

girls with pale skin and perfect
make up, and chokers, bruises, sparkly skin

mermaid texture, mermaid hair
colors

Lana Del Rey

kind of like 90’s only more melty
and pink

quotes about good vibes

Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless
mind reference

moon print

dream pop bands from the early
90’s

GROWN UP SOFT GRUNGE TUMBLR

picture of Uma Thurman overdosing
in Pulp Fiction

lots and lots of flowers

lots of sensual pictures of pale
skin under certain lighting

albino people

albino animals

pictures of sunrises

Reykjavic

kind of like the Soft Grunge, but
just a little bit more subtle and film tumblry

ART BLOG TUMBLR

old roman art

chinese, japanese and korean art
from long ago

renaissance and medieval art with
religious context

just like medieval art of
specifically torture

18^th and 19^th
century portrait paintings

Scenic paintings of hills, Van
Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet

Dada, Pablo Picasso, Jackson
Pollock, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Adolph Wolfie

Modern art that is squiggly,
slimy, and bizzare, breaks art rules but looks good, David Shrigley

Modern Surrealists

ARTIST BLOG TUMBLR

posts really great homemade gifs
that nobody knows about infrequently

blogs that only have the artwork
of the blog owner – generally post infrequently and not given
enough credit ever, except maybe one of there works has a whole
bunch of notes

person who keeps painting the same
thing over and over again and does it a lot for years at a time, 0
notes usually – who are you??

collage artists that mix 50’s
scenes with hyperspace backdrops

FILM BLOG TUMBLR

-Stanley Kubrick, Jean Cocteau, lots of
black and white french films

-that movie where the two people are
sitting on the ledge of a building and the other one jumps off

Clockwork Orange

-Paris, Texas

David Lynch

Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks (gets stolen by
other kinds of blogs frequently)

Wim Wenders,

Rare film art from Poland in the 70’s

Jans Svankmajer

Man Ray, Max Ernst,

cool quotes by philosopher, artist,
psychologist, or film director

Amelie

sometimes Wes Anderson

PHOTOGRAPHY TUMBLR

abandoned places, gas stations,
archaic cafes, falling apart amusement parks

uses too much dark fade out in the
background pictures of fields and stuff, overused filtering –
posted a ton three years ago and then left

just photostock

girl who takes pictures of herself
in costume

Nature pictures, animal pictures
ect..

person who just takes pictures of
textures and minimalist buildings – usually colorful

person who’s personal Instagram
picture just automatically post to tumblr also, probably never
checks up, usually pictures of them with friends as a pub

Indigenous pictures from around
the world, some of them from books, some from National Geographic,
some from other places

Super old pictures from old
newspapers, the great depression, WW2 – generally black and white

MUSIC TUMBLR

Really likes Led Zeppelin, The
Doors and The Who, sometimes mixed with other vintage, often posts
the same pictures and songs for years – you feel bad because no
new music will be coming out from these artists

super cheesy Van Halen, Kiss,
Styx, Ozzy person, Big Hair, likes 80’s pin ups and skulls,
sometimes into martial arts

super cheesy death metal fan, lots
of pinups, corny black and white pictures of skulls and such

REALLY likes British Invasion, The
Zombies, The Kinks, The Hollies, The Animals, will occasionally post
Detroit girl groups from the 60’s, some Velvet Underground, pictures
of the Beatles girlfriends

Just David Bowie, Lou Reed, Patti
Smith and Iggy Pop. Maybe some New York Dolls

Old Blues and Jazz, Etta James,
Son House, Nina Simone, pictures of Leadbelly and Howlin’ Wolf and
especially Miles Davis

really into post punk, Nick Cave,
Siouxsie, Bauhaus, The Cure, Einsturzende Neubauten, Lydia Lunch, PJ
Harvey and Rowland S. Howard, sometimes Morrissey. also generally
mixes film and art blog stuff in with occasional feminist things

Just Morrissey, they call him Moz.

Fan clubs for specific bands that
are newer and popular like Arctic Monkeys or Fallout Boy, but also
ones blogs that really like emo lyrics from early 2000’s and such –
scene kids that are still scenin’ it up

loves Jens Lekman, Belle and
Sebastian, The Magnetic Fields and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart,
Cigarettes After Sex. Usually posts really cute modern art, and uses
tumblr mostly for writing, has the cutest hair cut and can pull off
overalls, never posts too little or too much, extremely twee

HISTORY TUMBLR

ancient mesopotamia, greek and
Egyptian history and relics

Blogs that are specifically about
one place in one era – Ancient Russia, Ireland before it was taken
over, precolonial India and so on

Samurai, Geisha, and scrolls

Swords, knights, castles, kings of
Europe in general

Specific Wars, examples: 7 Years
War, Revolutionary War, WW1 + 2

France from before the revolution
– pictures of wigged men, Napoleon, Marie Antoinette

Jane Austen time era anything 18^th
and 19^th century, slight excuse to post lots of Pride and
Prejudice gifs with Keira Knightly and that Mr. Darcy in the rain

Outfits – just outfits that are
really old

person who is obsessed with the
Nazis and seems to like Hitler

Flappers and earlier 20^th
– often an excuse to post gifs of Downton Abbey

Vintage books, often children
books, but sometimes others

DESIGN TUMBLR

really fucked up pictures of the
Simpsons melting and stuff

gradient graphic art with symbols
or words meant to convey a product that I don’t understand for an
obscure magazine subscription

graphic squiggles without form,
minimalist graphic pictures of beach balls, tennis bats, and
sneakers

bizarre smiley faces made from
smaller smiley faces

80’s inspired design

odd looking models with undercuts
and no eyebrows

cartoon dogs and cats

just static and glitches. Nothing
more, nothing less

either they make their own graphic
designs and they rarely post, or they compile reblogs of everyone
else’s and they post all the time

WEIRDO TUMBLR

insane family pictures of family
who all has mullet dressed as bumble bees

Lots of Robert Crumb, some vintage
stuff, but nothing remotely main stream

Some of the modern art, but only
the weirdest of it

claymation masks

Comix

Moebius

art from early Power Point

100 piece sculptures with melted
toys

paintings of monsters

Steve Brule

children’s fan art of Smokey the
Bear – looks disturbing

Items that are too kitschy to be
accepted by your average vintage indie blog

sometimes a specific blog centered
around some kind of crazy event where everyone dresses completely
insane

POLITICAL TUMBLR

the communists and Marxists

a mixture of BLM and LGBTQ stuff

the libertarians,
anarchocapitalists, Ayn rand folk

the left wing anarchists,
freegans, graffiti punks, garden punks, possums

informative left wing news that
explains to us everyday how the GOP is fucking us

alt. right creeps who are simply
here to be trolls and upset everyone else – anti SJW, that stupid
frog, nationalists, trump supporters and such – irrelevant poorly
thought memes

I miss Obama memes

Bernie Sanders forever and always
folk

RAINBOW TUMBLR

pictures of rainbow candies, toys,
designs, clothing and so forth all of it rainbow

people who post one color at a
time, so when you go through their archive it’s all gradient and
neat looking – usually the pictures are a little stock photoish
though

HALLOWEEN TUMBLR

Betty Page

The Cramps. Reverend Horton Heat

Psychobilly pin ups, old cars,
burning skulls, vintage B horror movies, The Swamp Thing

Legitimately obsessed with the
activities of Halloween – posts witches, devils, trick or treat
candy, Bella Lugosi, The Monster Mash, Halloween decoration – and
doesn’t ever forget how many days away Halloween is

Jack the Skeleton

Freddy Krueger

FANCLUB TUMBLR

Superwholock

Hannigram

American Horror Story

K Pop and J Pop + Korean Drama

boy bands in general

Hamilton

My Little Ponies

Ghibli Studios

Various anime shows

fat Disney princesses

Super heroes

Pokemon

Big Bang Theory

Mighty Boosh

Monty Python

Phantom of the Opera

Labyrinth

Vampire Chronicles

Orange is the New Black

Breaking Bad

Alice in Wonderland

Harry Potter

Star Wars

Steven Universe

Adventure Time

Game of Thrones and Walking Dead

any television show really

Furry cartoons

lots of spacy quick anime chibi
versions of characters who are hooking up and wouldn’t normally in
the show

scenes from movies with subtext
that comes from a different movie or show

probably countless others i am not thinking of.

SPECIALTY TUMBLR

serial killer blogs

unexplained mysteries, ghosts,
ufo’s

pictures of galaxies with
information (not sparkly silly ones with no context)

sewing and yarn

precious stones

cars

just gardening

just cats

religious blogs, either Islam,
Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist

specific animal blogs, snake,
spiders, wild cats and such

science blogs about technology and
stuff

NATURE TUMBLR

stock photoish pictures of camp
grounds and misty mountains – often taken by the hippies

angelic looking deer, and
occasional animal burials with flowers’

person who takes pictures of
flowers all the time

granola type fellow who loves
juicing and backpacking – doesn’t get on tumblr much

BLACK AND WHITE GOTH TUMBLR

slenderman fan art, actually just
about anything creepypasta related

you have to turn off the music
when you visit their page because it’s just too much

fan art of black eyed children

slit wrists

pictures that were turned into
Gifs because they shake

taxidermy

screamo lyrics

Alice in wonderland with X’s for
eyes

gothic models

occasional serial killer

skulls and references to Edgar
Allan Poe

GIF MEME TUMBLR

just a sea of Gifs and memes
relating to anything about life ever – almost shitposting but not
quite

eventually one of the gifs got
100,000 notes for it’s relatability so they get a lot of traffic

lots of pictures and circumstances
from The Office, Parks and Rec, and It’s Always Sunny in
Philadelphia

Nihilist memes

SOFTY TUMBLR

kind of a little girl dom thing
going on

Kawai and lots of Japanese girls

cute colorful make up

plushies and toys

references to fantasy cartoons
from the 80’s, the last unicorn, or that one with the girls in that
band

Polly Pockets, Furbies, trolls

gifs of stars and hearts

Sailor Moon

pink bedroom

baby animals

occasionally more on the vintage
kitschy side

WICCA TUMBLR

ravens, bats, candles

pentacles and other symbols

crystals

sometimes there is dreads

occasionally, it is a serious
practicing Wicca who posts spells and gives witch advice

lots of personal reflections

boobs

GROSS TUMBLR

Tim and Eric, Steve Brule centered
blog that are mostly in the act to make you feel queezy

like, people eating cheerios with
ketchup and people wearing shoes with the soles cut out, people
putting their feet in spagetti, bad tattoos on foreheads

snails, beetles, bird doing mean
things to people

mostly moldy things, moss, strange
dolls

things that look like they came
from the dark crystal,

delapitating bedrooms that once
belonged to a little girl, torn wall paper, old porcelain dolls that
are slightly upsetting

Clowns

occasionally a blog so gross you
will be ruined for having seen it – Two Girls one Cup sort of
thing

NERD TUMBLR

old video game start up pages

Super Mario Bros.

Other video game characters

chibis of video game characters
interacting with one another

Final Fantasy references

randomly doesn’t post for a year

SELF HELP TUMBLR

blog that gives dumb advice that
only works if you were already happy anyway

either semi fake or oversimplified
‘psyche facts’

blogs from people who suffer from
addiction or mental illness and want help and use their blog to vent

blogs ran by people who enjoy
crystal meth and don’t give a fuck.

worthy of mentioning, blogs that nobody ever posted a single thing or just one thing, like, really cryptic blogs that nobody could ever understand, blogs that were taken over by some kind of virus and they are trying to sell you male pattern baldness remedies, or they are now call absurdly pornographic things because the virus took over and now they are like blonde cumfuck creampie or something of that nature, and blogs were the person was basically saying they have found a girlfriend/boyfriend now and don’t need tumblr anymore so goodbye

and in my experience …

anybody can post pictures of jiggly
boobs

anybody can post Grace Jones

anybody can post a Bjork song

these seem to be universal truths that defy limitations