Rainbow Meat

Synonyms:	Anti-Anti or Proshipper
See also:	Hannibal, Antishipper, Hannibal Twitter Wars, The Hannibal Twitter Takedown of 2020, Purity Culture
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Rainbow Meat, designated by the meat and rainbow emojis 🌈🍖, is an ideology that began on Twitter which is similar to the ideology of anti-antis ("proshippers"). Those who adhere to the rainbow meat ideologies are referred to as "rainbow meaties." In general, rainbow meaties believe fiction does not affect reality in the same way anti-antis do, but may or may not call themselves anti-antis. The term rainbow meat began in the 2020 Hannibal fandom of Twitter, with the "meat" part of rainbow meat possibly being used because the consumption of meat- particularly human meat- is a central plot point in Hannibal.

The opposite of a rainbow meaty is a 🥩🔪, who follow a more antishipper ideology.

History

According to a meta piece by partiallyvoidmostlystars in Oct 2020 Tumblr (see The Hannibal Twitter Takedown of 2020), a Twitter user named callmenephila created the rainbow meat movement for the 2019 #JustFuckMeUpFest. She had shared an image privately of Will Graham getting oral from his dog, Winston, in which the image was then leaked. A Tweet from May 15, 2019 backs this up, with callmenephila starting the movement under her other Twitter handle, "cultmenephila," calling the rainbow and meat emojis a "stamp of tolerance and anti-censorship." When coming up with the set of emojis, she stated to another Twitter user that she wanted it to be more "distinctive" than just a tag.

Fannibals: I honestly think themat we should be banding closer together from this.

To show solidarity and find each other through the muck of twitter.

How about a recognizable symbol or hashtag or emoji? Like on our names or profiles?

Like a stamp of authenticity, yknow? 🌈🍖 <—- the stamp of tolerance and anti-censorship.

If you’re #AnEatTheRudeFannibal, here’s the way to broadcast that you are likeminded.

Let’s all find each other and be friends! Blue heart

Once again, rainbow meat is totally optional. Some ppl have been putting it in their bios instead. And even then, NOBODY has to do it.

But personally...I’ve said it before: those kids are not going to make me take it down.

They’ve controlled enough.

And yeah maybe “certificate of authenticity” was a bit too exclusive-sounding but I really didn’t mean it as such. To err is human Woman shrugging

cultmenephila, May 15, 2019.

Later, on October 7th, 2020, Bryan Fuller re-tweeted art by a rainbow meaty of Hannibal giving Will Graham a blowjob. This resulted in the Hannibal Twitter Wars, a fandom war between the rainbow meaties, who supported Bryan Fuller's re-tweet, and the meat knives, who didn't.

Beliefs

Like anti-antis, rainbow meaties believe that dark, edgy, or "problematic" content does not hurt nor affect reality. However, being started within the Hannibal fandom the context of the belief may differ from that of those designed as anti-antis, particularly anti-antis not on Twitter. Hannibal itself is a show with dark themes, such as cannibalism, gore, body horror, murder, and emotional manipulation. Thus, its fan content mirrors its canon content. However, for some rainbow meaties, the content they support isn't simply in the context of the show's dark themes being replicated in fan content. For some, being a rainbow meaty does encompass themes such as non-con and minor/adult ships (see Minors in Fandom and Underage), which is much more similar to anti-anti beliefs in general.

All content means ALL content - even 'taboo' stuff like underage/non-con. A part of 🌈🍖 is taking care of yourself by avoiding triggering content with the mantra of "don't like? don't read/interact". You come first, but just because you find content.. Triggering doesnt mean it doesn't get to exist, or that you have to right to harass the creator. Be responsible and block content you dislike.

Rainbow meaty: disembowelement, Jul 27, 2020.

why do proshippers just make being proship their whole identity get a life and stop being a freak lol meat emoji rainbow dumbasss bitch ^____^ Adding on to this they sell and have like tshirts cups and pins of their pro ship logo or whatever and if you are that much of a weirdo and care about your weird idk incest pedo or abuse ship that much that u have to id Urself as a weirdo it’s just .... Smiling face with open mouth okay

A minor on rainbow meaty merch: phobohobo1, Mar 27, 2021

Fandom

Some consider rainbow meat to be another name for Hannigram, the ship for Hannibal/Will, though this seems to be a minority as most shippers still use Hannigram. This is likely because rainbow meat has much larger connotations than the traditional ship name.

In March 2021, a small company called RavenStag Outfitters made a pin with the rainbow flag behind the meat emoji, encircled by the words "PRO-SHIPPER" and the pink triangle (a symbol for gay men used by Nazis, reclaimed by gay people in the '70s). They were sent threatening messages for making the pin.

Bryan Fuller, Hannibal's show runner, tweeted that the pin was great. The pin was mainly criticized for its use of the pink triangle next to the rainbow meat symbol and the word "PRO-SHIPPER", associating a reclaimed gay symbol with pro-shipper branding, even though the pin makers are themselves queer.

[ConocybeFilaris]

Im gonna say my last piece on that pro ship pin, i do not care if you reclaim the pink triangle, i fully support it. But i think theres a time and place to reclaim it and putting it on a pin thats for online arguments about fictional ships isnt the place. 1/2.

also considering that the creator of rainbow meat (what the pin is based on) has allowed the harassment of multiple bipoc people over racist art just doesnt sit right with me esp when using that symbol. Again, fully support the reclaiming. Just not on that pin. 2/2