Tag Archives: on fandom
“Fake news” – fandom edition
In 2k17, a lot of us have pledged to be more cautious about ‘fake news’ posts on Facebook
I propose we extend that concern to fandom
There’s a very low bar on this site (or any site) for people to post whatever tf they want, and a very high incentive to post fake receipts to win arguments
(Or at the least, misleading “receipts” such as “Artist XYZ is a bad person” because they drew a picture of bad things happening to completely fictional characters)
So this year, if you see a callout post:
- Look for signs of bias. I have the sneaking suspicion that “XYZ-is-bad.tumblr.com” is not an objective source.
- Be wary of unsourced accusations. “Person A is a homophobe!” is a statement, not evidence. Look for original sources. Did Person A post “I hate gay people” on their blog? Or did they draw fanart of an unpopular het pairing?
- Look for context. Check out Person A’s blog to see if you have the whole picture. Did Person A pick a fight out of nowhere, or was that viral post made in response to an anon harassing them?
- Ask “what real person was hurt”. Writing a fanfic is not the same as committing a crime in real life. If Person B claims that Person A is a real-life “abuser” because they shipped two (100% fictional!) characters, Person B is out of line.
- Consider ulterior motives. Did Person A recently open a Patreon and receive a slew of hateful messages about ‘selling out’? Did Person B have an argument about characterization with their co-author and then suddenly “reveal” a list of unsourced accusations? Who stands to gain if someone else is driven out of fandom by angry anons?
Long story short, I don’t believe everyone in fandom is evil – nor that every accusation is unfounded. I do believe that unfortunately, in this modern ‘post-truth’ world, we are all going to have to get much better at fact checking and source validity…both in fandom and in real life.
I love this.
One little thing I find helps with this is to remember:
A thing that makes you feel bad, is not necessarily a thing that is bad.
So, you know, people shipping your NOTP, or having headcanons that contradict yours or writing fic on topics that make you frightened or uncomfortable is actually upsetting. And you can totally be upset about it.
But it doesn’t actually follow, necessarily, that the person upsetting you, is actually doing something wrong. They might be. Its possible. But its more likely you need to add some tags to your blacklist and put it from your mind.
Bless this post forever and ever Amen.
No matter what the haters and antis say, you still have a right to perceive a story in your own point of view. Just because someone perceives a story and the characters (and their relationships) differently than you do doesn’t make them wrong. Works of fiction aren’t meant to be over analyzed and treated like reality. Works of fiction are meant to take our minds off the real world for a brief period in time and just let us escape to a different world for a bit. It’s alright to discuss a story, but hating and attacking each other personally for it is a problem far beyond how you see a fictional story.
kylo-wouldnt-like-those-chips:
kylo-wouldnt-like-those-chips:
My desire to not deal with people I think are unnecessarily negative and inflammatory is not a desire to only deal with people I agree with. My mutuals and I disagree all the fucking time holy hell this place is so annoying.
Also like… who cares if you (general you) only wanna deal w/ people you agree with on fuckin tumblr of all places? Like it’s your life! This is the web! Block whoever you want! Nobody is entitled to your time or consideration goddamn if you don’t wanna deal with someone don’t deal with them you don’t need a reason you’re not committing some moral sin by surrounding yourself w/ people you know you’re not going to be regularly in conflict with. it doesn’t mean you’re incapable of handling conflict or anything it just means maybe you don’t fucking want to in a space where it’s SO easy to avoid
This is a good point. I’m just so tired of people acting like you have to talk with everyone on here to understand their point before you block them. It’s not weak. It’s an act of self care because conflict on here ends up being such a huge waste of time and energy for me.
Some people use this site to debate and that’s fine. That’s not how I use it at all. It’s a hobby for me. it’s a place I go to have fun. It is entirely my prerogative to block anyone who is getting in the way of that for any reason.
Sort of linked to the sex ed posts, I’ve encountered several posts recently where an anti demands, in various ways, that shippers MUST “educate” with their fics/art. And I, a fandom ancient, thought “Wait, what?” Where’s this constant demand for fanwork to be “educational” come from? Sorry Jan, I’m not writing smutfic to educate you about a goddamn thing, “socially responsible” or otherwise. If you’re resorting to fanfic of all things for your education on anything, YOU’VE ALREADY BEEN FAILED.
This is only one side of the phenomenon: you have antis demanding that fanon content educate people, then that adults in fandoms take care and protect children, and what does it all tell you?
These teenagers are being left alone on the internet and are projecting the parenting they’re either not receiving or are not receiving as they need on perfect strangers on the web. They legit believe that they can make the internet space they like safe by demanding that the adults in it become their surrogate parents.
Sorry, random teenager on the internet, I’m not your parent, I’m not your teacher, and nobody owes you anything. Fandom is not a safe space. Internet is not a safe space.
@itsmaeril / @maeril tweet of Feb 7
🚩
Something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while now, as I’ve seen it affect other content creators… We might advocate for positivity, but that doesn’t make us invincible 😔 Please be mindful of what you send to people you follow.
(I am reposting this from twitter, I don’t know if OP has it posted on another tumblr, if so, I will delete this and reblog from OP.)
It’s a powerful message and a good reminder, especially for blogs like mine that advocate for positivity. I have my moments, like any other mortal human being. I stress, I make mistakes, and I apologize. I try to make peace when possible.
While this blog advocates positivity, it is run by a flawed human being who makes mistakes and is not a walking Google search bar, not Siri, not an ethereal incarnation of constant positivity.
“We’re women, we’re human beings too, and we’re allowed to be as upset, mad or grumpy as we wish to be, for as long as we want.”
*parts a bead curtain as i enter the room, carrying a glass of lemonade*
hey….
nothing you ever read, watch, or participate in will be ideologically pure and without its problems. your quest to consume the most unproblematic material will be, in the end, fruitless. your enjoyment of anything will be sapped away, leaving you a husk starved for media.
it is okay to enjoy things that have problems to them, so long as you do it critically and with an open mind, and take care to consider others.
*leaves the way i came*
This is possibly the healthiest post I’ve seen on this site
Hey, everyone! Today, we’re going to be talking about feeling shame and guilt in fandom.
A few quick points:
- No, actually, you don’t have to hide liking certain ships from your friends. You can if you want, but that feeling of guilt and shame that you feel when someone mocks something you like, or worse, calls it problematic, isn’t something that you have to feel. You don’t have to break things off with your current friends, but please know that you CAN find friends that won’t judge you for liking things they don’t.
- We all ship ships because we read fics/metas/hcs for those ships and see reflections of what we need, want, crave, envy, hate, and fear at that moment in our lives. Celebrate your connection to that ship! Celebrate your connection to others who ship the same things! When you find fellow shippers, you’ve found so many other people who might also be going through a lot of similar things as you in their lives right now. That’s rare, out there in the real world! And it’s actually one of the coolest things about fandom.
- The same goes for kinks. You don’t owe it to anyone to feel bad, guilty, ashamed, mortified, or self-conscious about your kinks. YES, you shouldn’t rub your kinks in the faces of people who are uncomfortable with them bc that’s a matter of mutual respect, but if someone makes you feel like you’re not allowed to post or talk about it in your own space (your blog), that’s not healthy. It’s unfair to you.
- I understand wanting to hide certain things about yourself (liking Sheith, liking noncon, etc.) because you’re afraid of retaliation from antis. Yup. They’re unpredictable and scary little buggers. And controlling your happiness through feelings of fear and shame is every bit a part of their plan. But please remember that antis’ intimidating behavior says everything about the sort of people they are. It doesn’t mean their victims are bad people who deserve vitriol and punishment. If you’ve had scary interactions with them, you’re not a bad person, and I’m sorry you were made to feel that way. If you don’t want to attract their ire, I understand. But that doesn’t mean that the fandom content you like has to become “guilty pleasures” that you’re ashamed for even when you’re indulging in it privately. Resist treating your heart the way an anti would treat your heart.
- Life is short. Indulge in what you like. Avoid what you don’t like. Listen to outside opinions when you want to learn and grow, and close yourself off when those opinions are trying to hurt you. There’s obviously more shades of grey to everything than just that, but you’re not hurting anyone by liking the ships you like, reading the fics you read, and making your blog a space that’s perfectly tailored to your happiness.
I think that’s all I have for now. I hope you’re having a good day. 🙂
Some thoughts re: this post, because I’m always so confused as to why these heated discussions always center on Daniel. Anon said:
“for so many years, a goodly bulk of this fandom has only [attributed?] Daniel as having any value to the story when he’s attached to Armand, or made him the butt of crazy jokes.”
Again, I’ve been in this fandom online for a decade now and spent a lot of time on websites from the 90′s (@i-want-my-iwtv’s been here since the late 90′s I believe), and honestly? Yeah, people make train jokes. It’s in the nature of fandom to take one trait in a character that people find funny and make jokes about it that are parodic or caricaturish in nature. Is it kinda dumb? Yes. Is it reductive? Yes. Is it not-really-that-funny-the-fifteenth-time? YES.
But I genuinely, hand on my heart, cannot say that I’ve ever felt like people made train jokes any more often than they made pyro jokes, or, jesus christ, blender jokes. Or Nicki’s hands jokes.
Is there a difference between the seriousness of the things being joked about here? Yes. See above – this is in the nature of fandom, and it’s one of the downsides. Characters frequently get reduced to one trait, sometimes in ways that are insensitive, and always in ways that disregard their inner depth. But this isn’t something that is particular to Daniel or reflects how fandom feels about Daniel in particular. The entirety of my experience in the VC fandom indicates that Daniel has consistently been one of the best loved characters, despite the lack of screentime that Anne has given him (a lack which I’ve seen lamented a lot), and has generally been considered one of the “main four” or “main five”, alongside Louis, Lestat, Armand, and sometimes Marius.
As for fandom only being interested in Daniel when he’s with Armand – the only screentime Daniel has is with Armand. Unless you count the framing narrative in IwtV, and he doesn’t even have a name there. Daniel becomes a fully-fledged character in QotD, in which he’s with Armand. That’s the reason he becomes a vampire. And again – I don’t think this is a Daniel thing. It’s a fanfic thing.
I could probably count on one hand the number of Louis fics I’ve read that don’t ship him with Lestat or with anyone, or the number of Pandora fics that aren’t about her relationship with Marius, or the number of Gabrielle fics that focus on her solitary travels. Or even Armand fics that aren’t about him and Daniel or him and Marius (which is a whole other topic). A lot of fanfic is focused on romance, it’s one of the main reasons why people write fic. I really don’t think it has anything to do with a lack of fandom interest in Daniel or any of these characters as people.
I got this message from someone a few days ago and responded privately, but I thought this was good tumblr etiquette to share. I will be tagging any shipping stuff related to Armand and Marius as “#mariusxarmand” so that it can be blocked.
It’s absolutely totally okay to ask for a ship to be blocked. I can’t accommodate all tagging requests (like this pomegranate post that someone wanted OP to tag as gore, and I see both sides of the issue, but I am human and can’t tag everything), this one seemed very reasonable.
I won’t ask others to tag shipping stuff related to Armand and Marius as “#mariusxarmand” (you can if you want to) but it would be nice if you could comment/reblog this with any ship names you do tag, maybe it would be helpful for this anon or others to block other ship’s shipping stuff they do not want on their dash.
I-want-my-IWTV 