Give me someone who has some fucked up tastes in fiction, but is kind and respectful to real people, over someone who only ever ships the healthiest ships and stans the purest characters, but is rude and cruel to real people, any day of the week.
Your goddamn fictional preferences don’t show what kind of person you are; your actions do.
It’s not a hard concept to grasp.
All the people I’ve met who ship hardcore mindgames/ abuse/ sex-pollen/ noncon/ chan/ cross-generation/ torture fic… are absolute sweethearts who will go out of their way to help other fen, who will support others going through crises, who will tell people, “that relationship sounds abusive – here’s what you can do to get out, and if you’re not willing to give up on it, here’s the techniques you can use to claim the space you need within it.”
It’s almost like reading abusive filth about corrupt perverts gives you a sense of awareness of where the lines should be, and how important it is for people to be compassionate to each other – because we understand what kind of things can happen when people are not.
That.
I’ve had the same experience. And honestly – I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was younger, some of the most important conversations I had about what consent is or what abuse looks like came out of fandom, and specifically, discussions around pieces of fanfic. These weren’t conversations I was having at home, or with my IRL friends, and they sure as hell weren’t conversations I was getting through school.
Wow, it’s almost like reading and talking about fiction plays a crucial role in exploring ideas and moral questions. 🙂
I also know fans who are there solely for the sweetest and healthiest of fluff who are absolutely wonderful people. But the small subset who believe that anything that is not Cinnamon-Roll Pure is not just something they want to avoid, but something that should not be allowed to exist – I’m wary of those folks, specifically because of that black-and-white approach. It seems it’s a short distance from, “Your ships must be the purest of the pure, or else they are Bad,” to, “Your ships must be the purest of the pure, or else YOU are Bad.”
(Reminder: I am/was not a gender studies major, nor a student of fandom. This is just an entertainment blog and all that follows is my opinion only.)
This is a highly sensitive topic that people study academically for many fandoms, and I will hardly do it justice here. But I felt it was important to share what I can, anyway. Some links are under the cut for further reading about this topic, even though they do not apply to VC fandom specifically.
The short answer is that, from my experience, yes, most ppl in the VC fandom seem to be women. This is based on the past 20 years of AR’s booksignings I’ve attended, online communities, interviews/articles over the years, AR’s FB (her own posts + comments from her People of the Page), and AR’s Twitter. However, I would add that she absolutely does have fans who are men, NB, agender, genderqueer, transgender, etc. It would be difficult to do a thorough demographic study of all of her fans (current/past/specific time period(s)/etc.), so I wouldn’t know what portion of the fanbase is made up of women.
^What is superfan thinking? Does she think Santiago is a REAL VAMPIRE? Does she want to die? … or, is she simply a groupie of that media and enjoying it as a fantasy situation? We don’t get her backstory in the movie, so we may never know.
^Santiago has had to deal with hecklers and admirers for years so he’s not really fazed by her disrupting his show, and when he shuts her offer down, it draws a laugh from the audience. Laugh at the fan who confessed her love for the fantasy of it all and offered herself as tribute.
Before we specify why women are in VC fandom, one thing to consider is What is fandom?In my opinion, it’s a group of people who are drawn to a shared space bc of a shared interest in specific media. Within that, you still have to reach out to individuals in order to become friends. You don’t necessarily have to agree on every aspect of the media you each enjoy, but having chemistry certainly helps. Participating in fandom can also mean creating/consuming fanworks without having any personal connection with other fans. Sometimes it’s just in posting fic and/or leaving kudos. Some join a skype chat group so that they focus primarily on their personal connections with other fans. It’s a wide spectrum and there are different ways to engage with other fans within a fandom.
Why VC fandom?We all have our reasons for being in VC fandom. I would prefer not to speak for other fans as to their reasons, but everyone is welcome to respond in the comments/reblogs of this post, or message me on/off anon, and I might gather up those responses and add them to this post.
Why I was drawn to VC:
Personally, I’m a woman, and I’m in this fandom bc the canon/fanon is intellectually stimulating to me. I’ve made some of my best friends here. We share a love for these characters and we discuss them at length. This does not mean we 100% support everything the characters do in canon. We enjoy them as fictional characters, not necessarily as role models.
Secondly… I had posted a personal account about my reasons for being into VC canon, but later deleted that post bc I was informed that my reasons weren’t acceptable. That VC was not for straight women. I’ve given it a lot of thought and I’ll briefly tell you my reasons for being attached to VC, under the cut.
Brief historical context:
These books are/were written by a straight white woman, and she’s always advised her fans to “write the book you want to read.” She currently writes for herself, presumably, as she does not use an editor in the traditional sense. She began VC in the early 1970s with the short story, “The Master of Rampling Gate” (which eventually became the full novel IWTV). The short story was published in Redbook magazine at the time, which is/was a magazine for women, and the short story was written in the vein (pun intended!) of the older gothic romance novels that were extremely popular in the ‘60s.
^In fact, this edition of IWTV is straight-baiting, as the only female love interest that Louis might have gotten into that physical position with would be Babette, and that… definitely doesn’t happen.
IWTV is a dissection of Louis’ feelings, and Louis was a stand-in for Anne herself. VC in general has a lot of emotion, both in the dialogue, and the introspection woven into the narrative itself. The fact that these books are mostly written from the 1st person perspective is a very intimate means of communication to the reader, and makes the novels that much more emotionally rich. Some might say that such emotional writing tends to appeal to women.
The books are intimate. There is a constant thread of intimacy throughout which seems to appeal to women of all sexual orientations, in my opinion. I started the series with IWTV when I was 11 yrs old and I’ve heard from other fans of other genders that they also started VC when they were young, even around the age that I did. Being right before puberty, maybe that adds some extra addictive quality to it, that it explores a kind of intimacy when we’re in the phase of life where we’re just becoming interested in sexuality. I remember mooning over pics of Brad Pitt in my table group at lunch, and we would talk about him, but I doubt any of us would have wanted to actually kiss him at the time, we just wanted to speculate about dating and romance!
After the first book, the intimacy continues with TVL, where we get Lestat’s backstory, and as the series progresses, it just keeps going. Whichever book new VC fans enter the series, they’re going to hit that vein, more or less. It’s not as strong in the most current books, but it’s still there. I would say that AR found that the way she wrote the first 2 books was so well-received that she felt validated in her style of writing, that it was appealing to her readers, and continued to produce it.
There’s also quite a lot of wealthporn, where the characters describe their expensive clothes, jewelry, or lavish surroundings, none of them have to hold a dayjob or anything menial like that. Since many of us do not currently enjoy such luxuries of material goods and/or freedom of leisure time, it’s another element that might make it appealing to certain demographics. There’s a ton of wish fulfillment in the books.
Hit the jump for a little more.
My reasons for being into VC
Basically, I was bullied when I was 11 (for having a bad fashion sense and bad teeth), which is right around the time that someone gave me a copy of IWTV. I had always loved horror novels and scary stories as a way to study monsters and see if I could unpack them and better understand them. I drew inspiration from the way the VC characters handled their own obstacles, I loved getting Lestat’s backstory, he was not just a colorful antagonist, he had his own reasons for acting the way he did. Reasons are not EXCUSES, but in understanding monstrous behavior, we can equip ourselves to weather it when we see it in real life. Eventually, I got braces, grew out of my 90′s grunge phase, and while the bullies changed form over time, I learned how to deal with them.
Could I have drawn inspiration from other books/movies/music? Yes! And I did. But VC, for the intimacy of the stories, for the vibrancy of the characters, for so many reasons that I can’t go into on a post I’m trying to keep brief… this is a piece of media that I’ve held onto over the years. Not the only one, but certainly the main one, for me.
A few good posts to check out re: women in fandom:
And I don’t mean to attack you, Anon, but these posts are written with a tone because there is so much criticism of what women in fandom are not allowed to enjoy. Please read at your own risk, but they have some very good points about why women might be into certain things in fandom.
Fandom, after all, is born of a balance between fascination and frustration: if media content didn’t fascinate us, there would be no desire to engage with it; but if it didn’t frustrate us on some level, there would be no drive to rewrite or remake it
There’s this… phenomenon… I’ve witnessed in several fandoms, where a particular blog gets really popular within a fandom.
And suddenly that blog will start getting people literally asking them for permission to hold certain opinions. I don’t mean someone just asking “hey can I get your feelings/opinions on this subject” but “is it okay if I think/do xyz?” like some child asking their parent if they can go somewhere.
Worse, is when these blogs start taking these questions seriously and feeding them answers. Like they suddenly start believing that they truly have this authority. I mean it’s bad enough when people do this and the blogger is just like “well I have my own opinion but don’t ask me” but when they start to actually act like they can tell other people what they are “allowed” to do.
This I the creepiest fucking thing on tumblr I swear.
Why would you give some random stranger on the internet that much power over your mind? Why would you be so afraid of forming your own opinions that you have to ask someone else to give you opinions to hold?
And so often they end up with a rabble ready to crucify anyone who doesn’t do as they are told, and that’s when I really run for the hills…
It probably looks a little egotistical to reblog this post, as someone who relates to having the “particular blog gets really popular within a fandom,” but I deeply agree with this post from both sides. It has been suggested to me privately that my opinions hold sway over people and I have a responsibility to answer a certain way so that the other fans aren’t led astray, that they are so gullible that they take my every word as fact. I sincerely hope that this is not the case.
I refuse this responsibility bc that’s not the kind of blog I want to have. I don’t want anyone taking my opinions as an authority, or the Law of the Land or whatever… *~popularity~* shouldn’t give me any more authority than anyone else!
Please don’t feel like you have to literally ask anyone for permission to hold certain opinions. I’m happy to share my ideas, but they are only my ideas. I’m a random stranger on the internet! I love my followers, the interactions we’ve had, the messages you’ve sent me publicly and privately over the past few years have kept my blog alive, and I can’t thank you enough for that ❤
But! If I can just paraphrase from the above, Do not give some random stranger on the internet that much power over your mind! Don’t be so afraid of forming your own opinions that you have to ask someone else to give you opinions to hold!
Please do not become part of some random stranger on the internet’s rabble ready to crucify anyone who doesn’t do as they are told!
The fanartist in question is Avimedes, a Taiwanese fanartist who draws primarily for Undertale. On May 10th she posted on her Plurk (warning for images with blood, needles) that she was given cookies as a gift; she ate one and a needle pierced her tongue.
Here is a translation of her post:
Warning, these photos contain a lot of blood.
I’m very sorry that I haven’t had a chance to say my thanks (for the convention?) and I am venting. But I received a needle in my dessert gift from the convention. Thank you, I have one more piercing now.
I am not trying to ask for comfort, I am only trying to tell everyone how serious is this matter, so do not comfort me.
This matter is unable to be investigated and hopeless to be investigated. This matter has made me lost of trust towards something, but from today onwards, I will not be accepting any more handmade food by others.
Any more follow up and notice will be posted(if there’s any), thank you for your attention.
From discussion (Twitter, Reddit) it seems likely that she was given these cookies because she draws Sans/Frisk art, and a “fan” decided that drawing a ship they didn’t like was worthy of attempted murder. Had Avimedes swallowed the needle it could have done considerable and possibly irreparable internal damage.
So I will say this again: DO NOT HARM REAL PEOPLE OVER FICTIONAL ENTITIES. I don’t care what the content is. These purity crusades need to STOP. The amount of vitriol and anger that the anti-shipping circles not only accept but encourage is dangerous, unhealthy, and unless stopped will lead to more people being hurt. There’s already been at least one incident of an artist being harassed into a suicide attempt.
Your moral indignation/righteous anger/upset feelings DO NOT justify the injury or death of other people. You have every right to protect yourself from viewing objectionable content, but that right stops far, far short of hurting other people. Going on these crusades DOES NOT HELP against the sort of issues that are purportedly being championed; it only causes more harm. We need to break away from this mindset, from purity culture, before someone is permanently injured or dies.
FICTION =/= REALITY STOP HURTING PEOPLE
Things like this makes me loose faith in humanity
Hall of Shame
rational people: hey maybe don’t literally attempt murder on someone over shipping drama that’s one of the least okay things you could do with your free time
slime mold at a keyboard: i mean that’s debatable but it really depends on the ship
antis are confirmed sociopaths atp
but GOD FORBID MURDER
I’m reblogging this again because wtf
Just Anti Things: this
Also I feel like we really should make an anti hall of shame for stuff like this
Your headcanon is your headcanon. The characters in your mind are what they are, and nobody is trying to take them away from you. Think of the Good Omens TV series as a stage play: for six full hours, actors are going to be portraying the roles of Crowley and Aziraphale, Shadwell and Madame Tracy, Newt and Anathema, Adam, Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian and the rest. Will they look like the people in your head? The ones you’ve been drawing and writing about and imagining for (in some cases) almost 30 years?
Probably not. Which is fine.
The people in your head and your drawings are still there, and still real and still true. I’ve seen drawings of hundreds of different Aziraphales over the years, all with different faces and body-shapes, different hair and skin, and would never have thought to tell anyone who drew or loved them that that wasn’t what Aziraphale looked like. (And a couple of years after we wrote it, I was amused to realise that the Aziraphale in my head looked nothing like the Aziraphale in Terry’s head.) I’ve loved every instance of Good Omens Cosplay I’ve seen, and in no case did I ever think anyone was doing it wrong: they were all Aziraphales and Crowleys, and it was always a delight.
Good Omens has been unillustrated for 27 years, which means that each of you gets to make up your own look for the characters, your own backstories, your own ideas about how they will behave.
The TV version is being made with love and with faithfulness to the story. It’s got material and characters in it that Terry and I had discussed over the years, (some of it from what we would have done it there had been a sequel). Writing it has taken up the greater part of my last three years. You might like it – I really hope you will – but you don’t have to. You can start watching it, decide that you prefer the thing in your head, and stop watching it. (I never saw the last Lord of the Rings movie, because I liked the thing in my head too much.)
Remember we are making this with love.
And that your own personal headCrowleys and headAziraphales and headFourHorsemen and headThem and headHastur and headLigur and headSisterMary and all the rest are yours, and safe, and nobody is ever going to take them away from you.
right, you would think their end goal would be conversion, and if it were and they had any brains at all, they’d maybe attempt to be civil and sway people to their side. but all they put out there is violent hate and rage, so anyone who was even kinda on the fence is gonna be scared off. and honestly, good, antis need to disappear, not recruit more.
Thank u! What a lovely message to get! I’m deeply touched.
Look, full disclosure: this was a message from last year, but I felt guilty last year bc I didn’t want to spam ppl’s dash but I did anyway, and then this one…
In light of this past year, and various public and private discussions about what my role is in the VC fandom, I’m glad I saved the message for now, even though I’m very sorry to @tragic-black for holding onto it for so long, but… I couldn’t answer it in good faith a year ago., and now I’m ready.
I’m not the soul of the fandom. I’m a cheerleader. I just want us to get along, and I want more fanworks, and even the ones I don’t personally relate to, bc if there’s one thing I know to be true of our fandom after all these years: there’s something for everyone! Lots of different and equally valid ways to engage with canon and other fans.
As a birthday gift from me, I would just ask that you all take a moment to realize that YOU are the soul of our amazing vampire fandom. Everyone.
the ppl who lurk and just watch quietly,
the people who edit the music videos,
the people who make music playlists,
the people who make aesthetic posts,
the people who make photo manipulations,
the people who make casting suggestions,
the people who make and/or wear cosplays,
the people who read the fanfic and/or leave kudos/comments,
the people who write the fanfic,
the people who draw the fanart,
the people who commission it or just Like/Reblog any of the fanworks,
the people who share their headcanons with us publicly or privately and make canon richer w/ their ideas,
the role-players who take on the challenge of BEING the characters,
the muns who write OCs to interact with canon characters,
I’m sure I’m forgetting someone… 😛
You get the idea.
You are all the soul of the fandom, bc what is a fandom, except a group of… fans… who love a thing… together… in their own ways!
I-want-my-IWTV 