I liked this post, scrolled for like another minute before I went “SHIT FUCK SHIT” and scrolled back to reblog it
I always reblog this one when I see it on my dash. When someone posts their own art, writing, or music here they are really hoping you will share it.
Is it just me or do you feel some internalized misogyny in the purity wankers? Whether it's a ship they feel is morally repugnant or an individual blogger/author that they hate and want to feel justified in bullying. It's always women or women's works they want censored. They don't care about filmed incest/rape/abuse porn, either because they can understand it's not real, or because "boys will be boys" and they are holding men to lesser standards.
Honestly, I think it’s the fact that fanfic writers are accessible and non-professional that makes them vulnerable to this sort of thing. I don’t doubt that a great many of the people up in arms about content on AO3 also have beef with mainstream porn, to say nothing of particular novels, films and TV shows - but they know they can’t target those industries, because they’re big and distant and protected.The best they can do is vote with their money by vocally boycotting things they dislike; and of course, they’re completely within their rights to do so. But as they can’t attack those content creators directly, they turn their anger instead on their fans, because even if they can’t stop a canonical work from being created, they can sure as hell punish people who publicly admit to liking it.
Which is what recently happened with Call Me By Your Name. The amount of discourse I saw describing anyone who liked or appeared in that film as a paedophile apologist was staggering, which is yet another reason why, in this current conversation, I remain mistrustful of the claim that it’s obvious which works and fanfics are irredeemably Bad and Harmful and Need To Be Deleted. CMBYN was about a consensual relationship between characters who were 17 and 24, and it was still called paedophilia. I wrote about it and fielded questions about my response then, too, and I’ve kept that conversation in mind this time around.
Because the fact is, there are far too many people in the purity camp who seemingly don’t have any idea what paedophilia actually is. More often than not, their working definition of the term is presented as “anything where a character aged eighteen or under is paired with someone a year or more their senior in an imperfect context or for a ship I dislike, or where a Known Adult is writing anything above a T-rating with characters younger than twenty”. Like. That is honestly, genuinely what I’ve seen argued - and if that’s the starting point for deciding what should or shouldn’t be allowed on AO3, then I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s a Bad Idea.
And that’s before you even touch on the nature of kink and the hugely complex issue of human sexuality, let alone the psychology behind why so many people enjoy reading or creating dark content. Just as it’s common for rape victims to experience orgasm or arousal against their will during the act itself, itself also common for survivors of sexual abuse to have intrusive reactions to their experiences - meaning, in essence, that their arousal becomes tied to what’s been done to them. This is not their fault, and it’s not something they should be shamed for; so when people single out the kind of fics that are classed as badwrong porn without considering that they might play a role in the sexual enjoyment and healing of victims, it’s very difficult to accept the simultaneous claim that all this moral crusading is for the benefit of victims.
And beyond that frame of reference: BDSM is a thing. Kinks are a thing. The difference between written and visual pornography is that, whereas videos and photos involve real human people being subjected to real sexual contact, stories do not. This means we don’t need to check in with the characters to make sure they’re willing and comfortable, because the reader is the only sexual participant. When we construct fantasies in our head, as opposed to enacting them with a consenting partner or partners, our ability to separate fantasy from reality - to know that what we’re imagining isn’t real - is what serves as a safeword. This means that the character we’re imagining doesn’t need to give their consent to roleplaying the situation, too, because the character doesn’t exist; which allows us to imagine them enjoying or experiencing things which, in real life, we would never countenance.
Do people do this because they’re gross and predatory and broken? No. They do it because they’re people, and because we understand the difference between doing something in a safe, controlled environment and risking actual harm to ourselves or others. If a gamer goes on a killing spree in a first-person shooter, that’s not them priming themselves to murder people in real life, even though they’re engaging in a visual proxy for a horrific act that’s coded as entertainment - because we know it isn’t real. Are there still conversations to be had around the normalisation of violence, misogyny and other evils in such properties? Yes! But does that mean that every single person who’s ever played Call of Duty is a killer in the making? No!
Sometimes, we fantasise sexually about scenarios that frighten us in real life: because that gives us ownership of the fear and allows us to overcome it, to turn it into something controllable. Sometimes, we fantasise sexually about terrible things that have already happened to us: because that gives us ownership of the trauma, an ability to reclaim ourselves. Sometimes, we fantasise sexually about things that are monstrous, or impossible, or forbidden: because we’re excited by the what if in a way we’d never feel for the reality.
There’s a difference between fantasy and reality. The fact that they overlap should never be ignored, but that they’re two different circles in the Venn diagram shouldn’t be up for discussion.
You may have caught the results of our super-unscientific fanfic tropes survey (conducted via a few tweets and tumblr posts). It was fun to see those results—but we want to do this properly! Please take a moment to fill out this survey and share with your fandom friends—we’d love this to spread far beyond our listeners, to all sorts of corners of the fanfiction world!
This has been out in the world for 18 hours and we have close to 1,000 responses already. (!!!) But we want as big a sample size as we can get—please take a moment to fill this out and share with your friends!
There’s a thick line between a headcanon and believing something is canon.
You are allowed to enjoy your headcanons. That’s what your fandom is made for. You have fun with headcanons. You embrace them. You make fanarts and fanfics of them. Headcanons are the best.
However, you don’t claim a headcanon to be canon and you don’t attack others for having them. Honestly, one would expect people to understand the difference.
Probably easier to read if you click through it, idk
I really, really hate fandom policing. I hated it when I was twelve and was so afraid to read slash because OMG DICKS TOUCHING WHAT and I hated it when I was fifteen and was smuggling the yaois under my mattress so I would always have a supply of top notch garbage to read, and I am 24 and I hate it now.
Here is the thing: YOU CONTROL what you take in. I am not responsible for your consumption of Hydra Trash party noncon, I am not responsible for your consumption of pegging smut, and I am not responsible for your consumption of fluffy sickfic. I am not responsible for you consuming anything.
I might be responsible for writing that noncon or pegging or sickfic, but I did not make you read it. I did not hand it to you, I did not give it to you. I created it, and made it available for those who want to enjoy.
If you don’t like it, if you don’t want it, then you don’t have to read it.
That choice made, the choice not to consume a type of fic or art, also means you don’t get to drag the person who wrote it.
That is a damn slippery slope.
Fandom is a “safe space” but not in the way that it protects you from things that you don’t want to see or don’t like or are offended by. Fandom is, and has traditionally been, a space for people to create and explore with out being told “no” by outside media. Fandom is where you can find out if you don’t fit in the boxes society tells you to, or it you just really, really like reading about Bucky getting repeatedly rammed in the ass by Hydra agents sans lube.
And no matter how well-meaning you are, you don’t get to tell other fans what they can and cannot write, or draw, or enjoy.
When you start telling people what they can create or enjoy, you invalidate the purpose of fandom, and create a situation where instead of free exploration, we have something similar to mainstream media in which certain tropes or topics are not allowed. This limits the free expression, exploration and innovation so highly prized in fandom.
Maybe what they draw is illegal in five states, and highly restricted in several countries. Maybe it’s offensive, maybe it’s inaccurate, or just plain bad.
It doesn’t matter.
You don’t get to tell fans how to enjoy fandom. You mind your own path, your write your own fic, you write meta on why x trope is offensive/problematic/bad but you do not tell other fans how to enjoy fandom.
“Fandom is a “safe space” but not in the way that it protects you from things that you don’t want to see or don’t like or are offended by. Fandom is, and has traditionally been, a space for people to create and explore with out being told “no” by outside media.”
THIS!!! THIS is the TRUE definition of fandom as a ‘safe space’. It is a ‘safe space’ for creators.
“You do not tell other fans how to enjoy fandom.”
This needs 99,999,999 notes.
There comes a point where you, not your teachers and not your parents or guardians, are responsible for what media you consume. It’s not for others to censor themselves to protect you from what you don’t want. Heed warnings. If something doesn’t have warnings, either don’t read/watch/listen to it or search out reviews that will tell you if it’s something you would be OK reading/watching/listening to. Descending on a creator or creators and demanding they not create something or shaming them for doing so because you don’t approve is censorship and furthermore, it’s hubris of the highest order.
THANK YOU.
it’s not an obsession until you search for fanfiction
It’s not a true obsession until you run out of fanfiction to read.
and shit gets real when you start writing fanfiction
Check mark against all of the above. Oops.
"I Did Not Intend To Ship This But Here I Am" a novel by me
"I Did Not Intend To Be In This Fandom But Here I Am" an autobiography by me
"I Did Not Intend To Be On Tumblr At All" the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy
just because you love a character doesn’t mean they’re not a little shit
Yes, or an evil asshole. Just sayin'.
Sherlock vs The Fandom.
We are not well. Have mercy on us.
That’s okay, because the next bit is where we shoot ourselves in the face…
oh
When people turn to fictional characters, it’s often because they want an escape. The stories of these people shelter us from the storm of our daily lives; they save us, if only for a little while. But when we really give in, become invested, let ourselves be vulnerable, something changes. We begin to feel that we know them. It’s no longer just an escape, but part of us, something that makes us who we are.
These characters teach us that incredible adversity can be overcome. That people can love each other forever. That life can be an adventure. That magic can be real. And even if these miracles have never happened to us, we begin to go through life believing that, someday, they could.
If anybody ever tells me that storytelling isn’t important anymore, I’ll show them this post.
