Right Back Where We Started

midnight mass tag thirsting over the pastor and not rahul kohli im sick

IKR OHMYFUCKINGGOD THANK YOU!!! SOMEONE SAID IT. YOU HEARD IT FOLKS.

it’s not just about the kin joke thing, which i thought was p funny and the harassment is fucking embarrassing. it’s about that and the s/asha thing. and about the “tma should rewrite the ending bc the teens” discourse. and about the bullshit around Locked In. and the Callout Manifesto aimed at RQO. and the bullshit around Strung Out.

this entire season of TMA has been colored by the fandom repeatedly not fucking understanding boundaries and entitlement, and y’all, it makes me nervous as a creator. it’s made me too scared to write a certain story i would love to write. i’m so fucking tired of the fact that i’m seeing in real time how people don’t know how to respect boundaries regarding media they like, and it fuckign sucks for me too. it’s poisoning the well in my playground. i’m here too, and you are here, and I want everyone to do better.

We have a harassment problem in fandom. And it’s getting worse. 

What’s going on now in TMA fandom is the latest in a series of increasingly upsetting and disturbing incidents. It’s been horrifying and disappointing, but unfortunately not unique.

In so many fandoms creators are being harassed by entitled fans who demand ownership over the artistic vision of others or who don’t understand boundaries. And fans are being harassed by other fans because they are engaging “incorrectly” with fictional content meant to entertain. People are being suicide baited and driven out of fan spaces, over ships. People are being doxxed over tweets. And it needs to stop. 

I don’t know why it’s gotten so bad lately. I don’t know if it’s because we’re going a little crazy in quarantine or if we’ve just forgotten how to be decent to each other and how to have boundaries in online spaces the way we would in real life. But it doesn’t matter. What’s going on is sick, and wrong. The internet is here to stay and we collectively get to decide how we use it, whether for good or evil.

Fandom spaces are meant to be places for passion and artistic expression and yes for debate. I’m not going to pretend fandom has ever been perfect, but we should be striving towards being better, not towards devolving into a toxic pit of hate and aggression. We are ultimately here to create and to have fun and to find enjoyment and creative fulfillment and community. Entertainment is about, well, being entertained. 

Now that means something different to everyone. I’m not saying we can’t engage in meaningful discussion or analysis beyond shouting YASSSSSSS when something fun happens in our favorite show. However, there are lines that should not be crossed. BULLYING IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT. 

Forming virtual posses to harass creators or fellow fans because you disagree with them is not an appropriate behavior. Policing what content people consume or produce and how they do so is not appropriate. Hurting other people is not entertainment. 

And that’s increasingly what fandom spaces are becoming. A place where people get hurt. Creators and fans are forced to reveal trauma, forced to fear engagement, forced to deal with baseless slander and vitriol with increasing frequency. And it’s sad. Because we’re better than this.

I KNOW we are better than this because I have seen it. I have seen the wonderful creativity we are capable of. The communities we have been able to build. And I love it. 

So we have a choice. We can keep going on the path we’re heading down. We can keep hurting people and getting hurt. Or we can remember how to have boundaries. We can remember how to respect the privacy of strangers. 

We can remember how to be kind and decent. We can remember how to simply stop seeking out or consuming content that we don’t like or that isn’t good for us, instead of demanding that the content doesn’t exist or harming and attacking the people who create and/or enjoy it. We can remember how to have fun. We can remember how to be thoughtful and reasoned in our discussion. And we can be better for it. 

Our community has a problem right now but communities are just made up of people. Together we decide what kind of space our fandoms are. We can do better and be better.

TLDR: “Don’t harass fans or creators” should be common sense but apparently it’s not. Let’s change that.