[ SECRET POST #3774 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3774 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 13 secrets from Secret Submission Post #540.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'd say the answer is promoting non-white pairings. Make huge efforts to push them and show how much they have to offer. Do pairing weeks, do fic exchanges, do art contests, put out meta, commission things. Focus on building up instead of tearing others down.

The number one thing I see souring people on pairings is if they're negative towards other pairing fans.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

I am like... 90% confident that doing this will not have any effect

I am also like 95% confident that negativity doesn't actually sour people towards other pairings and people who say that are mostly justifying ships they'd be into anywawy.

[(Anonymous)]

There's a lot of pairings that I don't ship, but the only pairings I actively hate are the ones with a vocal asshole fanbase. How a fandom presents itself does make a difference in how their ship is perceived, at least to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe. All I'm saying is that I don't think it affects what people actually ship very much.

[(Anonymous)]

Every single NOTP I have is because I saw fans harassing others. Most of these are actually whiteships too. And pretty much people tracked big harassment blowups in Star Wars fandom compared to how many new fics were being added to Ao3 and discovered a big fandom attack against another pairing resulted in a serious dip in the number of new fics being added and could even signal a downward trend.

[(Anonymous)]

I am also like 95% confident that negativity doesn't actually sour people towards other pairings and people who say that are mostly justifying ships they'd be into anywawy.

Negatory, good buddy. There are ships I know I'd be into (or was into) that I've been absolutely soured on because of the asshole "SHIP THIS OR YOU'RE RACIST" fanbase. Stormpilot's a good example, actually. I loved that, until the assholes ruined it for me.

[(Anonymous)]

*raises hand* That was FinnRey for me. Half the tag was anti-Reylo shit. It can be hard to be a multishipper in the sequel trilogy fandom.

[otakugal15]

But Reylo is shitty and incesty.

[(Anonymous)]

No and no. And wtf does that have to do with FinnRey? Nothing.

[otakugal15]

Yes and yes. And it does!! Because you would rather ship her enemy who tortured her over the man who is her FRIEND.

[(Anonymous)]

No, the merits (or lack thereof) of Reylo have nothing to do with FinnRey.

Look, I'm a multishipper; I ship both FinnRey and Reylo. The reason I'm way more involved in the Reylo part of fandom is because that side of the fandom isn't routinely involved in shitting on other ships to prop their ship up. Like you're doing. So thanks for reinforcing my point about FinnRey shippers, I guess.

[otakugal15]

Doesn't shit on other ships...?

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

GOOD ONE. YEAH RIGHT.

The amount of times I have seen them tear down FinnRey because ~Finn is evul~ for not telling the whole truth about who and where he came from (because he was rightfully terrified of what anyone would do to him when he only wanted to get AWAY from the First Order)and how making Rey his cousin would undermine her character...DESPITE wanting to pair her with her abuser cause ~twu wuv~

I could have bought a house AND a new car with the amount of nickels I'd have gotten from all of that bullshit.

Look, if you like Reylo because it has MASSIVE potential to be fucked up? Fine. But if you are one of those who thinks it's the best and true love and that Kylo deserves her and Finn is teh evul? You can kiss my ass because that is a shitty ass pairing and just destroys both Finn and Rey to get there.

[(Anonymous)]

+1000

This was multiple MCU ships for me.

[(Anonymous)]

I think those are good suggestions. But I also think there are fans out there already making those efforts and they only go so far.

I can see how negativity can sour people, but at the same time, I don't know that I agree that fandom should never be critical. That's part of what fandom does, it observes, it critiques. And while I would never support harassing individual fans I do think people have a right to complain if they are frustrated.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but if all the fans who were currently being negative jerks and bullying others shifted over to the promotion side, what would happen? You'd remove the backslide effect where people start hating the ship because of the vocal assholes and you'd have so many more people working towards that goal.

Seriously, as a writer I will tell you I generally only write for rarepair events because the rest of the time I'm lucky to get a kudo or two and forget about comments. But there are rarepair ships I will write for even though I'm not super-invested in the pairing because I know the fans leave multi paragraph comments, put it on rec lists, come back and tell me they've reread it. So these fans, which is for a POC ship by the by, get more so much more content than other ships because they have a dedicated cheerleader base. They are small, but they really love their fandom makers and I've never seen them shit on another ship, ever.

Being critical is one thing, but sometimes you have to remember. WhY dO tHe GiRlZ lIEk ShIpPiNg????1?!?! has been something fans have dealt with from well meaning internet think pieces for 40 years now. Why aren't girls just happy to consume the media and then go on their way? What inspires them to take it beyond that? Why did most men watch Star Trek and then go on, but many women sat down at their typewriters and typed up What If and mailed it to all their friends? And there's been hundreds of theories, and because fans are kinda racist is just one more. And it's just as likely to get eyerolled and rejected along with the people speculating that maybe Freud was onto something about the whole longing for a penis thing, no matter how true it may be.

[(Anonymous)]

You're assuming people who are critical don't promote though, people can do both of those things at the same time.

I just don't know that I agree that people are wrong for bringing up the subject or that it deserves an eyeroll, no matter how long and how often these things have been brought up, there's always someone new it can reach. And yes, racism is a problem and fandom doesn't get to act like it's the exception to society in that.