fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3891 ]

[ SECRET POST #3891 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3891 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 21 secrets from Secret Submission Post #557.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
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01. https://i.imgur.com/hnaQEvB.png

Was wank different or better in some way when you were in fandom?

Can't speak for OP but people weren't being accused of being pedophiles for shipping 17 year olds, for one thing.

Fandom's developed a nasty habit of using real life morality as an excuse to try and police each other's fandom activities that wasn't there 10 years ago. They'd call you nasty and gross and stupid for shipping the "wrong" thing, but not someone who supports real life abuse because you ship a problematic ship.

It's slowly gone from "what kind of shipper you are" being under fire, to "what kind of person you are" being under fire. It's not a good trend.

I get that people have their grievances and issues with fandom as it exists right now. I also think that it's really easy - just on a human level - to focus on those grievances and ignore the various ways in which fandom has consistently been full of ridiculous, complex, and dramatic wank.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter that much, I guess. Be in fandom if you want to and think it's worth it. If not, don't.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-29 23:08 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-29 23:58 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-30 00:15 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-30 00:25 (UTC) - Expand

I'd say the flavor has changed some, but the terrible person thing still existed.

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-30 00:30 (UTC) - Expand

Re: I'd say the flavor has changed some, but the terrible person thing still existed.

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-30 00:33 (UTC) - Expand

Re: I'd say the flavor has changed some, but the terrible person thing still existed.

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-30 05:16 (UTC) - Expand

This, exactly.

Oh yeah? I was told I should have my RL children taken away because I wrote a large age gap pairing (both characters were explictly over 18). That was in 2004.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-30 21:03 (UTC) - Expand

For me at least, I remember the personal attacks being more personal and petty?

Like I went to a random page on ED and THIS! This kind of wank. https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Caroljoy

It was a lot more calling each other skanky backstabbing hoes and sucking up to people while trash talking them behind their backs and just outright being drama llamas, but we didn't dress it up with Social Justice Buzzwords or try to claim the other people were real life abusers and pedophiles.

I remember that wank. Bit ridiculous, but funny.

I think big social media has really changed the character of wank for the worse.

YES. Overall, social media is a blight. The concept might have been good, but all it seems to have done is provided a megaphone to every angry person in the world.

TBH what bothers me the most about this discourse is that it feels really personal. As in, it feels like people who are complaining about how fandom wank is worse now are basically saying that it's worse because people are worse. I don't think most people are approaching it in terms of thinking about how the structures of social media websites affect discourse. It's just "fandom is bad now because everyone younger than me is an asshole". and that pisses me off.

(no subject)

cbrachyrhynchos - 2017-08-30 11:33 (UTC) - Expand

I can relate somewhat. It isn't the wank that keeps me away so much as fandom's obsession with social justice. I'm for equality but sharpshooting every little thing in every show and movie is exhausting. I was in fandom for the squee and that's just not what fandom is about anymore. If you like something, it makes you Problematic because Reasons. So I lurk and miss the days when I could have fun in fandom.

Same, and I'm one of those people that social justice is supposed to be fighting for, queer, poc, whatever else.

It was my escape and it's not any more. I think a lot of us stopped having fun when we had to check twice to make sure sure everything was not problematic- even when it wasn't problematic. Then people would accuse it of being problematic anyway because they were looking for any way to discredit your ship.

Just block people and carry on? There are still a few fun people out there who want to squee.

This is basically what I do. I block the shitstains of the fandom and squee with the people who want to squee.

DA

The problem is that the current climate is really insidious. I used to talk to a lot of people who laughed off the wank, but now I'd say a quarter of them have left fandom because they just ran out of the energy necessary to ignore the wankers, and a quarter have become the wankers they used to laugh at.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2017-08-30 18:43 (UTC) - Expand

It's just exhausting. I'm sure those people exist but there are a lot more like the I Hate White Men folks in the Doctor Who thread and it's really hard to find fans in fandom anymore.

I'm on the far flung fringes of a "problematic" ship (not really, there's just been some wank), and it is nice being on the edges and not having to deal with all the crap. I'm aware it's out there, but it doesn't directly affect me, so I don't really watch myself, or anything like that. I know what you mean, sometimes it's nicer being on the outside, and then other times I miss the camaraderie of a smaller, more personal fandom.

To be honest I don't think that most of the wank is caused by social justice or whatever; I think the pot is regularly stirred by trolls who just want to hurt people or watch others jump on/off bandwagons. I mean, why do trolls do anything? I'm personally convinced there's a bunch of "lOl Triggered much?!" white boys in their mama's basements chortling themselves sick over stirring up flack in fandoms and pretending to be SJW and/or telling people to kill themselves over their ships.

I just don't buy that it's all teens with poor judgment or people who've gone off the deep end of social justice. Nope. It's always in wild-west places of the internet, too, where there's nothing to stop anonymous posting, making new blogs every day, or spamming the tags of a ship you don't like.

I mean, back in my day, there's a load of people who would've liked to tear up the fandom communities and plow through anyone they could just to tear apart those women who were shipping "their" characters or whatever. (Meaning, white men own everything, stay out dirty girl cooties.)

I don't think things have changed that much. These days, guys like that just have more access.

Are there women involved in bullying? I'm sure there are. But I do think a lot of it is these trolls.

How.... do you know the gender of the trolls?

Call it a wild guess based on a lifetime of experience, anon whose gender I have no clue about. *sickly sweet smile*

I agree with this.

I have a blast in fandom! And manage to avoid wank just fine. *SHRUG*

I'm kind of torn because on one hand being aware of the fandom means knowing which fics I should turn on comment moderation for, but on the other I've found the social part of fandom seems to suck all the joy out of creating or reading. The twitter or tumblr stuff seems designed to be the junk food of fandom, quick addictive bits of fanstuff that doesn't really satisfy but leaves you burnt out for more substantial stuff.

"Pidge is a transboi fite me!"
"Imagine if Shiro comes back blind. Imagine him not being able to see the look on his children's faces. Imagine his smol child Keith crying and hugging Lance and even though Shiro can't see it he just knows. Imagine Pidge setting up the castle to be ADA compliant for her daddy. Imagine blind Shiro"
"Friendly reminder that Zarkon is EVIL and shipping him with anyone is gross and wrong jesus what's wrong with people."
"Someone should totally write me a fic where Lotor's girlquad has a sleepover and it's super cute ok???"

This is why I stay the hell away from Tumblr.

It's why I left and I just browse Ao3 and dA now.

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