fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4915 ]

[ SECRET POST #4915 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4915 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 62 secrets from Secret Submission Post #704.
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.

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People discover fandom at different ages, participate in different ways -- each particular fandom has their own culture, taboos, etc.

What of your fandom culture -- the "do"s and the "don't"s?
What has changed?
Gripes? Or pleasant surprises?

Let's just bring back Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That's Okay plus the notion of squick and don't be dicks to each other.

Thìiiiiiiiiis so much. I really miss all those things.

Signing up to all of this.

Nope. Some fandoms were too open minded and became weird pedo cesspools.

Lookin at you, Supernatural fandom.

Out of curiosity, can you think of another fandom that did so? Because I can't, not nearly on the same scale.

I think things worked better when you had different themed archives in the late 90s. I remember in one fandom you had a specific fic archive for dark stories (although the darkest tended to be rape and torture which is fairly tame compared to some things). Having a separate fandom space seemed to help diffuse a lot of tension between different facets of fandom.

OP

Yikes. I only ever treaded the shallow waters of Dean/OFC fics, so....eughhhh. I only heard about the craziness of the SPN fandom through here. :[

Re: Based on Secret #4, FANDOM CULTURE

(Anonymous) - 2020-06-20 21:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Based on Secret #4, FANDOM CULTURE

(Anonymous) - 2020-06-20 21:57 (UTC) - Expand

A corner of Supernatural was bad, yes, but did that stuff really spill into the fandom itself at some point? Back when I was in the fandom the pedo shit was limited to the extreme kinkmeme (SPN blindfold, if memory serves). People knew not to go there and agreed that a lot of stuff from there went too far.

I agree, to a point. The current "cancel culture" where practically anything can be suspect if someone finds it problematic* and all the witch hunts that take place because someone saw a fic or a pairing they didn't like, really needs to die. As long as it's tagged properly, there shouldn't be any problems. If you don't like it, move along. It really is that simple.

*I'm not talking about extremities like pedophilia or bestiality here.

If you need an asterisk and "except for" then no, no you don't agree.

Unless, perchance, you're talking about people in fandom who prey on real-life kids and animals. But I have a feeling you mean writing about it, because that's what nearly everyone who uses those words in fandom means. No dude. Writing about fictional kids and animals getting fucked is Not Your Kink And That's Okay!

I would tweak that a little - Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That's Okay (But Tag Your Extreme Kinks Please).

I'm older (53), and fandom culture has changed a lot over the decades. I remember when reader insert (character/your name) and OC fics were looked down on, now they are quite prevalent. People also seem to be more comfortable with breaking the Fourth Wall, and discussing stuff with the actors and creators that in the past had been confined to fandom spaces. I recall circa 2005 a brouhaha in one of my fandoms when someone wanted to send an explicit RPF fic to an actor, asked the opinion of the community as to whether or not they should, was resoundingly told NO!, and then proceeded to piss and moan about how everyone was stifling their creative process because they NEEEEEEEEDED feedback on their fic from the actor. Stuff like that isn't new, of course, but with the advent of social media it's certainly more prevalent, because more people have more access, which has, IMO, been the greatest change.

OP

Thanks for your insight! I am in my late twenties and entered fandom around 2006. The reader insert/OC was my gateway into fandom, so I kind of always found the corners where that was accepted (dedicated archives mostly),but I definitely see more of it these days. The 4th wall breaking refarding fic will always be something I kinda cringe about, but I would be lying if I deny that I still have a draft of an email I wanted to send to Eric Kripke (SPN creator) asking him to explain why there weren't more WOC as recurring or featured characters, as America has always reflected these different faces to me. But I never did send it, and just wrote fics featuring WoC...anyway I think fanmail and that sort of thing has always been normal, but "omg, actor! read this smut I wrote of you" is too far.

Ayart

Yeah, there's a V A S T difference between emailing to ask valid questions like why aren't there more women, people of color, or LGBTQ folk either as characters or actual content creators (not cringey at all), and wanting to send an actor from your favorite show porn you've written about him and another actor on that show.

To SPN's credit - the last couple of years they've had a lot of POC and gay side characters.

Ah, I remember those times. I was in a few bandoms and there seemed to be a split between people wanting to protect the bands from knowing that people wrote fanfiction about them and especially wanted to shield them from the more explicit stuff and then people who were absolutely certain that they needed to share their usually explicit creations with them for reasons. IIRC The guys from MCR had to come out and say that they didn't want people sending them fanfiction of them fucking each other.

lmao xD

People cross too many lines sometimes wooo the lack of self awareness - OP

oh my god what

I remember a time in the early 00s when it was still absolutely taboo to even talk about fandom in front of actors, voice actors, etc. when people were booed off the stage for trying to ask actors at cons about fic. who in their right mind would think it was even remotely important that the subject of their RPF see their RPF??

Re: Based on Secret #4, FANDOM CULTURE

(Anonymous) - 2020-06-20 23:20 (UTC) - Expand

I'm in my mid 30's and I agree that things have changed a lot. I remember fandom was a bit less accessible and you had to be somewhat tech savvy in order to have discussions. If you just wanted to look there were things, but social media has changed it a ton. Especially with really public spaces like Twitter, it's become almost a free for all. People can basically do what they want, but there's almost an entitlement people have from certain creators or performers. I kinda liked it better when this stuff was a bit more "hidden" for lack of a better word.

Hmm, the only fandom I've been in long enough to notice a change is the American Girl one. It used to be really taboo to not talk about anything that wasn't "nice". It wasn't just that you couldn't comment on a post to tell the person that they needed to brush their doll's hair or things of that nature. You couldn't tell anybody that their racist post was hurtful because then you'd both get mod warnings about "discussing politics". That attitude seems to have really changed in recent years with more people challenging those who post racist content and, so far, nobody's been immediately silenced with "here's a warning for discussing politics" or had their posts deleted. Of course, some people are mad about "bringing politics into our nice doll fandom", but there's been a noticeable shift in what people want to discuss, especially now that AG's made a public commitment to diversity.

OP

Super interesting! I always find it telling (or at least curious) when people conflate race with politics. I have always been curious about doll fandom -- and I am going to guess these posts were more often made with the "historical" AG dolls.

As far as the dolls go, I have an AG doll (the customizable kind) and I remember choosing out of the catalogue and wishing therr could be a bit more diversity in the options -- which I am sure exists now. I was afraid to curl my doll's hair and ruin her.

Re: Based on Secret #4, FANDOM CULTURE

(Anonymous) - 2020-06-20 22:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Based on Secret #4, FANDOM CULTURE

(Anonymous) - 2020-06-20 23:06 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Based on Secret #4, FANDOM CULTURE

(Anonymous) - 2020-06-20 23:28 (UTC) - Expand

When I started in fandom in the late nineties it was email lists, online archives and ff.net. Could be quite cliquey but drama was usually limited to a list or between two lists.

LJ made things more cliquey but across whole fandoms. BNFS ruled. If you fell afoul of a fandom you'd get dog piled.

The death of LJ and move to Tumblr coincided with much more general awareness of fandom and fic by outsiders, particularly actors and writers. Social media meant you didn't have to wait to be the weirdo at the con asking questions about fic during your fandom's panel. You could just DM them instead on twitter/instagram.

I'm not sure if it's the outsider awareness or the huge interconnectedness of fandom these days which has made it a more pressure cooker environment. Nowadays fandom reminds me more of The Crucible.

I remember the email lists! I was on a couple of them. Good times.

I feel like fandom in 2020 can often have an almost phobic response to any sort of negativity or discord. The Thumper mentality ("If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all") is extremely prevalent, and people will get incredibly upset the moment they become aware of any discord happening in the fandom, and start posting about how people are ruining the fandom. Like, a lot of people won't even express their dislike for certain tropes when they've been specifically given a meme ask about what tropes they dislike, because within the fandom space, expressing anything negative is often viewed as actively hostile.

Compared to the fandoms I was in in the late 90s and early 00s, where it was way, way more common to see people expressing both positive and negative responses to things in fandom. I remember one fandom I was in, a pair of writers wrote an incredibly popular fic that was also incredibly controversial, and the sheer amount of public discussion surrounding it was immense. There were people who hated this fic and weren't the least bit hesitant to publicly express that, as well as people who loved it, and everything in between. A few years later I heavily participated in a book club for that fandom, where we would post a fic for the week and then proceed to civilly discuss our opinions about it. Sometimes our opinions could be quite negative, and yet never once did anyone accuse us of being hurtful or insensitive. It's hard to imagine a community like that existing now, without getting so much disapproval and hate that it would barely be able to function.

I think fandom in Ye Olden Days could sometimes be a bit too harsh and not always very sensitive of its members' feelings. But modern day fandom, IMO, is too far the other way. The pure positivity and supportive togetherness fandoms try to foster to the exclusion of all negativity can sometimes feel hollow and stifling (and can become instantly polarizing the moment anyone does express any amount of negativity).

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