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ruffboijuliaburnsides:
If you headcanon a character to have one sexuality/disability/whatever and someone doesn’t share that headcanon, they are not -phobic or -ist or whatever just for that.
eg: if you headcanon a character with no canonical sexuality (who we’ll name Lucretia totally at random) to be a lesbian, that’s fine. But if you act like people who write or portray Lucretia as NOT a lesbian are lesbophobic, homophobic, and are somehow “taking away representation” by not also headcanoning her as a lesbian, then you’re an asshole.
No I’m not still bitter about a bunch of assholes in one fandom what are you talking about?
problematic-fiction-101:
Some daily fandom reminders:
Word of God is not canon. If you’re in the Harry Potter fandom, then you are intimately familiar with this concept.
Fanon is never going to affect or take away from canon. One person’s headcanons or ships won’t change what’s actually in canon. Someone shipping non-canon ships is not “taking away your representation” because your actual representation is still in canon and probably very present in the rest of the fandom.
The author is dead. This is a true statement for every fandom. The creator of a work may be able to speak with the Word of God but, to continue that metaphor, they are not a god you have to listen to or follow.
Fandom is meant to be a creative playground. Limiting ourselves to “acceptable” and canon ships and “acceptable” tropes and all that doesn’t do anything except limit the potential our fandoms have. It’s fun to explore different relationship dynamics, it’s fun to explore alternate universes, it’s fun to explore different tones and genres, and a fandom that does those things stays fun and interesting for the people in it.
There are bigots in fandom. There are racists, homophobes, transphobes, queerphobes, ableists, xenophobes, antisemites, islamophobes, and every other kind of bigot in fandom. This doesn’t mean that fandom is bad, just that it falls victim to the exact same issues that literally every community in the world does.
There is no age requirement and no age restriction. There are 80 year olds reading fanfiction written by 12 year olds. There are 18 year olds reblogging fanart drawn by 60 year olds. There are meta discussions spanning generations. Adult spaces should remain for adults and kid spaces should remain for adults, but intergenerational friendships are not inherently weird or creepy.
On that same topic, adults in fandom are not responsible for the overall safety of kids in fandom. It’s our responsibility to tag properly, warn for nsfw content, interact with children appropriately, drive out known predators from our spaces, and similar things. It is not our responsibility to parent anyone except our own kids.
Fandom is not activism. It can be used for that, and often is, but nothing about it is inherently political. A person’s fandoms, ships, favorite characters, etc tells you nothing about their political beliefs. Fandom is not about how “progressive” we can be with our headcanons, it’s about having fun.
Feel free to add more.
ruffboijuliaburnsides:
If you headcanon a character to have one sexuality/disability/whatever and someone doesn’t share that headcanon, they are not -phobic or -ist or whatever just for that.
eg: if you headcanon a character with no canonical sexuality (who we’ll name Lucretia totally at random) to be a lesbian, that’s fine. But if you act like people who write or portray Lucretia as NOT a lesbian are lesbophobic, homophobic, and are somehow “taking away representation” by not also headcanoning her as a lesbian, then you’re an asshole.
No I’m not still bitter about a bunch of assholes in one fandom what are you talking about?
problematic-fiction-101:
Some daily fandom reminders:
Word of God is not canon. If you’re in the Harry Potter fandom, then you are intimately familiar with this concept.
Fanon is never going to affect or take away from canon. One person’s headcanons or ships won’t change what’s actually in canon. Someone shipping non-canon ships is not “taking away your representation” because your actual representation is still in canon and probably very present in the rest of the fandom.
The author is dead. This is a true statement for every fandom. The creator of a work may be able to speak with the Word of God but, to continue that metaphor, they are not a god you have to listen to or follow.
Fandom is meant to be a creative playground. Limiting ourselves to “acceptable” and canon ships and “acceptable” tropes and all that doesn’t do anything except limit the potential our fandoms have. It’s fun to explore different relationship dynamics, it’s fun to explore alternate universes, it’s fun to explore different tones and genres, and a fandom that does those things stays fun and interesting for the people in it.
There are bigots in fandom. There are racists, homophobes, transphobes, queerphobes, ableists, xenophobes, antisemites, islamophobes, and every other kind of bigot in fandom. This doesn’t mean that fandom is bad, just that it falls victim to the exact same issues that literally every community in the world does.
There is no age requirement and no age restriction. There are 80 year olds reading fanfiction written by 12 year olds. There are 18 year olds reblogging fanart drawn by 60 year olds. There are meta discussions spanning generations. Adult spaces should remain for adults and kid spaces should remain for adults, but intergenerational friendships are not inherently weird or creepy.
On that same topic, adults in fandom are not responsible for the overall safety of kids in fandom. It’s our responsibility to tag properly, warn for nsfw content, interact with children appropriately, drive out known predators from our spaces, and similar things. It is not our responsibility to parent anyone except our own kids.
Fandom is not activism. It can be used for that, and often is, but nothing about it is inherently political. A person’s fandoms, ships, favorite characters, etc tells you nothing about their political beliefs. Fandom is not about how “progressive” we can be with our headcanons, it’s about having fun.
Feel free to add more.
