No They Aren't.

No they aren't.

Genuinely. Not every single micro-space within a fandom needs to allow you to address or think about negative or unsettling or stressing points. At all. I am part of some servers for fandoms where even critical discussion of the source material is banned because the sole point of the server is to be an exclusively positive space.

Even discussions of politics that apply to that fandom.

I am actually begging some people to just let some spaces exist untouched by real-world issues and horrors.

Like I've lost count of the amount of times peaceful game or fandom servers have been ruined by people stampeding in with political rants, bitching about world issues, demanding internal activism, demanding vent channels so they can whine about their shitty parents, ect.

Like. Respectfully. Not every single space has to be inclusive of and welcoming of outside topics. The real world sucks. We don't needed to be reminded of that absolutely everywhere.

I'm not asking out of some kind of contrarianism, it's just that it seems like a good idea to get this spelled out, because I'm not seeing it, and I'd imagine others are not as well: Why specifically is it dangerous to go incognito into an anti-ship space or a pro-ship space if one is the opposite?

Because deceiving people and inserting yourself into spaces wherein you are overtly unwelcome has no positive or beneficial outcome. And there are batshit insane people on both sides who are known to go as far as doxxing, stalking, getting people fired, creating revenge pornography and so forth.

Absolutely nothing is worth that. No amount of fake friends or "gleaning information" or whatever other excuse you have is worth risking the sanctity of your life for.

For example, the anon who started this conversation is "incognito" in a server full of people supposedly their "friends," and yet they are constantly making it overtly aware that they think the kind of person anon (secretly) is is disgusting and immoral. How do you think they're going to react if they find out the person they're supposed to be friends with is actually the very thing they hate?

Even if their reactions aren't inherently dangerous they are certainly not going to be pleasant. It is simply not worth the risk at all.

Idk if you are an artist, but do you have suggestions of how can I manage an art account while being a proshipper?

I really wanted to post some art, but I'm scared of the stress that I have to deal with antis

No, seriously.

My advice is largely the block button. Far too few people weaponise it the way they should. Its free: be greedy with it. Anyone you think is going to harass you based on your art? Block them. Anyone who does harass you based on your art? Block them.

Adding the 'proship' tag to your posts can also help people avoid your art if "supporting a proshipper" isn't something they want to do, or exposing themselves to art which may make them uncomfortable.

Also, searching for art and artists within the proship and your fandom tags can help you to build a following and to follow people who are compatible with your views and beliefs. As I mentioned briefly in another recent post; fandom communities build themselves.

Advertise yourself in proship circles. Find fellow proshippers in your fandom and engage with them. Build a presence and a positive mutual relationship.

Make heavy use of the block button and block anyone you perceive as being a possible harassment or unpleasant risk. And anyone who is harassing you or being unpleasant.

Make heavy use of the applicable tags on any artwork that may be triggering or uncomfortable for other people. E.g; gore. Make sure to use appropriate tags such as 'blood' and 'gore' and 'violence.'

Use your bio or a pinned post to be overt about your stance. This way nobody can try to initiate a witchhunt against you by claiming you're 'hiding' or 'misleading' or that they were triggered because they 'didn't know you posted X.'

Because I said 'there needs to be spaces' and the first thing you said in response was that 'actually X is a different matter and needs to be given spaces.'

My point isn't that every single fandom space should be free from these things. My point is that there should be at least some that are, regardless of what relevance an issue has to the fandom.

By saying 'X is a different matter. There needs to be space for it' you either made the completely irrelevant point that it should be present in the spaces that I'm not talking about, or you're making the contradictory point that they should be in the spaces I am.

I am actually begging some people to just let some spaces exist untouched by real-world issues and horrors.

Like I've lost count of the amount of times peaceful game or fandom servers have been ruined by people stampeding in with political rants, bitching about world issues, demanding internal activism, demanding vent channels so they can whine about their shitty parents, ect.

Like. Respectfully. Not every single space has to be inclusive of and welcoming of outside topics. The real world sucks. We don't needed to be reminded of that absolutely everywhere.

Which is already stated in my previous HP-related posts.

With my recent Harry Potter posts gaining traction, I just want to make an important note:

You are not a bad person for having enjoyed Harry Potter. You are not a bad person for finding it hard to let go of something so ingrained into your life. You are not a bad person for enjoying the overall story of Harry Potter despite the bigotry JK Rowling managed to smatter into it.

Nobody should be telling you that you are. Your past relationship with Harry Potter is not the issue.

The issue is what you and we all do moving forward with the new information and facts that we know.

And the facts are that JK Rowling is a rampant and proud bigot who is hellbent on using the fortune Harry Potter made her to actively pursue the entire trans community with hostile intent.

And she does not care. She is happy that she is doing it. She is happy that people oppose her because it gives her an excuse to play victim and paint trans people who oppose her as violent, aggressive and evil.

This is not about how you engaged with Harry Potter in the past. Or even how you engage with it privately. This is about whether or not you choose to contribute toward her mission and towards the persecution of trans people right now.

Because when you buy that licensed merch in the store, she gets part of the profit. When you go to Harry Potter World, she gets part of the profit. When you buy the Harry Potter game, she gets part of the profit.

And all of those things result in three consequences:

It shows the marketing departments that Harry Potter is still a cashcow.

It shows JK Rowling that she can say and do whatever the hell she wants and nothing is going to stop that money rolling in.

She is given a steady cashflow which she uses to bankroll anti-trans movements and spokespeople and government petitions.

That is the reality of your choice from here on out. That is why people are asking you to set aside what you once had with Harry Potter and to stand with the people she has made it her life's mission to destroy.

You don't even have to let go of it completely. Just let go of the interactions that directly fund JK Rowling. Just cut off the cashflow she's using to ruin the lives of people she's never even met.

Buy fanmade merchandise or learn how to make your own. If you're cosplaying? Buy unofficial cosplays or buy second-hand off resale websites. Same with other merchandise.

If you want to watch Harry Potter, there are hundreds of non-licensed steaming websites showing it which do not contribute royalty income to JK Rowling.

If you're writing Harry Potter fanfiction, use a site like AO3 which will defend you tooth and claw if she gets desperate and starts coming after fan creators.

Harry Potter might be the comforting memories of your childhood, but JK Rowling is an active threat to the literal livelihood of trans people. People who could lose legal rights and protections simply because of one vicious woman with a bigoted agenda and deep pockets.

All we're asking is that you compare your reasons for enjoying Harry Potter with the facts of why you should make a few simple, easy choices to avoid bankrolling her and determine which is more important.

Or rather, which one should be more important.

And make the right choice.

I always want to wholeheartedly agree with the "create what you want, just label it" argument. I really want to. Right up until people defend unexamined bigotry. For example, I once ran into a story where Martha Jones was actually about to fail out of medical school when she met The Doctor, because she was "incapable" of learning human anatomy and medicine, and despite "bribing her teachers". I wrote in my journal that I thought the story was racist, in a public post, and people scolded me for being censorious and not letting people "have fun". (This was back when LJ was viable.) I have a pile of other experiences like that. I would never agree with the antis that Someone (aka them) should prevent people from writing whatever, but I feel like to completely agree with "create what you want, no limits, nothing matters but creating," I have to agree that a fan of color has no right to be hurt by a story that turns an intelligent Black woman into a cheat and an idiot, even in that fan's own space. What do you think?

You have every right to feel offended or hurt by a story. But your hurt and offense does not negate someone else's ability to create. Nor does it dictate that you can tell them what they can and cannot create.

How do you know the author wasn't a person of color themselves? How do you know they weren't writing the story based on their own emotions, difficulties or experiences? Is painting a person of color as 'unintelligent' a common theme in their works or was it just the plot device of this specific story? If Martha Jones was Asian or Indian or Caucasian, would you have still been offended on her behalf that an intelligent woman/intelligent woman of color was being turned into 'an idiot'?

These are questions we have to ask ourselves when trying to determine if a work was genuinely created with the intent of being harmful. Because individually not liking or being hurt by the content's of a story is not a good enough reason to advocate against it.

The 911 fandom, for example, saw a lot of it with Eddie Diaz. People were so entrenched in fandom virtue signalling that pretty much any depiction of Eddie Diaz in fanfiction was getting bitched about as 'out of character' or 'racist' including works written by actual people of color. It got to the point where for quite a while fanfiction production within the 911 fandom dropped way down because people were too annoyed with or upset by the constant accusations no matter what was being written.

And I know it probably sounds like I'm just smokescreening for racism or excusing it. but I can promise you, I've blocked and reported authors and fandom creators before for being blatantly racist in their content. But fanfiction and literature become trickier because the purpose of stories is not to be palatable or feel-good. Stories do not have to be pleasant. Fanfiction does not have to conform to the source material.

Describing someone as "incapable" is typically a turn of phrase and has nothing to do with trying to allocate unintelligence to a specific type of person. Plenty of people would be classed as "incapable" of learning medicine because its a hard fucking thing to learn. You need to dedicate more or less five-ten years of your life to studying it before you even really get anywhere with actually practising it.

If you're someone who's easily distracted or has trouble remembering things and vice versa, you're unlikely to go into a career field that especially demands these things of you.

I imagine in any case her failing out of medical school was likely the plot point that leads her to going off with The Doctor. Which is a simple narrative and not a case of "unexamined bigotry." Its just as likely that if the author had had Martha Jones simply give up her aspirations and career to follow The Doctor, someone else would've been offended by the trope of a (black) woman giving up everything for a (white) man and deemed the story sexist or racist. Possibly both.

When analysing literature you have to be critical of if something is offending you personally or if it was intended to offend people of color as a whole. If the answer is only the former, then its a situation where you just have to recognise the work is not for you and move along.