Fandom Issues - Tumblr Posts
I imagine it’s the threat of any one member getting too popular as a solo act and that creating discord within the group. I just wish, instead of taking it out on Jimin through these OT6 antics, they’d remind themselves that Jimin has been very vocal about prioritizing group projects and wanting to stay together as BTS for a long time. He’s not about to go solo and the members seem as kumbaya as ever. The only place this problem exists is within the fandom and specifically the insecure part of the fandom.
some big bts fanbase (100k+ followers on twt) just got exposed as ot6 for letting jimin out of their header. I always wonder why some “ot7” on this fandom don’t like jimin and i never reach a conclusive answer. Tkkrs hate him because he threatens their fantasies, but what about those “ot7” (*cough ot6 cough*) people? If u have some answers please, i’m all ears ❤️
I don’t.
In today’s episode of “wtf is wrong with people”…
This is so gross. Don’t ask an idol - ESPECIALLY one of the very few openly gay Korean entertainers who still gets attacked in the streets in his home country for his sexuality - about if other male idols in the kpop industry are gay and/or dating each other. And for what?? Because they “need to know this ship is completely true”?? What purpose would this serve???
A person’s sexuality being forcibly outed is so goddamn horrible even if they aren’t on the front page of every internet site or magazine cover. I wouldn’t wish that even on my worst enemy. It’s dangerous and unhinged. If you wanna ship people, whatever. I’ve been on the internet for literal decades, I know most of the time it’s just simple fun, like a “hahaha what if??” situation. I personally do a lot of “friendship ships” where I just get a boost if serotonin from idols hanging out and having fun together (basically any episode of BTS Run), or I want them to murder me with awesome but deadly content (looking at you, 97 liners….I know y’all are just biding your time 🤣). Just don’t do it to where it is actually harmful to others and will have major consequences.
Holland is an absolute gem of a human being and should never have been asked these questions - and I just know he was spammed in his Live with all this only because he is an openly gay Korean artist and some people have the utmost feral audacity. The very real people in those ships don’t deserve this either. The fact that Holland then had to then apologize to the people who made HIM uncomfortable by asking such rude and personal questions, and ended up deleting his very reasonable request on his own account is also disgusting and ridiculous. If you think any of this is okay, please go outside and touch the biggest meadow of grass.
Just a reminder that bisexual/pansexual/omnisexual [and any other identity under the umbrella] do end up in opposite gender appearing relationships that to the passing eye may appear hetero. This HOWEVER does NOT mean that the person stops being Bisexual/Pansexual/Omnisexual. To say otherwise is biphobic/Panphobic/Homophonic. The Queer community is supposed to be kind and opening, stop 'gatekeeping' places/spaces they should also feel safe in.
That is to also be said. Stop hating content creators who ship a bisexual/pansexual/omnisexual [and any other identity under said umbrella] character for shipping them in an opposite gender relationship. They are allowed to, and as long as both you and the other shipper are being respectful about eachothers ships that is perfectly normal. This is to be also said, Don't complain about a ship not having enough content, if you want more make it, maybe you'll inspire someone else to create as well.
I'm saying this because I'm seeing some concerning trends in queer spaces and fandoms again, and I have a voice and I will use it.
Fandom PSAs
Dont’ Like, Don’t Read
or DL; DR
You are responsible for curating your own online experience.
If something upsets you, makes you angry or queasy or triggers you, stop reading/looking at it. Avoid things that might make you feel that way.
Learn to use the Sort and Filter function on AO3, especially the Exclude tools.
On social media, block and mute accounts / tags / words when necessary.
If you hated something, you don’t need to tell that to the creator or start pointing fingers at them publicly.
The Back button is free. Use it.
Addendum:
Yes, for this to work, creators need to tag their works accordingly, so that people know what sort of content they are about to engage with and can nope out if necessary.
I will probably make another PSA about the importance of proper tagging later.
Ship And Let Ship
or SALS
You are allowed to ship whatever you want.
Everyone else is also allowed to ship whatever they want.
You are entitled to dislike or even hate a ship. If you want to do this online, in public, don’t use the ship tags for hate posts.
If you see someone posting about a ship they like and you don’t, there is no need for you to start arguing with them in their replies / comments / QRTs / reblogs. Don’t throw your hate in their face.
Do not harass fan creators or fans for shipping something you disapprove.
All of this also applies to liking / disliking an individual character.
Addendum:
”I agree with this, except when…”
No, then you are NOT agreeing with this.
Let me make this VERY clear. There are NO exceptions. None.
You don’t EVER harass real people over pixels.
If you disagree with this, kindly block and move on.
Your Kink Is Not My Kink
or YKINMK / YKINMKATO
The longer version is ”Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That’s Okay”.
People have different tastes. Not everything is for everybody.
Even if you don’t like a specific kink, other people are still allowed to use it in their creations.
You are entitled to dislike kinky content and think that it’s ”weird”.
Don’t kink shame or judge people based on their kinks.
This goes both ways: your kink is not someone else’s kink, so don’t push it onto those who are not into it.
Be Kind
or Don’t Be An Asshole
Focus on the things you like instead of the things you hate.
Create and unite instead of destroying and dividing.
Don’t harass real people over fictional things.
Stop stirring up petty drama just to get some attention on social media.
Stop trying to ”win”. Fandom is not a competition.
Remember that your own experiences aren’t universally shared. Your perception of things can differ from someone else’s, but that doesn’t mean either of you is necessarily wrong.
Do people really not see the appeal of enemies-to-lovers? I keep seeing these ridiculous posts about how Problematic it is that people are shipping people who *gasp* have fought in canon *clutches pearls*. It’s totally fine to not enjoy the trope, but to pretend like it’s some ridiculous new idea that “silly 14 y/o fangirls” have made up and it has no appeal outside of a “bad boy kink” (which is very patronizing and sudetly misogynistic phrase) is extremely disingenuous. Enemies-to-lovers is one of the oldest and most enduring fictional stories of all time, and for good reason. Because many, many people enjoy it for many, many different reasons. I’m going to focus on het enemies-to-lovers and the female gaze because that’s where I see the most controversy happening. Although there certainly is a lot to be said about slash/femslash enemies-to-lovers, especially how it can be used to explore internalized homophobia and the gay experience, and I may make a follow-up post about that.
What baffles me the most is people that accuse enemies-to-lovers of being inherently abusive or abusive when there’s any actual conflict (like, you know, stories have) beyond something boring that no one would write like they stepped on each other’s toes in a movie theater. This extreme purity police attitude shows a lack of any understanding about storytelling and what like...fiction is. But diving even deeper into this claim, enemies-to-lovers is in dynamically the exact opposite of an abusive relationship, and that in of itself is a large part of its appeal for a lot of people. No intimate abuser will announce themselves as your sworn enemy, they will present themselves as everything you have ever wanted and the most perfect partner you could imagine. Instalove, the exact opposite of enemies-to-lovers, is actually the trope that resembles love bombing aka how most abusive relationships start. One of the reasons enemies-to-lovers can be so appealing, especially to women and people who have been in toxic relationships, is because when the enemy becomes your lover - you know they mean it. You know how they behave with their enemies, you know the darkest part of them and you don’t need to worry about what is lurking beneath the surface because you’ve already seen it and battled it and gotten past it.
As far as being misogynistic, enemies-to-lovers is literally a power fantasy for the female gaze. It’s the idea of someone who once opposed you being so enamored by you in your most unfiltered, non-seductive form that they listen to you, see things from your perspective, and ultimately align their strength with yours. Women are told that we need to make ourselves small and inoffensive and perfect to attract men or anyone or anything positive, so of course the idea that someone could become deeply enamored, almost against their will, with you when you are actively fighting them, arguing with them, challenging them etc. that those qualities, that being opinionated and angry and passionate and strong, could be the very thing that attracts them to you is a subversion of that idea. And enemies are equals, for a woman to be considered a worthy adversary to a man (and not by becoming a man to him or a sexual “temptress”) means the woman is being respected as his equal. This is a dynamic entirely based on equality, it relies on both characters being of equal strength, much more so than most romance tropes.
This is not exclusive to the female gaze though, in general it’s a fantasy that many can appreciate. Everyone has insecurities and bad moods, and intimacy is difficult for everyone (to varying degrees). In an enemies-to-lovers ship, the lovers have already seen each other in their most unromantic state. They have seen each other screaming with the rage of battle, have seen each other’s scorn and sneer, have seen each other so intimately that once they enter “lovers” and even “to”, there is nothing new to discover except the good parts. Imagine if you could get into a relationship where you don’t have to worry about what your partner’s hiding or if they will reject you because you always know the worst of each other, have already accepted it, and now get to fall in love discovering only the good parts. It creates a very intimate and intense dynamic.
On the other hand, there’s the appeal from the perceptive of the antagonist. Some people prefer to identify their trauma or pain or insecurities with antagonists rather than protagonists because they don’t see that part of themselves as the hero and/or they don’t want to have to hold that part of themselves up to some pristine standard. Some people want to see the dark part of themselves go full dark and then be loved anyways. The idea that you can always change for the better, that you are always worthy of love no matter how damaged you think you are. The idea that someone bright and good could see the most angry, hurt, ugly part of you and still love you. That is a very hopeful and positive message to a lot of people. I will never understand these types of people’s hateful opposition to redemption and healing, because I truly think that’s one of the most beautiful and powerful messages a story can have when it’s done right. The obsession some people have with punishment and condemnation simply is not healthy or productive.
Also, if people could stop infantalizing women as if we can’t differentiate reality from fiction with our silly girl brains, and also stop demonizing girls/women for exploring their sexuality in fiction by calling every goddamn thing “fetishization” - basically just stop being misogynistic af, yeah that’d be great thanks.
Yall do realize that Iroh is a war criminal, right? Like ik he's everyone's fav grandpa uncle or whatever but he is LITERALLY a war criminal and should be treated as such
“Wait, there are people blaming the writers?”
Are you surprised? Fandoms have become notorious anti-writer spaces. Studios love you guys. They can cut the budgets, cut the number of writers, cut the wages of the writers, and you guys always blame the writers. “The writers ruined the show!” It’s never “the studios ruined the show.”
I hate to break it to you: more than half the shows you complain were “ruined by the writers”, were ruined by the studios. Studios cut the scenes and arcs you were excited for. Studios cut the budget of the show, or even raise the budget of the show and force a “bigger, louder, bolder” tone on shows that were unexpected hits (this is where we get “the Netflix look” on every show post-Stranger Things and Queen’s Gambit).
You guys do not do your research. Half your fanfics are tagged with bad faith digs at the writers, when a few searches would reveal how strapped that show was and how poorly the writers were treated. Writers are being given a single week to write each episode—I’m not kidding, one-week-per-episode is one of the reasons for the strike. How are good arcs and scenes supposed to happen under that time limit, with a max of only four writers?
Tumblr, the self-proclaimed “pro-union, pro-worker, pro-artist” site is also a major fandom site. You guys rarely practice good faith consumer etiquette for television and film writers, because your fandom salt always turns you against writers. And studios love you for it.
Yeah, individual writers do create bad writing from time to time. But so do painters, chefs, and musicians. Directors and actors sometimes refuse to film certain scenes or follow a show’s projected style and arc, and the writers always get the crap for a bad performance or a poorly directed episode. This isn’t to blame actors or directors; it’s to point out that you guys have one villain, and it’s always the writers. You guys never give writers the same grace you give animators, designers, directors, actors, composers, and editors.
Studios love you every time you say “the writers ruined the show.” Every single popular fandom is guilty of this. View any of the “why did the writers cut this scene, they hate my characters” talk when leaked scenes hit the internet. Writers barely get paid for what they do write. You think they’re writing scenes and then happily throwing them in the shredder? You guys just eat the talk that studios put out. Always have.