not to be a killjoy but it’s still crazy to me that it’s considered mean to be like “maybe you should read / play / watch the source material before creating fanworks and diving into the fandom” bc every time i see somebody going “i havent played disco elysium or know anything about it tbh but uwu here’s harry and kim kissing” idk maybe you should engage with it. maybe you should play the anti-capitalist surrealist game where you investigate the murder of a mercenary who led the gang rape of a foreign girl and process that for a bit? and then you can do cutesy mlm or whatever idc. but like at the absolute bare minimum you should understand what the source material involves otherwise we get the phenomenon of people joining a dragon age server and wanting content warnings for like, mage racism. like it’s fine to ship and transform the genre into whatever but if you arent comfortable with discussions of the actual source content itself then maybe the fandom isnt for you and a different one is. peace and love.
actual peace and love would involve letting anyone who wants to do things do them, without judgment.
I don’t think there is anything unreasonable about the idea that if someone isn’t comfortable with actual discussions of the source material they should probably not insert themselves into the fandom. And I struggle to see how this has anything to do with ableism as per your tags.
Well, when you demand a certain amount of effort to be input before you consider someone’s creative work valid, that’s ableist.
The issue at hand isn’t one of the validity of transformative works (and I agree with you there that art doesn’t derive meaning or validity from the amount of “effort” poured into it) but of fandom social dynamics and the very simple fact that people involved in a fandom will find people who have not engaged with the source material yet insist on inserting themselves into the fandom annoying. This user articulated it well imo and I’m tired right now:
Unfortunately it’s still gatekeeping and still ableist.
I genuinely think it’s neither of those things.
i show up to the Planes Enjoyer Convention to talk about how pretty planes are. to my shock i learn planes fly which is awful because i’m scared of heights.
despite me being very passionate, nobody wants to hear about my novel where i imagine planes as types of burrowing creatures. instead people tell me i don’t seem very interested in planes or the Planes Enjoyer Convention. this is very mean and judgemental.
eventually i strike up a conversation with someone and they reveal that planes are sometimes used for wars, and they actually like historical “war planes”. my heart sinks.
they seem surprised and suggest that i read up about planes. that’s just unacceptable. i call them an ableist gatekeeper and protest as i mime being forcibly escorted out of the convention by the security guards i made up in my head.
Oh, okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that gaslight gatekeep girlboss meme, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you think modern feminism has been co-opted by corporations. But what you don’t know is that that meme is not from Instagram, it’s not from Twitter, it’s not from Tiktok, it’s actually from Tumblr. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in January 2021, Tumblr user missnumber1111 posted, “today’s agenda: gaslight gatekeep and most importantly girlboss.” And then I think it was a-m-e-t-h-y-s-t-r-o-s-e, wasn’t it, who reblogged it with an image of the phraseedited over a piece of“Live, Laugh, Love” wall art? And then gaslight gatekeep girlboss showed up in the feeds of eight different Twitter repost accounts. Then it filtered down through Instagram and then trickled on down into some tragic “alt side of Tiktok” where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that meme represents millions of notes and countless Tumblr users and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from Tumblr when, in fact, you’re wearing the meme that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of “stuff.”
Every time someone complain about how “this choice is not moral, if you chose it/did this in this videogame you are a terrible person!” my mind plays this on repeat
Teach your children to respect animals and the world around them. Teach them that nature isn’t their toy and that their actions have consequences. Teach them compassion for other beings and creatures.
A lot of people on this post are focusing on pets, which is fair but not what I intended. Any decent pet owner would teach their children how to respect their pets, their dogs and cats and the like, but pretty much everyone neglects lessons about other animals and nature in general.
Teach your kids that:
nests are important and that they need to be left untouched and undisturbed
they should NEVER take an animal that they find outside and that if they find an injured animal, they should give it space and find an adult to help
wild animals in general need a wide berth and that ANY animal can be dangerous if it feels threatened
wild animals are not pets under any circumstances
it’s kinder and very easy to catch and release bugs outside instead of killing them
all bugs are important, even spiders and wasps and other scary ones
everything in nature has a job in general, and everything has a role to fill
something being scary or creepy does not mean it deserves to die
Let other living beings have autonomy. They’re living their own lives, doing their own thing. There’s no reason to disrupt them. If your paths cross, let them be. If you have to have to interact, then any interact should happen with the least amount of harm possible (which also includes stress).
Please teach them not to scare pigeons or burn ants or step on bugs (on purpose) or throw things at ducks. I’ve seen kids do this on several occasions where the parent said or did nothing. All animals are important and precious
Extend personhood as far as you possibly can and you’ll never find yourself lonely and also you’ll be working to eliminate the conditions whereby others could take your personhood away from you. And only then can you begin to have a wholistic relationship with the place you live when you understand the community of other than human persons.
were I to create an original piece of media I would create bait so queer in order to create a fanfic environment I like. I find you guys do your best work under duress.
I’d say “jeez can two people not be friends anymore?” and then I’d give one of them amnesia in which they only recognize the other above anyone else
yknow i really dont feel like i should have to say this but um. stop referring to kinks as degenerate
like really just stop using that word ever but *especially* don’t use it here
this has gotten its fair share of buffoon comments but my favorite one is the now-deleted one that was like “well the people who use it in the bad way are such a small minority that we shouldnt let them dictate our language” and its like
ok but any usage of it is in the bad way. theres not a good way to use it
that “small minority” is actively influencing the united states government so man idk if thats true
shoutout to the OTHER now-deleted comment asking if they could reclaim it (and then going “wait i dont need permission”) and then doubling down when they were told it was nazi rhetoric no matter how they use it
saying “yeah yknow what i am the reason society is falling apart!! hell yeah!” is not doing anything to challenge the fundamentally fascist, eugenicist idea that deviant sexual behavior (originally race mixing but i have seen neonazis apply it to lgbtq+ people too) is responsible for societal and artistic decay
nazi word. stop using it. if you wanna do that so bad just call yourself a pervert like everyone else
yknow i really dont feel like i should have to say this but um. stop referring to kinks as degenerate
like really just stop using that word ever but *especially* don’t use it here
this has gotten its fair share of buffoon comments but my favorite one is the now-deleted one that was like “well the people who use it in the bad way are such a small minority that we shouldnt let them dictate our language” and its like
ok but any usage of it is in the bad way. theres not a good way to use it
that “small minority” is actively influencing the united states government so man idk if thats true
shoutout to the OTHER now-deleted comment asking if they could reclaim it (and then going “wait i dont need permission”) and then doubling down when they were told it was nazi rhetoric no matter how they use it
saying “yeah yknow what i am the reason society is falling apart!! hell yeah!” is not doing anything to challenge the fundamentally fascist, eugenicist idea that deviant sexual behavior (originally race mixing but i have seen neonazis apply it to lgbtq+ people too) is responsible for societal and artistic decay
nazi word. stop using it. if you wanna do that so bad just call yourself a pervert like everyone else
No, I am not ‘hoarding craft supplies.’ I am sourcing materials for a very big project that will be revealed to me at a later date- perhaps in a dream.
