Periodic reminder that you are not immune to reactionary radicalization through fandom.
We all know the βjokesβ about how old bronies either came out as queer or became fascists - except theyβre not really jokes, and a lot of the queer ones admit to having been in the pipeline before they came out (some in a way that implies they never totally got out of said pipeline and donβt understand the gravity of it),
GamerGate was an entire right-wing reactionary movement that was - and this is not hyperbole - partially responsible for turning fascism into a βlegitimateβ position by the American Overton window, composed entirely of people who feared losing their fan spaces,
Weβve had terfs right here on tumblr dot com BRAGGING about how useful fandom is as a recruiting space,
TJLC was a big pipeline for acephobia on this hellsite in particular, when people argued that headcanoning Sherlock as ace was inherently homophobic because it was denying a TOTALLY GONNA BE CANON (while the creators were promising that it wasnβt going to be canon) gay pairing, and puritanical, and just HAVING that headcanon was saying that people COULDNβT ship Johnlock, all in the interest of a βfakeβ sexuality and βpretending to be oppressedβ and oh whoops there you went,
We see people who all but center their fandom activity and identities around figuring out which people in predominantly queer fandom spaces are SECRETLY PEDOPHILES AND GROOMERS, acting consciously or otherwise under the assumption that predominantly queer fandom spaces are just massively infested with them in a way that other spaces are not for SOME reason, who twist the definition of βpedophiliaβ in these spaces until it covers shipping a 17-year old fictional character with an 18-year old fictional character, or a 30-year old with a 45-year old, or including an autistic character in a ship, and drawing two 17-year old characters kissing constitutes βchild pornβ, and who unironically say we should bring back the Hays Code and Censorship Is Good Actually And Our Problem Is We Donβt Do It Enough and this often becomes a pipeline to βsex ed is child abuse; people shouldnβt even know what sex is until they turn 18; you need my consent to wear certain outfits in public if I see them as sexually charged, and Pride SHOULD be an assimilationist sideshow for our corporate overlords family-friendly party with no sadness or anger or ESPECIALLY acknowledgement of sex allowedβ,
Weβve seen otherwise progressive people defend literal hate symbols in fanart when pushback against the above brand of reactionaries gets corrupted into zero-nuance βitβs us vs. them so anything they donβt like is Goodβ,
Even outside of those examples some of the most vicious, unapologetic, blatant queerphobic abuse Iβve seen in recent years hasnβt come from right-wingers but from LGBT+ people, dressing their deep, violent, seething hatred for queer people who arenβt exactly like them in a thin veneer of progressive language, who have become so convinced that theyβre the main character of the fucking universe that they think writing or enjoying a queer story that doesnβt resonate with them is more queerphobic than sending a queer person who writes or enjoys such a story countless rape and death threats and denying their identity,
Weβve seen these examples again and again and again, and we keep seeing it again and again and again, so I am once again on my knees BEGGING people to recognize that this is not Something That Happens To Other, BAD People, or Something That Happens To People In BAD Fandoms, or Something That Happens To People On The OTHER Side Of Perennial Drama; this is something that CAN happen to you.
These things are the result of the fact that fandom is, by nature, a place of heightened emotion and if you donβt know what to look out for that is very exploitable; you need to know the methods people use to do this, simply Being In The Right Fandoms or Liking The Right Ships is not enough.
So, if you see someone trying to convince you that you have the ONLY valid approach to any specific character, or ship, or show, or whatever, that your ship is activism and your fanfics are praxis, and liking something else or liking the same thing differently is Only For Bad People, that is the single biggest red flag that YOU NEED TO RUN, THEYβRE TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING THAT YOU DO NOT WANT
2087
germansingergirl
jacobvanloon
kianamaiart
pixelskylines
izzy806
