jeriflyn replied to your post “The posts that say ‘every time i see mshep i’m so confused lmao. like...”
why can`t people just enjoy both. this isn`t a competition.
i don’t think it’s important that people enjoy both. i think anyone should feel free to dislike mshep. the issue is posting about it.
and the word competition is really relevant here. mshep was always used in marketing and/or merchandise while fshep wasn't. and that feels unfair and really frustrating to people. most of them know not to turn their anger about the situation against mshep and/or his players but the rest... they’re really bad.
(and not a specific reply to you but if anyone is wondering why it bothers me so much when the whole thing might seem trivial or unnecessary fandom drama:)
if a kid who isn’t cis and who identifies with mshep (they’re not that rare!) posts about him and talks about how much they love him, their excitement will quickly go away once they see the bashing posts that seem to directly imply their taste is garbage and how they identify is wrong. people will deny they’re targeting the kid but let’s put ourselves in their shoes.
The posts I see (so often that it’s now a classic) go like this:
"every time i see someone posting about mshep" -> "hey kid who just posted about him and who might identify with him" "i'm just so confused lmao!!! like who's this? where's the real shepard?" -> "what’s wrong with you? why can’t you identity with the right person?"
and often in the tags they go on and on about how they think mshep (custom or sheploo) is ugly so yeah. wonderful message to send.
it’s like telling the kid “you’re all wrong. you should feel safe in this fandom to find out more about yourself, discover and shape your identity but really you just don’t belong. but you know, we’re saying all those shitty things to you because we’re very clever and very woke.”
i want that kid to know that no, those people aren’t woke. (and if might not be a kid, btw. i took the example of a kid but we can wonder about our identity all the time. a lot of people do wonder but we don’t see them around here. they’re either gone or they’re lurking for a reason.)
