I've never asked anyone this because I feel like a total idiot for not knowing, and you talk about it a lot so I think I'll get a good explanation on it. What exactly is an anti? And a stan?
Dont worry youâre probably lucky and relatively drama free on here if youâre asking, and the term âantiâ has only been a widespread âthingâ with an actual reputation for likeâŚ.a year or two really? a couple years ago i didnât see many fights or obnoxious posts about this stuff tbh.Â
Thing is, an âantiâ really shouldnât be considered a bad thing. if you ask one of them, theyâll say theyre against abuse, harmful sexual practices/kinks, power imbalances, pedophilia etc. and itâs like yeah! of course im against that!
But these days when you see me or most others complaining about âantisâ itâs because these people like to attack others for the fiction theyâre into by cramming anything they donât like into those categories. Those things are now buzzwords, that are steadily losing their impact and meaning because of how antis use them to condemn any fictional content they donât approve of, and therefore they are blurring the definitions of those things, watering them down and making them less meaningful and easier to just ignore. for instance, if you ship a villain with a hero they may call it abuse, and so youâre an abuse apologist. yep. if you ship highschoolers together and you yourself are over 18 then youâre a pedophile. you write fic about them having sex then guess what youâre creating child porn. Even a significant age gap might cause them to call someone a pedophile holy shit, Iâve legit seen people seriously think that an age gap of, say, 10 to 15 years is gross in any circumstance (because omg the older one was 10 when the younger was born!!! aging up is unacceptable!!), no exceptions (which i take personal offense to along with scores of other people because iâve BEEN IN a relationship like that and they were the best ones, fuck you if youâre going to judge that on a surface level when itâs none of your business and both people are over 18).Â
To a typical anti, ships or fiction with âdarkâ elements or morally gray issues involved is bad, and youâre bad for being interested in it even on a fictional level (sometimes even if youâre coping for your own issues through it?), and youâre encouraging minors to think stuff like abuse and age gaps and such are ok in real life etc etc. Being interested in these circumstantially problematic topics in your fiction means, to them, youâre making it like itâs ok for predators to groom kids into harmful real life practices. youâre saying abusive relationships are romantic. You and your fictional explorations are changing reality into a dangerous environment for people who donât yet know the difference between fiction and reality. Thereâs no nuance to it, no subjectivity to it, itâs bad, youâre bad. Your fiction should be WHOLESOME! You must ALWAYS constantly extrapolate and elaborate on what points are wrong and which arenât, clearly and loudly, or else youâre EXCUSING AND NORMALIZING the bad parts!
It doesnât matter how much you explain that fiction is fiction and that creating fiction does not mean you endorse the subject matter with abandon. And antis are the ones who canât seem to see a difference between fiction and real life here. it doesnât matter how much you tell them that an 18 or 19 year old dating a 17 or 16 year old does not mean pedophilia (holy shit, pedophilia is sexualizing PREPUBESCENT children how many ships do you actually see these days that legit involve a child??? And yet I have to see people being called pedophiles every day and being told they are predators because of their freakin run-of-the-mill ships, ALL of which involve people 15/16 and up??? S T O P).Â
Most significantly, it doesnât seem to matter to antis that itâs fucking gross and unacceptable for them to harass and judge people over their fictional interests, or bc they are into bdsm/kink, or to be telling people to âgo chokeâ and die because of the fiction they like to explore. it doesnât matter to them if you point out the common conflicts and dramatic elements and literary exploration used in fiction by pros, because storytelling is storytelling, and ask them why theyâre not calling those authors out for such âharmful subject matterâ (exampleâi like to tell them to go attack GRRM for writing Game of Thrones, go bother the creators of Hannibal, go string up Stephen King if people arenât supposed to enjoy and be interested in âdarkâ elements in fiction, and explore the shadier sides of human nature in a safe and speculatory way. Please.)
FICTIONAL INTERESTS AND CREATIONS DO NOT MEAN YOU ENDORSE THE SUBJECT MATTER IN REAL LIFE WITH NO EXCEPTIONS. And my interests, as someone who has their own life and their own mind and their own agency, are not going to be dictated by some strangers on the internet telling me what I can or canât be intrigued by because âminors might see it and think itâs ok in realityâ. Antis canât seem to comprehend whatâs wrong with that thinking if their lives depended on it.Â
AnywaysâŚâŚ.iâve ranted enough lmao. As you can see I get real heated about it because itâs just ridiculous and Iâm sick of seeing it. Oh, and a âstanâ is short for âstalker fanâ. Itâs used in both casual and accusatory ways for both fiction and irl. Casually is just you really love a certain character or celeb and probably will always love/follow them no matter what they do. In an accusatory sense, you might see antis calling someone a stan of a character just for still liking them even though theyre bad (i would be considered a Loki stan for instanceâŚ.and it might be considered a bad thing, that is, if antis were consistent across the board for which bad guys are unacceptable lol. Funny, you donât see anyone getting lambasted for liking/shipping/writing about certain villains that are considered âacceptableâ?? i havenât figured out exactly why antis target certain things and not others. Oh thatâs right, because it doesnât make any good sense and itâs personal with them and itâs a power move to feel morally superior, and antis are kinda like a hive-mind cult mentality, itâs seldom based on a logic you can apply across the board). ~
