Misogyny, Hypocrisy and all other sorts of fun things
It's been a while. Truthfully, I haven't had much to say. Sorting out my own personal crisis and fandom, while as hellish as ever, hasn't been all that hellish.
Just the grab the popcorn and watch type of hellish.
Then Summer of 2022 happened and everything exploded.
I want to say I find it amusing that it took 2022 and the Stranger Things fandom to finally slap back at the toxic bullshit that's been happening for years. Between the anti's, the under 18 year old's who have no idea how to curate safe spaces for themselves and just general fuckery, I have found myself one too many times on social media sharing posts and tweets slapping back at actor harassment and gatekeeping.
I want to say Bravo and thank you to these people who have just finally had enough. You are so much stronger than the fans in 2017 or 2020 who just dealt with the bullshit because they were just so damn tired of dealing with toxic fans insisting that they knew what was best for fandom.
Inevitably, all these things I want to say, I can't to the right people and I can't find it amusing. While women, nonbinary and genderqueer people are finding their rights being taken away in real life, it took an AO3 nomination for that toxicity to encroach onto fandom spaces and finally give people a healthy shot of fear to put their foot down and say that's it, we're finished with this.
Rules need to be applied. Old Laws need to be reinstated.
1-The Back Button is your friend. If you start reading things and don't like the content, click the back button and start over. 2- Read the Tags. For the love of all that is holy, READ THE TAGS! I don't like non-con. I don't like water sports. I don't like A/B/O. If those tags are in a fic that I think looks interesting, I scroll right on past and move to something else. You don't flame the author, you don't take it to twitter and demand an author be removed from AO3. If you don't like it, move on. Stop taking it to twitter and tumblr and acting like a MTG or a Boebert and insisting that the rest of the world conform to your narrow views of how fandom should run.
3- STOP HARRASSING ACTORS! For Fucks sake, WHY is this a thing that has to be said? There was a time when fandom had zero to very limited access to an actor of their favorite show. Now with social media, fans feel as if their entitled to tell actors what to do with their characters. We, as fans, do support the show and buy the merch, but that's just it. We support. We don't direct. A lot of you out there are getting really close to the fandom version of "I pay your salaries!"
If one actor doesn't see something the way you do, that's was fanon and head canons are for. It is not your job to insist that you know better than the actor or the producer, or the director. You want something? Get off your ass and write it.
I have never been so happy to see actors refusing to acquiesce to toxic fan demands as I am now. I love that there are certain actors out there (I won't be naming names) who stand firm that the way they played a role was the way they played it and they won't apologize. I love that there are certain actors out there just trolling people. Especially female actors. The misogyny is strong in fandom, even the internalized sort and I applaud any female actor who slaps back. Because some of you deserve it. After chasing women like Kelly Marie Tran, Daisy Ridley, and Leslie Jones from social media, watching actors slap back unapologetically makes me want to follow them and support their careers. I hope this wave of fighting back continues. And spreads. I hope seeing these fans draw a line in the sand and say, no further, spreads further out, encompasses more fandoms, older fandoms and empowers those of us who have kept quiet to finally stand up and lend our voices.
No further.
