My (Self-Indulgent) Fandom Blog

Fanfiction is fiction.

Fictional people are not real.

Fictional people do not have rights.

Fictional people cannot be abused.

Reading or writing about something does not mean the desire to do or support it in the real world.

If I find art upsetting/triggering/disgusting/outraging/unpleasant/squicky/distressing/offensive, it is on me not to read it, not the creators and hosts to remove it.

Curate your own experience. The back buttons exist for a reason.

If you don't trust yourself to do that, get someone you trust to do it for you.

Fandom is an adult space. Adults create and own and host fandom spaces. If minors want to participate, then the onus is on them and their parents/guardians/trusted adults to ensure they participate appropriately, not on strange adults to stop being adults.

You often don't know the assault status or mental health status or neurotype or race or nationality or religion or gender or sexuality or age of a creator or consumer, and they do not have to disclose to you to justify their fantasy.

AO3 is not a safe space. It is not intended to be a safe space. Proceed accordingly.

Just because you don't like something or find it offensive doesn't mean it is a "problem" that "has to be dealt with".

Most characters in anime are not white.

There is no onus on you to reblog or share anything.

Everyone makes mistakes in fandom and is less than their best self sometimes.

Persistent pseudonyms encourage long term relationships.

Ship wars are stupid.

Someone else enjoying things does not impact on your own enjoyment of other things.

Tagging and warning is a courtesy, not a requirement. Assume any fic might contain untagged content.

Rating is an imprecise art, not a science.

Don't hassle IP creators.

Most people who are in fandom are hoping to make connections based on a shared passion.

Trying to profit from transformative fanworks puts us all at risk.

No one is obligated to share your head canon or fanon.

Being kind rarely fails to pay off.

It is okay to block and remove people who make your experience unpleasant. You don't have to placate them. (Learn from my mistakes).

Britpicking is a good thing.

You don't have to justify why you like a canon/pairing/trope/kink. Sometimes navel gazing is fun, but you don't have an obligation to explain yourself, especially to strangers. I share the overwhelming desire to refute an unfair accusation, but the people accusing you are rarely doing so in good faith, so you're batting a losing wicket.

I'm not your Mum. (Well, okay, a very few of you can call me Mum or Mom, but if you are one of them you already know who you are ❤️)

mmmmixed feelings about this one. i understand where a lot of comments are coming from, its annoying sure, but like, idk iv been in fandom spaces since i was like 11, and the darkfic tropes i kept seeing *did* effect my perspective on sex and romance. i think adults stepping in and saying in a non-judgemental, factual manner like "hey just so we're all clear this is a Fantasy and it would be harmful irl but fantasizing is fine" every now and then in darkfic spaces (especially if they aren't actually doing anything to keep young shippers out) would be like. really good for the kids in the space. because there are always kids in the space. as long as its in the disclaimer and not effecting the fic writing i think you can kinda swallow your annoyance on it. Like i was reading shotacon stuff at 11, and i did seek out adults sexually, in large part because of the exposure to shotacon. some kids are precocious and Will seek out porn before they're mature enough to understand fantasy and roleplay and the like

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Constantly thinking about how to present things to kids ruins adult spaces.

And yes, fanfiction spaces are by default adult spaces unless they are clearly, specificically, and overtly geared towards kids. No, AO3 allowing 13-year-olds doesn't change this. Kids have always lurked in these spaces. Teens have always lurked in these spaces. That doesn't alter the fact that they are, by default, adult spaces. Maybe the most common adults are 20 years old in some cases. Maybe they're 60. Regardless.

Disclaimers that imply there's something wrong with the content or that the target reader has poor reading comprehension send a terrible message.

"Don't try this at home, folks! Hahaha!" and the like are less offensive because they're funny and imply that the reader is not a moron, but the kind of warning discussed in the other post had grotesque subtext that has no business in these spaces.

No, I will not swallow my annoyance at the request that no space ever exist for adults unless it's some gatekept back room.

Children can stay in the nursery until they're ready for general society. General society should not be dumbed down to the point that everyone's brain is eternally oatmeal. This is a horrible cultural value and we can and should push back against it.

Sweetheart, guess who else was a child before they became an adult? I'm not even sorry this is stupid in another level. Wtf? Like that person sure did put a lot work there to be this stupid.

I sure hope they don't look at their partners childhood pictures by their logic.

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"Sexualization" discourse is just another way of saying "You dishonor someone by being attracted to them."

Yes, fictional characters are objects, etc. etc., but my real problem with this line of reasoning is that it is always about how desire is a problem you could pray away if you tried hard enough. They'll tack on any justification they can think of—the character's childhood being shown or anything else—but it all boils down to "Horny bad!"

Death of the Author is a term coined by Roland Barthes for his essay of the same name in 1967.

In brief: death of the author is the concept that analysis of a work of art should not be focused on the artist's intent; the artist's intended reading of their own work is just A reading and no more valid than anyone else's.

A good straightforward example of this in practice is the response to Andy Weir and Project Hail Mary. Weir is adamant that his work contains no politics but I would say that PHM is pretty clearly a story about climate change.

NOTP: the opposite of an OTP (One True Pairing). It is a ship a fan strongly dislikes. The word is a portmanteau of ‘no’ and ‘OTP’ and thus is not a contraction of any particular phrase.

Squick: anything that is a deep-seated, visceral turn-off. Squicks may be shared by many fans or be specific to one; one person’s kink may be another person’s squick.

YKINMKATO, or kink-tomato: Your Kink Is Not My Kink, And That’s Okay: used to indicate support for fannish diversity and to distinguish between disapproval or kink shaming and simply having different taste.

DLDR: Don’t Like, Don’t Read: a phrase used to warn against complaints about an aspect of fic or meta. A “live and let live” philosophy of fandom, which places the responsability for avoiding content one doesn’t want to see on the side of the fanwork consumer, rather that on the creator’s.

SALS: Ship And Let Ship: similar to the above specifically about shipping tastes.

YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary: a phrase used to acknowledge that any given individual’s personal opinion on the topic at hand may differ due to their own tastes, standards, values, experiences, etc.

As the OP points out, all of these crucially imply no moral judgment of what they’re designing.