Oh No!

trailing behind

Are you going to come out of it with a Klein-level work? No. Dude was bonkers skilled. But I am here to tell you that if you've ever gone to Home Depot and shuffled through paint chips and been like "God, this is such a gorgeous color, I fucking love this color" and then immediately been like "...but I can't imagine painting a wall with it." and bought a can of soul-killing eggshell off-white or what the fuck ever, you absolutely can go pick up a $10 canvas from a craftstore and a $5 sample of that color and just hang 6 square feet of it on a wall and enjoy the fuck out of it.

Dean Winchester canonically thinking Cas is adorable when he’s asleep in the back of the impala.

Dean Winchester canonically getting angry in the car until Cas innocently looks startled and asks if he’s angry, making him lower his voice and calm down to keep Cas feeling alright.

Dean Winchester canonically needing a “big win” and that win turning out to be Cas.

Dean Winchester canonically referring to people in the endverse as “friends. Cas too”

Dean Winchester canonically panicking when learning Cas had sex with a woman.

Dean Winchester canonically not minding Cas’ hand on him and proximity to him right up until he realises lucifer is possessing him.

Dean Winchester canonically having a VERY different reaction to Sam when they see Cas dressed as a doctor.

I am a normal person who understands thought crimes are not real, fiction is not reality, and people can read/write/enjoy whatever they want as long as it’s fiction and no one in real life is harmed. I don’t have to like it, because I know how to mute, block and scroll past what I don’t want to see. Overall I think labels are childish, but by definition I am proship and profic. I am also against censorship.

At the very least, it means asking permission before embedding fan art or linking directly to fan fiction in coverage. It means thinking twice before asking actors or artists to react to ships or explicit fan creations. It means considering whether a fan reasonably expected their work to stay within the community it was made for. Most importantly, it means treating fandom spaces like real places inhabited by real people, many of whom seek out these spaces precisely because they offer a sense of belonging they may not find elsewhere.

Fandom does not need to remain in the margins to deserve respect. But if journalists are going to cover this subject, and we should, we have to be willing to approach these spaces with the same care, ethics, and nuance we would bring to any other community. Because behind every fic or piece of fan art is someone saying, 'This mattered to me.' Did it matter to you too?"