I have nothing particularly intelligent to say, only that I liked reading your thoughts and I agreed with some of them too (the ones I haven't agreed on aren't in like a 'I strongly disagree' way but more of 'I don't have a feeling either way or I need to think about it more to know what I think' kind of way).
But I have noticed that morality policing and gatekeeping is getting more aggressive in fandom, with a great deal more concern trolling. It's - for me - offputting. I'm so bad with conflict anyway, that I just end up unfollowing a whole bunch of people and doing the mental equivalent of putting my head in the sand.
And for my own fanfiction Tumblr account (where I have 1300 followers eesh) I just try and make sure that I don't concern troll and am very, very careful about the opinions I post (mostly to avoid judging groups of people or judging ships or pairings or characters etc.) Some of those people listen to me far too much, or lend far too much credence to what I say, so I just...try and be extremely careful. Not sure if I'm doing it well. But yeah...'tread carefully' is something I've been embracing on that particular account. As you say as well, there is that important difference between what you write and how you talk about it. I remember once someone messaged me and said they wanted a romance like Augus/Gwyn, and I messaged them back privately and said that while I was glad they were inspired by their love and romance, and I hoped they found that on their own terms, A/G do not have a healthy relationship (*snerk*) and that I am sure they could find something far better for themselves. I think the message was received well but, yeah, E L James inability to simply say 'Anastasia/Grey are not healthy' bothers me more than the book existing.
(But I'm not bothered at all by the book existing. To me it's no worse than thousands of other books that have come before it, and in some cases a little better. o.o).
Okay it turns out I had something to say after all. Eek.
(And I think there is a general increase in the wave of 'criticising other fans to self-validate' - it strikes me as dangerous, because it also potentially desensitises people to legitimate arguments. I know it's desensitised me. Now whenever I see a 'sit down and listen to me about X issue' post, I tend to often autoscroll past it without even looking. Like, after seeing my tenth 'if you write noncon you're basically a rapist or endorsing rape' rant on Tumblr, I switched off. My PTSD brain went 'well goddamn that's triggery as hell.'
It's fine here, because I can carefully curate my reading experience here - i.e. my reading list is filled with people I know, vs. my dash which is filled with people reblogging stuff from people they often don't)
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But I have noticed that morality policing and gatekeeping is getting more aggressive in fandom, with a great deal more concern trolling. It's - for me - offputting. I'm so bad with conflict anyway, that I just end up unfollowing a whole bunch of people and doing the mental equivalent of putting my head in the sand.
And for my own fanfiction Tumblr account (where I have 1300 followers eesh) I just try and make sure that I don't concern troll and am very, very careful about the opinions I post (mostly to avoid judging groups of people or judging ships or pairings or characters etc.) Some of those people listen to me far too much, or lend far too much credence to what I say, so I just...try and be extremely careful. Not sure if I'm doing it well. But yeah...'tread carefully' is something I've been embracing on that particular account. As you say as well, there is that important difference between what you write and how you talk about it. I remember once someone messaged me and said they wanted a romance like Augus/Gwyn, and I messaged them back privately and said that while I was glad they were inspired by their love and romance, and I hoped they found that on their own terms, A/G do not have a healthy relationship (*snerk*) and that I am sure they could find something far better for themselves. I think the message was received well but, yeah, E L James inability to simply say 'Anastasia/Grey are not healthy' bothers me more than the book existing.
(But I'm not bothered at all by the book existing. To me it's no worse than thousands of other books that have come before it, and in some cases a little better. o.o).
Okay it turns out I had something to say after all. Eek.
(And I think there is a general increase in the wave of 'criticising other fans to self-validate' - it strikes me as dangerous, because it also potentially desensitises people to legitimate arguments. I know it's desensitised me. Now whenever I see a 'sit down and listen to me about X issue' post, I tend to often autoscroll past it without even looking. Like, after seeing my tenth 'if you write noncon you're basically a rapist or endorsing rape' rant on Tumblr, I switched off. My PTSD brain went 'well goddamn that's triggery as hell.'
It's fine here, because I can carefully curate my reading experience here - i.e. my reading list is filled with people I know, vs. my dash which is filled with people reblogging stuff from people they often don't)