Here from my network page, and my short-short version reply is: YES, THANK YOU, YES. And did I mention thank you for doing the hard thing of writing this up, and that I'm grateful?
And... I've been flailing around for a while on how much else to say, because I have a lot of else, here.
Pieces of the else that I've managed to organize:
- I would honestly love to see more... fragmentation... in fandom: the ability for fans who want a given kind of thing to group together and enjoy their squee, in spaces that are clearly marked and where "never the twain shall meet" for people who are squicked/triggered by that content or even just not interested in it--- where fans can find what and who they want to engage with and people who don't want to engage with that can avoid it, and that they DO avoid it. And the current setup of most mainstream social media is downright antithetical, even hostile, to the idea of people wanting to be able to do their own thing, within a given fandom, in a space shared with others who do that thing, without it coming across the radar of people who DO NOT WANT that thing for whatever reason. It's not set up to make "stan and let stan" easy, or, sometimes, even possible, even if it's only at the emotional level. (I have a tangential rant about that. I'm not sure if it needs to go here, and since I'm on my third deleted draft of it, I'm going to conclude not, at least for the moment.)
- While I'm not a survivor of anything that has gone as far as abuse, nor do I have anything that qualifies as PTSD... I do find that a lot of fandom's too-precious-too-perfect-so-good-so-pure-cinnamon-roll beloved male-ingenue characters set off MASSIVE "excursions and alarums" in my brain for attitudes and behaviors that I have experienced or witnessed IRL as being dysfunctional and damaging, and I'm seeing an increasing trend of those very personally-creepifying behaviors being exactly the ones that large segments of fandom (at least the part of it that comes across my radar) seems to squee over. And by the same token, a lot of the dudely villains, on whom fandom often wants to pin sexist attitudes that I just don't see in canon, read to me as, "Hmmm, you know, if he devoted himself to a partner with the same intensity that he's giving to his current cause, he'd actually be pretty damn good partner material... now, how do I write that fic?" ;) (I've seen people write SEPHIROTH from Final Fantasy VII as sexist, when, seriously, where is that in canon? He's the ultimate mama's boy, for Cthulhu's sake!) So basically I am also "doing fandom at least sideways if not actually WRONG-by-some-people's-lights" because of life experiences. And I could do with a little less of having my experiences be invalidated, too. (Actually I could do with a lot less of it. Give me a nice fragmented fandom space where I can squee with others who share my squee, let my squee not come on the radar of people who despise it, and let that which I DNW stay out of my face as well. Seriously, it's FANDOM, it's a recreational activity, none of us are obliged to "examine all sides of an issue" etc.)
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And... I've been flailing around for a while on how much else to say, because I have a lot of else, here.
Pieces of the else that I've managed to organize:
- I would honestly love to see more... fragmentation... in fandom: the ability for fans who want a given kind of thing to group together and enjoy their squee, in spaces that are clearly marked and where "never the twain shall meet" for people who are squicked/triggered by that content or even just not interested in it--- where fans can find what and who they want to engage with and people who don't want to engage with that can avoid it, and that they DO avoid it. And the current setup of most mainstream social media is downright antithetical, even hostile, to the idea of people wanting to be able to do their own thing, within a given fandom, in a space shared with others who do that thing, without it coming across the radar of people who DO NOT WANT that thing for whatever reason. It's not set up to make "stan and let stan" easy, or, sometimes, even possible, even if it's only at the emotional level. (I have a tangential rant about that. I'm not sure if it needs to go here, and since I'm on my third deleted draft of it, I'm going to conclude not, at least for the moment.)
- While I'm not a survivor of anything that has gone as far as abuse, nor do I have anything that qualifies as PTSD... I do find that a lot of fandom's too-precious-too-perfect-so-good-so-pure-cinnamon-roll beloved male-ingenue characters set off MASSIVE "excursions and alarums" in my brain for attitudes and behaviors that I have experienced or witnessed IRL as being dysfunctional and damaging, and I'm seeing an increasing trend of those very personally-creepifying behaviors being exactly the ones that large segments of fandom (at least the part of it that comes across my radar) seems to squee over. And by the same token, a lot of the dudely villains, on whom fandom often wants to pin sexist attitudes that I just don't see in canon, read to me as, "Hmmm, you know, if he devoted himself to a partner with the same intensity that he's giving to his current cause, he'd actually be pretty damn good partner material... now, how do I write that fic?" ;) (I've seen people write SEPHIROTH from Final Fantasy VII as sexist, when, seriously, where is that in canon? He's the ultimate mama's boy, for Cthulhu's sake!) So basically I am also "doing fandom at least sideways if not actually WRONG-by-some-people's-lights" because of life experiences. And I could do with a little less of having my experiences be invalidated, too. (Actually I could do with a lot less of it. Give me a nice fragmented fandom space where I can squee with others who share my squee, let my squee not come on the radar of people who despise it, and let that which I DNW stay out of my face as well. Seriously, it's FANDOM, it's a recreational activity, none of us are obliged to "examine all sides of an issue" etc.)