I've seen discussions sometimes about how fanfiction-based fandom culture is heavily influenced and dominated by people who are not cis men.
One thing I haven't seen discussed as much though is how much of fandom in general is shaped by neurodivergent people.
I mean, you have autistic and ADHD people with special interests or hyperfixations collecting information and writing detailed meta, connecting very strongly with characters and fandoms. I would not be surprised if the percentage of autistics in fandom communities was significantly higher than in the general public.
And that's not even getting into other types of neurodivergencies and how they influence fandom culture.
I sometimes see people try to divorce fandom culture from the idea of being a "geek", and I understand that this is sometimes because of the association with the sexist geek stereotype, but I also know that there is a connection between the two concepts, and it's probably us neurodivergent people.
Now that the worst of watchergate is passed, I wanted to let you know I appreciated your posts and I hope you're doing better. Sending you love Lulu! <3
Thank you and it's my honor! <3 Hope it's better for you too now - and for everybody else who had to endure the weekend. But the boys are still there and we can still enjoy what they're doing, so focusing on that rn 😌
lulu my beloved! i know you are mostly out of watcher space these days but it was good to see you in the trenches with us over the weekend and i appreciate your insight at all times. love you <3
❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥I may not be active anymore, with another brainrot consuming me, but I watch them and love them and damn well hope they will continue to grow and thrive despite this swarm of entitled racist assholes that the fandom has revealed itself to be.
so are watcher fans going to apologize for the unreal amounts of racism they projected toward steven or are we going to pretend that was totally normal behavior?
i am SO MAD that the boys had to backtrack like this. i am SO MAD that i had to listen to them apologize to a toxic group of fucking BULLIES who are just going to keep on bullying people now that they've been successful at it. i am INFURIATED that they look so tired and broken when all they were trying to do is better their company (and their lives and the lives of their employees)
i hate that a fandom that i loved, that kept me sane and smiling for years has turned into this. i hope that the bullies feel shame, but i know that they're celebrating instead and it breaks my heart
how much do you wanna bet that after this response, the people bullying, harassing, and sending vitriolic threats to them are now like 'oh thank you for listening, love you guys so much' like give me a BREAK you people are miserable