#but it could be my lit major analysis streak rearing its head

[dreamhot]

feel free to ignore this since it’s more of the same, but in my opinion one reason dream stans are so critical of him is that some of them come from fandoms where the discussion is about characters. i feel like there aren’t many fandoms based on real people that are this big, and some fans struggle to understand that dream is just some guy, not a perfect fictional character. if he’s straight you can’t just headcanon he isn’t, if he fucks up you can’t say it’s ooc. he’s a human being with flaws like everyone else

okay i was waiting for an opportunity to come back to this cos i wanted to use this as a springboard to talk about how people respond to content they follow, both fictional or otherwise

first of all, i think your point is extremely valid! i've been on the internet since. goddamn forever. and in that time there have been many many many fandoms i've been a part of in some capacity, ranging from those for entirely fictional media to those based around real people. obviously this would mean having a very different fandom experience depending on whether you're a fan of an actual person or a character. HOWEVER... given that the median age of the mcyt/dsmp fandom is fairly young, it's entirely possible that this is either the first or one of the first fandoms for a lot of folks. and that leads to the exact problems you mentioned, if these people don't have much experience with being fans of real people

but ! to dig a bit deeper ! i would argue that the same issues you see when it comes to responses to cc behaviour are just as prevalent in fictional media - it's just a matter of the fallout being different. like, if you're going into a story with black & white thinking, you might be missing out on a lot of the nuance of the characters/plot, but ultimately it's not going to hurt anyone (assuming you're not like. making it everyone else's problem. but that's another can of worms). bringing that b&w mentality to actual human beings, though, is a recipe for disaster. humans are fallible, humans make mistakes - just like characters can - but unlike characters, they're Real. they have agency, and feelings, and the ability to actually internalise the backlash. a character won't care if you ream them, whether we're talking about valid criticism or just clowning on them for whatever reason, but a cc just might. and that's something people could stand to keep in mind

all this to say i think people are still pretty surface level when they approach fictional characters with any level of complexity (hell, the dsmp is a great example of this). it just so happens to be Worse when we're looking at actual people

ALSO to your final point - yeah uhhh people need to stop making headcanons about real human beings. have fun with your fic or art or whatever, but keep it away from the actual ccs, yeah ?? this goes for speculation into their personal lives in Any capacity - like you said, a person cannot be ooc. it's just ... how they are lol

#anon #smile.ask #discourse cw #fandom critical #this isn't super neg but still #long post #I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT HOW PPL RESPOND TO MEDIA THESE DAYS ... #but it could be my lit major analysis streak rearing its head #i wish i could have studied more sociology in school #communities esp those online fascinate me #and i'd love to be able to study how things have evolved over time when it comes to how people consume content