#which i can respect as i do not engage with rpf myself

[amywritesthings]

the actor that played fred benson in stranger things vol1 spoke about his boundaries re: fan art / fiction / edits and i think that’s ?? so awesome, that he is not only aware of fan-related content, but respectfully requested his boundaries in conjunction with that content so they are mentally safe.

#stranger things #that's is so dope #fyi it's just no rpf content #which i can respect as i do not engage with rpf myself #but i've never seen an actor do that? #and he used to write fanfiction as well??? #it's so neat!! #logan riley bruner #fred benson

[gojonanami]

Hey Sab! I saw your tags talking about how you'd be open to having a conversation about your stance on aging up minor characters, rather receiving blatant hate. Can you explain why you think it's okay then? I'll be honest with you, I'm of the stance that it's wrong. But if you're open to having a discussion, I'd like to hear what you have to say about it, and where you're coming from.

hi friend, first I want to thank you for your very respectful ask — and for feeling comfortable enough to come and ask me about it! I completely respect your opinion and it’s valid— I’ll explain a little what my perspective is on this is—but first:

For others: this is not an invitation for people to come into my inbox and attack me, this is not me opening people up to tagging me in negative posts or messaging me bullshit—if you don’t agree with me, totally fine! if you don’t want to see my posts, just block me. You can have your opinion without feeling as if it’s an attack on you — just as I don’t view yours as an attack on me.

anyway back to the point:

for myself, writing is very little about writing from my perspective, usually it’s about taking an idea and spinning it into a story. the way I write my fics is honestly not much different than I write my own books — except the main character (in this case, reader) is not described much and has a more flexible personality / background. i never self insert myself into stories and even reading fanfiction, it’s more for the story than anything else. just to give some context for my writing process.

I personally would never write a fic about a character is underage engaging in adult acts in fanfiction, that’s just my personal preference. I enjoy writing characters who are older — usually college age and up. I don’t really enjoy writing romance that involves high school or younger, because media is saturated with that (re: every teenage romance show in existence — riverdale, teen wolf, etc). but this is about taking a character (who in this present day would be of age) and placing them in a setting where they would be of age, with other characters who are of age and, in my fic’s case, the exact same age.

I don’t see a problem with taking a character and imagining what they are like older — they are fictional, they do not exist, they do not have rights, they don’t even have a consciousness in any way— and placing them in an environment where they are older and do things that older people do. I see no difference in this and than an author doing a timeskip and showing what the characters are like when they are older. I assume wouldn’t have a problem with this if we ever get designs or a timeskip in JJK, like how the haikyuu fandom did. There’s also a difference between that in RPF, which I’m not a fan of, and aging up real people who are minors — that’s a whole different story since those people actually exist. I understand people’s outrage and want to protect minors from these depictions of them — but I don’t understand why in the case of fictional characters where they don’t exist in a vacuum, AUs exist where people literally make them into eternal beings, monsters, royalty, etc — why it’s a problem to put them in a universe where they are of age and have grown up and get to live normal lives as adults, including engaging in adult acts. Because we see this all the time done in media and also we see minors depicted to engage in adult acts in media today — in books, TV, movies, etc. while I’m not okay writing fiction (fics or not) about that, we cannot lie and say it doesnt happen every day.

now this also leads into censorship in literature and media, which is a major issue all over the world, including the USA (where I live). obviously some things in literature are NEVER okay in real life — but if we start censoring certain things because they aren’t okay in real life, what will come next? we can’t show murder because it’s not okay irl? we can’t show assault because it’s not okay irl? some of these things yes, shouldn’t be depicted gratuitously in fiction, for no reason, but at the same time, once we start drawing this line, it becomes a slippery slope. soon, we can’t show violence at all in fiction — which sometimes it’s necessary for the story you’re telling. for some others, depicting these acts in fiction is a safe way for them to process their trauma — dark romance fiction in general has seen a rise, especially on TikTok, and I think we all have read or seen things that characters have done in a tv show or book or fic where we’re like maybe that’s hot in that fictional setting, but if someone real said that to me, I’m calling the police (see the trend on TikTok of people quoting fictional men saying ridiculous things that have people kicking their feet but in real life would have you putting them in jail). but fiction is a safe way to explore these things without any danger. and that’s okay!

also censorship is used as a dangerous tool to make people ignorant and it’s easy to draw a line where violence shouldn’t be depicted to ‘let’s ban these books because they depict violence but also other things we don’t want people learning about’ — like the book ban that plagues the USA — from books about genocide, slavery, etc.

I think fiction should be a place to explore ideas, even ones that are uncomfortable. And that doesn’t mean I’m saying that means its okay for pedophiles to write creepy things about underage girls. I think we can all agree that’s not okay and that’s a straw man’s argument at best because we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about aging up a fictional character and placing them in an environment with other like aged characters.

Are we going to stop people from writing murderers in fics / literature because we’re afraid it will cause them to murder? We have to be able to distinguish between what is reality and fiction — just because I watched a show about a fictional killer, doesn’t mean I’m going to go murder people. If other people can’t, then they shouldn’t be reading fiction and should be seeking professional help.

For the context of my yuji fic that’s been catching a lot of heat because of this, it’s a childhood best friends to lovers fic. it’s a reader who grew up with yuji, came to college and ends up in a friends with benefits with him, only for her to fall for him. The actual act of sex is just used as a plot device — the point of the story is them falling in love, and reader seeing yuji in a different light. People who are in college have sex (for the most part) it’s a part of adult life and growing up (again for the most part).

overall, we’ve all seen this discourse time and time again — and it’s just a matter of preference at this point. this is why people have tags and warnings — if you don’t like it, just block the person or don’t read it. it’s as simple as that. people are never going to agree on this issue. and everyone is entitled to their own opinion as long as it’s not hurting anyone or themselves. and if all of this sticks to the fictional world, I don’t see a problem

I completely respect your right to have your own preference/opinion on this, and I hope you can do the same for me! thank for being so respectful!

(Also others who disagree with me, just block me. Don’t send me asks, don’t send me hateful messages, don’t try to argue with me, don’t tag me in rude posts — just block me or ignore the post).

this is going to be my last post on this issue. I don’t like to make this blog about discourse. I hate discourse. This is my hobby. It’s for fun. If I wanted to have an argument, I’d go pick a fight on twt. so please don’t bother. I like the discussion, it’s important. But I don’t want to argue pointlessly.

#ugh I hate discourse lmao #this is again the last ask I’ll be answering #if you send hate I’m not reading it and you’ll be blocked so #you’re wasting you’re time #sab [asks] #sab [anons]

[inchidentally]

god I wish xkit still had the inbox features - but I'm gonna screencap all the stuff under tricky asks and save them for later so I can see the fun asks and not have them get buried <3

gonna do a few of the more recent ones now and then from there bundle them every couple weeks!

I've mostly just fallen out of interest w the ship apart from the way I enjoy it (which isn't popular lol) for a few reasons but mostly the misogyny toward real life gfs. I still enjoy it for myself and I'm even writing it rn but I'm just not motivated to go crazy over it anymore <3

oh babe I'm a massive complainer about McLaren's new media approach meaning we don't get the fun, regular teammate content that we used to but truly there's no motive for actually keeping them apart! the carlando challenge was F1TV and I actually can't tell who pushed for the Oscar/Esteban RC car challenge but it makes sense bc they've chatted a fair amount during down time since Bahrain. I think there's a casual friendliness there.

but also this kind of cross-team content isn't unusual at all and tbh it's a coincidence that feels annoying mainly bc it coincides with McLaren sm deciding to go all slick edits rather than spontaneous and fun content.

and first anon if anything it felt like Oscar put himself in time out for well, actually slightly stalking Lando in the preseason and Bahrain kasgfkaflsagfslja I'm... mostly joking

oh listen, Carlos and Lando absolutely are friends - and I don't wanna jump down your throat if you're not saying they aren't - but don't get me wrong, I enjoy carlando for what it actually is and not the 'secretly in love/fucking/relationship/actually gay for each other' version. ironically the reality is a lot sweeter and more real than desperately ignoring everything about Carlos to pretend he's gay or to pretend that Lando and Carlos rank even in the top 100 of people closest to them. sorry but to me the reality of baby Lando latching onto Carlos for support in F1 and Carlos quite liking this funny little dude fluttering around him even when they have nothing but driving, golf and beautiful women in common - like, that's sweet to me!! sorry ?? it's the whole imprinted on each other but we wouldn't normally be friends thing that happens in these little brother/big brother scenarios.

the fact is tho that carlando is indeed a major popularity and engagement spinner for everyone from F1 official to sponsors to Lando and Carlos themselves, and they both know that hanging out and documenting it can serve two purposes at once. the Australia stuff was all probably a bit too cynical but they wouldn't do any of it if they didn't actually enjoy spending time together! plenty of these sports bromances do similar things it's just that of the F1 bromances, carlando caught on with the 1D rpf conspiracy theorist pipeline by ticking every box. you'd think they'd catch on that it's all the ones they're convinced are RealTM that end up flopping butttt

but yea I remember the ask linking to ppl saying that landoscar and charlos are PR and to this day it's like did they just want to face a deluge of constantly being proven wrong or ??? esp the fact that Charles and Carlos get absolutely zilch out of their dynamic this season (and forever after that) - especially Carlos who could easily decide to just be blandly polite to Charles and focus on buddying up to a hopeful new teammate if charlos was purely PR. even when they play it up, it's not cynical and they make it clear. but the way they've chosen to deal with this whole circus in a joint way is like damn. they're not besties or anything but they respect the fuck out of each other and talk a lot about how to deal with being friends and also teammates.

and landoscar literally has no bromance content, no fake gay, not even excessive touching or physical proximity, Oscar isn't remotely interested in being camera friendly, they don't document any of their time together when it's not official media, and they don't remotely play up to the cameras together. the ship literally exists bc two guys like to watch each other with sweet dopey smiles, they are on a freakishly similar wavelength, have immense respect for each other, Oscar has observed and learned Lando to almost worrying degrees, and Lando has no filter so when he keeps having horny verbal burps about Oscar's body that make the people around them uncomfortable or awkward - and that Oscar just blushes and giggles through. it's absolutely not planned or strategic bc what a horrible strategy to try and convince fans to ship them like carlando and dando askflgsajlgflaf.

like, everything about Lando and Oscar's real life dynamic and friendship is one of the few cases where they're categorically known to not cynically try to promote it for fans and they don't play up to the cameras for engagement. literally they like each other and get on well and it's just. like that !!

#inchreplies #wank adjacent

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

first of all i want to say i absolutely love i'm looking thorugh you and i'm excited for the next chapter. now on an unrelated note i want to ask have you seen sarah z's new video on fanfiction? if you have, what do you think?

Hi anon, thank you so much!!! My exams are starting in 10 days and in 5 days I'll be seeing my sister for the first time in one and a half years, so I'm gonna really try to find space to finish up Chapter 8 very soon (perhaps today [not including editing time, but everything currently written has been gone through once already]) so that I can justifiably step away from it again to focus on my exams and spending time with her, before returning to it. (which probably won't be before September)

I hadn't seen it and haven't watched any of her videos in a while, but I did upon seeing this ask. (I find her long-winded and generally she doesn't say much I haven't thought of myself; watched it on double speed lmao)

I agree with her on most points, I think. Fanfic is clearly art, I think that's honestly a stupid thing to even debate about. Also, it's first and foremost a medium with intrinsic qualities that can be either used to the story's advantage or disadvantage.

While there's value in original fiction having to rise up to the challenge of building characters and setting from scratch, a narrative meant to be understood with foreknowledge of "canon" can actually inherently tell a different type of story. Like, it's kind of one of the points I'm trying to make with I'm Looking Through You; demonstrating how the story both parallels and diverges from what actually happened, which would be difficult to do in a satisfying and engaging way if I had to establish the first "timeline" within the story as well, if that makes sense.

That being said, I think Beatles RPF (the kind that doesn't take place in AUs) is sort of interesting in that respect: if you're writing fic for a book series or a movie franchise or what have you, in most cases you can expect the reader to have come across the entire canon (say with the exception of monster franchises like Discworld or the Star Wars EU). But in the case of a story based on a real history, which draws from many books and accounts as well as pictures and film, it's kind of difficult for me as an author to suss out what I can reasonably expect my readers to be aware of. Usually, when I tie in some recollection of a real event (example off the top of my head: I mention Paul getting Dot Rhone pregnant in chapter 3) I try to formulate it in a way that if someone wasn't previously privy to that particular fact it would still be understandable to the extent it's relevant to the story. The only thing I in general assume to be known is their discography. So in a way, the concept of fanfic not requiring any skills in establishing anything isn't quite accurate. I'm also kind of a big show don't tell truther, so I kind of think if you follow that principle perfectly (not saying I do btw, it's pretty difficult) with your characters, you're more or less doing the same thing whether the characters are known to the audience already or not.

I think the main thing about fanfic and the perceived poor quality of it is due to, as mentioned in the video, there being zero barriers of entry but also to the fact that constructive criticism is just not really welcome on fanfic sharing platforms. For better or for worse, in 90% of the cases, people are only gonna comment on a fic to praise it. I think that's fine in the sense that most people aren't aspiring professional writers, but it doesn't make for the best environment to improve and grow as a writer more than simply practicing the art would help anyways. If you're lucky, someone will specify the reasons they enjoy the story, but just like we can't expect everyone to write perfectly, we can even less expect all readers to spend half an hour writing a carefully worded review. I kind of wish there was a setting on ao3 where you could mark a fic as "open to criticism", so people who are just writing for themselves can just keep doing their thing unbothered, but people interested in honing their craft could get more nuanced feedback than "OHHHH MY GOOOOOD I LOVE THIS".

The kind of funny thing for me is that all original fiction I've written or attempted to write up until now was very much based around my own personal experiences, so writing from the perspective of men in the 60s who had insanely different lives from mine actually really forced me out of my comfort zone in a way? And the work I put into the historical research is considerable, so I just think that really doesn't match up with what fanfic-haters imagine the genre to be?

Of course, a bunch of stories do match up with antis' expectations of it, but alas that's not fanfiction as a medium's fault and there's nothing inherently wrong with stories written with their main purpose being escapism. I mostly think people should be aware that that's what they're consuming and if that's the only thing they consume, they might be missing out on more challenging ideas.

#I think that's most of my thoughts? #if I missed anything major Sarah brought up you'd like to hear my thoughts on please tell me :) #ask #anon #fic #fiona.docx

[milknhonies]

I wholeheartedly agree with your stance on AI "art" being violating and problematic.

However, I do have a problem with the way you stated that even though you know MBB to be an adult, she is still Eleven from ST and a minor in your eyes.

She's 19. She's engaged. Because of her career she is probably more independent than anyone of us was at that age. And I do think that perpetual viewing of actors as 'stuck' as a character they once portrayed is problematic.

This is what happened when people thought "omg Hannah Montana has gone nuts" or "what happened to the sweet Demi Lovato?" Or anything else involving child actors.

What happened? They grew up.

Other than that, your point about AI generated images (I'm not even calling it 'art' anymore) stands. It's creepy and violating, especially because AI is getting 'better' (= more accurate) and I'm honestly afraid that before long we will have full-on deepfake porn videos with actors who never asked for that shit.

That said; it does raise the question with me whether or not a similar stance is warranted against NSFW artwork or smut with the actors rather than portrayed characters as the subject. (I've never been a big fan of RPF, and I don't think I've come across "real person fan art", so I can't really say with certainty if it would make me uncomfortable. But the AI things... They just make my skin crawl.)

You make a valid point!!! Warning long ass post reply below.

The Millie thing I think is more my personal view of her physically. I think I view Millie as still a young child is because of her youthful face and the characters she plays. I'm 22. It's still so hard for me to think she's only 2-3 years younger than me. To me she still looks 16. Very young. If she had a sex scene in the next 5-10 years I might still be inclined to turn away. She definitely has accomplished a lot.

I just cannot physically imagine her in sexual light at this present time. She has child like appearances other than when she's dolled up from a magazine shoot with Photoshop and then appears borderline age appropriate.

The same can be said for actor Bella Ramsey who is 20 years old, they have a very young look in appearance and have played many roles depicting them as younger than their original age. But both of them definitely deserve to be admired and respected to the work they've contributed.

So being told there's ai images with "white sauce" on her face makes my insides churn. Either a very young fan has generated that or someone's computer that might need to be investigated.

I never really knew who Hannah Montana was until wrecking ball (wasn't allowed to watch tv a lot growing up as a kid. And I was always told she was a slut in the tv show which is why I wasn't allowed to watch it -by gross male family members.) and I didn't know who Demi Lovato was AT ALL until the drug scandal- that's how I learnt about her music because they played it on the news. I was probably 13-14 at this time. But I think I understand what you're comparing...I think?

Like how Billie Eillish showed her body off when she was 18 and the internet went crazy, but to be fair I also thought she was in her 20s and was shocked when I found out she was only a little bit younger than me.

I still find myself uncomfortable even sexualising 33 year old Thomas Brodie-Sangster 😵‍💫 he still looks 13 to me!!!

REGARDLESS AS WE BOTH AGREE, THESE ACTORS AND PERFORMERS DONT DESERVE THIS AI PORN DISRESPECT.

For years people used to Photoshop actors faces into photos of pornos, I had issues with that.

The difference when it comes to art? Yes I think some people can be disturbing. We have Rule 34 for a reason guys. However the difference is that the art is usually not "realistic." We can tell it's hand drawn whether digital or hardcopy.

AI is luckily easy to spot usually. But it's too close in resemblance to these real people. A lot of porn websites have resorted to using AI, which is why I have a massive issue with this too. AI is two minutes if writing a description and having a computer generate. It's impulsive and dangerous.

Deepfakes, they've already made pornos with Scarlett Johansson, Taylor Swift and Katy Perrys faces I believe. There was a massive scandal when a man used the face of his female best friend in a deep fake porno because he had a "unrequited crush" for her and when she discovered the deepfake video on his computer while he was busy, she left and took him to court over sexual violation and privacy policies. It was HUGE. i hate Ai and Deepfakes.

There's even a constant debate on pedophiles using AI and Deepfakes as a means of gaining CP without soliciting CP... (I say guillotine their cock, hands, burn off their clits and spoon out their eyes with a melon ball scooper spoon but hey that's me ✌️ barbaric barbie.)

The difference between NSFW smut fics and AI porn, is:

1. Smut takes effort and time to write. AI writes and steals content for you. There's no creativity.

2. Because it's a written fic, they should have warnings and tags. It should be noted in RPF that the actors are not the same as your write them to be. This is why I changed a lot of my rpf into the characters they play.

3. Fics require imagination. AI is visual. No one can police your genuine imagination.

4. There are actors who have been uncomfy or flushed at the sight of themselves or the character version of them in NSFW Situations. Loki the pole dancing art and mpreg were show to Tom Hiddleston, who had a chuckle and many emotions of confusion with disgust and horror. I can imagine many actors would prefer to see an effort in art and literature when it comes to evil things instead of just some half baked computer program that creates lewd and anticlimactic imagery.

.

The only time I have ever excused it's use was for the chance to see my dads face move again because I don't have many videos of him, and as morbid as it is there's a comfort to seeing him smile in ai moveable photo scanning apps. But to many others this would be considered disrespectful to the dead and to be honest I would side with them if it came down to banning ai and Deepfakes forever.

[fozmeadows]

race & culture in fandom

For the past decade, English language fanwriting culture post the days of LiveJournal and Strikethrough has been hugely shaped by a handful of megafandoms that exploded across AO3 and tumblr – I’m talking Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Dr Who, the MCU, Harry Potter, Star Wars, BBC Sherlock – which have all been overwhelmingly white. I don’t mean in terms of the fans themselves, although whiteness also figures prominently in said fandoms: I mean that the source materials themselves feature very few POC, and the ones who are there tended to be done dirty by the creators.

Periodically, this has led POC in fandom to point out, extremely reasonably, that even where non-white characters do get central roles in various media properties, they’re often overlooked by fandom at large, such that the popular focus stays primarily on the white characters. Sometimes this happened (it was argued) because the POC characters were secondary to begin with and as such attracted less fan devotion (although this has never stopped fandoms from picking a random white gremlin from the background cast and elevating them to the status of Fave); at other times, however, there has been a clear trend of sidelining POC leads in favour of white alternatives (as per Finn, Poe and Rose Tico being edged out in Star Wars shipping by Hux, Kylo and Rey). I mention this, not to demonize individuals whose preferred ships happen to involve white characters, but to point out the collective impact these trends can have on POC in fandom spaces: it’s not bad to ship what you ship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no utility in analysing what’s popular and why through a racial lens.

All this being so, it feels increasingly salient that fanwriting culture as exists right now developed under the influence and in the shadow of these white-dominated fandoms – specifically, the taboo against criticizing or critiquing fics for any reason. Certainly, there’s a hell of a lot of value to Don’t Like, Don’t Read as a general policy, especially when it comes to the darker, kinkier side of ficwriting, and whether the context is professional or recreational, offering someone direct, unsolicited feedback on their writing style is a dick move. But on the flipside, the anti-criticism culture in fanwriting has consistently worked against fans of colour who speak out about racist tropes, fan ignorance and hurtful portrayals of living cultures. Voicing anything negative about works created for free is seen as violating a core rule of ficwriting culture – but as that culture has been foundationally shaped by white fandoms, white characters and, overwhelmingly, white ideas about what’s allowed and what isn’t, we ought to consider that all critical contexts are not created equal.

Right now, the rise of C-drama (and K-drama, and J-drama) fandoms is seeing a surge of white creators – myself included – writing fics for fandoms in which no white people exist, and where the cultural context which informs the canon is different to western norms. Which isn’t to say that no popular fandoms focused on POC have existed before now – K-pop RPF and anime fandoms, for example, have been big for a while. But with the success of The Untamed, more western fans are investing in stories whose plots, references, characterization and settings are so fundamentally rooted in real Chinese history and living Chinese culture that it’s not really possible to write around it. And yet, inevitably, too many in fandom are trying to do just that, treating respect for Chinese culture or an attempt to understand it as optional extras – because surely, fandom shouldn’t feel like work. If you’re writing something for free, on your own time, for your own pleasure, why should anyone else get to demand that you research the subject matter first?

Because it matters, is the short answer. Because race and culture are not made-up things like lightsabers and werewolves that you can alter, mock or misunderstand without the risk of hurting or marginalizing actual real people – and because, quite frankly, we already know that fandom is capable of drawing lines in the sand where it chooses. When Brony culture first reared its head (hah), the online fandom for My Little Pony – which, like the other fandoms we’re discussing here, is overwhelmingly female – was initially welcoming. It felt like progress, that so many straight men could identify with such a feminine show; a potential sign that maybe, we were finally leaving the era of mainstream hypermasculine fandom bullshit behind, at least in this one arena. And then, in pretty much the blink of an eye, things got overwhelmingly bad. Artists drawing hardcorn porn didn’t tag their works as adult, leading to those images flooding the public search results for a children’s show. Women were edged out of their own spaces. Bronies got aggressive, posting harsh, ugly criticism of artists whose gijinka interpretations of the Mane Six as humans were deemed insufficiently fuckable.

The resulting fandom conflict was deeply unpleasant, but in the end, the verdict was laid down loud and clear: if you cannot comport yourself like a decent fucking person – if your base mode of engagement within a fandom is to coopt it from the original audience and declare it newly cool only because you’re into it now; if you do not, at the very least, attempt to understand and respect the original context so as to engage appropriately (in this case, by acknowledging that the media you’re consuming was foundational to many women who were there before you and is still consumed by minors, and tagging your goddamn porn) – then the rest of fandom will treat you like a social biohazard, and rightly so.

Here’s the thing, fellow white people: when it comes to C-drama fandoms and other non-white, non-western properties? We are the Bronies.

Not, I hasten to add, in terms of toxic fuckery – though if we don’t get our collective shit together, I’m not taking that darkest timeline off the table. What I mean is that, by virtue of the whiteminding which, both consciously and unconsciously, has shaped current fan culture, particularly in terms of ficwriting conventions, we’re collectively acting as though we’re the primary audience for narratives that weren’t actually made with us in mind, being hostile dicks to Chinese and Chinese diaspora fans when they take the time to point out what we’re getting wrong. We’re bristling because we’ve conceived of ficwriting as a place wherein No Criticism Occurs without questioning how this culture, while valuable in some respects, also serves to uphold, excuse and perpetuate microaggresions and other forms of racism, lashing out or falling back on passive aggression when POC, quite understandably, talk about how they’re sick and tired of our bullshit.

An analogy: one of the most helpful and important tags on AO3 is the one for homophobia, not just because it allows readers to brace for or opt out of reading content they might find distressing, but because it lets the reader know that the writer knows what homophobia is, and is employing it deliberately. When this concept is tagged, I – like many others – often feel more able to read about it than I do when it crops up in untagged works of commercial fiction, film or TV, because I don’t have to worry that the author thinks what they’re depicting is okay. I can say definitively, “yes, the author knows this is messed up, but has elected to tell a messed up story, a fact that will be obvious to anyone who reads this,” instead of worrying that someone will see a fucked up story blind and think “oh, I guess that’s fine.” The contextual framing matters, is the point – which is why it’s so jarring and unpleasant on those rare occasions when I do stumble on a fic whose author has legitimately mistaken homophobic microaggressions for cute banter. This is why, in a ficwriting culture that otherwise aggressively dislikes criticism, the request to tag for a certain thing – while still sometimes fraught – is generally permitted: it helps everyone to have a good time and to curate their fan experience appropriately.

But when white and/or western fans fail to educate ourselves about race, culture and the history of other countries and proceed to deploy that ignorance in our writing, we’re not tagging for racism as a thing we’ve explored deliberately; we’re just being ignorant at best and hateful at worst, which means fans of colour don’t know to avoid or brace for the content of those works until they get hit in the face with microaggresions and/or outright racism. Instead, the burden is placed on them to navigate a minefield not of their creation: which fans can be trusted to write respectfully? Who, if they make an error, will listen and apologise if the error is explained? Who, if lived experience, personal translations or cultural insights are shared, can be counted on to acknowledge those contributions rather than taking sole credit? Too often, fans of colour are being made to feel like guests in their own house, while white fans act like a tone-policing HOA.

Point being: fandom and ficwriting cultures as they currently exist badly need to confront the implicit acceptance of racism and cultural bias that underlies a lot of community rules about engagement and criticism, and that needs to start with white and western fans. We don’t want to be the new Bronies, guys. We need to do better.  

#race #racism #c-drama #fandom #fan wank #fandom wank #microaggresions #culture #the untamed #bronies #whiteness #ficwriting #fanwriting #cultural bias #discourse

[mallowstep]

Hi, so I am a former pro shipper turned anti turned possible pro shipper again. Originally, I was a pro shipper bc I was shipping irl people (basically they were non famous adults I actually knew and I was publishing fanfic abt them without changing names and stuff). Then I kind of got a clue and stopped. I was getting made fun of a lot bc of that so I kind of became an anti (jumped on the RPF hate train, cancelled anyone people told me to, hated on ppl for problematic ships etc). 1/2

i'm gonna answer this all in one ask, but i'm going to respond part-by-part, to help my information-processing-challenged brain.

i do want to say: i'm sorry you got made fun of. i do think that publishing things about people you know irl without changing names is not okay, but i am sorry you got made fun of. that's not a helpful way to help someone understand that they're doing something wrong, and i'm sorry you went through that.

Anyways, I recently got into a fandom that a lot of people have tried to cancel/shame people for liking, and I’ve been re-examining a lot of my views. It’s tbh a little sad bc most of my friends (while not active in fandoms) have a super anti mindset and would definitely shamed me especially bc of my past if I mentioned this stuff. However, becoming a pro shipper again has been a long, tiring mental process of learning to accept people again and I really appreciate your account for being so 2/3

yeah, problematic fandoms. urgh. i don't want to get into discourse, because like. not trying to do that. but ever since steven universe got called a problematic fandom (what the FUCK guys), i haven't taken that sort of shit seriously. with like, two or three exceptions which i won't list here, because the whole point is to deplatform them so no one talks about them and listing them defeats the point (which is why problematic fandom arguments are so dumb and counterproductive holy shit i wouldn't have known XYZ even EXISTED if people weren't constantly trying to tell me it was bad), and even then it's more of a "i personally do not engage with that."

i try really hard not to judge other people on their interests. i'm a proud homestuck fan. i write warrior cats fanfiction, often about very adult topics. i get it.

when it comes to friends...i don't know if you want advice, so ignore this paragraph if you don't, but it might be worth putting feelers out. people can surprise you. it's up to you what you want to do about that, but frankly, i don't care what your ship opinions are. if you're against harassment, you can be my friend. (you might not want me to be your friend, but hey, that's your prerogative.)

anyway, yeah. i've gotten embroiled in online circles before and had to unpick beliefs from them. it's hard work, and my heart goes out to you. remember that the most important part is that you don't harass other people. i'm a firm believer in "i don't need you to accept me, i just need you to respect me." in other words, i'd rather deal with a homophobe who kept their mouth shut around gay people than an LGBT+ person who told me i couldn't call myself queer.

but i digress. it's hard work, and i hope it goes well for you.

Open to people who don’t label/people trying to become proshippers and stuff bc no matter how people irl treat me, I’ve always felt welcome here. Anyways, absolutely love your warriors stuff and thanks for having such a cool blog. 3/3

i'm glad you feel welcome here! i hope everyone does. i don't care what people call themselves. i'm here to have a good time, and anyone who wants to have a good time with me can.

this is my corner and i say ship discourse is dumb as hell. like sld;fksd;ajfk it's so dumb and not worth my time i've made an active choice to not bother arguing about it anymore. i was tempted to explain why it's dumb, but i'm not going to do that. it's not worth it.

wishing you the best.

<3

#ask #anon #mine #ask to tag #you got like three responses #because i didn't realize mari had already written you a response when i wrote mine... #last night? #not last night i'm looking at clocks and times #not last night #but y'know #w/e

[littlewetbeast]

hey rosa :) hope it's okay if i ask this. i'm kind of new to cockles things so i've been doing some "research" lol. i'm kind of asking around the fandom for opinions. do you actually think it's real? what convinced you? thanks and hope you are doing ok!

hey anon!! of course it is!! you’re welcome to send me as many asks as you’d like. putting this under a readmore because it got kinda long.

so - this is kind of awkward i guess, but i’ll get right into it. i have always steered clear of any form of rpf and tinhatting. this stuff is still... a little bit weird to me. the whole “i don’t do rpf but why are jensen and misha like That” is a running joke in the cockles fandom for a reason and i’m 100% part of that crowd. this is the only instance i have engaged in this type of fandom content. i don’t even really “ship” them, i just enjoy gifs, videos and some fandom discussion, i guess? not saying this gives me some moral high ground, i just want to give some perspective. i only very, very recently started watching cons and like. i guess i just never realised how insanely well they got along? the energy is just off the charts. i figured they were like this with everyone but it was quickly clear that this was a Them thing, which is - kind of sweet. i’d kind of scoffed before at people suggesting jensen had a crush on misha but i thought it was embarrassingly obvious after watching their interactions.  what i will say, from my own pov, is that even if certain suspicions are correct -  that jensen and misha ARE indeed in an open, loving, poly relationship - it is very unlikely they will ever publicly confirm this. THAT, to me, would be needed to confirm that it’s “real”. and that’s never going to happen, because #society. so i always try to keep myself grounded in that i am kind of making some observations about some celebrities and trying to consume what they give us in a respectful way, and just enjoying seeing how lovely they are with one another. so i will say - rather than arguing whether it is “real” or not - that i instead consider that there are things they have done/things i’ve seen which simply make more sense if they are in a relationship. it doesn’t really bother me if i’m mistaken, because they’re still providing me with some sweet, sweet serotonin in these difficult times. win/win either way. THAT SAID... i’ll tell you what i struggle to find bff-only explanations for.

i’ll just start off by sending you some stuff in case you want to look it up. i think a good place to start is @livebloggingmydescentintomadness‘s cockles manifesto here. NOW... i will say there is a lot of evidence (in my opinion) such as the ‘near kisses’, clothes swapping, performative flirting, etc. that i felt maaaaybe could suggest something, but it didn’t convince me. if you’re insane, you can browse the j2 tinhatting theories and compare - a lot of friendly behaviour jensen does is something he does with his close friends in general. so it often felt too circumstantial and could be explained away. so i’ll start with that, so you know where i am at.

the thing that made me really raise my eyebrows the first time was, after watching misha and jensen interact like They Do, seeing how jared reacted to them. he loves innuendo and does the gay chicken/fratboy gay humour all the time. but there are numerous cases where his face is SO exasperated when jensen openly gushes about misha and where he makes slight jabs at jensen regarding misha. the first time i saw it i was like - oh, that’s how i tease my friends in a relationship. okay.

one thing that stands out to me is his look of contained panic at someone mentioning photos jensen has of misha and asking to ‘release them’, and then the VISIBLE ‘oh thank fuck’ when they clarify. LIKE WHAT. WHY. why is he reacting like this if they’re just?? you know?

if you watch jibcon 2019, after the straddlegate incident, he WILL NOT stop making gay jokes towards misha and jensen - to the point where they get extremely uncomfortable, i have some Feelings about this that i may elaborate on later. like. he just will not stop. it just goes waaay beyond his typical fratboy gay jokes.

there are other things too, to be honest, but i think eventually it just became the sum of a lot of things. the fact that jensen and misha have extremely explicit queer inside jokes? that jensen got a boner from being straddled by him? i mean. sigh. it’s either bi4bi best friends with-intimate-knowledge-of-each-other’s-sex-lives OR it’s. you know. something more than that.

those are probably the things that have swayed me the most. there are a lot of other things that added to this, and if you slide some cockles goggles on you start to see a lot of behaviour that make you go, ‘huh, if they are in a relationship it sure would explain [this] and [this] and [this]’. that’s all i’ll say.

#sorry this got soooooo long #rosa answers #cockles ask #jenmish #cockles #gunshots

[a-froger-epic]

The Queen fandom, Freddie Mercury and Characterisation

Or: Why are those anons like this? Why are those writers like this? Why don't we understand each other?

In this essay, I will-

No, I’m serious, I will. And this is an essay. It’s roughly 2500 words.

The friction, concerns and hurt in fandom around Freddie’s characterisation - most recently centred around a fic the author tagged as ‘Bisexual Freddie Mercury’, stating in the notes that they have chosen to write Freddie as bisexual - have given me a lot to think about. And if you have been asking yourself the questions above, this here might be of interest to you.

First off, why do I feel like I need to talk about this?

The answer is not: Because I’m so very influential in fandom.

I think my influence in this fandom has been vastly overstated by some people. If I were so influential, everybody would rush to read anything I rec or write. And trust me, they really don’t. My relevance is confined to a very specific part of the fandom. That part is made up of: Freddie fans, Froger shippers, some Roger fans, a handful of writers who like to support each other and like each other’s work, and people who are really into research.

There are many parts of fandom where my opinions are entirely irrelevant. Looking at the big picture, by which I mean only the Queen RPF fandom, I simply am not that important. Looking at the even bigger picture: the Queen fandom as a whole, the majority of which doesn't read or care about RPF - I am literally nobody.

Furthermore, everything I will be talking about here is in relation to the RPF-centred part of Queen fandom.

So why this public essay?

Because I have been deeply involved for two years in a divide of opinions concerning how Freddie ought to be written and how people think of RPF. I think this is in large part because I - like several other authors currently writing for the fandom - absolutely love research. It's my idea or fun. I love to dig into these real people’s lives. Not everybody does that and not everybody is comfortable with that. It’s a personal choice depending on people's levels of comfort surrounding RPF. But this does put me firmly in the camp of Freddie fans who like to explore who this man really was, and track down every last fact about him.

Freddie Mercury vs. Fictional Freddie

I’ll admit that I am one of those people who have the urge to speak up when they see somebody claim that Freddie was bisexual, and sometimes I will say: “Well, actually, we do know that he didn’t see himself that way, because…” For me, these have often been positive exchanges.

I think there is overwhelming evidence that Freddie Mercury identified as gay from his split with Mary to the end of his life (wonderfully curated here by RushingHeadlong). In the niche of fandom I have frequented over the last two years, as far as Freddie the real man is concerned, I have barely ever seen anybody argue with this.

But fanfiction and talking about real Freddie are not one the same thing, and they shouldn't be, and as far as I am concerned they don't have to be. Some writers like to put every last fact and detail they can find into their fic, in an attempt to approach a characterisation that feels authentic to them (and perhaps others), and other writers are simply content to draw inspiration from the real people, writing versions vaguely based on them.

But writing historically and factually accurate RPF is more respectful.

Is it? I've thought about this for a long time, and I really can't agree that it is. This, to me, seems to presume that we know what kind of fiction these real people would prefer to have been written about them. That, in itself, is impossible to know.

However, if I imagine Freddie reading RPF about himself, I think that he might laugh himself silly at an AU with a character merely inspired by him and may be really quite disturbed by a gritty, realistic take full of intimate details of and speculations about his life and psyche. Such as I also tend to write, just by the by, so this is definitely not a criticism of anybody. Freddie is dead. Of all the people to whom the way he is written in fiction matters, Freddie himself is not one. There is no way to know what Freddie would or wouldn't have wanted, in this regard, and so it isn't relevant.

Personally, I can't get behind the idea that speculating and creatively exploring very intimate details of Freddie's life, things he never even spoke of to anybody, is in any way more respectful than writing versions of him which take a lot of creative liberties. As I've said so many times before, I think either all of RPF is disrespectful or none of it is.

So who cares about Freddie characterisation in fiction anyway?

Clearly, a lot of people do. Freddie Mercury was an incredibly inspiring figure and continues to be that to a multitude of very different people for different reasons. There are older fans who have maybe faced the same kind of discrimination because of their sexuality, who saw Freddie's life and persona distorted and attacked by other fans and the media for decades, who have a lot of hurt and resentment connected to such things as calling Freddie bisexual - because this has been used (and in the wider fandom still is used) to discredit his relationship with Jim, to argue that Mary was the love of his life and none of his same sex relationships mattered, to paint a picture where "the gay lifestyle" was the death of him. And that is homophobic. That is not right. I completely understand that upset.

But.

These are not the only people who care about Freddie and for whom Freddie is a source of inspiration and comfort. What about people who simply connect to his struggles with his sexuality from a different angle? What about, for example, somebody who identifies with the Freddie who seemed to be reluctant to label himself, because that, to them, implies a freedom and sexual fluidity that helps them cope with how they see their own sexuality? Is it relevant why Freddie was cagey about labelling himself? Does it matter that it likely had a lot to do with discrimination? Are his reasons important? To some degree, yes. But are other queer people not allowed to see that which helps them in him? Are they not allowed to take empowerment and inspiration from this? Can you imagine Freddie himself ever resenting somebody who, for whatever reason, admired him and whose life he made that little bit brighter through his mere existence, however they interpreted it? I honestly can't say that I can imagine Freddie himself objecting to that.

This is the thing about fame. Anyone who is famous creates a public persona, and this persona belongs to the fans. By choosing that path, this person gives a lot of themselves to their fans. To interpret, to draw inspiration from, to love the way it makes sense to the individual. Please remember, at this point, that we are talking about how people engage with Freddie as a fictional character creatively. This is not about anybody trying to lay down the law regarding who Freddie really was, unequivocally. This is all about writers using his inspiring persona and the imprint he left on this world to explore themes that resonate with them.

This is what we as writers do. We write about things which resonate with us and often touch us deeply.

But don't they care about the real Freddie?

Yes, actually, I would argue that a lot of people care about "the real Freddie". It seems to me that depicting Freddie as gay or with a strong preference for men is what the vast majority of the RPF-centered fandom on AO3 already does. You will find very, very few stories where Freddie is depicted having a good time with women sexually or romantically. That he was mostly all about men is already the majority opinion in this part of fandom.

But another question is, who was the real Freddie? If the last two years in fandom have taught me anything, it is that even things which seem like fact to one person can seem like speculation to another. I have personally had so many discussions with so many people on different sides of the debate about the exact circumstances of Freddie's life and his inner world, that I must say I don't think there is such a thing as one accurate, "real" portrayal of Freddie. Even those of us who are heavily invested in research sometimes disagree quite significantly about the interpretations of sources. So that narrows "You don't care about the real Freddie" down to "You don't care about Freddie because you don't interpret everything we know about his life the exact same way I do". Sure, by that definition, very few people care about Freddie the same way you do.

The bottom line is, there are so many writers and fans who love him, people who are obsessed with him, people who care about him deeply. They might care about who they believe he really was or who he chose to present himself as to the world, the way he wanted to be seen. But ultimately, in my personal opinion, if somebody is inspired to write Freddie as a fictional character they feel that Freddie means a lot to them. And it is hurtful to accuse them of not caring.

But what some people write hurts/triggers me.

Yes, that can happen. Because the nature of AO3 is that everything is permitted. Personally, I am very much in agreement with that. You will also find me in the camp of people who are against any sort of censorship on AO3, no matter how much some of the content goes against my own morals or how distasteful I find it. Some people disagree with that, which is fine. We must agree to disagree then. Here, I would like to quote QuirkySubject from the post she made regarding this whole situation because I cannot put it better myself: “The principle that all fic is valid (even RPF fic that subverts the lived experience of the person the fic is based on) is like the foundation of [AO3]. The suggestion that certain kinds of characterisations aren't allowed will provoke a knee-jerk reaction by many writers.”

No matter how much you may disagree with a story's plot or characterisation, it is allowed on AO3. "But wait," you might say, "the issue is not with it being on the site but with people like yourself - who should care about "the real Freddie" - supporting it."

This is some of what I have taken away from the upset I have seen. And it’s worth deconstructing.

I've already addressed "the real Freddie". Moving on to...

The author is dead.

This is something others might very well disagree on as well, but to me the story itself matters far more than authorial intent. And what may be one thing according to the author’s personal definition, may be another thing to the reader. Let’s use an example. This is an ask I received yesterday:

This author thinks they were writing Freddie as bisexual. However, going by the plot of their story, I would actually say that it is largely very similar to how I see the progression of Freddie’s young adulthood. To me, personally, Freddie would still be gay throughout the story because he arrives - eventually - at the conclusion that he is. The author and I disagree on terminology only. And I think simply disagreements about terminology, given that some terms are so loaded with history in Freddie’s case, trips a lot of people up.

It seems to me that many people still equate bisexuality with a 50/50 attraction to men and women, when in actual fact many - if not most - bi/pan people would say that it is nowhere near that distribution. Some people are of the opinion that anybody who experiences some attraction to the opposite sex, even if they have a strong same-sex preference, could be technically considered bisexual. (However, sexuality isn’t objective, it’s subjective. At least when it comes to real people. What about fictionalised real people? We will get to that.)

Let's briefly return to real Freddie.

What I'm seeing is that there are several ways of thinking here, with regard to his sexuality.

1. Freddie was gay because that seems to be (from everything we know) the conclusion he arrived at and the way he saw himself, once he had stopped dating women. Therefor, he was always gay, it just took him a while to come to terms with it.

2. Freddie can be referred to as bisexual during the time when he was with women because at that time, he may very well have thought of himself thusly - whether that was wishful thinking and he was aware of it or whether he really thought he might be bisexual is not something we can say definitively. He came out as gay to two friends in 1974 on separate occassions, and he talked to his girlfriends about being bisexual. (Personally, I think here it is interesting to look at who exactly he was saying what to, but let's put my own interpretations aside.)

3. Freddie can be seen as bisexual/pansexual because his life indicates that he was able to be in relationships with both men and women and because there is nothing to disprove he didn't experience any attraction to the women he was with. Had he lived in a different time, he may have defined himself differently.

Now, I'm of the first school of thought here, personally, although I understand the second and also, as a thought experiment, the third.

I think all of these approaches have validity, although the historical context of Freddie's life should be kept in mind and is very relevant whenever we speak about the man himself.

But when we return to writing fictionalised versions of Freddie, any of these approaches should absolutely be permissible. Yes, some of them or aspects of them can cause upset to some people.

And this is why AO3 has a tagging system. This is why authors write very clearly worded author's notes. This is the respect authors extend to their readers. This, in turn, has to be respected. Everybody is ultimately responsible for their own experience on the archive.

Nobody has the right to dictate what is or isn't published under the Queen tag. As far as I am concerned, nobody should have that right. As far as I am concerned, everybody has a responsibility to avoid whatever may upset them. I understand where the upset comes from. I also maintain it is every writer's right to engage with Freddie's character creatively the way they choose to.

None of us can control how other people engage with Freddie or the fandom. None of us can control what other people enjoy or dislike about the fandom.

The best way to engage with the content creating part of fandom, in my opinion, has always been to create what brings you joy, to consume the content that brings you joy and to respectfully step away from everything that doesn't.

#Queen fandom #Freddie Mercury #bi Freddie

[hailwatcher]

Neurodiverse Characters in Fanfiction

PREFACE

I am autistic. I do not speak for everyone in my community. I value and respect the opinions of every neurodiverse person, just as I hope you'll respect mine. Neurotypicals, I invite you to like/reblog this post, but I ask that you do not offer your opinion in the replies or in reblogs. Thank you.

VOCAB:

Neurodiversity (ND) - Variation in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood, and other cognitive processes. Includes people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), amongst others.

Neurotypical (NT) - "Typical" presentation in cognitive traits including, but not limited to, sociability, learning, attention, mood, etc. Essentially, the opposite of neurodivergent.

Hyperfixations/Special Interests - A subject area in which one is completely focused & can lose hours of time engaged in. Sometimes includes an almost encyclopedic knowledge of that one thing. It is very common for ND folks to have at least one hyperfixation/special interest.

INTRODUCTION

Fanfiction is a space created by, and largely populated by, marginalized groups. Specifically, fanfiction (and fandom in general) is inextricably tied to the experiences of neurodiverse people. Neurodiverse people discussing their special interests & hyperfixations and therefore sharing theories, art, videos, fanfiction, etc. populate every single fandom.

Fanfiction is particularly common amongst marginalized groups (such as ND people) who want to see themselves represented in the media and, often, don't. To read a post about how marginalized groups are tied to fandom, check out this post. It was a really interesting read and partially inspired this post.

I am a neurodiverse person in fandom. (I'm autistic, and I've been involved in fandom since 2012). I don't think it's a hot take to say that neurodivergence is not fun. I struggle incredibly with social communication, I get overstimulated, I had few friends as a child due to my being "weird". Being autistic is something I struggle with every single day. It is not fun or quirky; it's very real.

WRITING NT CHARACTERS AS ND

Most characters are written as neurotypical, and even those that aren't (see: Sheldon Cooper) are not explicitly neurodivergent. I see very few examples of neurodiversity in media, and those I can think of are, in my opinion, not good examples of my experience of autism.

Writing characters as marginalized groups is not uncommon. It is incredibly common to write straight (or straight-coded) characters as LGBT, cisgender characters as transgender, etc. I see no reason why writing characters as ND should be any different.

Writing someone OUT OF a marginalized group is something I would never do. Writing a character who is explicitly LGBT as straight is stripping away a key part of their identity, and devaluing their experiences as a member of that group. However, writing NT characters as ND is, in my opinion, not doing that. It is not taking away an experience; rather, it is applying my experience to a character I love from a franchise I love.

A note on RPF, from a RPF writer: despite the fact that it's called "real-person fiction", in my opinion, when you are writing RPF, you are not writing about that real person. You are writing about the person they portray on the webshow/social media/wherever you know them from. They become a character in your fiction, and in that case, I have the same opinion on writing NT people as ND.

"REALISTIC" ND FANFICTION

I would first like to reiterate that no two peoples' experiences of neurodiversity are the same, and that I speak only for myself and from my experience.

I've heard some express concerns that ND fanfiction aims only to highlight the "good" parts of ND. We see more fiction of characters discussing their special interests or happy stimming than we do of them being overstimulated or having breakdowns or not being able to "properly" socialize or read social cues.

I agree that we do need more fanfiction about the hard shit that comes with ND. But I also see nothing wrong with writing the good parts of ND. Fanfiction is a place where I, personally, come to relax and feel good and express my feelings in a positive, creative way. I see nothing wrong with writing my characters discussing their hyperfixations to make me smile, and I have no issue reading fanfiction where someone else has done the same.

SUMMARY

Fandom is a group where ND folks go to find similar people who share their interests. Fanfiction is our response to a society that often casts us to the side, or commodifies us. It's our way of taking back the narrative, and highlighting each other's voices.

Fellow ND people: I would love to hear your opinions on this, whether or not you agree with me. Please feel free to leave your replies to this post, reblog it, send them to my ask, etc. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have an amazing day!

TLDR: neurodiverse people (like me!) are freaking awesome and I love seeing your fanworks.

#neurodiversity #actually autistic #autism #fandom #fanfiction #personal

[no-reply95]

7, 12, 17 :)

Hi anon, thanks for the ask :)

7. What makes RPF okay/what doesn't if you disagree with it?

So I had to Google what RPF means lol... I don't really engage with Beatles fanfiction. I used to be really into InuYasha fanfics in the days when I was obsessed with that manga but other than that, I've never sought out fanfiction myself so I don't have any strong views on RPF.

All I'll say is that, in the grand scheme of things, I think RPFs are harmless, it's more of an issue when RPFs are passed off as reality and therefore a credible resource, when they're not - looking at you Jude Southerland Kessler!

12. What do you think of Yoko's art?

Already answered here

17. What's your take on George's religiosity?

I think religion and the role it plays in your life is such a personal thing so the fervour with which George adopted Eastern religion and philosophies, to me, really speaks to someone who was looking for deeper meaning in life beyond being a Beatle, as that could only provide so much happiness and fulfilment. I can definitely relate to George's quest for fulfilment through religion, as someone who grew up in a Christian house and went to Catholic schools up to the age of 18, I've always had people around me that really lean on their faith so I've seen the power for good that it can be and the strength it can instil in people. However, as someone who's also lost their faith, I can also see how George's religious beliefs may have come across a bit overzealous and hectoring so I respect why it does make people uncomfortable and can make him come across as preachy but I don't think that came from a place of superiority, I do think he got a sense of peace from trying to attain a higher enlightenment and wanted to share that peace with those around him and with the wider world through his music.

#the beatles #fanfiction #george harrison #yoko ono #ask games #asks

[stargirlfics]

I totally understand not being comfortable writing or reading rpf, or just not being ok with the smut, I get not being comfortable with certain subjects and areas of fanfics and that’s ok, what’s comfortable for me may not be comfortable for you and I understand not wanting to see those respective things on this platform in your individual experience here

But I think fanfiction, whether it be about that real life person or the characters they play, is something many gravitate towards because at least for myself I’ve always figured that the person wouldn’t at all be searching for it or interested in seeing any of it or isn’t even aware of what fanfics and fandom really are unless it’s shown directly to them which is where the line should be drawn and where it becomes really invasive and not ok

And because fanfic is rather contained to tumblr or other platforms for writing it gives people a space to safely write and speak about fantasies whether smutty or not of these people and characters without breaking those real life boundaries. I also get that some don’t think rpf smut should be written at all regardless if it’s contained to tumblr or not but the volume of it I think is too large to really ever get rid of, it’s always going to be written and we all try our best to put warning after warning before you read so that you know exactly what you might come across and can choose to engage with it or not

Furthermore a lot of these smut fics may be vulgar to some but they also create a dialogue around sex and a dialogue around fantasies that nobody is really exposed to in actual life because sex is still something shrouded in shame and misconception and fear and I think smut can sure exaggerate but it offers a much more real exploration of various sexual themes than most media outside it and for some it helps them explore and process trauma even. I’ve heard sooo many people say to me or other authors that what I wrote or what someone wrote depicts a healthy picture of what sex or a certain kink actually is or helped them feel more comfortable about sex and their sexuality and desire and experiences around it

It’s ok if you don’t want to read things like that, there’s a lot of ways for you to filter out and block things or blogs you don’t want to see here and online in general and I know it may be an inconvenience of sorts but trying to take down someone’s work or blog because you don’t like it or want to see it makes everyone less inclined to hear what you’re trying to say and you lose respect from everyone by doing that and frankly it’s just not cute

Writing is personal and different in purpose to everyone but for all of us there’s an underlying element of fun to it that feels rather freeing and writing can be really important and special to so many people even if there are kinds of styles and genres we don’t like, writing is a kind of therapy and at the very least allows whoever reading to be seen and reflected maybe in a way they haven’t ever before 💕

#some thoughtssss #writing things #text #henry cavill

[dyinginlava]

Anti-Shipping and the Dream SMP community

Now before I start, I’d like to quickly establish some things. Firstly, I would not see myself as being a ‘shipper’ in general: while I might enjoy ship content occasionally, I’m more interested in character dynamics in general, whether they be romantic, platonic, familial, or antagonistic. Secondly, I’ve only gotten interested in the Dream SMP quite recently (shortly after the Festival) and have only started really engaging with fan content even more recently.

However, despite being fairly new, I’ve already noticed the strong feelings people tend to have towards shipping in the community. This does make sense, due to the link with RPF (real person fiction) which the AO3 tags and overlap with the Dream Team fan community don’t help. RPF has always been a point of debate in fan communities, with questions such as:

Is it fine to ship real people if they’re alright with it?

Why does RPF, much like grave robbing, become exponentially less taboo the longer the subject has been dead?

Where do you draw the line between the person themself and an act or persona they put on?

It’s that last question that’s most relevant to the Dream SMP, as the characters within the story are heavily based on the people playing them, which might make some people uncomfortable with shipping, as they feel the character and creator are too similar. This can lead to misunderstandings within the community.

The primarily example of this that I’ve seen, especially with the recent exile arc putting the relationship between the characters in the spotlight, is a lot of negativity towards the idea of the Tommy/Tubbo pairing (purely referring to the characters, not the creators themselves). The arguments I’ve seen against it range from reasonable ones“the real people are uncomfortable with shipping” to the almost bizarre “don’t ship them because they’re minors” (terribly sorry to break the news for you, but 16 year olds have romantic relationships irl all the time).

Now brushing that aside, let’s focus on the main argument we see, of respecting what the creators themselves want. While I believe this is a valid stance to take in regards to RPF (if you really feel you absolutely must ship, keeping it private at least is polite) the concept of ‘death of the author’ comes into play with the story. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it essentially means the creator of a work has no control over the interpretation of their work. An author may write two characters as friends, and a reader may interpret those characters as romantic partners, or the other way around. While you personally may prefer to stick with the ‘approved’ interpretation, others aren’t at fault for having their own.

In conclusion, let people ship what they want, don’t harass people for shipping, and don’t annoy creators about fan content especially if they/the person who made the fan content isn’t comfortable with it. Also, if anyone’s actually read this far, would you mind reblogging? I’d hate to see splits in the fandom over simple RPF vs roleplay misunderstandings!

#dream smp #mcyt #dream smp shipping #written during English class #so any quality dips are because of that

[the2020romanceproject]

Review: The Wedding Date

(Or: Maybe I should only read the first half of romance novels from now on?)

Book two of my year of romance was Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date! I was excited about this one, since I had actually heard of it before I started reading romance, and also it has fake dating which is always gold. And I did enjoy it...up to a point. More on that below. :)

First, a summary: Alexa is chief of staff to the mayor of Berkeley. Drew is a pediatric surgeon in L.A. They get stuck in an elevator together when Drew is in San Francisco for his ex-girlfriend’s wedding to his med school classmate. Drew was supposed to have a date for the wedding, but she cancelled, and on a whim he asks Alexa to go with him instead as his pretend new girlfriend. She says yes, and they have a great time at the wedding and fall in bed afterward and have great sex. Drew secretly changes his flight to leave later in the day on Sunday, and they spend the day together. They’re both hesitant because they know the other person isn’t looking for anything real here—Alexa in particular knows Drew doesn’t do relationships—but they keep reaching out to each other, and Alexa goes down to L.A. to stay with Drew the next weekend. There’s a brief blip where she texts him to ask if he’s sleeping with other people and he makes a joke instead of answering seriously and she cancels their next weekend together; then he runs into her (very conveniently) when he’s back in SF for a conference and they fall into bed again. Then there’s a more serious blip where she meets a bunch of his exes who let it slip that he broke up with each of them around the two-month mark when it seemed to be going really well. Alexa gets upset, refuses to let Drew say anything about his intentions because she doesn’t want to be hurt, and sneaks out of his apartment in the middle of the night to fly home early. Drew realizes how much she means to him and flies up to L.A. to support her at a hearing for the at-risk-youth arts initiative she’s pushing for, and the two of them happily reconcile (and the initiative passes). He shows her the job offer he got from his mentor at a San Francisco hospital, and she tells him yes, she wants him to move here. There’s an epilogue a year later where he takes her back to the elevator where they met and proposes.

I feel like I spent my last review talking entirely about why the book fell apart in the middle for me. This book also fell apart in the middle, but I’m going to start with some things I liked/noted about it, so as to not spend ALL my time complaining about shortcomings. :)

Things I really liked:

Chemistry. Alexa and Drew are both super charming. Their back-and-forth was really enjoyable to read. It was a big part of what got me into the book: I wanted to see these two charming people grow to like each other. All the thing where they’re at the rehearsal dinner and wedding and enjoy touching each other were really nice to read.

Tropes. This one had such good tropes! Stuck in an elevator together! Fake dating! Anything with plausible deniability, where they’re acting like they really like each other but each one thinks it might not denote real interest, is just the most fun. This one gave up the plausible deniability aspect way sooner than I would have expected, but still: great tropes.

Race. Alexa is black and Drew is white. I am also white, so my perspective here is not informed by personal experience, but I really liked how this was handled. Alexa does experience some microaggressions and outright racism—not from Drew—in ways that felt realistic to me. Drew doesn’t try to explain away any of the racism, which made him seem like a good potential partner to her. There was also a thing where he failed to understand a thing in her past that was impacted by race, and when she explained it he listened and accepted his ignorance. She was still concerned that he’d like her less for having made him aware of his privilege, which felt like a very sad and real fear. Overall, it felt like racial dynamics were allowed to come into the text in nuanced and organic ways that kept Alexa from being a token POC. (Jasmine Guillory is a POC herself, so I’m not surprised that this is handled well, and there are probably other things about it that I as a white person didn’t even pick up.)

Body type. Alexa is curvy! She’s embarrassed about it! But Drew loves it! As someone who fills out the top of a cocktail dress pretty well myself, I really appreciated both sides of this: the realistic body issues from someone raised in a society that valorizes thinness, and the way the text kept affirming Drew’s attraction to her. There’s a racial component to this as well—lots of skinny blond girls in this book—but it was something I was able to identify with even from my different societal context.

Things I noted/was surprised by:

How soon they had sex. At some point I’ll stop being surprised by this in romance novels. I’ve read a lot of fake dating stories, and written some, and I would have expected the charade to go on a lot longer before they had actual sex that couldn’t at all be explained away by the fake dating scenario. The purported fakeness of it is the fun part! They both think the other one isn’t interested for real, while their own feelings continue to grow! Why would you cut that part short?? As soon as they kissed and admitted to each other that they wanted it for real, the tension dropped from a ten to about a two. This book got a decent amount of mileage out of that lower level of tension—more on that below—but it’s so surprising to me that it didn’t keep the much more interesting and trope-y tension going longer.

Consent and power dynamics. This book was super good about consent: Drew made sure to check in about what Alexa wanted, and it was played for sexual intensity, where he clearly got a kick out of hearing her say it. But it was very, very one-sided. There was no implication that Alexa needed to check in with Drew on what he wanted. This wasn’t a surprise, exactly, but it did stand out to me, since I don’t read a lot of het (and honestly this is a big part of why—I don’t want to encounter gendered power dynamics in my leisure reading). Consent felt like a thing the woman had to give the man. I’m not saying this is a problem, necessarily; just something I noticed.

Sex scenes. The sex scenes almost faded to black but not quite. Maybe they faded to gray? I felt like I knew pretty much what sex act they were doing and when, but they weren’t described in any real detail. It was an interesting compromise, like the book was trying to give us a clear sense of their sexual relationship without any real titillation. I wonder if this is a genre thing—I’m not sure this book was published strictly as romance—or if it’s just Guillory’s style.

Romcom careers. They’re chief of staff to the mayor of Berkeley and a pediatric surgeon. Those have GOT to be two squares on the romcom career bingo card. I’m teasing a little, but I think this kind of character background serves an important role: we have to know that they’re accomplished, valuable people, so that when they feel rejected or insecure we can revel in it—look, they feel like I once felt! But it’s unjustified and they’ll end up happy!—instead of actually questioning the characters’ worth. Fanfiction usually gets over this hurdle by writing about characters the readers already know and respect and love, or, in the case of RPF, writing about people who are for-real successful and famous. Romance novels have to introduce us to brand-new characters, and one of the easiest ways to make us feel sure that these characters are worthy of our respect and of the other character’s love is to give them prestigious and intellectually or creatively rigorous careers. I’ll be interested to see how many other instances of this I run across.

Two points of view. It strikes again! Do all romance novels include both points of view? I don’t hate it, necessarily—but it does decrease the overall tension. You don’t get caught up in one character’s desires as strongly when you’re seeing both POVs.

Immediate attraction. Another thing I should probably stop being surprised by. Both Alexa and Drew are very physically into each other as soon as they meet; he has trouble not looking at her breasts, and there are so many narrative references to her wanting his touch, wanting to move closer to him, etc. To be fair, I think I’m pretty far toward the “not attracted to complete strangers” side of the spectrum, so I might not be the best judge of this, but it did feel a little over the top. I suspect this was an attempt to make us really want these two to be together. I think it was trying too hard—a more genuine reserve would have been more compelling to me, where they like each other but don’t immediately want to jump each other. Also, they’re going to a wedding together as fake dates! You don’t have to try that hard to make us interested!

Food as comfort. This was such a strong recurring thread in this novel. Alexa has a sweet tooth, and Drew is always getting her doughnuts; they get a lot of very satisfying takeout. It gelled for me with the thing where a lot of the satisfaction in the novel came from the comfort of “oh, this person is touching me; oh, they like me back.” Comfort instead of angst.

Subplots. One of my questions in approaching this genre was whether romance novels needed to be more novel-like than fic—i.e. whether they needed to engage with a plot beyond the romance. This does have a very slight B plot (Alexa’s youth initiative, which is connected to her difficult relationship with her sister) but it’s VERY slight. The book has an even less prominent subplot about one of Drew’s patients who develops cancer. Alexa’s subplot resolves, whereas Drew’s is only backdrop. Drew’s in particular is used the way I’d use a subplot in fic: it’s included to provide an excuse for scenes with or about Alexa, or to affect Drew’s mood in ways that reflect or influence the romance plot. It serves the romance instead of being an independent plot in its own right.

Okay, so those are my observations. Time to dig into the thing where this book lost me in the middle—much like the last book I reviewed, but for entirely different reasons.

I’ve already talked about the drastic drop-off in tension after they slept together. That actually was not what lost me this time. This novel managed to build enough of a rapport between the two characters that I was invested in their relationship becoming real. To be clear, I would have preferred that the fake dating trope go on longer and create opportunities for actual longing. But this novel wasn’t so much about longing; it was about that delightful feeling when you like someone and you reach out tentatively and they meet you in the middle. It was the very, very gentle tension of, “Maybe we could hang out today?” “Sure!” over and over, as a relationship builds. It was fluff-adjacent tension. Super enjoyable, the way a warm bath is enjoyable. I wasn’t dying to get to the end or anything, but it was nice.

I did wonder, about halfway through, how the heck this book could possibly keep going like that. And it turned out it couldn’t. That was when it introduced: the Misunderstanding Plot.

Don’t get me wrong. I love a good misunderstanding plot. But they are hard to do well. They work best when they feel unforced and genuine, and don’t make either of the characters carry the idiot ball. Like, say, if Drew and Alexa hadn’t had enthusiastic sex where they talked about how much they wanted each other, and they were still under the impression that it was a fake relationship, it would be very easy to have the other character accidentally confirm that and drive a wedge between the two of them. Or if one of them was starting to think it WAS real, and then they overheard the other person confessing to someone else that it was totally fake. (Don’t mind me; just thinking about ways I might write it.)

The problem with this one was that they were basically just dating at this point, so in order for drama to arise, the characters had to act badly in ways that felt forced and off-putting. They’d known each other for a week and a half; things had been happy and a little giddy and chill between them so far. Then Alexa texts in the middle of the workday to ask if Drew is sleeping with anyone else. (Because that is the perfect way to initiate an important relationship conversation, obviously.) He makes a joke, because he is clearly also very good at this, and they don’t speak to each other for a week and a half.

Guess which one of them this makes me like more? That’s right! Neither!!

Look. I like characters who are stupid about their own feelings and blind to other people’s. But I also like characters who, when they know about the other person’s feelings, are very, very considerate of them. Drew was not—and Alexa compounded the problem by being confrontational with the question and then abruptly pulling back as soon as she didn’t get the magical easy answer. In short, it made me think that they were bad for each other.

They recover from the texting thing when they just so happen to run into each other (I mean, I can’t throw stones, I’ll buy the coincidence) and are happy to see each other, and apologize, and everything’s fine. But by this point the novel had lost me. I had been enjoying the happy dance of “Does s/he like me? Ooh, s/he does!” but only so long as it lasted. They didn’t have a strong enough core after a week and a half to get through the badness of those texts. They were happy again, but I wasn’t invested. I was mostly reading so I could write this review.

Then, fascinatingly, the book won me back.

It was a very specific passage that did it. On page 190 of the paperback, Alexa talks in the narration about how she wouldn’t admit this to anyone other than herself, but ever since that first weekend with Drew, she’d imagined him in bed with her every night as she fell asleep. And I was sold. I mean, it was still very gentle tension. But! A thing the character wanted that she wasn’t getting! I could be into this again!

And then...well, this is already super long, so I won’t go into all the details of the misunderstanding that ended the book. It had a lot in common with the text message fiasco: Alexa felt insecure, got upset that Drew might not be into her, and refused to engage with him about whether that was true. (Okay, it was actually more egregious than the texts, in that she wouldn’t let him speak.) Her getting upset made sense, but her refusing to let him speak when he was clearly trying to felt SO forced.

The funny thing is, there was actually a seed of potential real conflict there: Drew hadn’t really admitted to himself that he wanted a long-term thing with her. He could have told her that. He could have done anything, really, to indicate that and create a real conflict. (Also tricky to handle without him coming off as not actually interested—but doable, I think.) As it was, he didn’t call her his girlfriend at a party—which, it had been like a month, and they hadn’t discussed it privately, so it’s totally appropriate not to throw the term around in public yet!—and...that’s it. Everything else was just her fears, and the very cowardly way she handled them. I guess that’s relatable? But it felt so engineered. It didn’t so much make me dislike her as make me annoyed with the text for twisting her response so that they couldn’t have the very short conversation that would have cleared everything up.

In fairness to Guillory, a friend who’s read the whole series tells me she does better with misunderstanding plots later. But I’m really, really excited to read a romance plot that doesn’t lose me halfway through.

Next up is Red, White, and Royal Blue. I’ve been told this was basically written for me, so I’m hopeful. Fingers crossed it sticks the landing!

#romance novels #reviews #jasmine guillory #the wedding date #romance meta #fanfiction meta

[luninosity]

Luni how do you respond to people who act like RPF is disrespectful and evil? I saw one of those posts that said shipping and writing fanfiction is harmful to celebrities, but they're not meant to know about those things, those things are for fans to share. It's just frustrating to see people say some of the fanfiction I love most is bad and wrong and therefore I am too.

Oh, goodness...I’ve been hearing the anti-RPF comments pretty much since I started writing fic (I’ve always been in fandoms with a heavy RPF component, even back when I shyly lurked around SPN circles), and they’ve been around longer than that.

This got long! Apologies!

First, I should clarify - RPF is not for everyone! If it squicks you out, that’s okay - you can not read it! No worries! But I am (obviously) in favor personally, so I shall continue...

To answer the specific question about how I deal with it: I’ve tried to deal with it by always being pretty clear about how I see RPF (I’ve made a few previous posts about this; they should be tagged), which is: as fundamentally 1) perfectly okay, and 2) fiction (Real Person Fiction), based on public personae as presented by the celebrities in question. I’ve tried to be as clear about that as I can, and that seems to have helped, or at least I don’t get too many negative comments these days. (And if I do I just delete them - I know what my position on RPF is, and it’s a position I’ve worked out over years of writing and *also* academic research, both in fandom and in history. No random anon having Morality Panic at me on the internet is going to change that.)

Is RPF okay? Of course it is. The Bronte sisters wrote it about the Duke of Wellington. Dante wrote it about basically everyone he wanted to scold and/or praise. Neil Gaiman wrote William Shakespeare as a character in Sandman. No need to be worried or sad about loving the characters and personalities that you love, and wanting more of them.

Is RPF harmful? Of course it isn’t. It’s playful fictional transformative work based on the public personae that we’re allowed to see. That’s not harmful.  (We run into a whole different discussion if anyone thinks a given fanfic is 100% actually happening and really *real*, of course...) It’s the fun of playing with the “what if?” and it’s the brilliant skill and delight of the balancing act of recognizable “real” personalities and just enough detail and the fictional world where the story happens. That takes a crazy amount of talent and is a ton of fun, and I love RPF writers so much for taking it on. (Does that mean I love myself? Hmm...)

Should celebrities know about RPF? In almost all cases, I’m going with, nope dot com. Honestly, it’s just uncomfortable for someone (someone we don’t *really* know, remember, no matter how much we as fans love them) to be shown intimate (emotional or physical) works about themselves. Moreover, most celebrities aren’t familiar with the contexts, subculture(s), expectations, and understandings that underlie fandom - and why would they be? But - again, for the most part - they simply don’t have the experience or vocabulary or investment in fandom itself to be able to evaluate a fanwork or group of works (like, say, RPF) in the context in which it’s produced and consumed, which is vastly important and also a thing many journalists forget to do.

I said “almost” because there are absolutely celebrities who actively seek it out and engage with it! In that case, that’s their choice, and they’re (hopefully) doing so out of genuine curiosity and willingness to learn about and respect the norms of the community and subculture(s) of fandom. They, like the rest of us, then become responsible for curating their own fandom experience, as far as comfort level and what they’re seeking out or avoiding.

That got very long so I’ll stop there! Hopefully that helps!

#anon #replies #rpf #fandom

[isleofbants]

hi even though no one asked for my opinion I’m just gonna ramble for a quick sec ok?

I have often felt an incredible amount of guilt for shipping and creating content in the phandom because I felt doing so would inherently 1. be invasive to their private lives and 2. automatically result in a fetishization of gay male relationships. (both can happen but it is not inherent in writing fic! written below is the hot take on that)

Handling number 1, the negotiation of privacy, can be tricky but I feel like if you aren’t harassing them to reveal the actual real-life minutia of their relationship/personal life and you aren’t speculating for ‘proof’ of something they aren’t comfortable sharing then it’s pretty cool beans.

I know dnp aren’t characters so this is where it gets a little murky. But the dnp in my stories aren’t the same dnp I watch in the videos. I feel like if I were to try and make the characters in my story actually be them and tell the ‘truth,’ I would be overstepping my bounds into their personal relationship. (At the same time I don’t and will not excuse all action to the defense of “it’s just fiction!!” when I know these are people are real and cannot be excused as fiction.)

Handling number 2, the age old question of mlm fetishization. The next part is really long so:

TLDR, a lot of fic is written by and for queer people to feel represented, seen, and serve as a stepping stone for their own self acceptance and cognitive normalisation. Seeing yourself in something and reproducing your own imagination of what a healthy, queer relationship is like can be liberating. While representation is one thing, using fic as sexual exploration for personal discovery is another that can easily slip into danger territory for personal fantasy and satisfaction.

Long version: I’ve only strongly shipped and written within the phandom but have casually shipped a range of relationships. Unfortunately, in the past mlm outweighed wlw pairs. BEFORE YOU YELL, LET ME TELL YOU WHY.

As a POC departing from the heteronormative, I supremely repressed a lot of things to the point of confusion and uncertainty. Do I like her or do I just want to be her? Is this feeling of violent discomfort with my body a response to the hyper-sexualization of women or do I not feel at home here at all? What does gender and sexuality even mean????

Being a cis, thin, white gay male was (and is) a more accepted image of queerness in mainstream society. So, subtle mlm shipping sort of became the outlet for which I could engage in LGBT+ without pointing to myself and going, ME ME ME. I was basically like:

While I now ship wlw relationships a lot more, I used to avoid them in fear of what it would say about me. All the same, I feel guilty that I used these representations of gay men to assert my existence somehow while denying my sweet wlws. I’m sorry Sapphic gods, I wish I could take it all back. I take accountability for my fear based oppression and internal hatred which I projected onto you. 

I also acknowledge what a pity it is that LGBT people (including myself) feel guilty for consuming queer media because of the blanket assumption of fetishization. 

But,,, fetishization does exist and writing sex in fic is ,,,, trickyy.

Something I always wonder is if dnp were a straight couple, would I have any qualms about writing sex. The answer for the most part is no (excluding my hang-ups about privacy and what is acceptable for rpf and sex).

HOWEVER, the historical and political context around these issues mean that in order to treat these situations with equity, sometimes they can’t be treated as the exact same thing. There is a long history of hyper-sexualizing the LGBT community and using this for fantasy. It gets even more complicated when we’re writing about people’s real-liferelationships. (When sexual representation and discovering sexuality turns to gratification for individual pleasure then it’s yikes)

YET, sex is a thing and making it more of a taboo in our puritanical society is not helpful either. People have sex and it can function as an important part of a relationship for couples who do engage in such activities. It should be normalized instead of clouded in shame and impurity.

My rule of thumb is, if it seems to fit naturally in the story and relationship dynamic, then it can sometimes aid in showing important aspects of the story/character. Example, my fic currently has sex because one main themes is about exploring sexuality and discovering new parts of yourself in relation to a queer relationship. But (maybe you’ve noticed), I’ve been abbreviating these scenes lately as I don’t feel they are serving the purpose I intended. Sometimes I think maybe I previously made them full length in fear that no one would read my story without it – when in reality, maybe a shortened version could’ve served it’s purpose as well??? But maybe it wouldn’t. Who knows.

Basically I’m just being mindful and I think everyone else is too. This post is redundant as most everyone has already said this. But I’m happy we can create works while respecting boundaries and celebrating all forms of love with pride

#sorry to bother you #just a ramble #i was gonna write my fic literally the second he posted and lots of people started talking about this which made me doubt myself #phan stuff