#commercialization and capitalization

[huginsmemory]

Originally these were tags but I'm gonna rewrite it and elaborate on it out here:

I'd say it's not really about the 'weirdest people' but it's more about the palatability of the works. The fanfics you've mentioned that don't get shoved onto the market are queer, and that matters. And sure now there's STARTING to be a queer romance/erotica market but it's not common. In fact in many places until recently it would've been considered something that you could go to jail or placed in an institution for and still in some places likely can be... As an immediate example, even if I'm not American, considering the way America's Conservative party is angling towards abolishing same sex marriage, these types of laws are likely similarly on their agenda if they are able to repeal it. Not to say this would happen as fearmongering, but a reminder that queerphobia, and the legislative push against queer rights, is very much still there.

So, compared to cishet erotica/romance writing, properly published queer erotica/romance is a new market. That's not to say there aren't issues around cishet erotica and romance writing because it's main audience is women and for women's pleasure, which western society gets really weird and shame-y about because God Forbid women are sexual in a way beyond being an object of a man's pleasure. But this DOES mean there is a large and established market for cishet erotica and romance, that most people don't really blink an eye at other than maybe making a joke about. Hell, you see these books EVERYWHERE. They're right there beside the crime thrillers on the grocery store small shelf selection of books.

As a result of such a big market and it being essentially mainstream, people are way more likely to go 'oh I can sell my fic' because they can. But for queer romance/erotica, its still even more taboo then the woman's geared cishet romance/erotica. The oppressive past is still very present. So even though there's a growing market for it, it's not mainstream enough yet really to have people within fandoms who write queer ships to go 'oh I can sell my fic', because you're less likely to be able to, not to mention the possibility of hate crime, especially if you are also queer yourself and open as an author. Given time for the market to be bigger and more mainstream, barring queer rights being repealed in the western world, I wouldn't be surprised if queer fanfics begin to also be taken down to be resold as queer erotica. There's always going to be a few bad apples people within fandoms who will be willing to do so.

For me, as a fanfiction bookbinder, I find this conversation really similar to a phenomenon going on in the bookbinding community. As someone whose queer and enjoys explicit queer fanfiction, I am extremely wary of anyone recognizing who I am in connection to my fanbinding account, beyond those who are also fanbinders or interested in learning to fanbind. Because there is a very real danger, or repercussions associated with that given that information lands into the wrong hands. However, I have also seen fanbinders who blithely show their face. Not saying that is bad; if you are willing and can be open about it, go for it, but for me, it is something very startling to see. And what's interesting is that they are ALWAYS, from what I've seen, young women (or visibly seem to be) who are binding cishet fanfiction. Something something, privilege and security.

In much the same way, there has been a recent upset between fanbinders and fanfiction authors, on fanbinders taking fics and essentially mass producing them for sale without contacting the author for permission, in one case to the point an author actually removed their fanfiction. But this is solely an issue that, much like the issue of fics being taken down, gutted and resold, is confined to cishet fandom ships. There's more to comment on here, such as the dynamics of privilege and security and the likelihood of mindfulness, but this is already a long reblog.

Anyhow, much like op stated, the majority of the fandom is going to be made of people who care about the fandom community they've joined and more specifically, who do it as a hobby that they love during their spare time off of work; that government job that they are doing. And as a result, gutting their creation to monetize it never crosses their mind because that's not what they're here for.

sad reality of the fanfic-to-published work economy is that the weirdest people are willing to do it. that's why there's now hundreds of shitty no plot cishet hate-to-love enemies-to-lovers books that are ex reylo fanfic. and it's not even good. that's because the people who wrote book-quality steve/bucky and kirk/spock fic are too normal to think to themselves "i should get this porn published". they're too busy working in local government offices

[pichiicake]

[martyrbat]

theyre trying to dehydrate our beautiful bears and make them have a six pack.... i feel sick.

[effinbirds]

Product sample day is my favourite day.

(You can get these in my shop right now)

[vintage-tigre]

"Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye."

Pornography is any act that has no artistic merit and causes sexual thoughts...Sounds like almost every commercial on TV to me.

I'm tired of this back-slappin' "isn't humanity neat" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes.”

- Bill Hicks

[beyondthisdarkhouse]

My neighbours and I recently got talking about how our landlord sure as shit isn't going to spend money on it, but it would be really nice if someone did a smidgen of work on our building's dogshit landscaping. For example: Every year the city puts sod down and the landlord doesn't water it and it dies and the city pulls it up and re-sods it again next year, but at some point they're going to cut off the free sod gravy train.

Then we got distracted and I explained which politicians removed the limits on rent hikes and when, because I know too much about the Residential Tenancies Act and am extremely petty about it.

So now the central dilemma we're wrestling with is how to make changes we want without pricing ourselves out of our own building.

Oh, if my dead landlord card-carrying Progressive Conservative grandfather could only see me now.

[lily0819]

Exciting news from Arizona! The opening of the Eleven Mile Solar Center marks a $1 billion investment in clean energy by ACPMember OrstedUS The solar & energy storage project is set to power 65,000 homes. Take a look at the project celebration.

[millionmovieproject]

Austin Community College in Austin, TX

MORE. OF. THIS.

[mint-mumbles]

I think I made the right choice

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[thornescratch]

The Caps going back to that well of "yes they sing like shit but we will put them in silly holiday hats for you to make it extra funny" for their commercials is a winning formula.

[aspiringbogwitch]

[trailofleaves]

“If love is under siege, it is because it threatens the very essence of commercial civilization. Everything is designed to make us forget that love is our most vivid manifestation and the most common power of life that is in us. Shouldn't we wonder how the lights that glimmer in the eye can blow a fuse for a time, even as barriers of oppression break and jam our passions? Yet despite a life stunted and distorted by mediated Spectacle, nothing has ever managed to strip love of its primal force. Although the heart's music fails to overwhelm the cacophony of profit efficiency, bit by bit it composes our destinies, according to tones, chords, and dissonances which render us happy if only we learn to harmonize the scattered notes that string emotions together.”

— Raoul Vaneigem

[effinbirds]

Guess what's back in stock, now with women's cuts?

And if you want to be super well-coordinated, there are also shoes.

[ratfc]

2025 and intimate washes are still being promoted as if it's not just a product created to prey on women

[end-area]

This is exactly what I mean. You can and should enjoy TS' music if you want to but these comparisons and superlatives are insane.