#tw: fandom discource

[fizzigigsimmer]

@mania-mono I had to move my reply so I can give this my best shot at an answer without worrying about a word limit. So here I go, and pardon any pre-coffee typos.

I don’t speak for every Billy fan, because I can’t, nor do I speak for every POC because I can’t do that either. Blanket statements, generalities, and opinions grounded in the belief that what you see in front of you - which can only ever be a sample size - is everything, leads to closed mindedness. We are all vulnerable to these things. I think it is human nature to accept what we see and what we are told, in order to make friendly in our groups. So that we feel accepted as well as acceptable and to never think beyond that.

So I understand where opinions like “People only care about Billy because Dacre is attractive [and white]” come from. Within those opinions I can hear the faint echos of social discourse that I as a woman of color have had to bring to the table at one time or another, and I recognize that there is a merit of thought there, that I am 100% sure some fans need to reckon with.

I will never be the person sitting out here trying to disprove that the general fandom is suddenly unproblematic and completely free of the persuasion of whiteness combined with attractiveness and a preference for men.

This black girl will certainly never tell you that she hasn’t run into Billy friendly hot takes and writing that did have whiffs of white washing and erasure that made her uncomfortable and irritated at times. I have no reason to be afraid or to hide from that fact because it’s my lived reality. Every day in every fandom, in every ship. It’s my reality. It sucks. And I am confident and grounded enough in my own thinking to say something when I feel it needs to be said, or to just move on and find something better to read for my own peace of mind.

Yes, some Billy fans are problematic. But that is not my whole experience nor even half of it, and that matters.

Because I will also tell you that in my year or more of engaging in Harringrove fandom I have experienced that type of blindness and bias less than I have in other fandom spaces I have taken part in.That’s why I am here. I do not subject myself to being in places that make me consistently uncomfortable.

My empathy for the character brought me, and I stay because it’s a lovely place to explore my thoughts & feelings and make friends. For the most part I have found this pocket of fandom to be filled with nice people who actually do think through the characters flaws and have conversations about culture and social issues as often as any other fandom space. We bond, we have fun, and occasionally I might get into a debate with someone who I disagree with or disagrees with me about how we perceive the character’s flaws and their cultural impact.

I will tell you that I avoid many other subsections of Stranger Things fandom because my experience was that the balance is not the same in other tags. Because I felt consistently attacked, provoked, and silenced. Not just where it comes to discussions about race, but also disability, fat phobia, and my experiences of trauma and surviving abuse.

The problem I see a lot in fandom is that people are very good at manipulating others. There are whole communities that thrive on the basis of taking popular progressive opinions and using it to bully others for their entertainment or to control their behavior, or both. They rely on the public memory of the valuable work other people have done within culture and use those talking points to invoke fear and shame in their peers for their own selfish reasons. To feel good in the moment. For more reblogs. To feel like they’re part of the winning “team”. To feel like they’re meeting requirements of acceptable behavior. And for many more reasons I’m sure.

Whatever their reason, these folks know when they type out, “people only like Billy because Dacre is attractive”, that most people will instantly remember every discussion they ever sat through on the topic of bias and think ‘I don’t want to be that guy’. Because that’s natural and good and without those natural and good instincts we couldn’t be manipulated into a fear response. But the reality is even just a little bit of critical thinking would make it obvious how biased and unreasonable this take is.

When I hear “People only...” no mater what follows, a little yellow warning light goes off in the back of my mind. Because yes we can joke about certain things and make dumb memes for the fun, but when it comes to making a serious judgment, “People only” is a dangerous place to start. More people need to remember that.

Because I don’t think anyone actually needs to spend a great deal of time talking to Billy fans or researching much of anything at all to debunk this theory. If you replace Billy’s name with any aspect of his character that a person might relate to it falls apart. Because they are there to be related to. And if they are there to be related to, you’d have to be carrying some deep seeded rage and wearing some thick ass blinders to stick to the argument that you truly believe that nothing but white male attractiveness matters to anyone.

“People only care about that teenager because his actor is good looking.”

“People only care about that child, whose mother left, because his actor is good looking.”

“People only care about that blue collar boy because his actor is good looking.”

“People only care about that child of divorce...”

“People only care about that boy who was forced to move towns right in the middle of high school because...”

“People only care about that kid whose dad was abusing him because...”

“People only care about that kid who was dragged into the dark by a monster one night and violated because....”

I think the ridiculousness as well as the danger of this thought process speaks for itself.

I think that if someone finds it easy to believe a blanket statement like “People only care about Billy because Dacre is hot,” and can’t think up a single other reason someone else might relate to the character and talk about it honestly while defending their opinion, that’s their problem and not mine or yours. Either this is someone who doesn’t think much for themselves and is just parroting others, or someone who knows what they are saying probably isn’t actually true, but doesn’t care because the aim is to hurt some and manipulate others.

[ninthwonderoftheworld]

Yall are so fucking lame bro 💀

[flushed-for-the-trolls]

I see people mocking the whole anti/proship weird war going on and I used to agree... then I got told to commit die because of it on a post that WASN'T EVEN RELEVANT??? Like, ffs I WISH I didn't have to speak on this, but some people just evidently needed to be hugged more as kids, and it's not my fault if someone throws that vibe at me while I'm doing my own thing, entirely separate from this stupid fucking thing.

No one fucking cares about your moral high horse, stay in your salty ass corner away from other people if you can't act like a decent human being. Fuckin' 'ell man...

[theodora3022]

tw: rant

Well, fk it

If one does not bother to ask for my explination before jumping into messed-up conclusions, then maybe I should have never considered them as friends.

Did you ever read my rules? I made it crystal clear that I DO NOT CONDONE RL TOXIC BEHAVIOURS in all caps and bold.

I literally write "THIS IS NOT HEALTHY LOVE AND IS MEANT TO MAKE YOU UNCOMFY" on the top of my every recent dark fic

Those should represent me and my principles more then a reblog right?

But if that rb truly leaves anyone the impression that I support romantization of r*pe, I will remove it now. Better to be safe then sorry.

Good day.

[gundhams-pandemonium]

A little Danganronpa rant/some opinions I have, mostly based off of something on Tik Tok that was going around

Tw: V3 spoilers, Incest, abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual mentioned)

Recently, there has been a spur of videos revolving shipping Kiyo with canon female characters. I, personally, ship him (the canon female characters, I have other m/m ships and nb/m) with Kaede, Angie, and Kirumi.

However, this discource is based on the fact that since Korekiyo was sexually and emotionally (and possibly physically, though that's more speculation based on how he reacts to physically violent things) abused by a woman (his sister) that he can't be shipped with women.

Now, trauma is very differnt from person to person and if that is how a specfic person hcs what happened/the reasoning behind their own personally shipping that is fine. HOWEVER, there is nothing wrong with shipping him with female characters, as shipping is Non canon, is meant to explore differnt possibilities and dynamics. There is no canon that he is bothered by his female classmates.

Another argument on the discourse: because he is a Seriel Killer who targets women, it is inherently unhealthy

Again, I'd like to go to the previous point on how fanfiction always delves away from canon and that working through a differnt dynamics is fine. I'd also like to point to the fact it's very iffy on what things are fake/real in V3 (Thanks Tsumugi~) so it could be a very reasonable possibility that Kiyo wasn't a Seriel Killer to begin with. And even if he was, and that was the reasoning, wouldn't he be "unshippable" with anyone? If unhealthy just because he kills women, then can you really argue that him being with men is any "healthier"

[Btw, this is coming from someone who's main pairing with Kiyo is with Shuichi,, so]

This also goes into one of the few reasons I dislike fandom, which is everything must be "Pure" and go through certain criteria otherwise you'll be "cancelled" if you are determined to be "in the wrong". It limits a lot of creativity, and 9/10 times is just something to cause drama

Again, this is a little rant that's disorganized to hell but the main point is: Be kind to how others hc things/dont go after people/just have fun with fandom please

[theodora3022]

Yep, that fandom is toxic af and the children in there is...something else entirely.

Will you watch and write for BNHA

I’m currently watching season 2, so maybe, my biggest concern about offering to write for My Hero Academia is how toxic the fandom is. Being a yandere writer already puts me at risk of being harassed, but writing yandere stories for a fandom that’s known for being toxic does make me worry to an extent.

[ceffythesquirrel]

I agree Mew! I totally agree.

Possibly Controversial Question(s):

I’ve noticed this weird surge of Roman hate and like…why???? Roman is fantastic!!! He’s interesting, funny, and beautifully vulnerable. He wears his arrogance like a shield to hide his insecurities and it’s fascinating. As a representation of Thomas’s ego, what does that say about the Thomas character? Sure, he’s a drama queen, but so is every other character in the series.

Roman’s just so, SO much more interesting than he used to be! He’s trying so hard to improve himself, to be better. His character development is something I’m really looking forward to. Why do we need to hate on Roman???

On a possibility related note, I’m also seeing this bizarre surge of love for Deceit, which I don’t get. He’s such a new character! He’s had like….five minutes of screen time as himself? He’s canonically a villainous character who is disliked by the others at best. Not seeing much to love as of yet. Not judging if you feel differently, just giving my opinion here. I get everyone has favorite characters, but like… he’s the villain. And he’s a GOOD villain. The snake has done well enough for that, in the limited capacity we’ve seen thus far. I’m interested to see where Thomas goes with it all.

But is this sudden fandom need to make the only villain in the series into something else contributing to the uptick in Roman hate? I hope not, but I suppose it would make a weird kind of sense? In the absence of one villain, you need another to drive the storyline forward, whatever the story may be.

I guess my real question is, why is Roman, our dramatic prince, somehow getting cast in the role of The Bad Guy? Did I miss something??? I’m not trying to stir up Discourse or anything, I’m legit confuzzled! My dash has been a strange place lately. 😂