fandom-flaws

[fandom-flaws]

(05/16/2021) Growing up in Fandom Spaces

Hello Again. 

Today’s post is about something that has become a very weird and scary change for me. The switch from minor to adult in fandom spaces. Some personal background on me before I hop into this post, I have had a tumblr since I was 12 years old in the ripe tumblr era of 2015. Another thing is I have ADHD which has only been diagnosed in the past two years and I had no idea I had it until a few months or so before getting tested. Now onto the the post

I have several fandoms I’ve quite literally grown up in. Like I began my fandom journey with them and now here I am. I watched the Hamilton fandom grow and die in real time along with VLD, SU, and so, so, so many more. I was here before the 18+ material ban and watching that announcement and fallout was quite an experience for 15 year old me. I grew up in fandom spaces were it was adult orientated and I, as a minor, just sat back and didn’t interact with adult material or did so without revealing my age. Now I find myself in a world of the reverse. A lot more fandom spaces I’m on (primarily tiktok) have made a huge switch. The adults are now shamed for talking about them simping for characters that don’t/barely age with in the series do to the fact that authors, mangaka, and so on can’t produce their series in real time. 

Two examples for me: I’ve been in love with Haruhi Fujioka since I was like 12, and now I have gone from being too young for him to being labeled gross for having a crush on her still. She barely ages in the series and doesn’t at all in the anime. She has been like 15 since 2006, what am I supposed to do with this crush I’ve had for six years on a fictional character who’s age is barely changed throughout canon. The next is my dear Itadori Yuuji. His birthdate is March 20th, 2003 and mine is April 23rd, 2003. The Jujutsu Kaisen canon takes place in the year 2018, but despite me making some jokingly racy remarks about Sukuna I’m apparently in the wrong since despite us being the same age, him literally being a month older than me, I can’t do that since a mangaka can’t produce a series in real time to keep up. Like I would’ve said the exact same racy joke in 2018 at age 15 as I would now three years later. 

That also brings up our next posts topic of anime anatomy design and the virtually no separation between characters who are teenagers and the ones in their twenties. Also how trying to apply real world expectations to series that have major fantasy elements to them isn’t as cut and dry as people want it to be. 

Overall it has been a really strange and scary shift, especially coming from the view point of a queer ND person who was ‘raised’ in a different type of fandom. Like I also grew up cosplaying but now younger fandom members are just becoming cosplay elitists again and I don’t think I can stand and watch that happen again, and now they find it weird when adults cosplay teenaged characters??? Like most professional cosplayers, believe it or not, are usually in their mid to late twenties and some even old as early forties. 

Are we just constantly doomed to just relive 2010-2017 tumblr for the rest of our lives? On every platform we find? Because even though I was here just on the tail end of it, I don’t think I can stand to sit here and just keep watching the cycle repeat itself every damn time.  

[fandom-flaws]

(05/15/2021) Opening

I recently turned 18, like late april 2021 it hasn't even been a month yet, recently. And after I changed the age in my bio I instantly saw a difference in my treatment in fandom spaces, which was a sudden and honestly scary shift. What makes this shift so scary is that I have been in fandom spaces for years, before I knew that spaces I was in was considered fandom. I’ve been on tumblr since I was 12 maybe 13 years old. I was an avid wattpad fanfic writer and was fairly active in a some anime fandoms that I still love six years later. This shift from protected minor to sudden adult has given me whiplash and has left me in a place where I don’t know what I can and can’t say about the characters that have remained 16 years old while I’ve grown from too young for them to suddenly too old. I will probably quite a few posts on this turmoil I’m feeling as I try to navigate this new world of fandom while bearing the label of adult despite the fact I often forget I’m graduating at the end of this month and not actually still just a 15 year old in tenth grade.