solivar:

allthemarvelousrage:

themintycupcake:

elfwreck:

fiction-is-not-reality2:

fiction-is-not-reality2:

Anon, from the bottom of my heart: breathe. It kind of breaks my soul reading you torture yourself like this, for something that makes absolutely no sense. 

Disgusting for being in fandom? Too old for M rated fics? You think you should leave? 

Whoever put these thoughts in your head, please, stop listening to them, because they don’t have the slightest idea of what they’re talking about, and I don’t know why you’re giving it any credit when to even remotely entertain the idea that you cannot participate in fandom past the age of 20 you need to ignore the entire history of Fandom. Like, completely erase it all even while you live in it.  

Who do you think pays for Ao3 domain and server? Who’s the majority that has the economical independence to support it every year? Who organizes conventions? Hosts panels? Who writes the vast majority of explicit fics? Who writes the canon every fandom is built upon? 

I’ll save you the trouble of guessing the answer: it’s not minors. 

I’ve received enough messages about people complaining about ageism in fandom, but it’s the first time I’ve read about someone who’s really buying into this absurd idea that is so entirely drenched in misogyny. Don’t let it get to you, please. Who have you interacted with till now? I cannot count the sheer amount of incredible fandom peeps over the age of 30 and 40 and 50 and 60 I have met without even looking for them, because they’re everywhere. They’re the backbone and legs and arms and head of Fandom as a whole, I don’t know how you could have missed them. 

And you know the greatest thing about being an adult? 
That so long as you’re not breaking any law, you can do whatever you want and no one can say nor do anything about it. And if they don’t like it, they can die mad about it.
I think you might be forgetting this little detail.   

Honestly, as an ‘older woman’, I’m perfectly fine and content here and I’m not going anywhere for as long as I’ll find fandom fun. You have all the freedom and the means to stay as well, provided that you stop sabotaging yourself like this. 

Fair reminder that this post has some amazing notes and they’re totally worth reading for whoever is struggling with feelings of guilt for being in fandom when antis try to shame you for having fun. 

Anyone who thinks women get “too old” for fandom should read @spockslash ‘s blog. (Keep some kleenex around; it’s dusty over there.)

Shipping fandom was not created by or for minors. They’re welcome - we love that you CAN join fandom when you’re younger, now; you don’t have to wait until you’re old enough to go to a convention far from home on your own to even find out that it exists! But the fandom that exists now - the huge collection of overlapping communities - has existed for many decades and there are women who’ve been involved with it for more than fifty years.

Never feel guilty for how old you are and how you still want to be involved. You’re never too old for fandom. Never too old to join fandom. Never too old to care about your favorite characters, or imagine what they’d do if the censors weren’t filtering their actions for primetime TV.

In reference to a post I made that’s made rounds: historically, adult women reading fiction, especially erotic fiction, has been seen as a massive threat to gender roles and expectations for as long as romance novels have existed. You’re supposed to find a husband, have kids, and have no sexual desire outside of the need to please your husband. Any expression of sexuality outside of performance for a husband threatens that and male scholars have been complaining about it for decades, even going so far as to claim that it will be the downfall of humanity itself.

Basically, Anon, think of it this way: when you read erotic fiction, even fanfiction, you’re giving the patriarchy a middle finger. Do it in the name of spite, if nothing else.

@solivar

::gesticulates frantically::

Hatred shares an incestuously intimate relationship with stupidity and that’s what this is, taken to a socially toxic extreme: hatred of women, hatred of our sexuality, hatred of our creativity, wrapped up in a neat little bundle made of the most actively repressive elements of Second Wave radfem ideology, where it bent around and made contact with outright misogynist conservatism to police the lives of other women. Mix that together with the ageism apparently inherent to many sectors of Young Fandom on Tumblr, combined with the equally toxic misappropriation of social justice concepts as a mechanism of social control within fandom, and the current enthusiasm for throwing around spurious “abuse” and “pedophilia” accusations, and you’ve got a recipe for convincing a woman still in her twenties that she’s too old to enjoy her own goddamned hobbies of choice.

All I have to say to that is: oh, honey. No. Fuck, no.

I discovered online fandom  in my mid-twenties. Wanna know why? Because online fandom sharing DIDN’T EXIST before my mid-twenties. I’m 44 years old. My fandom existence predates organized internet fandom. I not only remember Aestheticism, I was once a member. My LJ archive when fandom started jumping ship was ten years deep. I survived every single FF.net purge, was an early adopter of Ao3, and I’m a proud fucking member and supporter of the Organization For Transformative Works.

I’m a professional writer: I write and design tabletop roleplaying games for a living, I write pro-grade fanfic in the form of game tie-in fiction (HELLO, BLIZZARD, STILL WILLING TO WRITE ANYTHING YOU WANT, PRACTICALLY FOR FREE!), I write my own original fiction. I’m a card-carrying member of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers and I’m joining the International Game Developers Association and I’m seriously considering joining the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America now that they’re accepting game writers. I’ve had books I’ve worked on nominated for both Origins Awards and ENnies and I expect to enjoy more such nominations in the future.

At 44 when, according to some people, I should have no interests outside of raising my children – who are, by the way, also active in their own fandoms, since fandom is something we share as a family – or doing my taxes – only happens once a year, kids, as you’ll discover – or knitting – I’m hopeless with most fiber crafts but I’m trying to pick up kumihimo because I have this strange desire to make Overwatch League team bracelets, and I may have lost my train of thought where was I again OH YEAH

No, honey, twenty-seven is not too old for anything. Particularly not reading/writing fanfic – most of which is, wait for it!, written by adults, just like pretty much all fiction, including YA fiction, in general – and particularly not for reading/writing M-rated fiction, which is actually FOR ADULTS IN THE FIRST DAMNED PLACE. You should not ever feel ashamed for being an adult in an adult-oriented fandom space. You are allowed to have that and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.