Snowflake Challenge 3, Part 2
Jan. 7th, 2025 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_nightThis is a reflection of my last post. I realized after making it that my fandom experience is different from a lot of people's, and I think that counts as a changed perspective, if not opinions.
First, this does mention the Harry Potter fandom. I am not talking about it to condone JK Rowling's views, I'm talking about why I think my perception of fandom is a little skewed in relation to other people's. If you do not want to read about a JK Rowling property, I completely understand.
I'm going to be very transparent: My first fandom, Harry Potter, was a lot stricter than most fandoms, and sometimes that strictness led to flat-out snobbery. People judged what you wrote, what you shipped, whether or not your OCs were Mary Sues (the Scarlet Letter of fandom)...
Of course, not everyone with certain interests was judgmental about it. I have to point that out. Plenty of fans knew they had specific interests and were cool about it.
Canon shipping was also very much a thing, although I think it had a slightly different meaning than it does now. People would often ship because they wanted them to be canon, not just to have fun. Which isn't to say deliberately not canon pairings didn't exist - Harry/Draco was a MAJOR one. It's just that a lot of fans did seem to think the point of shipping was for the ships to be canon, or at least close to canon. My guess, in retrospect, is that a lot of canon shippers were new to fandom, fell in love with the canon discourse, and became canon shippers from there without realizing that ships were more often than not, not canon. I say that having been such a person.
Purity culture tended to come in the form of fandom conservatives. It was less "shipping this is more moral than shipping that" and more fandom evangelicals. Which sadly, there were more of than you'd realize.
Since then, I haven't really been in many major fandoms, or if I have, it's been more on reading reviews and reactions being heavily involved in the fic side of the things. So that probably also skews my perspective a little.
To date, my most active fandom skews older. Which isn't to say I haven't seen drama, but not to the levels I see described. I was very recently trying to get into a fandom that had of anti and canon shipper nonsense, so I backpedaled hard.
Just interesting to see how everyone's perspectives can be so different.
First, this does mention the Harry Potter fandom. I am not talking about it to condone JK Rowling's views, I'm talking about why I think my perception of fandom is a little skewed in relation to other people's. If you do not want to read about a JK Rowling property, I completely understand.
I'm going to be very transparent: My first fandom, Harry Potter, was a lot stricter than most fandoms, and sometimes that strictness led to flat-out snobbery. People judged what you wrote, what you shipped, whether or not your OCs were Mary Sues (the Scarlet Letter of fandom)...
Of course, not everyone with certain interests was judgmental about it. I have to point that out. Plenty of fans knew they had specific interests and were cool about it.
Canon shipping was also very much a thing, although I think it had a slightly different meaning than it does now. People would often ship because they wanted them to be canon, not just to have fun. Which isn't to say deliberately not canon pairings didn't exist - Harry/Draco was a MAJOR one. It's just that a lot of fans did seem to think the point of shipping was for the ships to be canon, or at least close to canon. My guess, in retrospect, is that a lot of canon shippers were new to fandom, fell in love with the canon discourse, and became canon shippers from there without realizing that ships were more often than not, not canon. I say that having been such a person.
Purity culture tended to come in the form of fandom conservatives. It was less "shipping this is more moral than shipping that" and more fandom evangelicals. Which sadly, there were more of than you'd realize.
Since then, I haven't really been in many major fandoms, or if I have, it's been more on reading reviews and reactions being heavily involved in the fic side of the things. So that probably also skews my perspective a little.
To date, my most active fandom skews older. Which isn't to say I haven't seen drama, but not to the levels I see described. I was very recently trying to get into a fandom that had of anti and canon shipper nonsense, so I backpedaled hard.
Just interesting to see how everyone's perspectives can be so different.
