Fandom Is Supposed to Be Fun. :: The Life of the Traegorn

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Fandom Is Supposed to Be Fun.
Posted Apr 12, 2025 - 16:35:03

Fandom is something we all get into because we, frankly, like something. I feel like that shouldn't be something that I have to spell out, but every once and a while I find myself in a fandom space where that doesn't seem apparent to someone.

I reblogged a post on Tumblr a couple of days ago which to explain fully to people who have never been in fandom spaces would take a lengthy explanation of "shipping" across multiple decades. But the cliffs notes version is that people who call themselves "antis" like to morally police the way people romantically pair fictional people.

In that reblog, the first poster (who is literally a teenager it turns out) puts together some bad faith suppositions about "proshippers," and someone responds explaining how wrong they are. And I don't want to discuss how self described "antis" weaponize accusations of pedophilia in these conversations, and we all agree that actual predators don't belong in fandom spaces.

What I want to talk about is what I started with: fandom is supposed to be fun.

If people are engaging with a work in a way you don't like? You don't have to talk to them. If someone's writing a fanfic that literally disgusts you? Don't read it. If you don't like a thing? Don't engage with it. None of this is that difficult.

Like there was a lot of weird discourse in the Voltron fandom when the Netflix series was airing. Or at least that's what I'm told. I honestly didn't experience any of it -- because while I loved the show and happily talked to friends about it, I didn't engage with the folks who were making it weird. And guess what? I had a perfectly good time, and if the folks doing the stuff I didn't like had a bad time it wasn't because of me.

I know that tribalism has always been here -- but "arguments" should be recreational. Like I enjoy arguing that Jason Todd should have stayed dead, and my friend Becca hates the new Star Wars canon -- but conversations about this stuff are for fun.

If you're spending all your time policing what other people are doing (that otherwise hurts no one) instead of doing the things you actually like... you're not actually engaging in fandom, you're just being a dick. And, like, I don't think it should be controversial to say you shouldn't be one.

Like the stuff you like, don't engage with folks who like stuff you don't like, and maybe mind your business sometimes. This is supposed to be fun, stop doing stuff that makes it not.

On April 26th I'm going to be at Concinnity in Milwaukee, WI! Stop on by and say hi if you're in town!
- Traegorn

Yeah, especially when it comes to the hypothetical romantic lives of characters. The RWBY fandom gets super-weird about it. So I just did my best to ignore/not engage with the weirdos.