>:(

[lex]

So over on Fandom Wank there's a thing about some ladies who really love Snape. The wank is... they really love Snape. How is this a wank? Fuck if I know. But it's making me really goddamn angry. Someone in comments said, and I quote, "Good Lord I hope she doesn't have custody of children if she is obsessing on a fictional character." Which is apparently the theme of the show - oh noes, these people really adore a fictional character and draw inspiration from him! Clearly this means they're abusive fucks or something?! What the fuck. And this is coming from fellow fans. What the fucking fuck. So angry.

If I ever, ever make anyone feel like their fannishness is a bad thing, I have failed as a fan. The only time fannishness is bad is when it is literally dangerous, such as stalking an actor. Getting enjoyment and inspiration from fictional characters? We all do that. Heck, I pretend robots from outer space help me with my homework because it makes doing homework slightly more tolerable. If that makes me crazy, fuck, at least my homework gets done. Does adoring Sunstreaker make me inherently incapable of caring for Nostalgia? Does loving Shockwave make me incompetent at keeping the house in good condition? Maybe Megatron has mystical powers that prevent me from taking out the trash. Maybe the idea of 'loving something makes you unable to love other things' is a huge steaming load of bullshit. Maybe this wasn't a wank until FandomWank started the wank.

OH FUCK PEOPLE LIKE STUFF

Comments

[caiusmajor]

Certain parts of fandom have have a big issue with people liking characters as themselves. Like--spending all your time writing Snape/Harry porn or whatever is perfectly okay and normal! But wanting to imagine yourself marrying Snape is HORRIBLY BAD AND WRONG.

It's the Mary Sue thing, I think. Or something.

(When I first saw this post I was all, "Wait, they're doing Snapewives *again*?" But, no. Fortunately.)

[swordage]

No, I only just heard about it through someone else - I don't follow Fandom Wank, I don't get enjoyment from that kind of thing. Wank stresses me out. As you may observe from this post.

My thing with Mary Sues is - the only people I can see enjoying them are the authors. They're not written for sharing, they're written for indulgence. And that's totally okay, indulgence and enjoyment are why we do this fan thing, but as storytelling it kinda fails at being any sort of good. So if someone wants to dedicate themself to Snape, whatever floats your boat, you know? That's indulgence, and it's fine with me. I do find it odd, but I can kinda understand it. To build an ideal and dedicate yourself to it is actually pretty normal. Using a character as a framework is totally reasonable - it gives you a way to empathize with and humanize that ideal. We all do this in a way - "what character are you most like" on quizzes will usually get a pretty long answer.

What I find truly reprehensible, above and beyond the whole 'being a fan is bad' bullshit, is saying that 'being a fan makes you a bad parent.' I cannot even put into words how angry that makes me. What twisted illogic even makes a person think 'oh hey, she really likes Snape - better take her kids away!' Just - dakjshfkjhsdd SO ANGRY