do you remember that time when Chris Pine was doing his strong-in-control-captain-Kirk-actor-y-thing and then suddenly fell sideways straight through a wall? and the time he sat in the captains chair and totally was flipped backwards in a somersault right out of the seat? or the time he got hit in the face by that door? or the time he laughed so hard in the dumb wonderful dubsmash it looked like he actually fell over right out of the frame? or the time he accidentally broke his finger on a wooden table? or the thousand times they couldn’t film scenes because he was laughing too much and had infected the other actors until they were all uselessly laughing to a chorus of “pine, no, pine, no—stOP PINE”
I just want to share this because I’m dying at Chris Pine’s air guitar in the background. I hate him. I hate him. How dare he be good at so many things in life. How dare he.
If you wish to take part in any fandom, you need to accept and respect these three laws.
If you aren’t able to do that, then you need to realise that your actions are making fandom unsafe for creators. That you are stifling creativity.
Like vaccination, fandom only works if everyone respects these rules. Creators need to be free to make their fanart, fanfics and all other content without fear of being harassed or concern-trolled for their creative choices, no matter whether you happen to like that content or not.
The First Law of Fandom
Don’t Like; Don’t Read (DL;DR)
It is up to you what you see online. It is not anyone else’s place to tell you what you should or should not consume in terms of content; it is not up to anyone else to police the internet so that you do not see things you do not like. At the same time, it is not up to YOU to police fandom to protect yourself or anyone else, real or hypothetical.
There are tools out there to help protect you if you have triggers or squicks. Learn to use them, and to take care of your own mental health. If you are consuming fan-made content and you find that you are disliking it – STOP.
The Second Law of Fandom
Your Kink Is Not My Kink (YKINMK)
Simply put, this means that everyone likes different things. It’s not up to you to determine what creators are allowed to create. It’s not up to you to police fandom.
If you don’t like something, you can post meta about it or create contrarian content yourself, seek to convert other fans to your way of thinking.
But you have no right to say to any creator “I do not like this, therefore you should not create it. Nobody should like this. It should not exist.”
It’s not up to you to decide what other people are allowed to like or not like, to create or not to create. That’s censorship. Don’t do it.
The Third Law of Fandom
Ship And Let Ship (SALS)
Much (though not all) fandom is about shipping. There are as many possible ships as there are fans, maybe more. You may have an OTP (One True Pairing), you may have a NOTP, that pairing that makes you want to barf at the very thought of its existence.
It’s not up to you to police ships or to determine what other people are allowed to ship. Just because you find that one particular ship problematic or disgusting, does not mean that other people are not allowed to explore its possibilities in their fanworks.
You are free to create contrarian content, to write meta about why a particular ship is repulsive, to discuss it endlessly on your private blog with like-minded persons.
It is not appropriate to harass creators about their ships, it is not appropriate to demand they do not create any more fanworks about those ships, or that they create fanwork only in a manner that you deem appropriate.
These three laws add up to the following:
You are not paying for fanworks content, and you have no rights to it other than to choose to consume it, or not consume it. If you do choose to consume it, do not then attack the creator if it wasn’t to your taste. That’s the height of bad manners.
Be courteous in fandom. It makes the whole experience better for all of us.
You walk in a room to find that the only way to escape is by writing a name of a real person on a piece of paper. This will kill that person.
You wake up in a room. You have no idea how you got there. In front of you is a door. You get up and try and open it but it’s locked. Panicking, you take in the rest of the room, but the only other thing in there is a table with piece of paper and a pen laying next to it. Suddenly, a sinister voice comes from some where above you.
“Welcome. You are trapped in this room. As you already know, your exit is sealed. However, you can get it open, but in order to do so, you must write someone’s name on that piece of paper. Doing so will then kill that person. Now-wait. What are you doing? You can’t-no you can only write ONE name I-what the fuck? Okay, I mean, you want to kill both the president AND the Vice President? Oh and the chief advisor…okay AND the Attorney General. Right, look, okay, I’ll let you out just-who the fuck is Milo Yiannopoulos? Look, okay, obviously this plan was not well thought out just….just go. Leave. Stop writing names and just get the fuck out. Jesus…”
• Had a character fling their trousers or skirt against the wall in the throes of passion- only to realise they never lost their shoes
• Found themselves grazing every reference work under the sun and gave up realising lips have no synonyms
• Frozen in front of their screen, feeling like a shy virgin
• Wrecked their heads trying to find that perfect balance between daring and crude
• Embarrassed the other sex asking by them questions for research
• Been hesitant to start on a piece, worried that it’ll read exactly like their other ones
• Lost overview of what positions their characters are in and where all those limbs are at
• Awkwardly googled a position or practice they have no personal experience with
• Been afraid to hit the post button for fear that nobody else will find their fantasies appealing
Erotica is just as challenging to write as any other type of story.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. Don’t ever allow yourselves to be condescended upon.
Know what hard work you do. Know all erotica writers have struggled with these issues. Know the skills you’ve had to acquire. Know your works are worth just as much as plot-driven ones.
Ato's Fandom Blog 