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You are here. X
Just kinda musing about fandom when it comes to pairings after perusing my flist. No, this wasn't even prompted by the Doctor Who fandom, although do not get me started on *that* carnival of batshit.
This isn't meant to be a lecture, it's just where I am.
Something someone told me a long time ago was that your beliefs can be impacted by someone else's beliefs only if you let them. (Kind of a knockoff of that old Eleanor Roosevelt quote - "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.") But it's really helped me travel through fandom waters on a relatively even keel. Relatively.
Say I love Merry/Frodo. I mean, LOVE. Love, love, love. But my next-door LJ neighbor adores Pippin/Frodo and posts frequently about them. Now if I'm unable to look at their posts on my flist without going into some sort of need to constantly post anti-Pippin/Frodo essays or go to their journal to argue why Pippin/Frodo is all kinds of wrong, then maybe they shouldn't be on my flist. Or filtered out. Because there are now two people not having the best of times just because of a pairing.
Personally? I do not care a lick when it comes to other's pairing or non-pairing leanings. Because after all, how in the world does their seeing another pairing, or not seeing a pairing, lessen my love for my own pairing? Really, how? And who am I to ruin someone else's fandom fun? I'm no one. Just another faceless fan who happened to get a LJ account one day. My flist runs the gamut of pairings and fandoms and I think it's cool. And while I'm not the type to go in and start a debate over pairings, I've been known to tease about pairings. (Which was hopefully taken in the good-natured spirit in which it was intended.) And I do reserve the right to wander in someday with a, "Hey! I see you're now into Friedrich von Trapp/Kurt von Trapp Sound of Music incest slash and I gotta ask, how in the world did you get into *that*?" I may even use the little o_O emoticon.
Now to me, debate is just ducky. To a point. But it gets tiring after a while to have to *constantly* defend why you like a pairing or why you think the pairing is not evil beyond all other evil things in the world. It's part of the reason why I don't even look at the biggest D/R community anymore. Not even *tempted* to look.
Also, getting a pairing hate out of your system every once in a while is probably healthy. It's not my style, but I can see why some feel the need. But to constantly go on and on about something in the negative? I'm going to start questioning the grip on the sanity. LET. IT. GO. Good God.
To me, fandom is about having fun. It's Disneyland all the time, baby! Well, not *all* the time. But if I'm not generally having fun, I ain't sticking around. Why subject myself to something so unpleasant, when fandom is very much extracurricular to life?
Fickle, am I.
And now, I'm *dying* for an Iced Caramel Macchiato. Must. Have. I may even get a venti! MMMMMMMM.
ETA: Insane baristas had a fight over who got to pour caramel into said caramel macchiato and wound up with an obscene amount of caramel. Had epiphany. Fandom needs iced caramel macchiatos - everyone will be too busy trying to suck cold caramel through a straw to worry about what other people think.
This isn't meant to be a lecture, it's just where I am.
Something someone told me a long time ago was that your beliefs can be impacted by someone else's beliefs only if you let them. (Kind of a knockoff of that old Eleanor Roosevelt quote - "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.") But it's really helped me travel through fandom waters on a relatively even keel. Relatively.
Say I love Merry/Frodo. I mean, LOVE. Love, love, love. But my next-door LJ neighbor adores Pippin/Frodo and posts frequently about them. Now if I'm unable to look at their posts on my flist without going into some sort of need to constantly post anti-Pippin/Frodo essays or go to their journal to argue why Pippin/Frodo is all kinds of wrong, then maybe they shouldn't be on my flist. Or filtered out. Because there are now two people not having the best of times just because of a pairing.
Personally? I do not care a lick when it comes to other's pairing or non-pairing leanings. Because after all, how in the world does their seeing another pairing, or not seeing a pairing, lessen my love for my own pairing? Really, how? And who am I to ruin someone else's fandom fun? I'm no one. Just another faceless fan who happened to get a LJ account one day. My flist runs the gamut of pairings and fandoms and I think it's cool. And while I'm not the type to go in and start a debate over pairings, I've been known to tease about pairings. (Which was hopefully taken in the good-natured spirit in which it was intended.) And I do reserve the right to wander in someday with a, "Hey! I see you're now into Friedrich von Trapp/Kurt von Trapp Sound of Music incest slash and I gotta ask, how in the world did you get into *that*?" I may even use the little o_O emoticon.
Now to me, debate is just ducky. To a point. But it gets tiring after a while to have to *constantly* defend why you like a pairing or why you think the pairing is not evil beyond all other evil things in the world. It's part of the reason why I don't even look at the biggest D/R community anymore. Not even *tempted* to look.
Also, getting a pairing hate out of your system every once in a while is probably healthy. It's not my style, but I can see why some feel the need. But to constantly go on and on about something in the negative? I'm going to start questioning the grip on the sanity. LET. IT. GO. Good God.
To me, fandom is about having fun. It's Disneyland all the time, baby! Well, not *all* the time. But if I'm not generally having fun, I ain't sticking around. Why subject myself to something so unpleasant, when fandom is very much extracurricular to life?
Fickle, am I.
And now, I'm *dying* for an Iced Caramel Macchiato. Must. Have. I may even get a venti! MMMMMMMM.
ETA: Insane baristas had a fight over who got to pour caramel into said caramel macchiato and wound up with an obscene amount of caramel. Had epiphany. Fandom needs iced caramel macchiatos - everyone will be too busy trying to suck cold caramel through a straw to worry about what other people think.