I don’t now about the Mandela catalog beyond the fact that the creator is an anti to be honest. It definitely sucks that that’s the case.
Good luck with it!
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Let’s play! Should I make this a nuzlocke run?
Therapy is not a gun that fires “be normal” rays at people you think are gross and weird.
Fancops, however, wish it was.
not to throw myself into discourse or anything but fandom went downhill the moment fans began holding up fandom content to mainstream content standards
Elaborate pls.
Shipping is no longer about “hey I think these characters have an interesting dynamic and I want to explore what they would be like together”, it’s “but it needs to be canon, it needs to be healthy, it needs to be representation”
Headcanons are no longer personal opinions but “you are wrong and always have been wrong”, “you are DIRECTLY going against canon with this and here’s a list of reasons why this is so!”
Do I even need to bring up the “fiction = reality” argument here that’s currently so prevalent in fandom circles that, sure, definitely has some truth in it when you’re considering a piece of mainstream media which is going to reach millions of people, but not so much when you’re applying it to a fanfiction with 100 views tops
There are certain things fans want to see in their mainstream content, and that’s okay! I do that too! Diversity is a necessity in media and it’s wonderful that the mainstream media is finally taking steps to rectify that, no matter how small. Fans can now openly communicate with content creators on social media and get them to confirm all manner of headcanons, and that’s good too!
Except some fans have run with this and started using it against fandom, and suddenly you’ve ended up with fans terrified to put forth their own content because it doesn’t fit into the requirements they’re requesting from the mainstream.
One of the best examples to illustrate this recent shift that I can think of is (oh god here we go I’m not even in this fandom) Reylo. If it were to become canon in the films? Sure, feel free to criticise the creators behind the decision all you want! However, exploring the potential such a relationship could have in a fanfiction no-one’s going to read except other people interested in the same idea doesn’t open it up to this same criticism.
tl;dr: through wanting to transform the canon, fans are forgetting how to transform the canon for themselves into their own fanworks and this is leading to fans criticising each other on the same level with which they criticise mainstream media without considering the history & small nature of fandom and the intention of fans in their production of content
I agree with what you’re saying, but I do want to point out that sometimes those fanfics with only 100 views end up getting more views and becoming mainstream media (namely, 50 shades of grey).
I agree with everything else you said – I don’t think that what’s mainstream should dictate what’s in fandom, but when stories get big (and just before becoming mainstream), should they still be excluded from criticism?
This is a good point, but allow me to use 50 Shades of Grey as an example since you’ve brought it up:
50 Shades of Grey, in its original form as Twilight fanfiction, was fanfiction written for fandom consumption and published in a fandom space.
EL James, in deciding to publish it, took that fanfiction out of the fandom space and opened it up to full public consumption.
And in turning that fanfic into a published novel, in removing it from its fandom space and placing it in a literature space, EL James should have done her research, or at least sought out critical opinions which influenced the novel’s transition from a fanfic written entirely to amuse herself to a published work.
Does this mean we should be criticising fanfictions which gain popularity in fandom in case the authors decide to do as EL James did and publish it as an original work??
In my opinion, no.
Fanfictions published in fandom spaces are written freely, given freely. We have no way of judging why an author felt the need to write their fanfics and fanfiction authors do not need to justify themselves even if they do (to use 50 Shades again) write fucked up dynamics in a romantic way, or haven’t done any research on a topic central to their work such as BDSM, etc. If, however, you choose to edit your fanfiction into an original work, it no longer exists in a fandom space and you should be aware of that.
Those popular fanfictions? Remain excluded from criticism because they still exist in a fandom space. If you find aspects of a popular fanfiction to be harmful or worthy of criticism in some way, there’s the back button, or even better, a blank word page to begin writing your own fanfic.
Very much this.
So this is all well and good but I want to address something.
Namely, the point about “fanfiction that’s going to get 100 views tops” in relation to fiction influencing reality.
That idea is so misunderstood and twisted that people no longer understand what was being discussed when it was introduced.
That concept comes from a couple different sources. The most negative interpretation came from the Satanic Panic in the 70s through the early 90s. This is the “D&D and Led Zeppelin will make your kids devil worshippers!” argument. There is a more positive interpretation that boils down to “Fiction can be a medium to safely propose and explore ideas that people may or may not be able to explore in their personal lives”, the “speculative fiction” that gave rise to the sci-fi and fantasy booms of the 60s into the modern day.
I want you to pay very careful attention to the way the latter is phrased.
Yes, fiction can affect reality, by introducing ideas. By exploring them with the reader and letting the reader decide what to do with them.
This idea that we must protect readers from “bad” topics is infantilizing in the extreme and robs readers of their agency. Absolutely tag your work to help others stay safe, but otherwise, go nuts.
TL;DR: size doesn’t matter, those words don’t mean what you think they mean, people can, should and must be able to write whatever the fuck they want. A writer’s only duty of care is to tag/categorize/describe their work appropriately so that those who want to avoid interacting with that kind of content can.