Itâs not even been a month since Sanaâs season started and what Iâve seen out of this fandom is nothing but straight up ignorance and hatred, and Iâm so fucking sick of it.
This is not the fandom I joined last November.
We donât attack each other for our opinions. We sure as hell listen when someone tells us weâre wrong and attempts to educate us. We grow from our mistakes and we learn together, but some of you literally wonât fucking learn.
Season Three wasnât a walk in the park. There were ugly fetishizers. There were people who shipped Tarjei and Henrik. There was plenty of ableism. The level of straight up islamophobia, ableism, biphobia, lesbophobia, transphobia, overall anti LGBTQ+ sentiment some of yâall have going on, and the abuse apologizing that Iâve seen across my dash these past few weeks is fucking astounding.Â
How can you watch this show that is attempting to educate you and make you a better person and not come out of it leaving with a more broad scope of the world and be more accepting? How can you not sit and at least attempt to learn someone elseâs point of view?Â
Iâm not a Muslim, but there are people in this fandom who are. They fucking deserve your respect, and their opinions hold more weight than any of ours could ever dream of having. If you cannot understand that Islam is a religion of peace and acceptance and have an issue with it, just leave. You arenât wanted here. We donât care about your opinion of what Islam is and isnât. Iâm a Christian, and I am not vilified for the mistakes of my religion and the hatred and ignorance that has stemmed from it in the past. I will not allow you to sit and do the same to Muslims. Respect the opinions of Muslims in this fandom. Donât speak over them. When they say youâve said something wrong own up to it and fucking apologize. Grow up and learn from your mistakes. Be a better person. Itâs all you can do.Â
The ableism Iâve seen is gross. Itâs disgusting. Disabled and mentally ill people are fucking human beings who have feelings. Thereâs no argument there. Even is not his disorder. Even is a human being with a personality who has likes and dislikes who just happens to have a mental illness. That illness doesnât define him, and itâs not cause for you to hate him. Heâs not a fucking liar. Heâs allowed to feel shameful for what his illness has caused him to do in the past. He doesnât have to share it with Isak. Even is his own person, and Isak is his own as well. Donât expect Even to reveal his darkest secrets to Isak when not even Isak would discuss the first half of first year with Even. Even is allowed to have secrets. That doesnât make him manipulative. So many of us in this fandom are mentally ill, and this shit hurts us. The asks concerning all of this stuff can physically hurt. The way you say things can literally be life or death for some people. Donât say ableist shit.Â
The level of rude asks and opinions thrown towards LGBTQ+ individuals in this fandom is inexcusable. I know itâs a shock, but people are allowed to make everything gay. Everything can literally be fucking gay. If you donât like it, get over it. Iâve consumed heteronormative media since the day I was born. You can handle a few headcanons on your dash about why Vilde is a lesbian. You donât have to think sheâs a lesbian. No one is forcing you to acknowledge that Vilde is a lesbian. You do you. If you think sheâs bi or pan, thatâs great, but you donât have the right to go into someoneâs ask and tell them theyâre wrong for thinking Vilde is a lesbian. So many of you are clearly lesbophobic, and itâs funny considering youâre screaming âEvak! My small soft gay babies!â the next second. We donât have to have permission to hc characters as gay. Itâs not your fucking place to tell someone whoâs trans/nb that âIsak doesnât look transâ when they hc Isak as trans. If they want Isak Valtersen to be a fucking trans boy, they can. Itâs not hurting you. All itâs doing is exposing your level of transphobia. Weâre allowed to project our sexualities onto characters. If you have an issue with it, youâre homophobic, and you need to grow up and educate yourself.Â
Another issue: biphobia. Some of yâall just really love vilifying Even donât you? You really want to see him fuck up, and itâs exhausting. Even isnât going to cheat on Isak. Heâs not gonna fall in love with Mikael and ride off into the sunset with him. Isak and Even are in this thing called life together. Isak goes down with Even in that s4 trailer. They both love and support each other. Canât you use your own eyes and see and respect that? You donât have to fall back on old harmful stereotypes to fuel drama or have opinions. Even is in love with Isak. Respect that and acknowledge it.Â
Lastly, today marked the return of our old pal William. William, who it was revealed literally made Noora feel bad after Nico. William who manipulated Noora onto their first date. William who shows abusive tendencies. There are no redeeming factors for William as a character. You can like William. Iâm not going to sit here and say you canât, but you cannot excuse his actions. You canât sit and say he was okay when he manipulated Noora. You cannot say his actions towards her in London were in any way okay. You shouldnât fucking defend him. Acknowledge that heâs messed up. After youâve done that, if you really want to like a character whoâs like that be my guest I guess. Abuse is so fucking serious.Â
William is a manipulative person with abusive tendencies. Donât compare him to Isak, Even, or Jonas. All 3 of them? They fucking grew. They learned from their mistakes, and they expressed regret over them. They apologized for them. William canât even send Noora a fucking text message. Isak, Even, and Jonas literally donât even deserve to have their names in a paragraph with William. Isak, Even, and Jonas are what every single one of us should be like. We all have fucked up and said shit when we were uneducated, but like them, we have to take responsibility and grow up and learn to be better people.Â
Skam fandom, do better. Be better.
You are better. I know you are.Â
Take a second before you send someone an ask and think about what youâre really saying. If you make a mistake, apologize and learn. Never stop trying to grow and learn and become educated. We stop progressing the second we let hate and ignorance dictate our thoughts.Â