fandom spaces were better when the media creators didn't know we existed and we didn't want them to find out.
this got way more attention than I expected, and I'm seeing a lot of confusion and dissent in the notes so let me clarify:
this isn't about creators just knowing about fandom in the abstract. this is about creators being deeply involved with their own fandoms. as in, writers of TV shows trawling fansites and using fan theories to formulate plots for their show, or changing plots because fans have pieced together the foreshadowing correctly and predicted the endings. as in, authors engaging in fan forums and discords and discourse on their own works. as in, celebrities reaching out to individual fans to announce that they've been made aware of the fan's work.
this is also about fans inviting those creators deeper into fandom spaces, or pushing fandom spaces at creators, without shame or dignity, all for a few seconds of fame and recognition. all for validation.
when I say "they didn't know we existed" I mean they weren't in it with us. there was a distinct barrier, a separation between the fans and the creators. before journalists and talk show hosts started throwing fanart and fic in actors' faces and demanding reactions. before buzzfeed and its intolerable theft of fan work. before fans were almost expected to have their work found and critiqued by the very people the work was made about.
there has always been a level of communication between fans and creators, and for the most part, that's fine. but when it gets to the point where fans are constantly, relentlessly, pushing fandom content at creators in the hopes that it'll get them noticed, or that it'll sway the creators to their line of thinking, or that it'll mean something, and when creators think themselves entitled to our spaces, or use our work for cheap laughs, or rewrite their own work purely to mock us for getting an ending right, it gets to be too much.
we need that barrier back in place.
I still, to this day, don't tell people that I write fanfic. I don't tell people that I'm in fandom spaces. I don't talk about fandoms outside of fandom spaces at all. a little shame is good for the blood.
so yes. fandom spaces were better when the media creators didn't know we existed and we didn't want them to find out.
Reblog this version actually
