Bad idea to open twitter recently sheesh
I could never brave that hell on a consistent basis while liking Kevjean, it's honestly like a pankration arena.
That being said I honestly need to yap about this cuz I feel like my brain is gonna implode if I don't. I'm not trying to start anything on here so I'm putting it under a cut so there's your warning.
If you don't like Kevjean for goodness sake don't read this.
I'm only gonna use the Kevjean tag since I trust it'll find the right people but otherwise please just scroll on.
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Alright, so pre-warning, at most this'll just be me ranting.
In truth I don't even know where exactly to start with this because there's always so much going on at once. Tbh I've already got a hefty handful of drafts on Tumblr addressing a lot of these as individuals points but I don't post them since;
1) I don't see much point in contributing to discourse especially with those who although are quick to join in, refuse to even bother with a two way conversation about said discourse and are insistent on being the louder voice than actually conversing in a respectable manner,
2) It's primarily a way for me to vent my own thoughts without engaging within a negative space
3) It's no fun if almost everything you see or talk about regarding the ship you like is all related to easily avoidable discourse. People should get to enjoy that space without an ever looming presence haphazardly reappearing from the shadows every odd day. I would much prefer to indulge in the positive content of the ship with like-minded people.
It's a bit disappointing that it has to be said at all but I don't hate or dislike Jerejean. It's quite the opposite and if anything I think you'd find a lot of people who do like Kevjean also like Jerejean; the only discrepancy between the two comes down to a matter of preference.
Having a preference does NOT equate to hating the alternative ship/character etc.
If anything, having a "preference" implies simply having a greater liking out of the things you do like and doesn't account for those that actually provoke negativity of any sort.
It's not a crime to have a preference for Kevjean nor is it a means of attack to those who prefer Jerejean and some people really need to stop taking it as such.
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Before I get into the rest of this I want to stress that when I refer to "Jerejean shippers" I am not referring to every single individual who happens to ship them nor am I trying to lump you all into one over generalised group and insisting on accountability from everyone who happens falls into that group either.
I wouldn't think this had to be clarified but alas;
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If I am to be completely honest here, before I started reading TSC I didn't ship Jean with anyone. I didn't know enough about his character so when I realised Nora had published a new book revolving around Jean/Jeremy I naturally drifted towards Jerejean and dabbled enough in content surrounding them before I even considered Kevjean. However, overtime the slights towards Kevjean fans grated on me so much I stopped wanting to even look through a lot of the Jerejean content because I was so tired of seeing unsolicited Kevjean hate that it pushed me away from it all together for a long time.
This unsolicited hate is something I'm going to talk about in more depth.
The key word here is "Unsolicited" because nine times out of ten that's exactly what it is.
Everyone has a right to their own opinions and to post said opinions but for the love of god it's not difficult to have some tact if you're going to be bringing up another ship.
This as a statement needs to exist outside of the Jerejean vs Kevjean narrative too but it's undoubtedly noticeably worse when it comes to these two.
I'm gonna use an analogy I saw someone use on Twitter earlier today wherein dabbling within your preferred ship tag/subtwt/space is like planting your favourite flowers in your own garden only to have a passerby insult them and insist on telling you how much they hate seeing them and wishes that they'll wilt or die.
Again, this behaviour is not exclusive to these ships but it's certainly a present one.
This isn't to say that strings don't ever get crossed and that people don't indirectly involve or discredit other ships especially as a means to further validate their own preferred ship which is something I've seen from both sides and I believe is an important point to acknowledge. Neither side is exempt from these types of behaviours.
However, when actively making the choice to not only go into a space which you're aware you don't like, but then to also engage in a negative manner when there hasn't been any sufficient reason to do so is a predominant feature in a lot of Kevjean hate I've seen over time.
I'm gonna list out some examples of this which are mostly paraphrased and chosen by regularity of the statements rather than content-rich discourse which appears far less.
1) Kevjean fans are jealous and hate Jerejean/Jeremy
2) Kevjean fans are delusional/illiterate to think they could ever could ever be in a relationship/endgame
3) Kevjean fans shouldn't bother reading/talking about the books if they can't/refuse to acknowledge the Jerejean aspect of it all
4) Kevjean fans being told their jokes aren't actually jokes and then proceeding to insult them
I'm going to break down these into individual talking points now;
1) Kevjean fans are jealous and hate Jerejean/Jeremy
This likely tops the list of statements that are unsolicited. This statement is usually tagged before or after the Jerejean contents of a post and treated as somewhat of an afterthought which in itself is fine if you're not going out of your way to directly attack anyone. We can move on. The problem is when it frankly has nothing to do with the rest of your post.
Jean, Jeremy and Kevin all being mentioned or referenced in a post/scene isn't grounds enough to take a jab at a group of shippers and if anything achieves the opposite affect by drawing said groups attention towards you. If you truly don't want anything to do with Kevjean, why prod at it when completely irrelevant? It's not any different from poking a stick at a sleeping bear; it will eventually bite back because why cause commotion where there is none? Let the bear enjoy his sleep.
The other issue regarding this statement is that for the larger percentile of Kevjean shippers, it's just downright untrue. No one appreciates being told things about themselves that are both inaccurate and used fraudulently in arguments.
The number of times I've seen a Kevjean shipper use the argument against a Jerejean shipper that the reason they are against or dislike Kevjean was that they hated Kevin, and then proceeded to give little to no elaboration on exactly why it's presumed that they'd hate him, seems to pale in comparison.
I'm still doing the mental gymnastics trying to figure out what exactly it is about enjoying Kevjean that gives the impression that we'd hate or were jealous of Jeremy and his role in the story.
Jeremy's a great character and he's great for and with Jean; there's no denying that they work very well with each other. Jeremy's existence doesn't affect my opinion or how I feel about Kevjean whatsoever. I don't feel as though Jeremy has jeopardized any chance between Kevjean, nor do I believe he is taking away from their relationship in any way.
Kevjean have their own interpersonal qualities much like Jerejean does; They're simply two different flavours and I think it would do everyone good to stop acting like we're almost allergic to the other flavour rather than once again, simply having a preference between the two.
I love Jeremy. I love Jerejean. I still prefer Kevjean. That does not mean I suddenly want to doom Jeremy or Jerejean to hell and back.
It really should be that simple.
There is little to nothing in between those lines so maybe we should stop looking so hard for them.
2) Kevjean fans are delusional/illiterate to think they could ever be in a relationship/endgame
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So what?
There's nothing wrong with being a little delusional if it makes you happy right?
Also this again is purely a matter of opinion.
Yes, there are irrefutable points such as the fact that no one is going to sit here and genuinely argue with you that let's say Jeremy hates exy or that Neil is actually over six feet tall but there's also a lot of things in these books that aren't explicitly stated for us and it's those tentative scenes that people spend so much time deconstructing to understand them.
Not everyone is going to want to deconstruct the same scene, character, ships etc. We engage with what interests us most and that varies greatly from person to person. This being said, once again, if you aren't fond of Kevjean and are far more interested in the development of Jerejean then it makes sense you would be more attentive to the deconstruction of their scenes over Kevjean's. That's your choice! You're 100% allowed to do so but the problem comes again when using such statements paired with a lack of willingness to be open-minded with different perspectives that causes conflict.
Being open-minded about ships and having to like every ship you see are NOT mutually exclusive.
You don't have to believe that Kevjean fans properly understand their dynamic but you can't use the fact as argumentative fuel when you refuse to acknowledge any of the deconstructing that people have done between the two of them.
Many assessments of the characters are heavily objective based if your concern lies within unwanted bias. Bias is another significant point that isn't often brought to the forefront nearly enough.
Everyone has bias. The word "Bias" in itself is inherently subjective and it exists everywhere. It most certainly exists in the context of literature and its contents inclusive of ships/characters/plotlines etc. If you have a heavy bias towards Jerejean and against Kevjean, naturally you'll lack a degree of interest in wanting to deconstruct Kevjean as a ship or even their interpersonal conflicts.
I'm not saying that you have to intensively investigate the ins and outs of a ship to comment on them, but the argument of Kevjean fans being delusional/illiterate is thrown around way too easily and oftentimes roots from someone's bias against the ship and furthermore their lack of wanting to try and understand another's perspective.
You are not obligated to like that perspective, hell, you can still vehemently disagree with it afterwards, but don't default to an insult that you have little care to actually stand behind with evidence of said statement. In addition to this, if someone asks you for justification as to why you may believe that Kevjean fans are genuinely illiterate for shipping them, it's generally not an invitation to bring up Jerejean as a counterpoint!
I'm telling you now, we know just as well as you do which direction the books are heading in.
Jerejean shippers know that Jerejean will be endgame. Kevjean shippers also know that Jerejean will be endgame.
If we ask for justification for saying such things, it's strictly between Kevin and Jean and their relationship with one another. Jerejean being canon was never a strong contention point as to why we'd ship Kevjean. Strong emphasis on the 'Why'.
3) Kevjean fans shouldn't bother reading/talking about the books if they can't/refuse to acknowledge the Jerejean aspect of it all
This is just immature. Really.
At its core, this is an immature response to something in large you simply didn't like.
Let's stop treating this Jerejean vs Kevjean "war" as though it's Armageddon.
Literature exists to be consumed, perceived and analysed. You don't have to like and agree with everything you see, nor do you have to necessarily retract that line of thought if it's what you truly believe.
I've seen this statement used in varying degrees as a response to all types of posts and comments regarding these books before. I get it. It can be incredibly frustrating trying to communicate with people who aren't willing to even attempt actually reading anything you write. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that this thought hasn't crossed my own mind before and I'm sure the same is true for a lot of people. However, it is our choice on when and how we choose to weaponise these thoughts.
An example;
Probably around a month ago, I saw a post here on Tumblr that went on to talk about how grateful they were that Jerejean was going to be canon/endgame. That's great! You should absolutely get to feel excited by those kinds of things! There's absolutely nothing wrong with expressing as such; then I opened the comments and was immediately met with very blatant hate towards Kevjean fans once again from seemingly nowhere. So much so, I actually thought I had missed something and even checked both Tumblr/Twitter and came up both empty-handed and confused.
The short back-and-forth between the op and commenter covered everything from how annoying the fans were, why they felt the need to force Kevin into everything, how they're desperate to erase Jeremy from the narrative and finally ended on the statement that Kevjean fans shouldn't bother reading/speaking on these books if they "can't accept that Jerejean's endgame". All this further topped off by the back-handed suggestion that Kevjean fans were better off just reading a summary of TBC as opposed to just letting the fact remain that people will enjoy things that don't align with canon and that there's no crime in that being the case.
For how often and easily these types of statements get thrown around as counterarguments towards Kevjean fans, there's a real lack of genuinely harmful content coming from said Kevjean fans that would warrant this degree of pettiness. I've seen a multitude of similar comments made over the past couple days on Twitter alone and even one post in which the OP stated that they hope Kevin's books get cancelled as a response to some mild annoyances towards Kevjean shippers.
If you are so easily offended by largely inconsequential comments made by Kevjean shippers then perhaps instead of insisting they refrain from accessing literature they have every right to enjoy by their own means, it's best to perhaps take a break from online platforms for a while.
I repeat; Literature exists to be consumed, perceived, and analysed; furthermore it exists to find joy in.
It is no one's right to disallow others to find joy in these books; regardless of the book's canon dynamics. Let it be.
4) Kevjean fans being told their jokes aren't actually jokes and then proceeding to insult them
Jokes
This seems to be the catalyst of chaos almost every time things implode between these two ships online.
First things first, humour in itself is a subjective matter.
Not everyone is going to find the same things funny or pick up on the intended humourous undertones. This applies to humour across the board but predominantly more so online. It's always going to be more challenging to gauge the intent of words behind a screen since they lack the tone and inflection indicators we tend to rely on.
Misinterpretations happen. Sarcasm gets missed. Jokes fly over people's heads. It happens.
If you happen to see something that comes off in particularly bad taste, I would say there are a couple generally reasonable courses of action you could take.
1) Don't engage and instead scroll past/mute/block.
This should be the most obvious set of choices. It takes two seconds to scroll past something you don't like and if you're concerned about a certain account/tag reappearing then block/mute and let that be it.
2) If you do choose to engage, do so in a RESPECTABLE manner!
If you want to approach someone about either an insensitive joke or clarification on the tone of a post, you don't have to be so impertinently self-righteous about it. Most often you'll find people are willing to converse in a non-offensive manner if you do the same.
With that being said, if someone tells you they meant something as a joke and it still upsets you then maybe instead of proceeding to engage in a more than avoidable argument, ignore and scroll. If you can't manage that, block them so you won't ever have to.
Resorting to petty retorts is childish and I'd like to believe that if people are old enough to be reading these books then they're old enough not to act so immaturely towards things that are largely hinged on subjectivity.
You can express your opinion without needing to resort to name-calling people things like obtuse, illiterate, brain-dead, delusional, stupid and the list goes on.
I really want to emphasise this point is not exclusively directed towards Jerejean fans but rather fans in general. It's a behaviour across the fandom that would do everyone some good to try and tone down. Both Jerejean fans and Kevjean fans alike.
No need to name-call, and no need to insult a person's race, sex, intellect etc.
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I'm not going to get into any of the specific discourse points regarding Kevjean brought up over the past 4-5 days since this post was primarily to address the behavioural conduct of fans every time these two ships butt heads.
I think discourse can be a meaningful and interesting way to connect over opposing ideas if approached correctly, but that oftentimes is not the case with this fandom and particularly between Jerejean and Kevjean fans.
I'd like to hope that we could get to a point where the two sides can openly interact with each other without setting off destructive fireworks but in truth I don't think it'll happen. If anything, in a month's time we'll likely be right back in the same situation but a girl can hope lol.
I've got more extensive posts coming up that do cover some Kevjean discourse discussion points I saw through all this but they're solely focused on the ship and not the fans.
If by some miracle you made it to the end of this, thank you for taking the time to actually read through it!
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