Lost In Fandom @lostinfandom - Tumblr Blog

Questioning ur gender as an afab person is hard bc ur like do I genuinely identify as Not A Woman or do I just not identify with the negative images of women that have been shoved at me since I was born? Like do I not like being referred to as a girl because that really isn’t who I am or is it because being connected to femininity comes along with some not great associations? And then there’s the question of am I really Not a Woman or am I just butch/futch? And then u get into questioning what gender even is to begin with. What is gender? What is masculinity? What is femininity? Is there anything inherent to either of them, or is it all socially constructed bullshit? Does gender actually exist?? If not, then what the fuck is my relationship with gender?

#this

systlin

purge of 2002? of 2012? what ARE those?

Oh, how quickly the past is forgotten.

They are part of the reason A03 is a thing now. Not the whole reason, but part of it.

The Great Purges of 2002 and 2012 are when ff.net got a wild hair up their ass about THINK OF THE CHILDREN and nuked any fic posted on there that was explicit. Thousands upon thousands of nc-17 smutfics were lost.

It’s what led to the creation of alternate hosting sites for smutty fic…AdultFanfiction was the one I went to…but thousands of fics would never be recovered.

systlin

Shit like the Great Purges and the Strikethrough of Livejournal eventually led to fans banding together to create A03, which I would have absolutely KILLED for when I was 15.

persephonebooklover

Back up ao3 was created by fans?

systlin

It’s…right on the main page.

fanfictionanthology

I love this because I will bet you that persefv has read that bit we are all so inundated with hyperbole and advertising that says that the consumer is somehow in charge of whatever product they are shilling that we all just assumed this was another sales tactic.

naryrising

But we’re not even… selling anything… *quiet sobs*

wrangletangle

No ads. No subscriptions. No data selling.

We are the definition of “what it says on the tin.”

elfwreck

Is there any way to spread this info?

THE OTW WAS CREATED BY FANS SO WE’D HAVE AN ARCHIVE THAT WASN’T SUBJECT TO CORPORATE REVIEW.

Nonprofit, so that nobody could ever say, “this isn’t making enough money; it’s getting shut down.” (See: Geocities, Quizilla, Figment, G+.) With lawyers involved and a firm awareness of the legalities of fanfic, so nobody would decide “we’ve gotten a nasty letter from a megacorporation with lawyers, so we’re hiding because we can’t afford to face a lawsuit. (Jedi Hurtaholics, Trevizo’s Millennium site.) With teams, so that an argument between co-mods didn’t result in the destruction of a whole archive. (Gryffindor Tower, Detention.)

AO3 IS OUR SITE.

It is by fans, for fans. Fans do all the coding. All the legal paperwork. All the abuse/tos violation complaints. Fans make all the choices about policies. Fans decide how to run the fundraisers. Fans write the blog posts. All the volunteer staff are fans; all the people who train them are fans. Fans wrangle all the tags.

(And the other OTW projects, too. Fans manage the entries at Fanlore. Fans run the Open Doors project. Fans publish Transformative Works and Cultures.)

EVERYONE WORKING FOR THE OTW LOVES FANDOM. Wants it to survive. Wants it to be awesome for everyone.

(Knows that it can’t be awesome for everyone; some approaches to fandom just clash hard. But they strive to minimize those clashes as much as possible, because they love fandom.)

AO3 is not some company that decided, “we’ll make a site for fanfic and then…” I don’t know what people are thinking is the reason. Money? Data harvesting? Tax shelter? Amusement and pity?

Nope; AO3 was fans saying, “Livejournal sucks; we’re tired of this fucked-up ‘rebuild every three years’ garbage; WE NEED TO OWN THE DAMN SERVERS.”

That’s the “of our own” part of the name. OTW isn’t a “them” running the site “for us.” It’s “us” making places for “us” to share what we love with others of “us.”

dirtydragonthoughts

This this this.

I was there for all of that shit, and AO3 is a godsend. If you enjoy or create fanworks, support AO3, donate if you can, and remember why it’s there in the first place!!

olderthannetfic

Fandom history really does get lost quickly. For current 20-something fans, AO3 has always been there.

#fuck i'm old #ao3

imperiuswrecked

#hahaha #so true #comics

allofthefeelings

I realize I have barely stopped complaining for four months, but I honestly think that if anything we should be talking even more about how Marvel’s first two phases gave us one female superhero each, the token woman on each of their two teams (nothing so much as a solo movie, don’t be silly, we had to wait ten years for that), and in the culmination of the Infinity Saga, both of those women were thrown off a cliff.

We as audience had to watch them plummet to their deaths. We had to look at their lifeless broken bodies at the bottom of a mystical space ravine. We were supposed to see one of those deaths as something to cheer for in its heroism. We had to accept that an abuser’s claim of love that the recipient denied was still love, and had exactly the same import as the love of a best friend.

We had to see men feel Emotions at the top of those cliffs in the immediate aftermath of these women’s deaths, and then see men with romantic interests react with rage and violence at each loss. We didn’t get to see emotional reactions about the value these women’s lives had held. We had to hear that even when everyone else can be brought back to life, there’s no way someone can ever be freed from the soul stone, and these women were just the necessary casualties of this plot device.

And then they had the audacity to give us that all-women fighting scene, which should have been a rousing moment for those of us who are invested in female characters, but instead rang fundamentally hollow, when Natasha wasn’t there and the Gamora who was there wasn’t the one we had followed through multiple movies of growth. That scene told us that all women are interchangeable, and now that we have enough OTHER women the two we started with aren’t necessary and their absence doesn’t even need to be acknowledged within the scene.

Of course neither character is missing from the future of the MCU; Civil War-era Natasha will be in the Black Widow prequel movie and pre-GOTG1 Gamora will be in GOTG3. But the characters the audience has formed attachments to are permanently gone. They didn’t get to say goodbye to people they cared about. If they were mourned, we didn’t get to see it.

I get that it’s a movie. I get that it came out over four months ago. But we should absolutely still be angry. They both deserved better.

#Avengers #yes this #fuck Marvel #fuck Disney

wilwheaton

You're doing a no beer thing right? How's that going and what do you drink instead when you want to drink something interesting? (If you've already talked about it I just haven't been able to find it)

It’s been a little over 1300 days since I quit drinking, and it remains the best decision I’ve ever made for my life. I wasn’t an alcoholic, but I was absolutely on my way to becoming one, because I was self-medicating a LOT of childhood trauma, trying to escape the reality of the people who were my parents, especially my abusive father.

Quitting booze allowed (you may say forced, in the best way) me to confront the reality of my childhood, teenage, and adult traumas, so I could take the steps necessary to heal those wounds, and achieve escape velocity from my abusers. I don’t miss it at all, and I’m so grateful that I had support from Anne, and guidance from my best friend, who has been sober for a little over … I think it’s 16 years, but my math could be wrong.

The first few months were really challenging, because having one or five beers every night had become part of my routine. Breaking that habit was challenging for me, but I did it by drinking club soda, then club soda with bitters, then LaCroix. I bought a Sodastream, and I will drink, on average, a liter of fizzy water every night.

I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything when I go out with friends, and I don’t struggle with addiction like some people I know, so it isn’t a big deal for me to go to a bar, or an after party, or something like that. I don’t feel tempted to drink, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything, and I don’t feel like I have to be drinking alcohol to fit in or have a good time. Most times I find myself in a social situation where booze is part of the equation, I just ask the bartender for the mocktail of their choice (which has resulted in some really fantastic concoctions over the years), or for a bitters and soda, which has become my choice of drinks.

I hope this answers your question. If you’re thinking about quitting beer and/or other alcohol, I know you can do it. Sometimes it’s easy to have a soda or nothing at all, and other times HOLY SHIT I REALLY WANT THAT IPA … but I always make what is the best choice for me and my life, which is to not drink alcohol. It really is that simple and that complicated.

Wherever you are on your journey, I wish you all the best. I’m here if you need or want to reach out to someone who doesn’t drink and is willing to offer a sympathetic ear, answer questions, and share experiences.

#148 days sober today #best decision #also it made it a lot easier for me to lose some weight #and save money #though i still miss the taste #and the oblivion sometimes #which is how i know i was this close to #the point of no return

phoukanamedpookie

It often seems like representation for ace women, bi women and lesbians is inherently in conflict.

Is it? If so, is there a way to navigate different needs for representation in a way that doesn’t do harm to other WLW? Is there a way to talk about things in a way that doesn’t exacerbate bias against lesbians, bi women or ace women?

phoukanamedpookie

*feeds e-crickets*

allofthefeelings

I think a lot of it boils down to artificial scarcity.

So many female characters are subject to the text’s compulsory heterosexuality that when we see a character who doesn’t prioritize male attention over all things, so many of us say “maybe it’s me!” Then, if the text says we’re wrong, there’s that sense of disappointment that something was taken away. And there were already so few spaces to imagine ourselves in that it becomes easy to see it as a competition, where one person’s gain is by definition another person’s loss- and in all of that, the vast majority of straight characters are unaffected, while we eat our own.

I don’t mean to discount how many people feel unseen by media, because I know it hurts. But this pervasive sense that we need to fight over scraps? Yeah, I’m kind of over that. Unless ANYONE believes there shouldn’t be lesbian, bi, ace and aro female characters (in which case, their opinion is shit, ignore them), then we need to start arguing that we need to take up MORE space, not that the tiny sliver we get should be differently allotted.

daeneryskairipa

Malec in 3x12 “Original Sin”

#shadowhunters #i watched this whole godawful series #just for them #and it was worth it #with bonus asexual represetation #which was a really nice surprise #yay

thewritershandbook

Types of Ships

Parts of the Ship

Wind Directions

Sides of Boats

fixyourwritinghabits

my bad, should have reblogged from here.

scriptmedic

Oh my gods, guys, this looks so useful!!

rychillacases

Reblogging for future reference.

writing-in-the-grave

A reference I desperately needed

dungeonmastercole-deactivated20

For all those seafaring adventurers.

cloud-etudes

Marvel Movies ranked by if there are trains in them

Iron Man- 0/10. No trains.

The Incredible Hulk- 1/10. No trains, but a verbal reference to the subway.

Iron Man 2- -100/10. No trains, negative 100 points for a cameo by train-hater Elon Musk

Thor- 0/10. No trains in space :(

Captain America: The First Avenger- 7/10. Cool train heist scene, and monorails go by at the World’s Fair

The Avengers- 3/10. A freight train goes by at the beginning. Cap tells the police to get people into the subway, giving hope for more train content that goes unfulfilled. The only scene of Cap riding the subway was deleted.

Iron Man 3- 0/10. No trains.

Thor: The Dark World- 10/10 THOR RIDES THE TRAIN

Captain America: The Winter Soldier- 0/10. No trains.

Guardians of the Galaxy- 0/10. Still no trains in space :(

Avengers: Age of Ultron- 6/10. Okay action scene involving stopping a train.

Ant-Man- 9/10. Fight scene involving Thomas the Tank Engine!!!!

Captain America: Civil War- 1/10. Cap and Sharon meet next to high-speed rail tracks but no trains go by.

Doctor Strange- 6/10. Subways go flying by in the mirror dimension!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2- 0/10. Still no trains in space :(

Spiderman: Homecoming- 10/10! Peter “Numtot” Parker rides on the train several times and also crashes a car for good measure

Thor: Ragnarok: 0/10. Someone better get some trains in space real soon

Black Panther: 7/10. Cool Wakandan tram goes down the street, and the finale involves a vibranium train!

Avengers: Infinity War: 6/10. Cap emerges from behind a moving train!!

Ant-Man and the Wasp: 0/10. No trains.

Captain Marvel: 11/10 THERE ARE TRAINS IN SPACE!!! TRAINS IN SPACE!!! THERE ARE FINALLY TRAINS IN SPACE!!!! also she rides a train on earth too!!! Carol Danvers: queen of public transportation and my heart

Avengers: Endgame: 0/10. No trains.

saintdollyparton

I’m so happy this person finally got their wish for trains in space in a Marvel movie.

#marvel #i love this #this is me and submarines

not-all-the-prayers

Josh Lyman + tumblr text posts (?/?)

#The West Wing

souridealist

We Didn’t Start the Fire - 50 Years of Fandom

[details here]

password to watch: fandom!

lucyzephyr

Wow. Wow wow wow wow.

For me, the best thing about this is the fact that it’s in a pretty chronological order. Because eventually I was like “It’s nice to see all the fandoms of yore— WAIT, THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN!” and then water was leaking from my eyeholes because omg, hello fandoms that I have seen rise and fall.

This is a fucking masterpiece of vidding.

trailofrainbowcarnage

I got teary when I saw Due South. <3

livemaski-deactivated20160813

Omg so many tears, so many feelings.

gingaaaaah

This is one of the best fandom things I’ve ever seen.

lamardeuse

Wow. Yes.

superherospectacles

omg folks the commentary (linked above) is amazing too, they have a chart showing how they linked the clips with the lyrics and their historical references, holy fuck, this is so many things that are awesome about fandom all rolled into one vid.

robinade

I will never *not* reblog this. You start watching it at first and you think it’s just a cute video and then it gets to where *you* joined in fandom and you’re so happy and grinning but somewhere near the end, possibly by the montage of badass ladies, you find yourself all choked up and teary-eyed.

cosmictuesdays

Wanted to not like this, due to inclusion of that one goddamn vid. Loved it.

Dammit.

Fandom’ll do that.

signechan

I watched the vid and read the comments and I had the exact same reaction. When it got to the bit where I was like “AND THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN” I’m suddenly sat there grinning and then at the end I cried with that last bit about fan effort and love and I just really fucking love fandom, alright?

wordplaying

Mostly I was just really really relieved when I scrolled down and everybody else was talking about how they were crying too. Because yep.

bluecrystalrainingdaggers

I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one tearing up. This is amazing.

buffriday-with-the-bees

Today is a good day to rewatch this.

larinah

The original Battlestar Gallactica ones and Remington Steele. I adored both those shows but had no idea they had fandoms at the time as I was down in the basement watching in the dark :P. Also, I was in utero for the beginning of original Star Trek and my mom had a huge crush on Captain Kirk so I at least heard some of it if not watched when it originally aired. (My eldest kid was in utero for Voyager, so she got that fandom from before birth, too.)

fangasmspn

Every time I watch this…

ruffboi-mags

Sports Night.

SPORTS NIGHT.

Lord of the Rings was when I really joined fandom, but SN was such a pivotal part of my young adult life.

(hey did you know that most likely the reason SPN is the accepted shortening of Supernatural was because there was a small but still very active/passionate piece of Sports Night fandom on LJ when Supernatural started airing, and while early on Supernatural was shortened to “SN”, due to that Sports Night fandom - which had a fair amount of overlap iirc - they had Many Discussions and ended up going with “SPN” to not confuse everybody?

Yeah, that’s a thing that happened.)

#wow #fandom

marveladdicts

#MCU

honted

i really could write an essay on how shit is that we’ve completely abandoned the monster-of-the-week episode format even when rebooting shows that relied on it to replace them with grimdark edgy plotlines where nothing feels good or accomplished at the end of the day

thegunlady

#EXACTLY #WHY DO PEOPLE HATE MONSTER OF THE WEEK?#IT’S MY FAVORITE STORYTELLING FORMAT#IT’S THE MOST CHARACTER DRIVEN FORMAT WHEN DONE PROPERLY IMO#the best monster of the week episodes show us something new about the characters

thelibrarina

I was just thinking the other day about how every show loses its monster/crisis-of-the-week formula a couple of years in–and that’s honestly why I tend to lose interest in shows as they go along. Examples that come to mind:

X-Files

Supernatural

Heroes (to a point)

Torchwood

Lost

Wynonna Earp? (I still love this one but I only rewatch season 1)

As the myth-arc takes over (which might be a natural progression, I don’t know), you also get stuff like villain decay, where last year’s Big Bad looks like a puppy-dog compared to these new enemies. Plus, how do you keep the tension? Once you kill Satan, how do you up the stakes?

I don’t know that I actually have a point, except that there’s value in “saving people, hunting things” as a plotline and I wish all my faves didn’t abandon it so quickly.

themadcapmathematician

Honestly i think its an instance of putting plot over characters, because people actually think that’s Peak Storytelling™ rn. Its also an instance of thinking high stakes and constant drama = good storytelling.

Lots of peoples think monster of the week isnt interesting enough because its low stakes, not generally as plot driven, and because its ultimately, i would argue, a character-building excerising. The emotional core of each episode has to be the characters and whatever aspect of them the monster of the week lets you explore. Their relationship(s) also has to be solid enough to carry it. And your story has to be engaging enough that it doesnt need a convoluted plot to keep it moving.

An enormous complicated plot can shuffle the characters around, but if your stakes are low your characters have time to settle into a casual dynamic and talk to each other about inconsequential things, things that actually put meat on the bone when fleshing out your characters.

A lot of people dont think this is meaningful enough. They mistake grandeur and perpetually high stakes for good storytelling, the only good storytelling. they devalue character dynamic-centric plots and any kind of whimsy or lull in narrative pressure. They don’t stop to realize that the reason those Big Stories work is because of the kind of groundwork for both character and worldbuilding monster of the week stories lay, and owes its effectiveness largely to moments that let you catch your breath. They also don’t realize that one of the reasons people get invested in larger plots is the variety of storytelling, otherwise its no longer an interesting novelty.

pomrania

Huh, this EXACTLY explains why I feel how I do about certain shows and how they change!

redrikki

This is why Young Justice’s first season remains it’s best. They gave us character-focused case-of-the-week episodes which also served to further the meta plot. Balance, people. That’s the key.