a.k.a Rie @r-for-real - Tumblr Blog

I've seen discussions sometimes about how fanfiction-based fandom culture is heavily influenced and dominated by people who are not cis men.

One thing I haven't seen discussed as much though is how much of fandom in general is shaped by neurodivergent people.

I mean, you have autistic and ADHD people with special interests or hyperfixations collecting information and writing detailed meta, connecting very strongly with characters and fandoms. I would not be surprised if the percentage of autistics in fandom communities was significantly higher than in the general public.

And that's not even getting into other types of neurodivergencies and how they influence fandom culture.

I sometimes see people try to divorce fandom culture from the idea of being a "geek", and I understand that this is sometimes because of the association with the sexist geek stereotype, but I also know that there is a connection between the two concepts, and it's probably us neurodivergent people.

autisticchangeling

I also think this is why at first I was like "my fandoms can't be special interests, that's just how fandom is"

Yeah, because a lot of people in fandom have special interests

mycroftrh

I’ll go slightly further here, and say this (well. this plus ableism) is the root of a lot of current issues in fandom.

Back when I started being in fandom, a couple decades ago, I’d argue that damn near every single person in fandom was autistic or ADHD. You’d only join fandom if you were obsessive and were chill with doing things that weren’t socially acceptable. (Because being a fan absolutely was not socially acceptable at the time! We went to ridiculous amounts of effort to hide that we were fans!)

And fandom culture was absolutely shaped by this. The standard behaviors in fandom were those of happy autistics. That’s how you were expected to act. You remember “squeeing”? The visual image of it is generally someone so happy and excited they can’t physically contain it so they make a high-pitched noise and flap their hands and - a squee is literally just a happy stim. And so many fans at the time did happy stims that we gave it a special fandom name! So even if a neurotypical person happened to stumble in, they’d learn that the “social norm” in a fandom space is basically just “act autistic/ADHD” and assimilate.

But then... fandom got mainstreamed. It became socially acceptable. And then the neurotypicals started showing up in large numbers. And instead of assimilating like they did before, when they were the minority, now that there were a lot of them they started going “what the heck is this! why are people here acting so weird! this is embarrassing!”

...and then we got cringe culture within fandom.

No one says “squee” anymore not because fans don’t squee anymore - happy stims don’t just go away - but because the neurotypicals showed up and told us “squee” is a cringy word and concept. Which they had ALWAYS told us out in public, but we used to have fandom as an insular autistic/ADHD-dominated space where we were safe and free to be ourselves.

You know how everybody talks about how cringy and embarrassing 2012 tumblr was? Dude. We were literally just acting like happy autistics, because that’s what we were. It’s just that - like you always have - you think autistic/ADHD behavior is cringy and embarrassing.

This isn’t new. “Cringe culture” isn’t new. It’s just a new euphemism for the exact same ableism that’s always existed, with the only difference that now it’s coming from inside fandom.

All those posts saying “if these people were bullied more they wouldn’t act like this”? They’re not just bizarrely tasteless jokes. They’re because the people making those posts were bullies. Are bullies. Fandom used to be where the sort of people who were victims of peer abuse went - where we went to be safe from bullies and be openly ourselves - but now the bullies are in here with us.

On the happier side, while mainstreaming has resulted in a lot of neurotypicals showing up, autistic/ADHD people are absolutely still the backbone of fandom. We’re the ones collecting tiny bits of info and connecting the dots to write galaxy brain meta. We’re the ones churning out new content every single day, rain or shine. We’re the hyper-verbal ones writing 250k fics and the ones who hyper-relate with the characters and make incorrect quote posts so spot-on they sound canon. They may think we’re embarrassing - but they still need us.

nevver

The Muse’s Revenge, Ilya Milstein

colombianomarica

portabellogna

So I’m just going to leave this picture of an old Pablo Picasso here for reference.

kingohats

#I recognized the reference but had assumed it was more of a general influence however they used the same molding and everything#I’m sure it’s supposed to be more of a general statement rather than being about any one artist and I’m sad there’s no caption on her site#but Picasso was certainly one of Those Artist Dudes#which is to say he was an abusive douchebag to most of the women in his life (x)

phantomthread2017

helloitsbees

yeah fuck this dude

cats-moss-gays

Not to be dramatic but this is absolutely the right way to deal with creepy old men whose “art” is just pictures of naked women

charismat1c-megafauna

By the way if you like cubism but really dont want to look at Picasso, check out Francoise Gilot. She tends to do a lot of really stylized paintings of women but… Yanno. Without the abuse.

She’s also one of Picasso’s exes and consequently one of his muses. She’s spoken at length about her experience. And thus far, she’s had some pretty sweet revenge. She’s free, her artwork is simply gorgeous, and she’s still alive today (as of 2020) at the age of 98!

Edit: i would also like to add that Gilot was already an accomplished artist when she became involved with Picasso, and he completely sabotaged her career when she left him. He discouraged museums from showing her work, and he unsuccessfully tried to block the publication of her memoir, Life with Picasso. To my knowledge, she’s the only one of his “muses” who is still alive, so let’s maybe take this time to explore and celebrate the work of a woman who was overshadowed by her abuser.

rileykitty

Beach day in Undella!

#pokemon #isshushipping

schistcity

we’re all getting “older” but age is a relative thing. i’ve licked things that are 250 million years old. you’re not that old and you’re not worth licking.

random-cluster-missile---moved

Clare this is by far the most terrifying post you have ever made

iriisid

Is this person an archaeologist and referring to the “lick test” for fossils or does she go down on the old gods…?

schistcity

hazel0217

SOME MORE RAY (+JEMIMA) DOODLES

#ynn #tpn #the promised neverland

79x

#fire emblem #the og lord

jejesart

a smile that goes straight to his heart

#fe7 #elinini

jejesart

—though everything about her is lovely

#fe #elinini #fe7

79x

#fe3h #nooooo lysi poor girll

auk2498-deactivated20230318

【Duo Heroes: May Day Monarchs】Byleth and Dedue have arrived from another realm and are available as a 5★ duo unit as part of a May Day Heroes summoning event, with seasonal weapon Sherwood’s Bow, forged from the a bough of an ancient tree!

Byleth, archbishop of Seiros, and Dedue, ambassador of Faerghus, have taken time from their work to enjoy a traditional May Day parade! They hope it will bring together the surrounding nations to celebrate the return of summer, even inviting their classmates from alternate worlds to join in.

ALFONSE - THE PLAGUE DOCTOR ALT

ANNA - THE DRAKKAR RAIDER ALT

Keep reading

#fe3h

vaporize-employers

btw… important PSA: cutting off the mold on the surface of food does nothing. you can only see the spores on the surface, but mold itself has spread and grown roots into the food. by the time you can actually *see* the spores, that piece of food is completely full of it. youre still eating mold.

many of which are poisonous and have been shown to cause cancer. youre not even supposed to sniff it, because that can get spores into your lungs. like if you look up the health and safety guidelines for mold they barely stop short of telling you to put on a hazmat suit.

like produce is okay as long as you cut around it at least an inch, but cooked foods? you gonna die. stop eating mold people

khattikeri

does that include bread

vaporize-employers

yes

vaporize-employers

doomgeneration1995

Here’s the USDA mold chart

thehugwizard

VERY IMPORTANT INFO FRIENDOS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have completely different interest than with the ppl I follow do I unfollow or do I let myself get suckered in their interests again

imaginebluelions

yeah ok after that trailer, I’m definitely going w free B!Dimitri. He just seems really damn good, and his art’s beautiful. Maybe I’ll spark for B!Claude, idk

-admin annette

r-for-real

B!Dimitri is the most ftp and newbie friendly of the cyl quartet,no joke. His base kit is almost to full package, and does well with anything not green tomes! His stats are nothing to sneeze at, except his res. Claude is also interesting because of his bow, tho you might want to customize his b or c.

#i have both #edie rly wants distant counter and I dont have a fodder for it yet #not picking lysi cuz I have 0 idea what to do with her

kidtheadult

sometimes you just gotta….. think a little bigger.

official-lucifers-child

people who say that liking a character is a statement on your personality are the exact same people who only like characters who are exactly like themself and who are unable to separate “liking a character” and “thinking that everything a character says and does is RightTM” because to them it is one and the same