Me: Imagine a world where Christians and Muslims came together in perfect harmony... to kill all the Atheist
Bae: Pff, good thing im Agnostic
Me: But Agnostic is a form of Atheism
Bae: Yeah but it's really neutral and-
Me: Do you really think the people who spent years and years declaring war after war on each other, slaughtering millions, BILLIONS of each other, without ever realizing they believe in the SAME THING, will give a flying FUCK that you think Agnostics should be spared!
Bae: *Choking laughter*
Me: We're DEAD if they get along so just let the war continue.
I swear to fucking god if you call me a woman/she/her/female as an insult or in a teasing manner after I've asked you nicely not to I will have negative infinite respect for you.
Do not be surprised if I start treating you like shit after you do something like this because that is literally how you treat me.
Seriously I am sick of people like this. If you want to give me no respect then do not expect any back. I will be the biggest bitch in your life if you keep talking to me.
It is NOT "funny"
It is NOT "A good insult"
It is a way to tell the world you are absolute shit.
I honestly think this fandom - not just the Glee fandom, actually, but quite a few fandoms - need to learn the meaning of respect towards their favourite celebrity/icon. (This is a post about Chris and Darren, though).
respect: noun: a positive feeling of esteem or deference for a person or other entity. can also be conduct in accord with a specific ethic of respect.
First and foremost, Darren's sexuality is no one's business but his own. Making meta posts detailing how you think Darren is lying about being straight, or is hiding his bisexuality/pansexuality/homosexuality is incredibly rude and offensive. Darren is an incredibly strong defender of LGBT+ rights and is always open about the fact that he's proud to be playing the character that he is playing given the fact that he himself is straight. He says that labels aren't important and that sexuality can be fluid, but that doesn't mean he's talking about himself. It's so crude and gross. You wouldn't go up to a friend of yours who is happily dating someone and say "actually, no, I think you're lying about being straight, I think you should go and date this boy over there". No, because that's horrible - and Darren being a celebrity does not make this acceptable.
Writing essays attempting to "prove" Darren's sexuality is one of the most offensive things I have ever witnessed and I honestly cannot wrap my mind around it. Darren Criss is not some fictional character that you can write meta about and 'prove' that he's lying about himself. He is a real, living person. The fact that people who claim to care about him write all this stuff to try and convince other people that Darren is something he's not baffles me and upsets me in so many ways.
Secondly, the treatment Chris gets it's equality as horrible. People seem to forget that Chris Colfer came out as a nineteen year old boy on national television with no history of media or fame to back him up. The fact that people seem to think it's okay to dismiss his choices because of the fact that he's so open about his sexuality is, frankly, appalling. Screaming that Chris and Darren have to be having sex because of the fact that they're close friends does nothing more than attempt to reinforce the stereotype that a gay man cannot be friends with a straight man without wanting to sleep with him - and while that may not be the intention (and I'm sure in most cases it's not) that is still how it appears to a lot of people. It implies that Chris cannot be close friends with someone he works with and interacts with a lot without wanting to bang them and that's so offensive it cannot even be put into words.
Perhaps the most disgusting part of the lack of respect some parts of the fandom has is the way the actor's SOs are treated in regards to the "shipping" of Chris and Darren.
Who they are dating/not dating is no one's business but their own.
You do not get to decide who they date. Spamming them with tweets about it will do nothing more than make them less inclined to interact with their 'fandom'.
Sending abuse and hate to the people they are obviously close to, if not in love with/dating, is one surefire way to piss them off and hurt them deeply.
The way that people treat Mia is, especially, disgusting. We're a fandom that promotes tolerance, anti-bullying and, quite wonderfully, feminism and LGBT rights. Then many people turn around and call Mia disgusting names because of how she dresses, her music, what she tweets, the things she enjoys - as if we a) have any right to judge her and b) we know anything about her. Furthermore the attempts to suggest that she is somehow leeching from Darren's fame and should therefore be cut off from him is equally disgusting and laughable. Mia was famous before Darren was in the music industry. Think about that for a moment. Claiming that she is somehow Darren's "beard" and that that, therefore, entitles you to treat her like she is less of a person is one of the most utterly detestable things I've ever had the misfortune to read. It's disrespectful not only to Mia but to Darren, who obviously cares about her a great deal.
In Chris' case, he has literally said in an interview that he didn't want to discuss his personal life because "I have to be very careful, because I have very passionate fans that are very protective over me. I always keep that tight-lipped for people’s safety." People's safety. Perhaps not their physical safety, but their personal and emotional safety? For sure. The way in which fandom treats celebrities, invading their personal lives in a lot of ways, makes this incredibly important. Chris is obviously in a relationship with a man who is making him incredibly happy. Their relationship is their own business, and dismantling it to try and prove that somehow it's fake is offensive and goes against the very thing Chris is trying to do: protect someone he cares about.
Plus, Chris has already confirmed, in both interviews, gossip and in tweet format, that he and Darren are not an item. It has nothing to do with PR or hiding it - Chris is openly gay and Darren is open about himself. It's simply the truth.
These are the issues I have with the fandom treatment of Chris and Darren's relationship. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with 'shipping' Chris and Darren in a fictional sense, enjoying it in that format and being passionate about it in that way. What is a problem is taking it to the level where you invade their privacy, insult their loved ones, call them out on things that aren't true and basically offend, disrespect and abuse the people you claim to support. That's an issue people do not seem to understand and I am honestly so, so tired of seeing it.
I'm sick of this stuff going on in the R5 family. I get that with new fans there will be drama, but there doesn't have to be. We are all equal, we all love them, and we all are in the same family!
So stop bullying each other, do you hear me? Because when you get to the point where someone wants to make themselves sick over what nasty anons are saying, we have a serious problem. I fully love and believe in R5, but I can't stand the bullying going on around here, and I know the band wouldn't either.
Stop. It's simple. How do you know that one message won't make someone take their own life? Ever think of it that way? Didn't think so.
