Discover Top Posts Tagged with #taylor.txt

every time there’s suddenly a hate campaign against a female celebrity, the internet comes forward with their attitude of “i know the LAST one turned out to be a misogynistic and manipulative smear campaign after a woman was being abused and taken advantage of, but THIS TIME it’s real and justified” and then it never is and the cycle just repeats endlessly

#taylor.txt #blake lively. amber heard. megan thee stallion. taylor swift. all the others.#it’s every single time and people never learn their lesson

wanna suck it really, really sloppy

#taylor.sxt #taylor.txt #like... snot and tears and gagging #makeup ruined kinda vibe

saw a post on bsky that got me thinking about this more and like. okay, when i entered fandom via this site, the expectation was that we shared everything with each other - we passed around fic links and we made big recommendation lists and we sent people asks saying “i love your art, this is my headcanon, what’s your headcanon?” and we wrote fics based off each other’s works and we read each other’s takes on the same ideas and, yes, as the lingo of the day was, fangirled over it. and like. i don’t KNOW if this was the norm everywhere on tumblr, or if i just got lucky! this was back in like 2014-2015, so it’s not like it was even that long ago!

and like. i was a kid then! i was 13-14 years old. my best fandom friends were anywhere from my age to 40+. this was very normal and my older friends were very encouraging and supportive and really helped me find my feet doing something i loved as a kid who did not have any support irl. but sometimes these days i look in a tag on ao3 and i see a fic written by someone who is obviously a teenager, and there’s like no engagement on it. and i’m never sure if, again, i just got lucky, or if this is new. but i know that that’s really sad and unfair to those people. because i was that teenager once, too. and even if there were some bad parts of how people interacted with my writing (mostly because they went a little too hard on the “omg you’re only 15 but you’re a better writer than i am!” stuff and that wasn’t great for my ego, fkkfjskd), the way people who surely saw i was not very experienced engaged with my work made me feel loved and special and like i was really, truly part of a community when i had otherwise spent my whole life being “the other.” and that’s what fandom is supposed to be for so many of us! so i do try my best to pay it forward and encourage those people, too

and the post i saw pointed out how, like, the best way to keep creators in fandom creating stuff you like is to have conversations with them. you can’t expect us to just monologue forever - that’s really demotivating! and it is true, so i was thinking about this and like. 95% of my comments come from my friends, which i’m actually pretty okay with, especially since some of those people weren’t initially my friends and we actually became friends via exchanging comments on each other’s fics. but it makes me wonder about people who don’t have those fandom friend circles to pass their work to when they feel lonely in their ideas. because i mean, even if you have fandom friends, that doesn’t always mean they’re going to read the stuff you write. especially if it’s a multi-fandom group and people don’t like reading fandom blind. i have my own opinions on that, and largely it boils down to like…it’s not my business so i’m not going to make sweeping generalizations, but i will say that people like me and my friends, who are i think generally pretty good at reading each other’s stuff (with obvious lulls now and then. like the past few months, i’ve been pretty bad at it. on account of being an adult with a pretty stressful and draining job who needs to pay bills and feed myself and whatever else. and yes, i do prioritize my own creations over my friends’ in those moments, often. for my own sanity. that’s not a bad thing! i’m not saying it is for anyone!), like…this is a skill we’ve practiced! the ability to hype each other up and to be honest and vulnerable about WANTING to be hyped up (not for engagement or stats, but because art is so personal! and fandom is a community!)

so anyway, i don’t know if there’s a point to this post beyond like, musing. but i do want to say i’m really grateful for the people who engage with my work! whether you tell me you like it or not, i appreciate it - lurk away. i don’t mind. i’ve been there too! i’m not judging that. but i do really, really appreciate the people who comment and send me asks and who say “this resounded with me” or “this inspired me” or even, honestly? who say “this made me feel like shit,” because even if that doesn’t feel good to hear, i can at least appreciate that my writing said something to them. and i ALSO really, really appreciate the people who see me post something and, even if it isn’t necessarily a thing they’re into, go “HELL YEAH TAYLOR, THATS AWESOME, I LOVE THIS FOR YOU, HAVE YOU CONSIDERED X, Y, Z TOO?” because again, so many of us come into fandom because we’ve spent our whole lives being othered. being told we’re weird freaks. so to be in a place where being a weird freak is what makes you belong? that’s really special. i think everyone who needs that deserves it! and i think a lot more of us need it than we want to admit. so, you know, don’t be afraid to admit it. rest assured that if no one else seems to be cheering you on, there are other weirdos and freaks out there who will. that’s kind of the whole point of fandom!