#tox rant

[intoxicatedfandom]

1. "Zayn cannot win the shipping wars." Shippers who believe in conspiracy theories have a very narcissistic view of the world where everything a member of their ship does is supposed to be a signal to them or proof for them. In their minds these men only live their lives to signal to the fans that they're in this particular relationship. Harry wears blue he's telling larries how much he loves Louis, Zayn posts about UFC he's signaling to ziams much he loves Liam and doesn't care about his fake

2. baby. So basically in their minds these men think about them (the shipper fans) 24/7 and feel this desperate need to conduct their lives only in ways that allow them to communicate with them 24/7.

As I’ve said before, as far as I know, no member of 1d ever had a romantic relationship with another member. I’m sure they or more likely their teams are aware of the appetite in fandom for the biggest ship and the less intense appetite for the #2 ship; they may or may not use that knowledge to feed those appetites as even Harry and Zayn, who are the most distant from the original 1d fandom, still rely to some extent on those fans to do unpaid promo for their activities. But the facts remain the facts. All five have lives with little to no public interaction with the other four. A sm follow doesn’t “prove” anything. The use of a color or combination of colors doesn’t prove anything. Song lyrics don’t prove anything.

I spend a fair amount of time on political tw, too much lately. This kind of thinking is dangerous. If you care to, you can see the same sort of conspiracy thinking on both the far left and the far right, this misguided notion that only I and my inner circle of enlightened ones can see the truth. It dehumanizes our fellow citizens as the Other and justifies everything from moral superiority to murder. The lovers and families of One Direction as a beloved group and as individuals deserve our respect for them and for their privacy. None has done anything but try to live their lives as best they know how, as far as we know. If any is closeted, that is a difficult and deeply painful path to navigate. Let them live.

I know that there are and have been pr relationships in Hollywood and in the music industry, both as promo for projects and as cover for private, consenting behavior between adults. Sexual harassment, abuse, and coercion deserve investigation. Adult sexual relationships do not. This topic is closed until further notice.

[intoxicatedfandom]

Being aware of biases, thefemaleofspecies is looking at it as a Louis fan with a distate for Harry/his fans. Im not saying they're wrong to say your faves arent perfect, but why not start it from home? As a Zayn fan who doesnt like Louis, its interesting that his fans hype him up as a 'socialist king' whilst he's a cis het white millionare who hasnt give his money away. His fans say he's BLM woke but defend the 'n' word, telling his sister not to say the 'n' word on camera, urban music hate etc

I don’t care what stance @thefemaleofspecies has on Louis or Harry tbh. She’s a feminist and she hates stan culture so I love her. I’ve been reading down her blog, and I never find blogs on Tumblr who are political and funny. Plus she’s desi so 💞. So yeah she goes off on harries but I think the criticisms are valid. I have sorted through my own feelings sufficiently now that I realize my former dislike was almost entirely based on stan culture renderings of him as woke king for doing the minimum, not anything Harry himself particularly did, although I have a wait and see approach to his blm stance. I do think his team has capitalized on his characterization, just like Timothee Chalamet’s has. And I would never call Louis a woke king—ha! I like him for his music and his triumph over adversity narrative. He reads as basic white rich man otherwise to me. I think we should all just like who we like but calling out stan bs, especially stan tw bs, will always give me pleasure. I share your distaste for the need to transform Louis OR ZAYN FOR THAT MATTER ahem into something they’re not, but nobody has shown me receipts that would make me admire any of 1d for their political activism. Niall did a cool thing with the iPads. Zayn did a brave thing with his #freepalestine tweet and not taking it down even after hate. That’s about it. And this was a rant, sorry, not a discourse starter about why one guy is worthy of stanning and I’m not being fair to Harry. As soon as he does some music or wears some clothes I like I’ll probably post about him.

[intoxicatedfandom]

I didn’t intend to imply that sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination exist and are powerful factors—of course they are, as in everything. I was just trying to make the point that Harry has everything lined up for success INCLUDING being a white male, so it’s hardly surprising that he’s succeeding. And my other point wasn’t that Zayn is lazy, I meant it stemmed from anxiety. I was running out of characters like I am now.

Yeah, it’s hard to get a full point across in an ask isn’t it? If you have a longer point, I think I have anonymous submissions turned on. Anyway, sorry if I misterpreted you, but sometimes things hit a certain way, and it has to do with having watched Da 5 Bloods last night and reading Catch and Kill today, and thinking about the Tulsa rally and how Trump has gotten away with everything his whole life—it just hit me wrong. Thanks for coming back to clarify. As I often say, it’s a miracle we communicate as well as we do here on the interwebs.

But still my point about Zayn’s productivity stands. He often gets accused of lacking drive when he’s put out a lot of music, way more than the other 4. He works. He has drive. He just doesn’t promote or perform.

Btw, I know you know that sexism, racism, and Islamophobia exist. I wasn’t making any profound statements about any of that. We all know. I just have heard once too often, maybe, how Harry deserves his success, and it’s not that he doesn’t so much as it’s not that he does either. You know? He’s not a better performer than Lizzo. He doesn’t work harder than she does. She engages more with fans. And yet. It’s a shame that the world doesn’t reward everyone who is deserving and talented and hardworking. She’s doing fine, just not Harry level fine, and Full Stop absolutely does not do for her what they do for him. Imagine if she had her own dedicated manager like Jeff. And I just picked her because they share management. SORRY.

[intoxicatedfandom]

I'm not even a big one direction fan but when people say those 5 can't sing because "they were in a boy band " I actually cringe like have you ever heard even one of them sing ? Who can listen to their live performances (solo or band) and say those 5 can't sing. You may prefer other people yes but saying they can't sing is just some stereotypical hatred towards boybands

Anything young girls love is denigrated in a misogynistic culture. They’re all talented. They were then, they are now. Full stop. I object to the widespread idea that because Louis doesn’t have Zayn’s range or smoky tone, or Harry’s stage presence and rich tone, or Niall’s ability to play guitar and improvement vocally, or Liam’s training, that he can’t sing. You know who doesn’t have a great voice? Neil Young, venerated 70s icon, brilliant songwriter, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Neil Young. Listen to his live performances and he is pitchy af. But nobody says he can’t sing, because he’s all around a great musician who’s written great songs. Yeah, Louis has pitch problems, and I’m not comparing himto a true icon of rock music, just saying Louis being pitchy doesn’t mean he can’t sing nor that he can’t or won’t write great songs. Harrumph. *steps off her soapbox*

[intoxicatedfandom]

the shipper accounts are pretty intense,. i think the problem is that they base their favourites around a relationship and not the music. and when you create a account just based on that,there is very little else to talk about. i will admit i was a zarry, but i dont beleive its still happening nor would i ever dream of writing abuse on new relationships. like larry cultue is so crazy, old larries are now called rads and just hate on harry rightly or wrongly but its more like an obsession now. its sad but i think 1ds legacy will be remembered for the ships

I was a zarry too, but I never shipped them seriously, just thought they were very cute together on stage mostly and that the two of them were the worst stage hoes out of all of the boys. But it’s been six years. Whatever they were, acquaintances who worked together, friends who played up a flirtation on stage, a bromance, I dropped it all when it became clear that they were estranged. Now it seems gross to me to ship real people because I’ve learned too much about ships and how people act when they believe in them.

I hope you’re wrong about the 1d legacy. I hope they’re remembered as the first big boyband to use social media successfully and for their infectious pop. They did some good songs; they were cute and enthusiastic and pretty graceful with sudden fame. If there was ever anything other than friendship between any of them, it’s long over. They’re adults with adult lives.

I love Zayn first, last, and always for his music. I want him to thrive. That’s why I follow him and that’s why he’s my fav. I don’t care about his relationships except for how they contribute to his happiness. I’m not mad at Harry for being so successful, because Zayn is living his best life as far as I can tell. That’s what I want for him, and that’s what we should all want for our favs.

I don’t understand basing your entire fandom on a ship. It’s not that I’m naive and think artists are never closeted, or that being gay doesn’t limit an artist’s possibilities when we can look around and see examples easily. But if someone, anyone, is closeted, that’s a choice they’re making based on their goals, their own very personal sense of their own identity and desire for privacy, and whatever they want the public to know. As part of the public I respect their decisions, and ultimately it’s not about their sexuality. If you won’t love your fav if they’re gay or if they’re straight, then maybe you don’t really love your fav. Let them live. /rant

[intoxicatedfandom]

. Not saying one is better than the other or one is right and the other is wrong, just pointing out the pearl clutcher's hypocrisy.

Not towards any fandom in particular , this is a general statement. More often than not , it's people looking for the ways to elevate their favs and on the same time put down and hate on the person they don't like. It has more to do with showing how bad the person you hate is.

With celebrities people except them to be flawless perfect people , which can't be and most definitely isn't true. But having flaws and bad habits don't automatically make someone morally corrupt. What's funny is most of these chain clutchers have the same habits or on the same level in their personal lives but are the first ones to be a hypocrite and throw stones at others.

I don’t know what habits anyone clutching pearls has. I don’t do shrooms, or any illegal drug for that matter, but it’s not because I’m more moral. I just don’t like the way I feel when I do them. Again if I were in charge of the world I would decriminalize all drugs and treat their abuse as the public health issue it is.

I don’t understand the impulse to pass judgment on someone else’s fav as a way of elevating your own. It comes from a dark place. I would not devote my energy for such a purpose, especially when there is real evil in the world, and it’s not walking around dressed as any former member of 1d. As you become a veteran of fandom you have to make that choice, I think, at some point, whether you’re going to let it be a force for a small good or a small evil, because of course in the grand scheme of things this is all pretty unimportant.

[intoxicatedfandom]

That was from the Vogue shoot tho, so they knew they were “in public.”

half the pictures from that shoot I feel like i should be averting my eyes lol. young love 💕

Idk why, still, anyone can be a ziam when zigi were so clearly head over heels. I didn’t pay attention to her before the pregnancy but now I look at them and think oh you two, get a room.

Of all the 1d ships, ziam is still popular and represents the clearest example of conspiracy thinking based on nothing. I can more easily ship zarry, for real, and I don’t ship real life people anymore just on principle. Zayn flirted a lot onstage. He probably kissed Louis and Harry—they just didn’t blurt about it.

The recent events in the US have made me so wary of this kind of thinking. It’s only the scale of the damage that’s different. I’m not an anti, because I have better things to do with my time than comb tumblr and tw to hate on delusions, but y’all I emphatically reject the kind of thinking that would lead you to conclude your fav participated in a bg. I would despise Zayn if I found out he’d done something like that—but he didn’t.

/end rant

[intoxicatedfandom]

Hi, i will start with saying im really sorry if this makes you uncomfortable cause it has nothing to do with Zayn, but you are the only one ik that doesnt ship real people which is why im here. I always hated the idea of shipping real people thats why i never talked about it simce i came to this fanodm ( Harry, Zayn, And Louis’ ) two-three years agp. Now thats okay the prob is that sometimes i really feel like i believe in Larry(?) idk how to describe it like i really dont want to cause i hate the idea of it! But sometimes it just seems so real to me like i cant deny it?? And i dont know if thsts okay or not

Hi, Nonnie, and welcome to the discourse.

You are bringing up an important point for me, which is the difference between private belief and public statements. I can believe a great many things—or at the very least believe in the possibility of many things, like the US govt might be hiding evidence of aliens—without turning my belief into a full blown conspiracy theory and posting about it all over my sm.

I think all of us can look at the evidence, whatever it is, and reach our conclusions. I did—and I concluded that I didn’t think the Larry evidence was convincing or at least relied on too little to convince me. Same x100 for ziam. You might look at the same evidence and reach a different conclusion. The important thing is that you not use fandom theories or fandom videos as your proof. I like to look at a fanmade video and then at unedited footage of the same event to see what’s been slowed down or taken out of context. Most of the time with 1d, moments that are made much of are very brief and exist within a larger set of antics that are occurring amongst all of the members. So that’s what I would call doing my due diligence.

Regardless, when it comes to denying public relationships or insisting that someone who has publicly declared themselves to be straight is actually not, I err on the side of caution. It’s not my place to opine publicly on their sexuality. I consider sexual matters generally to be private. Could Zayn be bi? Sure, maybe! But am I going to declare with any degree of certainty what is an idle speculation on my part based on his few public statements and a few flirty moments in 1d—no I’m not.

So tl:dr be careful about what you say publicly, and remember that tumblr is google searchable. This isn’t a safe space for speculation. Those spaces are few and far between. Respect the public statements about their sexuality that public figures make or don’t make.

I’m going to add that fans cannot out a celebrity—that’s a very specific act that only someone close to that celebrity, with reason to know, could do. Nonetheless, speculation that reaches the level of the gp, as the larry ship has, does have the potential to embroil that celebrity in harassment of the so-called PR partners, in gossip about their personal lives when they want and need the focus to be on their projects, and in being put in the position of having to lie repeatedly if they are closeted. It exacerbates the closet rather than freeing them from it.

I googled Gigi and paps yesterday, and a post of mine came up as the second search result. That’s how private tumblr is.