(not to hijack the other post) what i mean to say is that antis/fandom police are a byproduct of collective sexual regression (specifically of american variety). this might be hyperbolic, but my theories on why antis happen are thorny and i'm still trying to make sense of them. https://twitter.com/jyuanka/status/1129047682956316676

they exist at an intersection of fandom activism, woke-culture, identity politics, and an increasingly indifferent capitalist hellscape alienating them from the rest of the world. (thread below. its long)

teens today are surrounded by online images of beauty&success&happiness, leading to a collective plummeting of self-esteem. they think nobody is ever going to love/desire them. theres a sense of desperation that permeates their online interactions.

and exclusive, private online spaces that would cater to them are shrinking (as they're shrinking for adults too). now adults don't just exist outside the internet but within it as well. it's like how many of us left fb after our relatives discovered it and sent friend requests.

there's just no escaping the adults now, a knowledge exacerbated by a general disconnect from peers offline. for queer kids especially, online presence is a safe haven, for understandable reasons. they want acceptance and validation.

having a blog on tumblr that lets you say openly how gay you are is comforting and empowering, but tumblr (and i specify it cause its where i dwelt most) is rife with SO MUCH shit, and people end up absorbing that shit without nuance.

having your entire worldview shaped by shitty tumblr text posts, of whatever variety, is Awful. activism, literary/media theory, fandom wank, identity politics, self-care culture, it all morphs into a bizarro soup that smells and tastes great.

tumblr's brand of activism offers comforting answers to almost everything, and many have developed social literacy solely through its confines with no other points of reference. feminism, anti-racism, lgbt rights, they all exist in their distilled versions online.

a teen comes into that, their eyes are suddenly opened, they immerse themselves into that atmosphere because its cool and funny and now their marginalized identities could be a source for clout.

and clout in online leftist spaces is about peddling Woke Currency. its no surprise to me that the most adamant/aggressive policers are white fans policing other white fans, specifically for representations of fictional poc. if a character is a shade lighter you're a monster.

(the manifestations of white guilt in fandom spaces is a whole other discussion that deserves its own thread, but its somewhat relevant here. from my own experience with antis, most are white american teens, and i think thats important context.)

(and also how whiteness/straightness becomes associated with problematic content. if your fantasies about fictional characters are slightly unorthodox then you must be white/straight, because wholesomeness and purity belong solely to poc/lgbt people.)

(see the black&white worldview above [problematic white straight male creators vs. wholesome woke valid lgbt poc creators] is one thats infested fandom, especially that so much of fandom *is* a transgressive answer to creations by white straight males.)

anyway. activism has seeped into fandom in a way that demands everyone participate in it, or at least acknowledge it. now there's a moral&ethical baggage with f/m shipping, shipping a white character with a brown one, age difference etc.

these all revolve around fictional characters, and people get attached to fictional characters and relate to them, sometimes in deeply troubling ways, in ways that demand the existence of a single interpretation of said characters.

an interpretation thats comforting and validating and pure. they see themselves in these characters and fandom becomes a ground to exert control thats absent offline. fandom is their outlet and rebellion in a world that rejects them.

but their rebellion isn't one thats radical or revolutionary. its in essence one of sexual regression and self-isolation and anger.

theres a pushback against sexualizing characters because, i think, lgbt teens want to subvert the forced sexualization of their very existence, portrayed in media through homophobic/transphobic stereotypes.

(especially to girls or afab kids. the aggressive desexualization of female characters compared to their male counterparts isn't incidental or secondary here. women/girls are pure and incapable of wrongdoing. female characters who dont canonically conform will be rehabilitated)

all this coupled with "self-care" culture results in kids who can't/don't want to engage in discomfiting narratives. anything thats bleak, sexual, transgressive, taboo, or ethically questionable makes them highly uncomfortable.

something in these narratives speaks to their own repression and says things they don't like. to be asked to step out of their comfort zones (which they think they've already stepped out of) is perceived as an intentional act of aggression targeting them specifically.

thats why they attack anyone in the vicinity, mostly fellow fans who have never interacted with them and dont know them. if they catch a whiff of what you do, they demand answers, feel *entitled* to answers.

"you're making kids uncomfortable" is their battle cry. and kids here doesnt just stand for kids, it stands for everything thats woke and pure and wholesome and unproblematic.

that cry says "your existence and the existence of your content means im capable of conjuring those same problematic fantasies too and that makes me feel awful about myself so you must be brought down so i can remain comfortable and acceptable"

its all a bid for acceptance. thats whats ultimately so sad/pathetic about antis. they can only bond with one another through dogpiling/harassment. they live in fear of small transgressions &ironically, end up recreating the same conditional acceptance they ran away from offline.