Something that’s been annoying me lately is how y’all zoomers think ‘30-year-olds’ comprise the original generation of fandom and I’m like um no. When online fandom started I was baby. I was YOU. The difference is I show our fandom foremothers respect and you fucking don’t.

The difference is I saw how these fans worked their asses off to fight legal issues, censorship, and the idea of fandom being a ‘boy’s club’ to bring us the amazing communities that we have now in REAL TIME. And now you’re pissing all over it, which is only gonna hurt YOU.

I’ll add more to this thread later, I just needed to get these thoughts out real quick

bc the a huge part of the OTW’s original goal was to carefully archive fandom history, but no one cares to read up on any of it bc they’re too busy being reactionary fuckheads

I was thirteen when I started reading Gundam Wing fanfiction on fan sites made BY ADULTS. I watched and admired cosplayers and artists and read wonderful stories and meta written BY ADULTS.

And I got excited to grow up bc I wanted to be just like them!

Anyway to see these little fucks use 'fandom mom' as an insult to me and my fellow millennials is both frustrating and highly amusing because that is a term of endearment that WE CAME UP WITH to describe THE GENERATION OF FANS BEFORE US. like, SPECIFICALLY.

I’m just gonna say this here bc it’s somewhat related— adults in fandom are gonna fuck off, guys. We’ve been through this. We’ll find a new home. You are all each other have and you’re digging a miserable hellhole for yourselves instead of a safe community. It’s sad.

I just wanna to add that I used ‘foremothers’ here due to what our understanding was at the time—but I’m v aware that slash fandom helped closeted trans guys find their identities just as it helped me find mine as a lesbian and I would be remiss not to mention them here too!

For so many people, slash was our first and ONLY exposure to queer identity

I didn’t even have a concept in my mind of what queer relationships were or could be like until I started consuming slash content. Fandom and young queer identity are DEEPLY intertwined for a lot of us.

So anyone QRTing this thread with ‘it’s not that deep!!’ or something similarly dismissive or rude—I see y’all— is hereby cordially invited to dine on excrement