Things I’m 100% okay with in fandoms:
-Gender bend/swap/slide whatever you want to call it
-Sexual/romantic orientation headcanons
-Disability headcanons
-Race/Ethnicity bending/changing/swapping
-Body type swaps and changes!
-Time Period AUs
-Setting AUs
-AUs in general
-Aging up characters!
-All ships.
-Yes, all ships, even the ones I don’t like. ENJOY THEM. SHIPPING IS FUN!
-POLY SHIPS! MULTISHIPPING!
-Canon/oc ships
-Canon/oc babies
-Crossovers!
-Porn/Smut/Sex
-Yes, even the weird kinky porn/smut/sex
-Incest ships (even if there’s some I don’t care for myself)
-Dub-con/Non-con/Rape (Not my cup of tea but some people like it.)
-Knowing the difference between fantasy and reality.
-Blocking, unfollowing, and blacklisting things you don’t want to see.
Things I’m 100% against in fandoms:
-Being a dick to people about anything in the above list
-Harassing people
-Telling people they shouldn’t draw or write things because it makes you uncomfortable. Especially if the subject matter is avoidable.
–”I said this character is this gender/race/disability/etc so it’s CANON” No. No it’s not. Please do not confuse canon and headcanon. These are two very different things.
-Hyping a piece of fanon to people til they think it’s canon and they’re disappointed when they actually find out it’s not in the show. (The Lars is Trans fanon for example)
-Telling people they don’t get it when half the time they literally have a background in what they’re discussing/drawing/writing (like queer folks, folks of varying race or ethnicity, csa survivors, rape survivors, etc.)
-Telling people to kill themselves (illegal. STOP.)
-Being super rude to polite folks.
-Actually supporting rape/pedophilia/etc.
-False reporting artwork as child porn/questionable content to get it removed.
-Blogs that trash OCs.
-Being a general dick to people who like a thing “Ugh why do you like that, it’s gross.” “Wow you ship THAT? I don’t think we can be friends anymore.” etc.
-Kinkshaming, lord have mercy, kinkshaming.
–”Ugh, this fandom is so bad it’s becoming the new [insert supposedly bad fandom here]”
–”I saw one whole penis and therefore this fandom is ruined for me. :(”
–“I tried to be polite but people keep drawing things I hate.” Please understand…for just a moment…that the world…does not revolve around you. And neither does your fandom.
-Literally harassing people into stopping drawing, writing, etc.
-Running people out of a fandom
-Harassing people at home (also illegal??? STOP???)
-Doxxing people (AGAIN. ILLEGAL? STOP?)
-Making videos/posts/etc on other sites encouraging people to harass, stalk, or attack someone making content you don’t like. (I L L E G A L. S T O P.)
-Stalking, harassing, sharing porn with, and generally being creepy towards staff/actors/etc of the thing you’re a fan of.
-Stalking, harassing, sharing porn with, and generally being creepy towards artists/writers that you like or hate in the fandom.
You’ll notice I said in this post that I’m okay with these things being in fandoms.
Being okay with something’s existance is not, in fact, supporting that thing or enjoying that thing.
I don’t like rape fics myself. I’m not into some of the more extreme kink stuff, there’s ships I don’t like, etc. I’m also not really okay with parent/child incest ships.
But end of the day, I’m not going to tell people they can’t or shouldn’t like that thing because I don’t know why they like that thing. Everyone is into different stuff.
I think we should be critical of the things we like and I think we should consider why we like something because it helps us be better people. I also think we should understand that there is a separation of fantasy and reality.
Most people I know into very kinky shit? Don’t engage in it in real life. Most people I know that do like rapefics? They don’t want it to happen IRL. They like the idea of not having a choice. But IRL they want to actively have a choice.
And THAT is where the breakdown happens because a lot of people see folks drawing a thing or writing a thing and think they want this stuff to happen in reality when that’s not what it’s about. Fanfiction, fanart, roleplay, etc is a safe way to express one’s fantasies or kinks.
A lot of it is a case of “This is way hotter in my head”. Because in our head it’s an idealized version of the scenario.