Steven Universe Character Fan Art Voltron Character Fan Art
Many parents and their kids are condign more and more than immersed in the fandoms surrounding their favorite shows, movies, and books. The below commodity by invitee correspondent Sean Z. is an in-depth look at the recent history of fandom and some of the pitfalls we should all be aware of and be discussing with our kids.
How a group of internet fans known as antis transformed shipping in fandom from 'Don't Like, Don't Read' to discourse and death threats
By Sean Z, with additional reporting by Aria C.
In March of this twelvemonth, a voice role player on the popular animated prove Voltron: Legendary Defender reported they and their family had received death threats in response to an interview question over aircraft. Another phonation actor on Voltron commented on Twitter they were considering canceling appearances at conventions, due to death threats from angry shippers. When one of the prove's executive producers appear their appearance at San Diego Comic Con, aroused shippers threatened to break her hands at the event and then she couldn't write anymore. What the hell is going on here?
"Aircraft," or the practice of romantically pairing off fictional characters in a work of media, has historically been harmless.
Similar most people in fandom, I transport quite happily and I have nonetheless to send a unmarried expiry threat, because… well, sending threats of physical harm over a fictional human relationship involving cartoon characters seems nonsensical to me (plus, it'southward a crime in about jurisdictions).
And notwithstanding, it's happening. People are taking these ships seriously, especially on Voltron, where fans of the transport "Klance" (pairing Keith and Lance) reposted leaked storyboards online and attempted to blackmail the studio past refusing to have them down unless the studio agreed to make the ship happen in the prove.
But the problem isn't limited to the Voltron fandom. Other shows like Steven Universe, Yuri!!! on Water ice, and Sherlock all have large sections of militant shippers, but the most ambitious of the agglomeration is a new subset of shippers collectively known equally "antis" (from the practice of tagging things "anti-[transport name]" on social media).
Information technology'due south a term these toxic members of fandom habiliment proudly, despite its association with combative behavior. Antis appear to be a response to, amongst other factors, changes in how fans interact online. As fans moved from sites like LiveJournal, where content was opt-in, to Tumblr, where content is opt-out, the method in which fans consumed content changed. Thanks to antis, the old adage of early fandom, "don't similar, don't read" (or the idea that consumers are responsible for avoiding content they don't like) has been replaced with "soapbox," decease threats, and violence.
Hardcore fans of any media volition likely have deep, passionate opinions almost who gets shipped with whom – information technology's part of what makes them fans. Star Expedition shippers have been finding new ways to pair off Kirk and Spock for decades. Shipping can refer to either supporting a pairing in the original work (the canon media), or fan works (fanon media). The term came into employ in the early on '90s, when fans of the X-Files who wanted to meet characters Mulder and Scully paired upwardly were called "relationshippers," or "shippers."
Shipping was seen as a fun activeness for fans – the idea of threatening the creator of a book, or movie, or show by maxim "pair these ii characters off, or else" was (and still is) ludicrous.
But, let me be articulate, while antis equally a group are a recent development, shipping toxicity is not. Harry Potter was one of the get-go major online fandoms, and information technology saw significant ship wars. Fans of Harry Potter debated at length whether Hermione should be paired with Ron or Harry. These ii ships coexisted peacefully until 2005, when JK Rowling said in an interview she dropped "anvil-sized" hints that Ron and Hermione were going to be together, and the interviewer commented that Harry/Hermione shippers were "delusional." Fans did not react well. Equally Clare McBride wrote for SciFi, "considering they'd invested and then heavily in this one ship, to the detriment of making wider connections in fandom and developing a diverse interest in the serial, Rowling's revelation threatened to invalidate not only their ship, only their fandom."
Though there were some fans who threatened JK Rowling over her determination, information technology was on a much smaller calibration compared to the abiding, detailed threats of concrete harm that production staff and talent go on modern shows. But how did we go here? How did we go to the point where some fans feel so strongly virtually fictional pairings that they've decided death threats are acceptable online acquit?
In the early 2000s, LiveJournal rose to prominence equally the home for well-nigh online fan activity. LiveJournal offered anyone the ability to easily create a free blog in a time when hosting was expensive and technical knowledge was oftentimes required to have a web presence. Beyond that, information technology offered communities, or the ability to create shared blogs where multiple users could share content. This replaced mailing lists and usenet groups every bit one of the primary means to distribute fanfiction and other fan works.
LiveJournal "communities" operated on an opt-in model. There were no tags, and searching was limited (full text search was nonexistent). And then, if you wanted to see fanfic for a specific show, you'd join several communities for that show. If you liked a specific ship, you'd join communities for that send. This meant content discovery was more challenging than it is on modern sites similar Tumblr, because there could be hundreds of communities for the same interest grouping, but it offered something disquisitional – moderation.
I may be idealizing LiveJournal fandom more than I should. Nostalgia is powerful, and the site did take harassment bug. In fact, there were unabridged communities built around harassing fellow fans. That said, while the moderators weren't ever perfect, and could exist prone to their ain petty power trips and stirring drama, proficient moderators could keep a customs salubrious and largely harassment-free by deleting attack posts and banning toxic users.
And because the only way to come across content of a community on your feed was to bring together it, users merely saw content they opted in to. There were no "recommended for you" posts to break you out of your self-curated content chimera, and this kept users largely isolated in their own spaces. LiveJournal wasn't perfect, merely I never felt dangerous at that place. There was no threat that the wrong person would meet one of my posts, reblog it, and trigger a hate mob if I said the '"incorrect affair" or I liked the "wrong pairing." That'due south more than I can say for Tumblr fandom.
In the tardily 2000s, internet fandom began migrating away from LiveJournal in favor of a new home, Tumblr. Tumblr offered users significantly better search and content discovery, as well as the power to host images directly on your blog (something LiveJournal lacked). Additionally, changes in LiveJournal management and a mass purge of accounts with nsfw-fanfiction in 2007 (referred to as Strikethrough) pushed many users off the platform.
Unlike LiveJournal's communities, Tumblr's fandoms rely on tagging. Instead of joining a grouping for your interest, you simply search for #evidence or #movie. This is where problems begin. A user on tumblr can tag a post with any tag they wish. Permit'south say I was a shipper who wanted to pair off Alice and Bob on the show Great Adventures . I might tag a post "#AliceBob #GreatAdventures #ThisShowIsAmazing." Unfortunately, until December of 2017, Tumblr did not accept any congenital-in filtering mechanism, so every user who wanted to meet posts using the #GreatAdventures tag would meet my posts most Alice/Bob, as well as other pairings, like Bob/Eve, Alice/Eve, etc.
Though in that location are browser extensions for the site that tin can filter tags (XKit and Tumblr Savior are the most popular ones), users see all content by default, including content they may discover objectionable.
Early Tumblr fandom attempted to piece of work around this problem with the simple etiquette "don't tag your hate." If you were passionate that Bob and Alice should never be together and yous wanted to write an essay on why information technology was a horrible pairing, information technology would be inappropriate to use the #AliceBob tag, since that's used past all the people who want to find content for the pairing. Instead, the early on solution was to use #anti-AliceBob when arguing confronting something. The idea was to replicate the communities of LiveJournal past separating users who objected to a pairing to those who favored it. The term anti, or anti-shipper, comes from this tagging practice, and entered common use in 2015.
Unfortunately, this plan to help fandom constabulary itself backfired. Past creating the #anti-AliceBob tag, the fandom created a community joined together by their hatred for something. And, over time, these anti communities radicalized other members.
Discussions shifted from "I don't like this" to "no one should like this." An account from a user on the anonymous fandom meta site fail_fandomanon described the process: "Antis became a social group, a hatedom. And once impressing their swain clique of antis became more than of import than beingness accepted by the fandom at big, information technology metastasized into harassing shippers to impress their footling bully clique. It became almost the social aspect of beingness accepted by the 'absurd kids,' i.e., the other antis–and like fandom drama groups in the past, oftentimes motivated early on past the fear that they might come up afterward yous if you weren't on their side."
Merely saying "other fans shouldn't create fan content for the thing I don't similar" isn't a compelling argument, so antis began adopting the linguistic communication of the social justice movement that is agile on Tumblr. Antis generally debate that the fictional pairing they dislike is morally "problematic," that it promotes some broadly objectionable thing similar pedophilia, abuse, or incest, and that content for that pairing should not be allowed on the internet.
To exist articulate, critiquing media for its larger social impact is fine and healthy. However, in these cases, antis would disingenuously put forth these claims to provide a footing for their hatred. For example, in the video game Overwatch , antis claim pairing Gabriel Reyes with McCree (known as McReyes) promotes pedophilia. (It doesn't. McCree, the younger character, is 37.) They too merits pairing Rey and Kylo Ren from Star Wars supports incest, considering there's a chance they could be related (they're not). Pairing Hank and his android partner Connor together from the video game Detroit: Become Man also supports incest past their logic (Connor is an android assigned to Hank, a human, to exist his partner on the police).
This kind of performative outrage enables anti-shippers to harass others past providing a moral shield for their attacks. Antis justify sending death threats to fellow fans and creators because they merits people who support "bad" ships promote those broadly objectionable things. Therefore, antis claim they are just trying to protect their community from creating, engaging, and spreading inappropriate content (regardless if the content is actually inappropriate).
To see how this kind of hatred develops over time, and leads to issues in fan spaces, permit's take a closer look at the Voltron fandom. The fandom, unfortunately, has a large anti presence, and therefore a constant stream of harassment cases.
The ii about popular pairings in the Voltron fandom are Keith and Lance, commonly known every bit Klance, and Keith and Shiro, or Sheith. Because both pairings involve Keith, there's contention for the grapheme, triggering a "transport war" in the fandom. Fans of both pairings often write Tumblr posts about why their pairing is improve.
In the LiveJournal days, these "my send is ameliorate than yours" posts would be referred to equally "fan wank," where wank is slang for nonsense. This wouldn't be a problem – fan creators would exist siloed into their respective communities and would only see content for their transport. But on Tumblr, considering a post can accept multiple tags and anyone tin tag any postal service with any tag, simply looking at #Voltron means fans see content from #sheith and #klance shippers, as well equally other pairings and "gen" or "full general" posts, which don't take pairings, in add-on to all the wank.
Though the majority of Voltron fans who send Klance aren't antis, the majority of antis gravitate to Klance. Antis in the Voltron fandom began adopting the language of the social justice motion on Tumblr to justify their dislike for Sheith and other "shaladin" ships (Shiro/Paladin), and vehemently argue creators shouldn't write or depict it. "Sheith is problematic, and you shouldn't back up it" replaces the simpler "this squicks me" from LiveJournal. The term "fan wank" is replaced with the more loaded term "fandom discourse." As Tumblr user owl-vocal defined the term: "don't call it wank, I am wanking about Very Serious Issues, you guys!"
In almost all cases, the reason a pairing is problematic is usually contrived – antis merits anyone who likes Sheith is supporting pedophilia (even though Shiro and Keith are both over 18), and incest (even though the characters are not related – a fact the show staff have repeatedly said).
They brand these claims based on Shiro's part as a mentor figure to younger Keith, and Keith comparing Shiro to a brother figure, respectively. Antis further argue that considering the pairing is "problematic," depicting it normalizes and endorses child abuse. Anti arguments may shift over time, but the critical thing to note is 1) competing popular pairings (pairings that share characters with the anti-favored pairing) are always problematic, and 2) the anti-preferred pairing is never problematic. If you have goose egg else from this article, delight accept this: all this outrage isn't near protecting children, or about morality, or about critiquing media. It'south about people wanting their favorite characters to buss.
Even though it's a faux argument, the antis, armed with the cause of protecting the children from seeing abusive relationships, threaten any visible Sheith shipper in the fandom, such as popular fan artists and authors. Paul Booth, a professor of media studies at DePaul Academy, spoke to Polygon about this issue. He explained, "I've researched toxic fan activity, which I telephone call 'protective fandom.' These groups are not merely forming around a particular text or a particular medium. They see themselves every bit the protector of it. They run into themselves as the line between what they want information technology to be and what other people want it to be."
Antis will too effort to reach outside of the fandom to poison other people to the ship, which is ultimately what drove me to write this commodity. I saw a tweet saying "I hope the Dragon Prince fandom doesn't become Voltron 2.0." I expected them to discuss the rampant death threats to fans and voice actors on Voltron, and how they were concerned the new Netflix blithe show might suffer the same fate. Instead, they followed up with, " Voltron fandom is really toxic, there are all these people who similar this pedo content…" This is a common anti-strategy – the goal is to convince people who don't have fandom context to think a pairing (or the people that support it) is harmful. This finer gives the antis proxy fighters on Twitter and Tumblr – users who don't picket the show simply will write phone call-out posts when they see people ship the target pairing. Y'all can meet a user attempting to modify a wiki article on Sheith to make information technology read as incest here. Their screen name should give you a hint that they might be biased.
They likewise might try to force the show itself to alter content past manufacturing enough outrage, as 1 erstwhile anti wrote nearly on Twitter:
Sadly, creators and staff of the original media are not exempt from this fury – in an interview with Afterbuzz Television, one vocalization thespian said he thought fans should exist able to send what they want without existence harassed. He subsequently would disengage from fandom significantly after receiving death threats in response to his answer on shipping.
That'due south where Voltron fandom stands – there are lots of astonishing fan artists, talented fan writers, and a keen show staff, but the fandom is scary, and I say that as someone who loves this show and this fandom. During the first flavour and before antis became a prominent voice, the show's staff and vocalism actors used to share and reblog fan art, joke well-nigh ship names, and even responded to messages in private chats. Now, not a single main cast fellow member still has direct/private messages enabled on Twitter. I mourn the testify we could take had if we all weren't scared.
Even though antis are usually a pocket-sized fraction of the people who are part of a fandom, they accept power to exercise significant damage. Toxicity drives people out of ships, and out of fandom, regardless of their pairing. In Voltron , some not-anti Klance shippers adopted the term "Laith shipper" (swapping the names in the send), in an attempt to divide themselves from the Klance anti-shippers ("klanti"). Despite that, in several cases, artists and authors who created content for Klance either switched to other ships or chose to exit the fandom entirely to avoid the toxicity associated with the pairing.
Once over again, this is not just a Voltron -specific problem. At a fan effect last year, an artist drawing fan fine art for the game Undertale was gifted cookies by someone at the event, only to discover they were filled with needles when they pierced the artist's tongue, all because an anti didn't approve of the artist'south transport. Antis in the Sherlock fandom drove a rape survivor to tears at a Sherlock fan convention panel after she said she believed information technology was acceptable for authors to write works with non-consensual sexual practice (antis called her "rape apologist filth" and posted video of the commutation online).
Members of that panel were specifically targeted not based on their preferred pairing, but on their preference of who tops between Sherlock and John Watson (yeah, people will harass over who tops in a fictional pairing). Antis in the Steven Universe fandom forced an artist working on the show to quit Twitter afterward harassing her for drawing send art they didn't like and posting it to her personal account.
Despite all of this negativity, I believe fandom is an incredibly positive thing. I'thousand gay, and the first time I always saw a gay character in a story was in fanfiction. Fanfiction gave me stories about people like me when I couldn't detect them anywhere else. That is the ability of transformative media like fanfic and fanart: in a globe where and then many people don't get to see themselves on TV, fandom can offer them a place where they tin exist the hero of a story they know and love. Fandom enables anyone to create with an established earth – information technology enables writers to create stories that go across the canon media, and gives artists the power to explore new scenes and what-ifs. There are thousands of people right now creating this content for gratuitous, simply because they enjoy it.
That globe is open to anyone, but due to antis, fans demand to work a bit harder to enjoy information technology. Thankfully, there are tools available on most platforms to aid keep antis in check. Tumblr added tag blocking in belatedly 2017, which means you can avoid fandoms or pairings that are toxic for you without installing browser extensions. Both Twitter and Tumblr have user blocking functions which can be used to avoid specific users, and, if a specific user is inciting their followers to attack yous, tools like Cake Chain on Twitter tin cake them, and all the people that follow them. Many fandoms as well have Discord servers with moderators, which are becoming modern replacements for the old chastened communities of LiveJournal.
Ultimately, fandom is what we make of it, and nosotros all can go far better. If you lot're a parent, speak to your children nearly proper online conduct, and talk to them virtually the repercussions of harassment online. If you're a convention organizer, take caution when someone proposes a console on ethical shipping, and investigate if the people proposing this are speaking in skilful faith, or are they trying to gain a platform for inciting harassment. If yous're a member of popular show or movie's staff, have a moment and remind your fans and followers that y'all don't back up harassment, especially over ships. And finally, if you're a fan, be decent to people. Whorl by stuff that isn't for you. Brand the content that you lot're passionate near. If we all work together, we can bring dorsum the gilded days of "don't like, don't read."
The authors would like to thank the many Voltron fans, Tumblr users, and LiveJournal users who spoke with us while writing this piece. This is a sensitive topic, and nosotros capeesh yous sharing your experiences with usa.
Sean Z. stumbled upon internet fandom in the early 2000s, and has been reading fanfic and liking fanart ever since. When he's not researching fandom, he enjoys listening to video game music, playing boardgames, and writing code. If yous'd like to discuss fandom history, y'all tin find the author on Twitter at @Sean_Z_Writes
Source: https://geekdad.com/2018/10/toxic-fandom-when-criticism-and-entitlement-go-too-far/
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