Awww thank you nonny. (You can see my age here too, “nonny” is livejournal-ese and all the kids say anon. When I’m feeling really old you’ll catch me saying “nonny mouse.”)

I think a lot of problems with fandom olds can be traced to the fact that we came up in fandom at a time when there was much less awareness about diversity and representation in media, still less about racism and other bigotry in fandom. Fandom racism was not as visible, at least to me, given that my fandoms had almost exclusively white major characters–which itself was a problem, of course.

But there were reams and reams of mpreg fic where it was suggested the adamantly cis male characters gave birth through the anus. I think A/B/O fics may have replaced this genre now? Also, it was an accepted “explanation” that slash was a form of safe sexual exploration for heterosexual women, to the extent that I was actually confused when I learned that lesbians wrote and consumed it, too. It did not occur to me that the fetishization of gay sexuality by straight women and the rampant use of regressive tropes was a problem, I liked canonshipping and femslash better anyway (which was also confusing because I thought at the time I was straight lmao).

So fandom was always messed up, the only difference was that the fans affected are a lot more vocal and visible now. Some older fans are bothered not by the racism, transphobia, homophobia and other bigotries, but by the fact that minority fans have a voice. It was a transition for me, too, as I discussed in my post Carrying the Fandom Load, so I can understand their bewilderment and even indignation. But just because it’s not something I’m used to doesn’t mean it’s wrong, you know? I think that’s a distinction people need to make. There were no good old days of fandom, just times when we could exclude people without getting pushback. I’m amazed at this new generation of fans who are so passionate about making fandom inclusive, and grateful for these changes.

And then there are some older fans that are just plain bullies, pretending they have some kind of wisdom others don’t because they’re older, using their age and experience to prey on younger fans, exploiting vulnerable fans while calling themselves “fandom moms (yaigh),” some running straight-up cults. To be fair these olds were probably just as bad when they were younger, they just didn’t grow out of it and found age was just another convenient weapon.

So yeah, I’ve seen some stuff and a lot of examples of what not to be. I’m very happy that I seem to have succeeded in not being That Fan, at least in some people’s eyes, but it’s an ongoing process.