I Dont Know Who Needs To Read This But Remember That Fandom Is A Hobby. Its Supposed To Be Fun, Not An

i don’t know who needs to read this but remember that fandom is a hobby. it’s supposed to be fun, not an obligation.

you don’t have to post on a schedule, or update wips that don’t inspire you.

you don’t have to fill all the prompts you get.

you don’t have to write long things because you feel like this fic is too short.

remember that we’re all here to have a good time. when you find yourself getting stressed by fandom stuff, just stop, breathe and think. what’s the rush? is the world gonna end if you don’t work on this fic / art / edit / blog today?

and if anyone tries to make you feel bad about taking it easy, they can kiss my appletaters. we are doing this for free, because we love it.

just come here, let’s sit and chill for a bit.

a writer who writes the most fucked up “dead dove: do not eat” problematic pairing and fully tags and warns for the content they create will always be worthy of more respect in my eyes than people who call others weirdos because of who they ship. This is because a writer who writes disturbing things but gives me plenty of warning about them has demonstrated, regardless of what happens in the fic, that they value the consent of real people, and that they value my consent to see such content and will always offer me the option to avoid or withdraw. On the other hand, a purity cultist who demands I explain my trauma and exactly why I might be drawn to dark content, regardless of whether they’re the purest fluff writer to ever write, has demonstrated a lack of respect for my boundaries and the attitude that they are entitled to whatever they want to take from me. 

There are a lot of things that bother me about purity culture, but I think the most disturbing is that it clouds the very definition of consent, and then teaches this confusing version (you must consent to deep dives into your trauma and how it affects you for the benefit of strangers who have already decided you’re a bad person, and not consenting to that automatically makes you an abuser, also no one can consent to reading or thinking about disturbing content ever because thinking about it means you want it irl) to young, vulnerable, and often traumatized individuals, thus making it harder to understand their trauma and easier for them to ignore the real warning signs of abuse (like demanding that you agree with the abuser otherwise you’re literally the worst and most harmful person ever) because it teaches that abusers only come in one type, and that all abusers are “nasty shippers”.

This is especially dangerous because real life abusers teach their victims that the abuse is happening because the victim is a bad, evil person. One of the diagnostic criteria for PTSD is literally “Places undue blame on themself or others for what happened”. Teaching traumatized people that consent is a luxury only “good” people are allowed to have is incompatible with support for abuse survivors. tl;dr a writer who tags “dead dove: do not eat” has demonstrated respect for the necessity of consent. A purity cultist who sends anon hate has demonstrated a lack of respect for consent. 

things sherlock holmes has canonically done:

scrapbooked the hell out of his newspapers

put on a hat that was too big for him 

giggled

cried because lestrade was nice to him

got all sappy and romantic by smelling a rose

let a puppy lead him on adventures

“impish mood”

lit his pipe with an ember from the fireplace because he thought it looked cool

feel free to add to this

Friendly reminder that you can ship Naegiri without shitting on Naekusaba and Naezono, you can ship Naekusaba without shitting on Naegiri and Naezono, and you can ship Naezono without shitting on Naekusaba and Naegiri.

There is literally no fucking point in fighting over which ship is the better ship, or posting crap about how this or that ship is “toxic” or “has no chemistry” or whatever.

As somebody who ships all three, I find this incredibly tiresome. Knock it off.