Especially Appreciate The Bit About Learning To Interact With People Of Different Ages As Peers. That

Especially appreciate the bit about learning to interact with people of different ages as peers. That meant so much to me as a teenager in Harry Potter fandom, that I could participate (haltingly, a little) in meta discussions about identities and literary analysis and all this important stuff with people who’d spent decades writing fic or hosting sites or who were getting their doctorates in fandom studies. Going to my first con and meeting and getting encouragement from “adults” there. And yeah, messing up once and sending something to a BNF I liked which I thought she’d think was funny...who hated it on the grounds that it was insulting to female characters, and who told me so. It made me feel sad that she didn’t like the interaction with me, but I learned to not be so confident that my (somewhat righteous) way of seeing something was everyone’s.

That said...OP has a good point about taking into consideration the ages of people involved in a direct conversation. Thinking how someone of a different age might take something you/we say to them is just part of being good at communication - there’s the thing you mean, and then there’s the thing you say, and then there’s the way the receiver understands it, and good communication is always about figuring out how to align the first with the last. I remember really looking up to older people in fandom and being incredibly timid about being accepted as a peer if I even chimed in on an innocuous discussion thread. I’d want to show a little grace and patience with someone who’s newer to fandom or who might be inclined to take something I told them very much to heart, if I ended up in an argument or something of that nature. It’s not an obligation - putting in special effort for communication never really is - but it might be nice to take a second and remember what it was like for you to interact with adults in fandom.

Oh, and I actually have no idea what the fandom wank in question is about, so this is very much a general observation. Not everyone in fandom always knows everything that’s going on!

like, i’m not saying that adults don’t have a place in fandom. they can and they do, and many are perfectly great people.

but if you’re an adult, say, in your mid to late 20s or older, especially if you’re in a fandom that’s filled mostly with teenagers, you do need to be careful about how you interact with young people in fandom.

you need to be careful about the content you produce or share, and if you do something that people take issue with, you need to be prepared to address that in an honest and meaningful way, instead of blocking the young people who are telling you you’ve done something wrong and going on a rant about how “it’s just fiction” and “ship and let ship” and “do whatever you want” and “i’m too old for this.”

if you’re an adult in fandom, you need to be able to recognize how the content you produce might affect young people, and honestly, you should be able to show maturity when dealing with it, because you are still an adult talking to many people who are literal children.

many of those young people will, by default, view you as a sort of authority figure based on your age alone, as that’s what they’re used to. be careful of the lessons you teach them.

This broke my heart all over again. I’d never really thought about Persuasion from Captain Wentworth’s perspective. And isn’t that a fairly universal aspect of love, too? Angrily wishing hurt upon someone who hurt you, and then the regret and the love and tenderness that comes afterward, the next time they’re in pain?

I was SO GLAD to see the country bumpkin bully say all this in his southern accent. About damn time rural (probably white) Southerner men get credit for - and be held accountable to - being able to grow up, look at themselves, and be good to others, just like anyone else.

holy fucking shit

Why does being a woman put you at greater risk of having anxiety? Part biology, part what we teach our kids about their place in the world.

In honor of 19-year-old Simone Biles being named Woman Of The Year by ESPN. 

She won a record four gold medals at the Olympics. She’s untouchable!

Congratulations!

No. No no no no no. (Also a little bit yes, but mostly no.) This is not a clarification; this is misinformation. Most of it is true, but it’s misleading in the extreme in its rebuke of the previous post.

The original post was also mostly true. That photo is from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, from the terrifying Friday night white supremacist march. You know, the one where a white crowd marched two by two, carrying torches, shouting “Blood and Soil” to a college campus with many students of color and Jewish students. That crowd was, in fact, monitored by only one campus police officer for “several minutes” (Washington Post); and it was opposed only by 30-something brave students and a few antifa who joined them, mostly because it came as a relative surprise. Here, have a timeline:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/charlottesville-timeline/

Yes, Charlottesville turned out hundreds of brave counterprotesters the next day, the day of the planned march. Yes, the city did in fact lead the effort to take down the statues. However, many of those protesters had begged the city to rescind the white supremacist marchers’ permit once it became clear these groups had an intention to start a white nationalist race riot and commit other acts of terrorism. The city did not. I understand it would have been legally iffy to do so, but a lot of people feel extremely unsafe right now in their own city because of that decision.

tl;dr: those students were brave and almost alone in face of that Nazi torch mob Friday night. and, Charlottesville mobilized strongly and bravely against the planned protest the following day, though many feel betrayed by the city permitting it at all. Please be careful to line up your sequences of events when reading news coming out of chaotic places.

This is a picture of the heroic students from the University of Virginia that stood up to hundreds of white supremacists in Charlottesville tonight. They were completely surrounded. They were beaten. They were maced. The police stood by and watched it all happen. But they stood firm, yelling “Black Lives Matter!” and “No Racists! No KKK! No Fascist USA!” until the Nazis left. They were then forcefully removed by the police, who called them an “unlawful assembly.” These college kids bravely stood up in the face of evil tonight. And they are a shining light on what was otherwise an extremely dark thing. Fuck fascism. Fuck white supremacy. Celebrate these fucking heroes.