Toxic Fandom: When Criticism and Entitlement Go Too Far

Reading Time: 12 minutes
Image: Dreamworks / Netflix, used with permission



By Sean Z, with additional reporting by Aria C.












































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This post was last modified on January 27, 2019 7:25 pm

"Sean Z : @ 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.."

View Comments (32)

  • Even threatening on Tinder to shoot somebody is not cool whether you do it or not. It may be protected speech but it's not justified.

  • This article is filled with so many misconceptions and is essentially a coagulation of vaguely similar fandom drama. "In-depth look" hahahahaha, dude this reads like a preachy tumblr post. Hate ta' break it to ya but, quotes off tumblr and twitter don't count as actual sources that relay and/or support the idea that "fandom" related cyberbullying have any actual sociological effect.

    I'm not gonna go into it cause I already burnt enough of my time on reading this thing but, what an embarrassment, yeesh.

  • Fanfics are protected speech. Anybody can ship anybody they want. Attacking people for writing something is never acceptable!

  • I got a lot of laughs out of this article. My favorite part:


    Those filthy Watson toppers are at it again! Let ‘em have it, boys!

  • Hey, for the billionth time, Zuke themself has said why they actually left the show, which was because of stuff going on in their personal life, with fandom drama being a small factor. The "amedot fans bullied them" rumor is just that. A rumor. Started by lapidot fans who(and this is why I now avoid the ship despite it once being my otp) are NOTORIOUS throughout the fandom for harassing fans of any other ship involving Peridot, calling abuse survivors delusional and harassing them for being triggered by some of Lapis' actions, and driving many other fans of the ship to hide their interest due to not wanting to be associated with them. Some former lapidot fans outright hate it now, specifically because of those fans. Can we just get the facts about this right for once?

  • I've been in fandom since the X-Files (longer than some, not as long as others), and the thing that hits me about all these shippers and anti-shippers is they're all intent on believing their ship is canon and getting it onscreen. I've had two ships in my entire time in fandom who I actually wanted to see onscreen (in X-Files and West Wing). All other ships were just headcanons from watching the show/movie. If they didn't get together onscreen, that's why we had fanfic.

    Also, I feel like this anti-shipping movement has made it harder to find good fanfic. Fanfic is easier to find with AO3 and Tumbler but not good fanfic. Instead of browsing a pairing tag on AO3 or Tumblr, my first move in a new fandom is to find rec lists, then look at bookmarks from authors I like. So much fanfic now is used in the shipper debates that a character is likely either be evil or dead to make it easier for a pairing to get together.

  • My first fandom--back in the 90's, was found on geocities and email lists.

    I thought it was very novel-- the fandom for this show had NAMES for different groups of fans. We called them "factions"... fans of certain characters had unique names (Nick Knight's fans were Knighties.. Natalie's fans were the NatPack..) there were names for fans of characters acting a certain way (Fans of vampire-nick were Dark Knighties), there were fans of ships (the Nick and Nat Pack), of friendships, even of 'crackships'.. There were factions for common hobbies--cross stitchers or pagans or christians, factions for specific actors, for favorite headcanons... There was even a faction for fans of the main character's car. :)

    it was pretty great because you could be part of as many things as you like. People wore their factions in their email signatures like badges.

    The thing I loved most, though. Once a year-ish, we'd start a war. The war was, at it's base, a huge round robin story. There was a plot, a reason for everyone to, fictionally, write themselves (usually) traveling to the TV show's location, and there... well, mostly, there was a lot of pranking, bundled up with the idea of trying to achieve a goal, as set by the plot. It was a flurry of flash fiction and silliness.

    Examples of pranks from the fanlore wiki are... gluing someone into a cow suit, releasing glowing pink rats to a faction's headquarters, undead lobsters...

    The whole point, basically, was getting to know each other, to participate in a silly story and play in some silly goofy mischief.

    I miss that a lot. The fan wars of the modern day are a lot more depressing.

  • There was no evidence that the needle cookies were in any way related to the artists’ ships, that was simply a rumor cooked up by western fandom after word of the incident crossed language barriers. Please don’t spread misinformation that supports your own biases.

    • It doesn't matter what ship it was what matter is that some crazy nutjob thought it was ok to give needles-stuffed cookies to a innocent person without any guilt whatsoever and even believe that they deserve you're what wrong with fandom

  • I would just like to say that while I enjoyed the article and thought the message was on point and well written, you've cited some factually incorrect information from Fandomfailanon. I'm the Sherlock fandom panelist who was bullied at 221bCon, and I am not and never claimed to be a rape survivor and I am not a Toplock shipper. I did say at the panel that I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and that I read and write noncon fanworks as a way of coping with trauma. Also, the panel moderator and her partner were both prominent toplock shippers. But I'm not. But I think that Fandomfailanon got their account mostly right: a group of antis came to that con, and specifically to that panel, to try to bait the panel moderator into saying something "problematic" so they could surreptitiously film it and put it up on Youtube. I ended up being the one who fell into their trap. It was a horrific experience, and I'm in some ways still recovering from it. I'm a fanfiction and meta writer, and very involved in a bunch of fandom communities and challenges, but I'm always going to be known as "that woman who cried at that panel." I do think it's important that people know that story, however, so I thank you for relating it here.

  • I have never understood the idea of fandom, and it seems more harmful than good to me, but I did enjoy the article. You are right that unfortunately some people will ruin things for everyone else. The lengths people go to to do so are astounding to me though, and as someone who writes it makes me wary of putting my work out into the world and dealing with people who think they own your characters, and will harass you for not doing what they want. I think creative work can’t flourish if you’re trying to please people, but that’s my two cents. I miss the days where people just enjoyed shows, wrote casual fanfic, and went on with their lives...

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