Anonymous asked:
I am turning 24 soon and I can't help but freak out. I know what I am about to say next is going to sound very trivial compared to what is happening around the world now but I can't stop thinking that there will come a time when I would be considered too old to be in a fandom. Like what would happen when I turn 35/45/55?? Won't it be awkward? Would it be creepy if I still read ao3 fics in my 60s? I don't want to go away from the fandom space. It helps me so much to cope in this world.
unpretty answered:
my advice is to block and mute anyone who makes you feel that way and enjoy posting about batman with the other well-adjusted adults who like to enjoy things on the internet
There are plenty of fandom grandma's. People who will give you the rundown of ye olde Star Treck fandom. It's only weird if you make it weird.
@spockslash was 77 when she died. Her children have kept her blog up and all her posts. She had an NSFW side blog for her Kirk/Spock slash interests. She was posting actively on Tumblr right up until like a week or so before her death.
I am 50. I just spent the past half hour folding laundry and singing the songs I wrote for my favorite OC/canon ship when I was 17.
You never age out of fandom. Never. Don’t let anyone tell you so.
I started ficcing in 1995 with a notepad and pen. I started posting fic online in 1999 and I have zero intention of stopping. You know why? Because it’s not about what other people want - it is about me enjoying the thing I love and spreading that love around.
The world will tell you that people in fandom - especially female and queer people - shouldn’t be old. That it’s creepy. That it’s weird. Because queer folk and womenfolk are not allowed to do things they enjoy for fun and pleasure most of the time, but especially not when we’re aging. It’s not socially acceptable. We’re meant to quietly go back to being out of sight and out of mind. Look at modern media. Look at the dearth of older female and queer characters anywhere.
To the people who think that, bugger you backwards with a rusty fork. I love what I love. I will continue to do so. I will continue to embrace my joy and I will continue to share my joy with like-minded people. I’m not letting any ageist/sexist/miscellaneous-ists tell me how and when and why I should stop.
If the sports fandom can cope with having old men in it, the geek fandom sure as hell will have to learn to cope with having the rest of us.
I also have to ask, like, who do you think runs fandoms? Who’s paying for and coding AO3? FFN? Tumblr? Fanwikis? Who do you think is running fandom events like theme weeks and big bangs and watch parties and fic exchanges and holiday events MOST of the time? Coordinating big charity events like the Fandom Trumps Hate auction, or the Fandom Loves Puerto Rico charity auction? Who do you think organizes and makes up the majority of attendees for fan conventions? Who do you think is out there writing gorgeous 100k+ novels full of rich life experience? Who do you think is out there writing knowledgeable, hot smut?
I can pretty much guarantee you that it’s not thirteen year olds, and it’s probably not even 15 or 18 year olds for the most part either, especially when it comes to doing anything with large quantities of money, like paying for servers or doing complex coding or auctions. I remember being in fandom at 13, 15, 18, 20.... the spaces started out for me as “I am aware I am visiting an adult space, which I will learn how to navigate appropriately until I am able to help build with them.”
Like, listen. There’s teenagers in fandom space, but fandom space isn’t specifically a teenage space, and CERTAINLY not a teenage-only space. Fandoms are places where you might get in the door as a teen, but the majority of the residents and creators of the spaces aren’t teenagers. They’re people who grew up here surrounded by the supportive adults that formed the spaces, and that have helped to maintain the community into their adulthood so that future generations can continue to enjoy the same as they did.
Getting to be 25, 35, 45, and on, that’s not you overstaying a welcome in a place you don’t belong. That’s you settling into a neighborhood that was built for you, one you have probably helped to build, and one you will continue to help shape through whatever time you desire to stay.
I love that teenagers are here, I love that they’ll get to share experiences similar to my own when I was a teenager, forming friendships and having access to a huge number of stories and art and a vast, diversely populated and largely loving community that just isn’t available in most real-world spaces and communities. I’m So glad they have these resources. But I also hope that those teenagers remember that they’re in a space that, while welcoming to them, was not made specifically for them, and that it certainly is not a space where they can come into and say to the folks who built it or grew up in it before them: “you don’t belong here anymore.”
Because that’s not true, and it’s not acceptable behavior.
I’m 31 and not only am I still in fandom, I’m an anime con regular AND I RUN AN ENTIRE FUCKING MUSEUM ON THE HISTORY OF FANDOM.
(Speaking of which, folks who were attending cons from like 2000 on backward, I need your stories. Please hit me up, y’all are hard af to find.)
I just got invited to my first guest spot. My first GUEST spot. It’s unpaid because it’s a library con, but let me repeat: I am thirty-one years old and just got sought out specifically for one of my history panels.
You’re never too old for fandom.
