Anonymous asked:
@that anon about age: I thought that too! There's a 60 year old woman in my fandom who reads and comments on smut and my first thought was "ew that's so creepy and gross" but...it's not! It's not at all and the more I thought about it and the more they were nice to me and everyone and just having fun like us and enjoying dark content too and being just...the exact same as me but older (and antis hate and attack her too and the way she doesn't care at all is beautiful), it made me feel really good that I won't have to stop liking fandom if I still want to like it! Because I'm not an anti but some of their harassment and bigotry and bias can always ends up rubbing off on us somehow if we get it shouted at us enough you know? And they reaaaally like to shout. So it was cool to find that out and cool to get more comfortable with the idea that there really isn't any age limit in fandom, I think the reason there aren't a lot of older people in it right now is because I don't think many of them care about the new media and shows haha, maybe in the star trek fandom! But all of us right now will get old together and still be in fandom if we want to and it'll still be fun! It's still a fear of mine that I won't WANT to anymore, like I won't find it fun anymore :(, so someone being 60 and still enjoying the same things I do right now was really helpful to see! And I hope maybe the ants will shut up a little more by then because they'll all be old too and maybe fandom can be more fun again. Also 28 isn't old. 30 is so young. 60 is (getting) old. And you can still be 60 or older reading and writing whatever you want :)
fiction-is-not-reality2 answered:
(additional comment)
“there aren’t a lot of older people in it right now”
Nonnie… I can assure you there are way more “older”* people in fandom** than younger ones, for a simple matter of numbers: a 10 year age span for the youngsters that are “supposed” to be in fandom, vs the entirety of someone’s average lifespan. Where do you think you’ll find more people?
You might think you’re not seeing them because older fans are not losing their minds in fandom discourse (they’re just minding their own business and going their merry way) or putting their entire ID on social media.
*If by “older” you exclusively mean >60, there are plenty of fandoms that started back in the 70s and are still going strong now (star wars for one, marvel started in 1939, Sherlock jumps century entirely, etc.) and you regularly get remakes from the 70s and 80s canons too. Also, people hosting and organizing cons (especially the bigger ones) weren’t exactly born yesterday, how much more fandom than “I’m making the fandom space for myself and others” can you get?
**Of course you have variance in single fandoms, but on the whole? Fandom isn’t ‘young’ and has never been.
There are no gates for joining or leaving fandom, you do whatever you want, and the joy of growing is that the older you get the less you give a fuck about what others think you should or shouldn’t be doing to have fun.
Hope I’m still reading and writing porn when I’m 60+. No. Let me rephrase that. I look forward to and relish reading and writing porn when I’m 60+.
