February 2012
“
The internet’s not broken.
So then why are there so many attempts to regulate it? Under the guises of piracy, privacy, pornography, predators, indecency, and security, not to mention censorship, tyranny, and civilization, governments from the U.S. to France to Germany to China to Iran to Canada — as well as the European Union and the United Nations — are trying to exert control over the internet.
Why? Is it not working? Is it presenting some new danger to society? Is it fundamentally operating any differently today than it was five or ten years ago? No, no, and no.
So why are governments so eager to claim authority over it? Why would legacy corporations, industries, and institutions egg them on? Because the net is working better than ever. Because they finally recognize how powerful it is and how disruptive it is to their power.
” —Jeff Jarvis (via maggiemunkee)
“
Fandom is focus. Fandom is obsession. Fandom is insatiable consumption. Fandom is sitting for hours in front of a TV screen a movie screen a computer screen with a comic book a novel on your lap. Fandom is eyestrain and carpal tunnel syndrome and not enough exercise and staying up way, way past your bedtime.
Fandom is people you don’t tell your mother you’re meeting. Fandom is people in the closet, people out and proud, people in costumes, people in T-shirts with slogans only fifty others would understand. Fandom is a loud dinner conversation scaring the waiter and every table nearby.
Fandom is you in Germany and me in the US and him in Australia and her in Japan. Fandom is a sofabed in New York, a roadtrip to Oxnard, a friend behind a face in London. Fandom talks past timezones and accents and backgrounds. Fandom is conversation. Communication. Contact.
Fandom is drama. Fandom is melodrama. Fandom is high school. Fandom is Snacky’s law and Godwin’s law and Murphy’s law. Fandom is smarter than you. Fandom is stupider than you. Fandom is five arguments over and over and over again. Fandom is the first time you’ve ever had them.
Fandom is female. Fandom is male. Fandom lets female play at being male. Fandom bends gender, straight, gay, prude, promiscuous. Fandom is fantasy. Fandom doesn’t care about norms or taboos or boundaries. Fandom cares too much about norms and taboos and boundaries. Fandom is not real life. Fandom is closer than real life. Fandom knows what you’re really like in the bedroom. Fandom is how you would never, could never be in the bedroom.
Fandom is shipping, never shipping, het, slash, gen, none of the above, more than the above. Fandom is love for characters you didn’t create. Fandom is recreating the characters you didn’t create. Fandom is appropriation, subversion, dissention. Fandom is adoration, extrapolation, imitation. Fandom is dissection, criticism, interpretation. Fandom is changing, experimenting, attempting.
Fandom is creating. Fandom is drawing, painting, vidding: nine seasons in four minutes of love. Fandom is words, language, authoring. Fandom is essays, stories, betas, parodies, filks, zines, usenet posts, blog posts, message board posts, emails, chats, petitions, wank, concrit, feedback, recs. Fandom is writing for the first time since you were twelve. Fandom is finally calling yourself a writer.
Fandom is signal and response. Fandom is a stranger moving you to tears, anger, laughter. Fandom is you moving a stranger to speak.
Fandom is distraction. Fandom is endangering your job, your grades, your relationships, your bank account. Fandom gets no work done. Fandom is too much work. Fandom was/is just a phase. Fandom could never be just a phase. Fandom is where you found a friend, a sister, a kindred spirit. Fandom is where you found a talent, a love, a reason.
Fandom is where you found yourself.
” —http://hesychasm.livejournal.com/187818.html
(via bbcsherlockftw)
Fandom is writing for the first time since you were twelve.
Misting up a little…
(via beg-for-mercy-twice)
I cried you guys. Like, bawled.
(via eziohotpantsauditore)
This is to good not to reblog.
(via ass-ass-to-the-increed)
Fat Fetish
Fat fetishists are always so desperate to hear how happy we are to be fat—and we’re never allowed to have an off day or to feel down or ugly without it being some serious commentary on our “Confidence” level and how sexy we are—and, honestly, it seems to me that that says more about fat fetishists than fatties. “How do you feel about being fat?” might as well be “I like fat, please tell me you do too so this isn’t weird.” Do you go up to thin people and ask them how they feel about being thin? or brown haired people and ask them how they feel to have brown hair? No, because the question is meant not to learn something about the person you’re asking but to entice them into describing fat-life for the sole purpose of getting you off.
There is nothing wrong with getting off and there is nothing wrong with having fetishes. The problem here is treating other people like they are nothing more than a fetish.
AFTERLIFE: I'll never get over the fact that names are shared by multiple people →
club-afterlife.tumblr.com
It’s like, well, realizing I have to work extra hard to be an individual, just not some any other <insert name here>.
Now you can figure out…
20 people with my name!
Only 5 people altogether. Eep!
