I’ve seen a couple posts & discussions lately that boil down to the idea that fandom/being a fan/being a giant geek is something it’s inappropriate to engage in after a certain age. (What age? Who knows, it depends on who you ask: 18, 25, 30, I’ve seen it all.)
Actual footage of me every time I see this idea:
COME WITH ME, MY DARLINGS. Let us explore the many wonderful, varied reasons why this idea is a steaming pile of horsecrap.
liiiiiiike
fandom is supposed to be an environment of fun and safety, if some people don’t feel safe around older people then it is their right to engage in areas where they can be comfortable. older fans should make sure that younger people are comfortable interacting with them and respect when they do not was to engage. this goes doubly if an older person is trying to critique a younger person’s behavior or opinions; older fans should, ideally, be trying to foster understanding if they see that a young person (or any person) has malformed or badly expressed ideas or opinions.
but there is only so far that someone’s comfort zone can go without meeting public space. it is not the responsibility of a large and diverse community (like tumblr or individual fandoms) to cater specifically to one person or group of people. if young people are uncomfortable around older people then they should take their own precautions and make their anxieties and preferences known rather than trying to shame older people out of spaces they have been inhabiting for years. it’s not anyone’s business who can occupy fandom space or for how long.
everyone just needs to be mindful of others, man.
Yeah, I think this is actually part of the issue. When you get older in fandom, it’s not just that you get some of the positive effects of ennui and/or not caring as much about people’s opinions on what you like… you also get some of the negative effects. Younger fans tend to see things a bit more idealistically and/or take conflicts or kerfuffles a bit more personally (though sometimes it’s the elders with the sense of entitlement instead), and then there’s the impersonal feel and escalation typical of Tumblr. I guess some of this whole issue might be down to rudeness and/or stereotyping, but some may be down to genuinely conflicting values and/or ways of being fannish or engaging with issues. I don’t know, honestly; I personally don’t feel like I’ve changed much with time’s passage (unfortunately?? haha), but at the same time, my own judgment is probably compromised on this. Plus, I never really felt I quite fit in anywhere, with any age-group or community, at any point in my life, so.
In a way, it’s nice to know I’ll still be a total geek 20 years from now, but even now, I don’t necessarily feel Tumblr is a great platform or geared towards me. I can see how it’s oriented towards the soundbyte data-feed format of youth culture even if a lot of over-30 folks use the service. Tumblr in particular has a communication style and culture that’s pretty different from say, livejournal, blogs or forums, so I don’t think it’s representative of ‘fandom’ as such. It used to be you saw a lot of references to interfandom meta, a lot more sense that there was a central core of organizers, or older fans who were BNFs. Things have gotten a lot more loose and disorganized and less historically linked to fannish history, so fannish ‘elders’ seem less relevant, less integral to the transmission of culture. Fannish culture has itself become looser. I dunno, just my impressions of some large-scale shifts with online fandom as I’ve seen them.
