Fanfics deserve so much credit for giving us lgbtq content
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | fanfics deserve so much credit for giving us lgbtq content |
| Creator: | u/marxsage |
| Date(s): | June 26, 2020 |
| Medium: | Posted to the /r/fanfiction subreddit |
| Fandom: | Panfandom |
| Topic: | Representation, merits of fanfiction |
| External Links: | Original Reddit post, archive link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
fanfics deserve so much credit for giving us lgbtq content is a short meta commentary posted to the /r/fanfiction subreddit by u/marxsage on June 26, 2020. As of July 3, 2020, it is one of the most popular posts of all time on the subreddit and has 807 upvotes and 107 comments.
Most of the comments are in agreement and have various fans on Reddit sharing their stories of overcoming internalized homophobia through fanfiction and fandom.
The Post
"As a young bi kid reading fanfics really made me feel normal for having feelings for girls. the representation of gay relationships existing in a normal setting in that fanfic’s universe just made me figure out myself more, and made me more proud of my feelings. I would think to myself that I could have what my ship had in that fanfic.
Since media struggles so much to give the representation young lgbtq kids need. Im thankful fanfics are there to atleast give them the opportunity to experience some lgbtq content where the mains dont have crazy borderline pedo age gaps, or tragic backgrounds. They can be portrayed as just normal characters with romantic feelings and emotions. 💕"u/marxsage
Responses
[u/ANIVIA]
"Fanfic completely noramlized LGBTQ+ stuff for me as a kid. It's fantastic."
[u/marxsage]
"same!! I dont know where id be without them- probably still in the closet haha"
[u/MateusCristian]
"And did it better then a bunch of suits from Hollywood"
[Morcalvin]
"Well if they did it too well it almost be as if they thought being gay was normal and they can’t have that /s"
[u/Allronix1] "On one hand? Yeah. Really appreciated the normalization. On the other? Even less realistic than your average space opera is about physics and a real lack of good F/F content. I was fortunate to come of age in the 90's, which might as well be Golden Age of Femslash"
[u/Kanotari] "I grew up in a very anti LGBT household. Fanfiction was the thing that taught me that gay people are normal. I never would have had that otherwise. And it's a damn good thing too because one of my best friends is a lesbian. I would have missed out of having her in my life if I had the same mindset as my parents."
[odeorain] "NGL I judge whether to come out to people based entirely on how they react when LGBTQ+ fanfiction comes up in conversation lmaoooooo"
[sjjskzksksks_123]
"Also the specific fics that give that good trans content! I remember when I was starting to come grips with my identity as a trans boy it really helped me to read about characters I liked that were going through shit like gender dysphoria and transphobes."
[SomecallmeMichelle]
"Yes! I've shared this story in the past in one of our daily discussion threads but as I was writing trans stories to try and understand who I was and what I was and got involved in the community, I got this comment
i apologize for commenting on such an old story but i just had to say something. i remember reading this story years ago when i was still repressing my feelings of being a trans man. i was a young teen reading stories about ponies realizing they’re trans, i don’t know how i didn’t realize sooner myself but alas. that was in past and now i am nearly a year into my transition and many of the things silver spoon did in this story i have done myself(the cutting your hair in defiance is all too familiar haha). so anyways, thanks for writing such a nice story. it was very nostalgic and pleasant to happen upon it again so many years later.
I haven't even been part of that fandom in years - I stop writing for it in like 2017. I log all of once a month to the website, and then mostly only when a friend reccs me something ...but this comment....It really is the one comment that I value above all the hundreds of other comments in any of my stories. I still go back to it to feel better."
[DrLexaloo]
"I know a lot of LGBTQ authors who write explicitly for this purpose. I mean, they like to write but they also feel like it's important for them to provide representation that isn't problematicTM. Fan fic was very important for some of them growing up. Some of them realized they were LGBTQ because of fan fic.
Even within "slash" fiction there's a lot that is not written by or for LGBTQ people- think fetish fic (as a woman it's pretty easy to tell when a guy is writing wlw smut for example 😂). So having LGBTQ fic written by LGBTQ people is even more important. It has deeper value to the readers"
[boxparade]
"This is why I got into fanfic. As a queer kid in 2004 there just wasn’t a lot of other LGBTQ content out there.
Also sometimes you can just tell when the writer is some well-meaning cishet who googled everything an hour before and is now excitedly regurgitating terminology like it’s a book report. I write fics with LGBTQ themes because I wanna work through some real shit and don’t need the 101 course. (Not saying there isn’t a place for those fics - if anything A for enthusiasm.)
Happy pride everyone 🏳️🌈"