Puriteen
| Synonyms: | anti, fandomentalist, Fandom Frollo, wokester, fanpol, fancop |
| See also: | Anti-shipper, Callout Culture, Fandom Police, Problematic, Purity Culture in Fandom, Your Fave Is Problematic, Warriors of Innocence |
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Puriteen is a term similar to "anti" and "fandomentalist." It denotes young fans (not always literal teenagers) who hold puritanical views about problematic ships and kinks.
Origin and History
Pre-Fandom
The term may have first shown up as the website puriteen.com in 2015. The site sold covenant chests "For Daddy and His Darling". (These were for fathers to help enforce conservative Christian chastity pledges.)
Fandom Usage
The fandom sense of the term begins to appear some time in the late 2010s, gaining wide popularity in 2019.
2017
Oct 25th, 2017. A tumblr post quoting a recent tweet thread:
One part of the tweet thread:
i know this is all greek to like 90% of my followers, sorry. this isn't even about reylo, this is about hopped-up puriteen bullies, stop it.
Excerpt of tumblr post:
the use of “puriteen” is really nice too. its really easy to make people saying “incest is bad” look like the bad guys by calling them “puritans”. its very easy to make incest and child porn look good by calling it “free speech”. this is the most powerful dude in homestuck fandom (who has a lot of sway even outside the fandom w his large twitter following) using his platform to spread an agenda which enables and empowers predators. its bad. and i dont think i can forgive him for doing it.[1]
March 13, 2017:
I want to try to revive kinky It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fics and have a corner of the fandom tucked away from the 15 year old tjlc-ers and puriteens so if anyone is interested in joining me I would love to have some people write at http://alwayssunnykink.dreamwidth.org/. All anon, kinktomato.[2]
May 31, 2019:
Something I wish people understood about puriteen culture is that calling someone a freak isn't just lacking in compassion, more *importantly* it's hella fashy and gives the game right away[3]
2019
On Aug 18, 2019, ademska1 linked to another tweet (now deleted), commenting:
I just stumbled across the word "puriteen" and it's the best word i have ever seen coined https://t.co/8a97fcW7mJ[4]
The term quickly spread via Tumblr, especially via Fiction Is Not Reality's reblog of star-anise's quote of the tweet.[5]
By the end of 2019, it had been widely adopted across fandom spaces, including Dreamwidth:
I mean, that's how I count fandom now because if we're going by the definition "regularly interacting with a community of fans" then I haven't been in fandom for years and never intend to be again unless the puriteen plague ever abates.
But I can never think of a better replacement term, either. :a[6]
2022
A comment from 2022:
I think you've been struck by puriteens, who take virulent issue with just about any manner of controversial material imaginable. They are not representative of the tradition of fanfiction at large. Rather, they are immature Twitter-obsessed troglodytes who have not yet learned that writing about a topic is not intrinsically endorsement nor condemnation. [7]
References
- ^ Tumblr post discussing a series of tweets. Tumblr post from Oct 25th, 2017. Accessed June 16, 2021.
- ^ FFA comment. Posted 2017-03-13. Accessed June 16, 2021.
- ^ celineorelse's tweet. Posted May 31, 2019. Accessed June 16, 2021.
- ^ ademska1's tweet. Posted August 18, 2019. Accessed June 16, 2021.
- ^ FINR's post. Posted August 20, 2019. Accessed June 16, 2021.
- ^ comment on aphanon-meme. Posted December 12, 2019. Accessed June 16, 2021.
- ^ The fanfiction community has made it very clear that it hates me (May 23, 2022)