Older Than Netfic

The F/F discourse reminded me of old discourse in my fandom about a NB transfemine AMAB person and NB transmasculine AFAB person dating and how there was discourse on if they counted as F/M or M/M or F/F and how many people revealed themselves to be more queer regarding gender than they realized in the process. "Lots of women want beards and to go by he/him sometimes" and "sometimes guys like having breasts and wearing a skirt" were statements two people in particular made. Both of them are now out and proud trans people.

Sometimes the discourse isn't about what it's about, it's about "if I accept this NB is transfemme and not an average guy then I have to ask why I identify so damn hard with her". And in the sea of negativity that can be fandom social media, it's heartwarming to me to know these two minor characters from 10 years ago led some people to discovering this part of themselves and going, "you know what? maybe it's cool if I'm a little queer, too."

For all the negative in fandom, we must remember the good, as well.

I just got a comment saying I should have tagged for dom/sub undertones and I'm a little confused. In canon, this guy always bosses his wife around re: doing shit that's healthy for her - napping, drinking water, remembering to eat more than once a day, getting more than 3 hours of sleep - and she lovingly calls him "Boss Man" as a nickname because of it. On some occasions where she's gone more than a day without eating he'll swipe her phone and order her to eat before she gets it back, something she always seems to find endearing. There's a lot of 'I didn't mean to worry you', 'you're worth worrying about, now here's your favorite homemade walnut bread' stuff, all there in canon, just lifted from canon and transplanted into my fic.

Is this dom/sub stuff? I'm aroace so I've never been in a relationship, but I assumed "take care of yourself" "I will but I will call you a silly nickname over it" was regular relationship stuff. Or is it that the frequency of it makes it dom/sub stuff, and I'm just not grasping that because my neurodivergency is making me not read the social cues correctly? I was only recently diagnosed but this has been a problem for a long time, the whole line between normal and abnormal behavior, so I thought I'd ask you. You're much more well-read than I am and know a lot more about shipping dynamics and how they're tagged. I feel like you're an expert whose opinion carries a lot of conclusions-informed-by-knowledge and so your take could help me figure this out.

People who are doms or subs or write them, if you have a guide on this stuff, that'd be cool, too. I want to educate myself more so I know if I should tag something. After all, I can't get my story to people who want to read it if it doesn't show up in the tags they're searching for. Readers aren't mindreaders. It's on me to make sure they can get ahold of the things they're looking for. I just need to work around my own ADHD-addled brain to do it.

Antis: "Conan can't date his cousin!"

Me, writing fic where Howard Stark from Iron Man: Armored Adventures meets Howard Stark from the MCU, goes 'I can fix him', tries to fix him and they end up having hot, loving, character-arc-completing sex in their office: "Correct, it's not nearly incestuous enough. Conan fans, go big or go home."

(This is partially a joke. His cousin appears to be hot, which is what's important, but if he has alternate universe selves and they're hot, then this is not a joke. Please consider charactercest as an option.)

The big takeaways from the Conan drama for me are: 1., it's still going, 2., there was a plot, I think? 3., the plot has progressed, in some way but 4., the kid is still kid-sized so it can't have progressed very much, considering I got to adulthood faster than Conan did by aging naturally.

This leads to my natural conclusion, 5.: it's still not worth getting into because this shit is going nowhere and I like complete narratives.

https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/748198204050423808/it- has-to-be-one-of-the-biggest-scam-in-stem#notes

White enough that my skin looks like someone doesn't know how to color human skin.

I've considered making starting to tally how often all the non- white'ethnic, multi-cultural, and universal staple foods, get called "white" or white people food.

I've got rice, couscous, various "unknown" ethnic dishes from Africa, anything with potatos/tomatos, chocolate, coffee, different teas, a certain type of pastry and candy, different dumpling types unless they're obviously Asian, anything fried gets the "American" stamp, a lot of dishes containing dairy in any form, and a lot of things like "unauthentic" ethnic dishes, like Chinese, Korean, Indian and all that, based on them being made with what was available in the West/ White countries and not "100% as what you could make in the mainland, because you actually have all the ingredients there, in a way that's easily available."

748370073567313920/i-think-for-me-one-of-the-big-stumbling-blocks-i

Lol, anon, are you sure you'renot just seeing people say they wish Lolis were real? Because like 90% of the lolicon and shotacon I know know it's a fantasy.

Lolis aren't kids, they're porn tropes. Wishing lolis were real is like wishing dragons were real, it doesn't mean they want to fuck kids.

The thing that really baffles me about the f/f discourse is that it presupposes people make conscious choices about which characters they ship. Maybe some people do, but I don't, and as far as I've ever been able to tell, I can't. Either two characters strike me as having chemistry or they don't (the vast majority of ANY gender don't,) and I'm sure as hell not gonna write about a pairing I don't actually like or enjoy just to earn brownie points with a bunch of bullying entitled internet randos.

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/748370073567313920/i-think-for-me-one-of-the-big-stumbling-blocks-i

Anon, you're an anti, just admit it.

Even if I agreed that straight men who read specific kinds of hentai are invariably sexual predators or that harassing people on the internet is a path to cultural progress, I dont trust someone like Anon to actually take the time to tell if a hentai is actually loli or if the man who likes it is even straight.

Anon sees some fiction that grosses them out and that they can't see the apeal of, sees some people using it as an excuse to be jerks, and then decides that the fiction existing is somehow bad and that all people who like that fiction are the same kinds of jerks.

The logic goes in circles. Anon has decided that the "problematic" fiction is exclusively created and enjoyed by the very real jerks and predators they've seen online, and therefore concludes that everyone who likes the fictoin is a jerk and a predator.

Seeing someone argue "how was I supposed to know that non con means non-consensual (aka rape) some people shorten cnc to nc. (aka CONSENSUAL noncon) Are you fucking stupid? How was I supposed to know that "slapping" someone in the face means being slapped in the face? Some people call "tenderly caressing your face" slapping!!! Gaaaaaaah.

Reading this whole f/f wank has made me realize a few things, because I didn't understand for so long why I don't enjoy f/f fanfiction and other anons have summarized it so well. So much f/f fanfiction cares more about being "correct" and "moral" than it does for real characterization within the story. I LOVE f/f novels and tv shows and that's because the women are actual characters, they have real personalities and aren't caricatures of "the most perfect Woman" that so much fanfiction goes for.

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/748370073567313920/i-think-for-me-one-of-the-big-stumbling-blocks-i?source=share

This is the problem with proshipping. It claims to be an anti-censorship movement, but will only stick up for fiction within a cerain range of social acceptability and for people in an in-group demographic.

If you're just going to assume that everyone who enjoys or creates Problematic Media belongs to the same disliked demographic and exhibits the same toxic behaviors, you are literally having the same thought process as an anti.

If you can't imagine a queer person, trans person, or non-man getting off to lolisho and can't imagine someone enjoying it entirely as fiction, that's your own failure of imagination.

And if you think that cyberbullying sexual predators will make them change their minds about it or will keep people safe from them, you're a moron.

Genuine question in good faith, WHY do people do placeholder fics on ao3? Like, I assume that it's residue from being used to websites that have an algorithm, but I still don't get it bc:

2. Let's say it's not for algorithm reasons. Let's say it's, i dunno, someone who wants to advertise what's coming up in their next project and uses the placeholder as a preview until it's posted. I still don't understand why they'd do a placeholder fic. To my knowledge, ao3 allows "synopsis" fics where you post a preview of what's to come. Why not do that? And if I'm wrong and they're not allowed, put on your big human pants and write out a drabble of the first chapter/prologue of your "placeholder" fic just so you have SOMETHING to actually post. Just write a preview and edit it or add the real thing later!

Those are the only reasons I can think of why someone might have a placeholder fic. The only other reason I can think of is they want to publish something on a certain day/rearrange the order of a series or something and are unaware you can change the date on ao3 and reorder series fics.

Like, I'm not asking as a way to complain or make fun of the people who do this, I'm truly curious about what their logic is.

Ah! I forgot! The Locked Tomb with all the necrophilia is doing well! Because of the freaks! You can't avoid it, they're fucking corpses in those books. See! Dyke on bike! Look at me, promoting.

olderthannetfic/748217220386160640/im-probably-swinging-a-bat-at-a-beehive-here-but

Nah, Bump that. We're always talking about a decent sized woman led spaces with whatever slash shipping. We go from gay men to lesbians and short circuit? We forgot how to socialize? We fandom hop through various genres but the misogyny deep in the pancreas got us confused about two girls kissing in a flower garden and the people who put them there? If it was a simple ship war with bullshit, you would be right. But it's not, it's moral harassment somehow, with clout, that's got everyone fucked up. If it seems more vocal, it's because it's peer for peer. There's no balk or clamminess like what you get when people do the same moral harassment when it comes to shipping with characters of color where there is ACTUAL substantiated faux pas happening next to bullshit claims. People are going to be a little bit more sensitive and thoughtful with their responses in those cases.

But you know what. I'll accept your point for now even with the weird undertones. They're just regular toxic shippers in any fandom. We accept that. We're going to bitch about them in the fuck-fandom-wank-and-purity-culture askbox.

Seriously though, the fandom atmosphere is important. Say what you want about the weirdo cringe slash shipper, they didn't really care what happened to those boys besides what character and how. You had good, bad, ugly. hideous. That intensity has weened off, for the better and for the worse. Woman led het spaces are the same. We're bitching about the uptick in purity nonsense in these spaces but it's not completely overrun that it sets the tone.

Proposal: Get a BIg Name Freak.

See how half of these whiny asks switch up, "F/F can be so restricting and boring and toxic except like, BNF, what is there?" Look at the promotion. Build your fandom like a website. You can have a titty ban later. Get an emotionally unavailable dyke character then fuck her up. Don't be shy. You have trauma and triggers? Friend! I know a way you can explore, though she may be canonically underage. Doing anything about that is entirely up to you!

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/748374592863846400/i-feel-like-this-detective-conan-thing-is-like-how

How bad was it? There’s only a few things I know about the whole twin reveal. I know that the author of the book that many Finnreys use to insist their ship was going to be canon also accidentally wrote Luke/Leia incest. I also know a bunch of fanboys were mad because the hero didn’t get the girl.

This wasn't really an argument, but recently I talked about a story I read, and Idk how but for some reason the person I talked to started talking about trans characters. I told them the MC wasn't, and their response was "how do you know? In what context would you know if the mc is a cis guy or a transman." and like… in the book, he fucks, so we get the details about his body. Now I'm wondering if people like that don't actually read/consume much media with full body nudity and they stick to very "all ages" type media.

Like, it's not like I haven't read trans written transmasc books either, or just asked the friends I have. So it's not even like this was a "well maybe implicatioooooons". It was a slightly strange interaction, and I still don't know why they started talking about it. Now that I think about it, I did say the MC was a good baker, so maybe they got hooked the idea of a feminine hobby???

Ppl not getting what headcanon means agaist all odds, then headcanoning that headcanoning means "Cold hard canon doesn't matter in a headcanon."