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by on August 23, 2017 at 4:47 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

thatgirlnevershutsup:

thebibliosphere:

ryanlewisandclark:

darksilveraster:

anghraine:

As far as I’m concerned, the single most radical change from journal fandom is the idea that fandom is primarily a space for kids.

*shakes cane* in MY day, teen fans pretended to be adults while we walked uphill both ways!

#tumblr: i GUESS we’ll tolerate these gross old women LIKE OVER 25 UGH as long as they understand that fandom isn’t /for/ them

#lj: HOW DO YOU DO FELLOW ADULTS

@thebibliosphere

This is entirely too accurate.

I have to reblog this again because I cannot get over how STRANGE this attitude is to me. When I was a teen/in college, I had my peers as friends, but I also had older friends, who acted as mentors as well. And then when I graduated college and got into working full time, my coworkers were all older than me, and that was great! These were people who could offer me advice and guidance as well as friendship. And as I got older, there are of course younger people I consider friends – granted, it’s a different sort of friendship than with my age-group peers, but it’s still a friendship.

Fandom-wise, my experience has been the same. There’s been fans older than me who have offered friendship, and to whom I have looked to for advice and guidance. I hope I’ve been able to do the same with my younger friends (and I’ve had many in fandom! It’s the nature of fandom, actually: you’re sharing it with all kinds of different demographics, and to try to restrict different groups from that because you might feel uncomfortable with whatever different traits they have is just such a weird concept to me). My fandom life would certainly be much less without all my friends, no matter their ages.

As an adult, I know how to behave appropriately in my interactions with younger people in part because it was modeled to me when I was younger. If you shun/avoid all interactions with adults because “adults in teen spaces are creeps” – well, what does that say about you when you’re an adult? Are you assuming that you will automatically become a predator when you turn 18/21/25/30/whatever the arbitrary age is, if you talk to someone younger?

Also, if you’re uncomfortable being around people of a different age, how do you fucking live and function in this world? Honestly, I don’t get it.