oh me, oh my!
I actually have a question for you, flist: How do you balance fandom and RL?
Specifically with regards to your online personas?
For me, I have facebook kinda acting as a geeky bookmark page for myself, a personal wordpress where I type inane things about my life, twitter where I rant and rant about silly things & LJ for (mostly) fannish things.
And therein lies the "problem" -- since I've long added RL friends here (holla at you real life peeps! haha). It's a bit of an awkward thing since my rec lists are meant to be shared with fandom, they're meant to be public. Thus, I am not adding any special filters to block things and such. And now my RL friends know what I read! Hahahaha~
It's not that I'm ashamed of the fact that I do read slash fic (don't forget that I read het and femmeslash and poly fics too). It's because I am genuinely curious about all forms of love, I just find one manner to be more interesting than the rest. I love the utter fiction/fantasy of it all-- het & femmeslash feels too relatable (because hello, vagina- I have one owww) and that kinda squicks me out/puts me off (in that I do not want to think about things that happen down there if I can help it) + there's a much richer, stronger, often more angsty IN-BUILT backstory (yum!) when it comes to same-sex pairings. Also slash pairings have waaaaaaaay more fics than any other permutations in fandom. So there's that.
Just a little dhu!fact : I've been reading fanfic since I was 12. I turn 22 next month. That's a full decade of cycling through what feels like hundreds upon hundreds of fandoms (also why I can finish a 20k in 30-45 mins). From my fully het days of teen titans/ charmed/ veronica mars to my experimental dabble in supernatural/ torchwood/ bandom/ harry potter to the brief curiosity of chronicles of narnia/ bones/ ice skating rpf and now I'm actively reading hbo war/ dcu / marvel/ hawaii 5-0/ inception/ sherlock/ tsn/ teen wolf! AND I'M SURE THERE ARE SO MANY MORE FANDOMS I'M MISSING!
I LOVE FANFICTION.
It's such a beautiful way to bring characters so rich in history and quirks already to a different level, a crazy fan level. All the unexpected storylines/plot twists delight me so (: Sure, I have to sift through A LOT of shitty fics (a ratio of 15 bad to 1 good) but when I stumble across that one gem, oh how my heart stops. It's the best feeling to my fannish life ;P
There is, of course, the uncomfortable situation of you know the intimate bits. The great S-E-X. And honestly? It's nothing. It was HORRIFYING to read when I first started out but after a while you pretty much get desensitized. It's all a logistical procedure insert A into B. Hah. But really, there's only so many ways you can read it and after reading fanfic for THIS LONG, I pretty much skim through those bits because YOU'VE READ IT ONCE, YOU'VE READ IT ALL. I'm there for the amazing plots and all that CREATIVITY! In addition to that, I've forced myself to read all kinds of sensitive topics (torture, rape, depression, death etc) and kinks (HOLY SHIT FANDOM! YOU KINKY) over the years because it's really a great way to educate yourself? I am not a fan of ignorance and I think it's better that you just know things. I now know what my limits are and what to stay away from. Plus you never know when you might use those facts? HAHAHAHAHA.
I am aware that I have a couple of RL friends who are not into fandom, yet have clicked on a few rec links out of sheer curiosity (hahaha you people know who you are) and yeah it's weird but I'm cool with that. It's not something I bring up in conversations but if someone asks me about it, I don't mind discussing my thoughts on the subject. The only people I refuse to talk about it to are my parents (I KEEP HAVING TO REMIND mcwhovian TO TURN FIC-TALK DOWN AT HOME).
Now, I fully understand that they won't be as accepting, because they were raised in a different time and the culture here can be a bit backwards. But I live by the philosophy that in the end, it comes down to You & God (or just yourself, I guess, if you're an atheist) so go ahead and live life however you want as long as you are comfortable with yourself. Love in any way you wish. Do things with no regrets. Because we're all gonna die so what's the point in pretending?
I am a 100% heterosexual asian female.
I am a geeky hermit on the brink of eternal singledom.
I read fanfic and comics and watch too much tv to be healthy.
And I'm okay (: