meta: how fandom has changed your moral/political views
A quick note before we begin: All experiences discussed henceforth are mine, and aren't intended to be a generalization. You don't have to agree with me. Actually, I prefer it if you don't: there's better discussion to be had that way. Also, I don't mean to be offensive in the least, to anyone. Honestly. These are just thoughts, and this is
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This is very interesting so please let me organize my thoughts. My viewpoints has changed somewhat due to fandom. I was always pretty open when it came to homosexuality but I wasn't interested in slash so I just didn't read it. Same with incest, I wasn't bothered by it because it it just madeup and imaginary. When I stumbled upon some fics that had BDSM content I felt weird. Don't hate me for saying this, but I found that weird desires I've always had concided with the activities practiced within BDSM. No, I'm not a submissive or a Dominant. I'd probably hate being in a D/s relationship but the whole activites on the sexual nature, interest me.
I realize, however, most of the fics are just that. Fics. So I don't get bothered when I read a rape!fic because I know no one actually got raped. Doesn't mean I agree with rape. Same with incest. I truly believe in choices. If someone wants to go off and screw their sibling...well, that is their choice and I can only choose to continue being their friend or not.
Incest in real life probably wouldn't bother me much. If it's consensual, how can I argue against that? Everyone does as they see fit and ultimately, if they consented as adults I don't really see much of a problem. But my morality is not very strict and I accept various types of people into my life so...
Does what we read affect us? Yes, it makes us think and in some cases, like me, made me realize something about me that I didn't know or couldn't give a name to. Does this mean that if a girl reads a femslash fic they'll start liking girls? No. For me, one is born with their orientation and they learn to express said orientation as they grow. I sit on both sides of the fences but before I realized my own orientation, I had read countless femslash and I didn't like girls that way. A experience that happened to me in RL changed all that in less than 5 seconds. Did fanfic affect my experience? Not all.
But it's not only fics and books. Maybe it's a movie, maybe it's some ad, or a photograph or something someone said that makes the lightbulb click.
I'll shut up now.
Edited to expand.
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Perhaps fic doesn't create spontaneous feelings that we've never had before, like apresmoi said earlier. It just builds on something we already have -- whether we know it or not. This is an interesting idea.
Don't worry about shutting up, hehe. It's a good thing that you're discussing. :)
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