I feel so grumpy today.
So I think it's time now for a happy little rant.
Well, before you go all "Well, look who's talking," on me, yes I am a fangirl. But I treat my fandoms with respect! Except when it comes to crack. But I never take crack seriously because the point of crack is that it's -not- serious. There's a fine ART to being a fangirl, and there are people out there who give fangirls a bad name. And I simply can't stand them.
Case 1: The "This character is mine/belongs to me" fangirl.
Since this usually only pertains to girls within a certain age range (I mean, young, right? 12-16 range, I'd say?) I could simply chalk the whole idea up to immaturity, but that still doesn't make it right or plausible. And I can thank my lucky stars that this kind of fangirl is usually only attracted to mainstream anime characters. (I've seen so many "Yuki/Kyo/Hatsuharu/Shigure is MINE!" fangirls it's not funny. Really. It isn't.) But since I've returned to DA, and no I won't fool myself or anyone else, I went back for the One Piece fanart. And through this I've found more and more creepy fangirls clinging to characters from my pet fandom. Although I used to have friendly battles with my friends when I was younger (same age range I described earlier) over who "claimed" which character from a certain anime, I've always generally had the view of 'share and share alike'. I mean, if I could find ONE other person who loved Masira as much as I do, I think I'd be really happy! I like talking to fellow fangirls about my favorite character! Not going "oh this character is so wonderful and beautiful and he's mine no you can't touch him". So immature! And sure, most of this type of creepy fangirl clings to a character from the Mugiwara crew. Another point I can feel lucky for. Still doesn't make it right. Still doesn't mean it doesn't bother the beans out of me.
Really, the only person who can say "this character belongs to me"... is the author. Because they created them. If you want to make up your own character and fall in love with them, that's fine. It's your creation. I mean, seriously. I don't mind seeing author/OC art. I don't mind seeing OC/OC art. But author/mangacharacter or OC/mangacharacter bothers me. Oh my GOSH it bothers me. But I'm not going to bitch about it to the person who drew it, they can draw whatever they want, and I can be disgusted by whatever I want. And then go bitch about it in my LJ. Ahahaha. Right, so...
Case 2: The "I am romantically involved with this character" fangirl.
Even creepier than the first case. Stop what you're doing. Think: Are you a character in this anime? Do you know this character personally? Do you have a history with this character? If you answered 'no' to any of these questions, then no, you're NOT romantically involved with this character. Who exists in an anime. And you exist in the real world. Oh, so you RP yourself being involved with this character? Still not the real world. Oh, but you have real FEELINGS for this character? Sorry, they don't return them. And they won't. Ever.
Seriously, this kind of fangirl just squicks me to no conceivable end. Oh, to be sure, I love and adore all of my favorite characters, and I will fangirl them forever and ever until the sun ceases to rise, but I don't have any romantic notions about them. And I might, on a really bored night, fantasize about becoming romantically involved with them, but such personal mary-sue thoughts never make it out in the open. I really just think it's embarrassing. Not to mention, once again, immature. The thought of this kind of fangirl mucking up my fandom puts a sour taste in my mouth. You know what would be a quick cure to this type of fangirl? A REAL person to be romantically involved with. That fixes that. Yep, find someone outside of an anime to be twitterpated with and leave my fandom alone.
I'm not even gonna get into the even creepier kind of fangirls. But they do exist... oh lord. *shudders* But I must stress one point: I am connected so deeply to this fandom, and I'm speaking of the fandom itself and not just the anime and the manga, because for One Piece, there seems to be a universal sense of togetherness among fans. It might be because we're all the same on the inside (as batshit insane as the creator himself, that is), but no matter what the cause is, communicating with my fellow fans has always been one of my favorite things about being a One Piece fan, and it always will be. Perhaps, then, this is why having such selfish and immature fangirls existing inside this community upsets me so much. If I couldn't simply ignore them like I do (aside from one healthy LJ rant), I think it would really put a damper on how I feel about the fandom in general. But I'm glad it doesn't, and I don't think it ever will.
I have one last thing before I put this rant to a well-deserved end. I'm mostly, 98.5% sure that I do NOT know any fangirls that fall into the categories described above. Therefore, I am fairly sure that my rant won't personally insult or hurt anyone I know who might read this. But I will say, just to be safe, that this rant was absolutely NOT directed at any friend or individual I know personally. Just people I see on the internets who get my blood boiling. And it's ranting here in the safety of my LJ that keeps me from flaming said creepy fangirls. Because I really -don't- want to hurt anyone, whether or not they squick and disturb me.
I think my next rant will be of a more positive nature. *licks lips* Spandalifa...? I think a deep description of that pairing is long overdue~
Well, before you go all "Well, look who's talking," on me, yes I am a fangirl. But I treat my fandoms with respect! Except when it comes to crack. But I never take crack seriously because the point of crack is that it's -not- serious. There's a fine ART to being a fangirl, and there are people out there who give fangirls a bad name. And I simply can't stand them.
Case 1: The "This character is mine/belongs to me" fangirl.
Since this usually only pertains to girls within a certain age range (I mean, young, right? 12-16 range, I'd say?) I could simply chalk the whole idea up to immaturity, but that still doesn't make it right or plausible. And I can thank my lucky stars that this kind of fangirl is usually only attracted to mainstream anime characters. (I've seen so many "Yuki/Kyo/Hatsuharu/Shigure is MINE!" fangirls it's not funny. Really. It isn't.) But since I've returned to DA, and no I won't fool myself or anyone else, I went back for the One Piece fanart. And through this I've found more and more creepy fangirls clinging to characters from my pet fandom. Although I used to have friendly battles with my friends when I was younger (same age range I described earlier) over who "claimed" which character from a certain anime, I've always generally had the view of 'share and share alike'. I mean, if I could find ONE other person who loved Masira as much as I do, I think I'd be really happy! I like talking to fellow fangirls about my favorite character! Not going "oh this character is so wonderful and beautiful and he's mine no you can't touch him". So immature! And sure, most of this type of creepy fangirl clings to a character from the Mugiwara crew. Another point I can feel lucky for. Still doesn't make it right. Still doesn't mean it doesn't bother the beans out of me.
Really, the only person who can say "this character belongs to me"... is the author. Because they created them. If you want to make up your own character and fall in love with them, that's fine. It's your creation. I mean, seriously. I don't mind seeing author/OC art. I don't mind seeing OC/OC art. But author/mangacharacter or OC/mangacharacter bothers me. Oh my GOSH it bothers me. But I'm not going to bitch about it to the person who drew it, they can draw whatever they want, and I can be disgusted by whatever I want. And then go bitch about it in my LJ. Ahahaha. Right, so...
Case 2: The "I am romantically involved with this character" fangirl.
Even creepier than the first case. Stop what you're doing. Think: Are you a character in this anime? Do you know this character personally? Do you have a history with this character? If you answered 'no' to any of these questions, then no, you're NOT romantically involved with this character. Who exists in an anime. And you exist in the real world. Oh, so you RP yourself being involved with this character? Still not the real world. Oh, but you have real FEELINGS for this character? Sorry, they don't return them. And they won't. Ever.
Seriously, this kind of fangirl just squicks me to no conceivable end. Oh, to be sure, I love and adore all of my favorite characters, and I will fangirl them forever and ever until the sun ceases to rise, but I don't have any romantic notions about them. And I might, on a really bored night, fantasize about becoming romantically involved with them, but such personal mary-sue thoughts never make it out in the open. I really just think it's embarrassing. Not to mention, once again, immature. The thought of this kind of fangirl mucking up my fandom puts a sour taste in my mouth. You know what would be a quick cure to this type of fangirl? A REAL person to be romantically involved with. That fixes that. Yep, find someone outside of an anime to be twitterpated with and leave my fandom alone.
I'm not even gonna get into the even creepier kind of fangirls. But they do exist... oh lord. *shudders* But I must stress one point: I am connected so deeply to this fandom, and I'm speaking of the fandom itself and not just the anime and the manga, because for One Piece, there seems to be a universal sense of togetherness among fans. It might be because we're all the same on the inside (as batshit insane as the creator himself, that is), but no matter what the cause is, communicating with my fellow fans has always been one of my favorite things about being a One Piece fan, and it always will be. Perhaps, then, this is why having such selfish and immature fangirls existing inside this community upsets me so much. If I couldn't simply ignore them like I do (aside from one healthy LJ rant), I think it would really put a damper on how I feel about the fandom in general. But I'm glad it doesn't, and I don't think it ever will.
I have one last thing before I put this rant to a well-deserved end. I'm mostly, 98.5% sure that I do NOT know any fangirls that fall into the categories described above. Therefore, I am fairly sure that my rant won't personally insult or hurt anyone I know who might read this. But I will say, just to be safe, that this rant was absolutely NOT directed at any friend or individual I know personally. Just people I see on the internets who get my blood boiling. And it's ranting here in the safety of my LJ that keeps me from flaming said creepy fangirls. Because I really -don't- want to hurt anyone, whether or not they squick and disturb me.
I think my next rant will be of a more positive nature. *licks lips* Spandalifa...? I think a deep description of that pairing is long overdue~