We Didn't Start The Fire.

[pyrrhiccomedy]

I still like my fandom.

Not a lot of people are saying that today, and you probably already know why: at Anime Boston this weekend, several girls cosplaying as Germany and Prussia attended the Hetalia photoshoot and seig heiled the camera

Comments

[pyrrhiccomedy]

Oh, let me be absolutely clear: this isn't a personal attack on you, or Puel, or Linden, or Teca, or anyone else in my friends list who has written about this incident with dismay and disappointment. I know you girls are under a ton of stress right now, and as individuals, everyone has extenuating circumstances. (And...more to the point, if I wanted to start a conversation with you ladies specifically about what you had experienced, I would not be so crass as to make A Speech about it on my journal. I would e-mail you. ♥)

This is about--well--I read that entire thread. All six hundred-something comments of it, at the time that I read it. And after "What the fuck, that was so offensive and retarded of them," "I'm ashamed to be a Hetalia fan today/I don't intend to go to shoots anymore" was the most common sentiment I saw expressed. And I know why people feel that way, it's a sensible reaction, but it's a reaction I hope people will think about a little more, you know? If the stress of participating in Hetalia cosplay and photoshoots and whatever else is really starting to affect their quality of life, then for God's sakes, stop doing it. I will start expecting us to do things that make us unhappy for fandom when somebody starts cutting us a paycheck for the shit we put up with. Until then, this is something we're supposedly doing for fun.

But burnout and excoriation were not, I don't think, foremost in most people's minds, in that thread. And I really want people to--think; you don't have to let those dumb bitches drag down the fandom for you. And if you think they're dumb bitches, and you think of what they're doing as "dragging down the fandom," then you're probably the sort of person who should speak up more about being a Hetalia fan, not less.

For all our sakes.