Fandoms Unite!

Hello, dear readers! I'm sure most, if not all of you, know how awesome it is to be in a fandom. We all have our favorites, and many of us join Google+ communities, Facebook groups, Tumblr groups, etc. Those of us who have joined a group dedicated to a fandom know that it can be like a family (see my earlier post to read more about how fandoms are like family), and even those of us who haven't have friends and/or family members in the fandom. Things are great.

Except when they're not. There are far too many trolls, spammers, bots, etc. on the internet who mess things up for us dedicated fans. But that's not all. There are also the real people we know who insult our fandoms. 

For example, I have a good friend who is fun to hang out with and talk with- except that he really hates two of my favorite fandoms. He told me that Doctor Who is stupid and pointless, and when I mentioned Sherlock, he said, "I suppose I can tolerate it. At least it's better than Doctor Who." Thankfully, we've managed to just avoid the subject of those fandoms altogether, so we can still remain friends. While I probably would have picked kinder words than that to say that I don't like something (e.g., "I don't really like Twilight because I'm not into vampires, and it's just not the kind of story that interests me."), we did at least choose to tolerate each other and not argue about fandoms. That's a case of respectful disagreement, which is probably the best scenario for talking with someone who just doesn't like your fandom. But sadly, not all people are willing to do that. Often, people get into heated debates about which fandom is better, and an innocent discussion or post can quickly lead to a huge argument, with nasty words and ideas being hurled from both sides.

So I think we can all agree that we should tolerate each others' fandoms even if we totally don't like them. If there's a book that you think should never have been written or a movie you hate with all your might, I feel sorry for you, and you may want to even consider giving it more of a chance. But whatever you do, don't go around spreading your hate and insulting the people who like it.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the other half of fandoms uniting. Inside a fandom itself, there is a lot of division. For example, Whovians can easily get into an argument about which Doctor is the best (there are 12 Doctors, 13 if you count the War Doctor, and 14 if you count the metacrisis Doctor). He's just the Doctor, people! Each incarnation of the Doctor is awesome, and while it's okay to have a favorite, saying that one incarnation is the best and the others don't matter is disrespectful to the show, the character, and the actors. But of course, this problem isn't limited to Doctor Who. Besides arguments about which characters, actors, writers, etc. are the best, there are also shipping wars. (Read this post if you want to know what shipping is, or this page if you want to see my ships.) People get into huge arguments about who should be with who, arguing that a certain ship is stupid, unreal, etc. These arguments can get really nasty really quickly, as many people are very defensive of their OTPs. It's really sad that people who share a common interest spend so much time arguing about all the things they don't agree on.

Check out this video about fandom tolerance which inspired me to write this post:

So let's just remember to all tolerate each other. For fandoms you're not a part of, let them like what they like, and don't hate on them for their interests. For your own fandoms, get closer to each other and act more like a family. Fandoms unite!