![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptThe Snowflake Challenge winds down with a classic of the previous years: Choose Your Own Adventure.
As you might expect, this is open for all sorts of interpretations:
In previous years, this would seem like less of a lift for all of us, I think. But we're all going into year three of a worldwide pandemic, and a second year where the tools have been available to avoid putting serious strain on medical capacity all around the world, but there's still a significant number of people who are unable to obtain what they absolutely want, because of greed and selfishness elsewhere. And a fair number who refuse to believe that anyone other than themselves is important and choose not to help the public good from their own greed and selfishness. And a fair number of them in positions of power that choose their own greed and selfishness over helping the people (because helping the people might mean the people they desperately want to die or become disabled could vote them out of office.)
So, in such a hostile environment, why burden someone who is already struggling with an additional challenge, other than "keep living, as your very best fuck you to all the people who want you to die and stop reminding them of their abject failure. And if you have energy left over after that, contibute what you can to their overthrow and the installation of someone who believes in the value of all the lives given to their charge, not just the ones with capital to contribute to their campaign funds."
But it is Snowflake, and we've been talking a lot about fandom over the month (and this is the spot where I usually talk the most about fandom over the entirety of the year), so, in the spirit of there being oh so much else in your year that you'll have to pay attention to, because you are almost certainly striving against:
In the interests of helping you conserve your energy, I set you the following challenge:
Got a creator whose setting you love but who has turned out to be a trash fire about you and people like you? Jettison them and keep doing the fandom the way that works for you. If there's a bunch of toxicity or purity culture in your fandom and you don't want to engage with any of it, block with abandon and don't feel bad about any of it. (Or, if needed, ditch the platform that's gotten all the toxic people on it and have fun somewhere else.) If you normally would participate in something but you're not feeling that it would be fun, you don't have to do it. If it's become more of a chore than a fun time to watch, or play, or stitch, or read, or express yourself in your fandom, it's okay to take a break and not do it. The epic WIP that you've been stalled out on for the last year? Can be shelved or hiatused or abandoned. Maybe the big picture you wanted to color can remain a sketch or an inked item until you're ready.
Ultimately, even though fandom and fans derive themselves from being fanatical, with all of the behaviors that can entail, if you're not having fun in your fandom, then something's gone wrong. Sometimes that thing is other people being terrible, sometimes that thing is a learning opportunity for us on how to make the fandom better. Hard things or unfun things that do have benefits to you and the fandom, like making it a better place or avoiding an unciritical repetition of the bad decisions of the canon, those I can't grant permission slips for, because I want all of our fandoms to be continuously improving. But for everything else, the kinds of things where we wonder why we spend so much energy on something that's unimportant and fruitless, it's okay to let them go. Here's your permission slip.
In your own space, create your own challenge.
As you might expect, this is open for all sorts of interpretations:
This can be big or small: a challenge that is strictly fannish or one that extends to other aspects of life. It could be a challenge you saw someone else do—that used to run and you miss—or something you’ve thought up just now…even something you yourself are already doing. Earnest, silly, fun, all three! Send us off into the rest of the year by challenging us all to something new.
In previous years, this would seem like less of a lift for all of us, I think. But we're all going into year three of a worldwide pandemic, and a second year where the tools have been available to avoid putting serious strain on medical capacity all around the world, but there's still a significant number of people who are unable to obtain what they absolutely want, because of greed and selfishness elsewhere. And a fair number who refuse to believe that anyone other than themselves is important and choose not to help the public good from their own greed and selfishness. And a fair number of them in positions of power that choose their own greed and selfishness over helping the people (because helping the people might mean the people they desperately want to die or become disabled could vote them out of office.)
So, in such a hostile environment, why burden someone who is already struggling with an additional challenge, other than "keep living, as your very best fuck you to all the people who want you to die and stop reminding them of their abject failure. And if you have energy left over after that, contibute what you can to their overthrow and the installation of someone who believes in the value of all the lives given to their charge, not just the ones with capital to contribute to their campaign funds."
But it is Snowflake, and we've been talking a lot about fandom over the month (and this is the spot where I usually talk the most about fandom over the entirety of the year), so, in the spirit of there being oh so much else in your year that you'll have to pay attention to, because you are almost certainly striving against:
- hostile forces that want to erase your existence,
- hostile forces who believe your fandoms and pairings are irredemable, the sign of a diseased mind, and that you can't possibly maintain a boundary between the fictional and the non-fictional,
- hostile forces that want to monetize and advertise and surveil you, using their greater monetary clout to force you off of any place you want to show your fandom, out of a misguided belief that children are innocents who need to have their minds tightly controlled lest they become "deviants,"
- hostile forces that believe firmly that accountability of any kind about how they have portrayed others in their works is a personal insult that should be discarded immediately and the person who dared to make such a suggestion be driven away from any platform,
- and plenty of other entities who want to make their fandom experience the only valid one for everyone.
In the interests of helping you conserve your energy, I set you the following challenge:
I'm giving you a permission slip to let go of the things that sap your energy and provide no benefit.
Got a creator whose setting you love but who has turned out to be a trash fire about you and people like you? Jettison them and keep doing the fandom the way that works for you. If there's a bunch of toxicity or purity culture in your fandom and you don't want to engage with any of it, block with abandon and don't feel bad about any of it. (Or, if needed, ditch the platform that's gotten all the toxic people on it and have fun somewhere else.) If you normally would participate in something but you're not feeling that it would be fun, you don't have to do it. If it's become more of a chore than a fun time to watch, or play, or stitch, or read, or express yourself in your fandom, it's okay to take a break and not do it. The epic WIP that you've been stalled out on for the last year? Can be shelved or hiatused or abandoned. Maybe the big picture you wanted to color can remain a sketch or an inked item until you're ready.
Ultimately, even though fandom and fans derive themselves from being fanatical, with all of the behaviors that can entail, if you're not having fun in your fandom, then something's gone wrong. Sometimes that thing is other people being terrible, sometimes that thing is a learning opportunity for us on how to make the fandom better. Hard things or unfun things that do have benefits to you and the fandom, like making it a better place or avoiding an unciritical repetition of the bad decisions of the canon, those I can't grant permission slips for, because I want all of our fandoms to be continuously improving. But for everything else, the kinds of things where we wonder why we spend so much energy on something that's unimportant and fruitless, it's okay to let them go. Here's your permission slip.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 03:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 07:53 am (UTC)Letting go is such a difficult thing to do. And although I have gotten better at it over the years, I definitely appreciate the permission slip!
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 08:52 am (UTC)Letting go is still difficult, but it's easier when someone else says it's okay.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 10:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-31 05:09 am (UTC)Well said. I think it is hard to let go so sometimes having someone else be like "it's okay" can really help. :D
no subject
Date: 2022-01-31 06:24 am (UTC)