Seriously, just block the mean people
Sep. 19th, 2021 12:32 pmI recently read an academic article comparing anti-fandom to a cult:
https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/2147/2829
While I don’t deny that a lot of the behavior associated with anti-fandom involves social coercion – bullying, basically – I think it might be disingenuous to call anything related to fandom “a cult.”
What defines a cult as such is that it isolates members and, by means of that isolation, controls every aspect of their lives – where they live, what they eat, what time they wake up and go to sleep, who they talk to, who they marry, what level of education they receive, and so on. Cults aren’t scary because they believe in aliens or whatever; they’re scary because they physically entrap people and then force them into genuinely dangerous situations.
When it comes to fandom… People know they can just turn off the computer, right?
( Read more... )
https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/2147/2829
While I don’t deny that a lot of the behavior associated with anti-fandom involves social coercion – bullying, basically – I think it might be disingenuous to call anything related to fandom “a cult.”
What defines a cult as such is that it isolates members and, by means of that isolation, controls every aspect of their lives – where they live, what they eat, what time they wake up and go to sleep, who they talk to, who they marry, what level of education they receive, and so on. Cults aren’t scary because they believe in aliens or whatever; they’re scary because they physically entrap people and then force them into genuinely dangerous situations.
When it comes to fandom… People know they can just turn off the computer, right?
( Read more... )