{ warning: pissy post ahead. }

[delga]

What is this bullshit where someone says, 'oh, I don't read/listen/engage with Topic X, because it is too feminist,' or, 'I want to be into This Thing but it's so overtly feminist, I can't get with it.' What are you talking about? That is bullshit. Your tastes, your opinions, they are entirely valid. You are allowed to just not like, say, Virginia Woolf. But don't feel the need to defend whatever machinations-- what the fuck, guys, for absolute serious: Virginia Woolf - amongst others - is not just a figurehead for feminism. It's okay to not be down with her style. Modernism is a fuckery unlike most others; I'm into it, but, whatever, I don't apologise for things I do/don't like. Why do people find it so necessary to apologise for this stuff in this specific way? I feel like anyone who says the above is actually just apologising for whatever issues they have with their own gender politics. Like: the intellectual level of a thing was perhaps beyond you, and now you resent it. Too feminist. Too pro-diversity. Too pro-queer. Shut up. These are not real things. These are your inadequacy issues.

--

Do not be an asshole. Read the fic someone wrote you for Yuletide, and then leave a comment. Lie through your teeth if you have to, but don't be that dick who leaves another person hanging. I'm lucky: I got what I wanted, and my recip was sweet to me, despite the et cetera. But I am calling you out on this right now: if you don't make an effort to at least acknowledge the effort made for you, then you're an asshole.

--

Can we make some sort of agreement right here, right now, not to belittle the shit that other people are into? Like: so what, your peer group happens to be massively into some shit that you are sick of. Guess what? At some point in your life, you have been exactly as annoying about something else. What is it with people trying to take off other people's joy? I hate that. It's petty. It's about being upset that you're not on the in. Character bashing, music bashing, show/book/whatever bashing. 'I'm not into Tripoli' is not the same thing as, 'for the record, Tripoli is a piece of shit'. It's so belittling to the people who like you and like that thing. And that's just a world of unnecessary meanness.