Fandom Toxicity

Hello lovelies!

 So I want to bring something up today about something that's been bothering me a lot lately; namely, toxicity within fandoms.
 The definition of a fandom is a 'fanatic domain' or 'fanatic kingdom' depending on who you ask. Anyway it is, they can be a really great thing! You can meet really cool people with similar interests, and learn more about yourself along the way. But the thing is... fandoms aren't always a great thing.

 One thing, is being part of a fandom mindset- a hive mind, if you will- is that people band together and can be real jerks to other people within a fandom, creators of a show/authors/artists, even to the point of literally harassing actors and others in real life.
 It's ridiculous how rude people can be to those they claim to love; being in a fandom feels like it's a war with many, many battles where no one ever has the upper-hand, but they always think that they do. It's idiotic, to put it simply.

 One thing that promotes a lot of toxicity/anger are ships. Ship is just an abbreviation for relationship, whether it be romantic or platonic or whatever. So often, people get so attached to a 'ship' that they cause 'ship-wars' within a fandom.
 A prime example of this is the Star vs. the Forces of Evil fandom; some people are die-hard 'Starco' shippers. Most (not all) people in the fandom support Starco (the romantic relationship between Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz, the two main characters) and are extremely rude to people who ship anything else... even when it's not a threat to what ship they want to become canon (canon = actually happens in the book/show/movie/etc).

 Fans can just be really obsessive people. It's great to love things, and support the people who you think are awesome, but it can be absolutely horrendous when celebrities or fandom-celebs (popular fan artists, fan-fiction authors, etc) do something that fans don't like.
 People just get nasty and it's terrible. I simply can't comprehend how people can claim to love something and then turn around and hate other people who are just doing things because they love it or are/were involved in the creation of it.

 A lot of the time I choose to distance myself from fandoms because people can be so rude. I shouldn't have to do that, nor should anyone else! We should be supporting each other in our love for whatever it is that you love.
 So my advice is this: check yourself before you wreck yourself. Be kind. Don't hate celebrities just because they've done something you don't like- they are human, just like you & I. Agree to disagree and just let yourself love things and enjoy it. Just let it be enough.

Ciao!
Hannah