I found this really interesting to read, partly because it maps onto my experience on Tumblr (seeing The Discourse cross my dash on occasion) but also because it doesn't match my experience pre-Tumblr. I've been active in Tolkien fandom for about fifteen years now and I 100% can say that censorship elements absolutely were coming into Tolkien fandom from within fandom. The difference was that the censors were largely conservative Christians who thought they owned the fandom because they believed that anything that didn't match with their morality was an affront to Tolkien himself and that they thought he'd agree with them and their actions. So it was focused on same-sex relationships, mostly, along with non-canon het ships, especially if they broke up Arwen/Aragorn.
Slash fans at that time built their own archives, mailing lists, communities, etc. to avoid the people trying to run them out of fandom. The second-wave Tolkien archives were a reaction against the censorship; it's specifically why the ones that still exist have stated policies that all types of relationships are welcome.
So the crop of antis within fandom are, to me, something that doesn't seem odd. That it's coming from-- or at least appearing to use the rhetoric of-- the other side of the political aisle is what's strange to me.
no subject
I found this really interesting to read, partly because it maps onto my experience on Tumblr (seeing The Discourse cross my dash on occasion) but also because it doesn't match my experience pre-Tumblr. I've been active in Tolkien fandom for about fifteen years now and I 100% can say that censorship elements absolutely were coming into Tolkien fandom from within fandom. The difference was that the censors were largely conservative Christians who thought they owned the fandom because they believed that anything that didn't match with their morality was an affront to Tolkien himself and that they thought he'd agree with them and their actions. So it was focused on same-sex relationships, mostly, along with non-canon het ships, especially if they broke up Arwen/Aragorn.
Slash fans at that time built their own archives, mailing lists, communities, etc. to avoid the people trying to run them out of fandom. The second-wave Tolkien archives were a reaction against the censorship; it's specifically why the ones that still exist have stated policies that all types of relationships are welcome.
So the crop of antis within fandom are, to me, something that doesn't seem odd. That it's coming from-- or at least appearing to use the rhetoric of-- the other side of the political aisle is what's strange to me.