It's funny: my default for anything is critical analysis but I avoid Tumblr these days because it's almost all that and no squee at all and I need a balance! ... Like I got toxic levels of critical stuff and just can't deal anymore.
It's interesting that you put it like that because I feel the same way! I suspect many people do, actually. I have no social anxiety issues and I enjoy a good critique, but the currently popular approach of critiquing. everything. to death. just leaves me exhausted and depressed.
I simply nope out as soon as I see that happening to the fandoms I love. I feel like lately mainstream fandom is so interested in tearing down canon (canon which, obviously, I love otherwise I wouldn't be in fandom in the first place...) to show what they didn't like (especially the Issues) that there's no space for just enjoying canon as is. Even people who like the canon put disclaimers like "I'm garbage for liking it but..." Which just makes me feel so sorry for that person who can't even accept themselves enough to say they like the show without putting themselves down. I feel like they're saying "you must be garbage to like this". And I'm like...uh get away from me with that kind of sentiment, no. I don't feel any guilt about liking things that I like. And I'm not used to that kind of discourse, I think.
I don't remember it being quite that critical on LJ in the golden days of fandom. I think people mostly got together to squee and were just thrilled to find like-minded fans. Like I don't remember more than a couple of discussions of -isms in Harry Potter fandom. Clearly, they happened, but they were overwhelmed by the squee and the "let's talk about that one sentence on page 344 and what it all means for the next week" type discussions. That fit me much better, because I watch tv shows and read fictional books to emotionally connect with the characters, to live and die with them.
no subject
It's interesting that you put it like that because I feel the same way! I suspect many people do, actually. I have no social anxiety issues and I enjoy a good critique, but the currently popular approach of critiquing. everything. to death. just leaves me exhausted and depressed.
I simply nope out as soon as I see that happening to the fandoms I love. I feel like lately mainstream fandom is so interested in tearing down canon (canon which, obviously, I love otherwise I wouldn't be in fandom in the first place...) to show what they didn't like (especially the Issues) that there's no space for just enjoying canon as is. Even people who like the canon put disclaimers like "I'm garbage for liking it but..." Which just makes me feel so sorry for that person who can't even accept themselves enough to say they like the show without putting themselves down. I feel like they're saying "you must be garbage to like this". And I'm like...uh get away from me with that kind of sentiment, no. I don't feel any guilt about liking things that I like. And I'm not used to that kind of discourse, I think.
I don't remember it being quite that critical on LJ in the golden days of fandom. I think people mostly got together to squee and were just thrilled to find like-minded fans. Like I don't remember more than a couple of discussions of -isms in Harry Potter fandom. Clearly, they happened, but they were overwhelmed by the squee and the "let's talk about that one sentence on page 344 and what it all means for the next week" type discussions. That fit me much better, because I watch tv shows and read fictional books to emotionally connect with the characters, to live and die with them.