filed under: things i cannot fucking believe i have to say
Right, okay, fandom, look here. I say fandom, by the way, because I mean every fucking person in every fucking fandom there is, I mean every last one of us, now is the time for everyone to listen up, because there is shit going on that is not okay.
Tonight, someone in this community tracked down the phone number of another member of this community, dialed that number, and threatened that person with death. For their safety, I have no intention, now or ever, of giving out the name or information of the person on the receiving end of the threat, so you can refrain from asking; I do not know the name or information of the person who made the threat, and I’m sure I never will. The identities in question here are not the point—the point is that the threat was, very clearly, in response to fan behavior.
You guys. You guys. I can’t tell you how sick that makes me; I can’t tell you how much it disheartens me that I have to make this post. I try very hard to see the best in people, and I am just so fucking horrified to think that there is anyone, of any age, in any fandom, who needs to be told that it is unacceptable to track down and threaten people with death over fictional characters! But apparently you are out there, so let me be as fucking clear as possible:
It is not fucking acceptable to threaten another human being with death, ever. It is, in fact, illegal to do so. It is not fucking acceptable to threaten another human being with death because their fannish inclinations or behaviors or not in line with your own, what the actual shitting fuck. It is also, for the record, not fucking acceptable to violate the boundaries of anonymity people may or may not set up for their fandom participation, whatever those boundaries might be. Some people happily use their real names in fandom; some people (myself included) operate exclusively under a handle; some people fall somewhere in between. And that shit is their call, do you hear me, it is not your business, and to sleuth around and dig up someone’s information in order to call them up and wish them dead is as horrifying as it is despicable.
I just. I honestly don’t even know what to do right now, except encourage all of you to spread this message to the best of your ability, because Christ. This is not how we behave, not as fans, not as people—this kind of behavior is so harmful to one another, and to the community at large, that I just don’t know what to say. I know that we all spend a fair amount of our time writing or reading or drawing about characters who fall all over the morality spectrum, but they are fucking characters, and our standard of behavior should be higher. End of fucking story.
