"Fangirl" here is a neutral term for someone who squees, squicks, and Was There. General fandom posts encouraged!
Open Door Policy
There was a message waiting in the Help Desk and at least one other person who was concerned about joining this com because they didn't identify as a woman.
IMO, the "girl" is the least important identifying characteristic and serves only to differentiate from "fanboy," which I think has an entirely different connotation and set of behaviors than the ones we're after. Transformative fandom is largely female-led and -occupied, and I don't think that should be erased, but I would like to open the doors to everyone who feels they belong here.
Provided, of course, they behave themselves.




Hope this won't create any controversy - I'm really happy to call myself a cranky old fangirl, because it's what I am.
But... I understand that others might view this whole issue differently, hence why I wrote the message to the help desk before I joined - I really didn't want to intrude or anything.
Welcome :) It was cool of you to ask first.
Thank you! :)
Welcome to the community!
Thanks! :)
I tend to go by what Orlando Jones said on twitter:
It's not like we have an official rule about what counts as "old" or "cranky" either. I see the whole thing as more of a comical description of the center of the group in question than trying to draw a precise line around its boundaries.
That's a good quote! And a very accurate one, too.
That is a fine quote indeed. And yeah, the other terms aren't defined, but this one was actually holding people back from joining. :)
I agree with this policy. Thank you.
i have an Onion on this that nobody is obligated to read or respect but that i wanna give i guess?
i been following along fandoms as a thing, as soon as i was old enough to google. i'm an ""afab"" nb person or whatever, and like-- it's true. archival fandom with bickering about True Interpretations is a very masculine thing and a LOT of both cis n transmasc dudes do it.
it's not, like, inappropriate to say "avoid defending and reproducing bigoted and normalized-asshole behaviors, including sexist ones" even to people who are aware of it as a reality-- if someone would rather be the Token Minority guest to non-transformative fandom, then they can show themselves the door.
honorary girl space status for people who don't identify with womanhood is a gift and a privilege.
just because there aren't Man Spaces or Gender-Neutral spaces for voluntary transformative works doesn't mean that we get to pretend that women, esp women at multiple intersections of lived-bigotry-experiences and Average Laborers, didn't do the majority of the physical, social, and intellectual labor that founded it-- whether we're "GBT" or not.
so there, that's my self-oppressing Gender Traitor discourse, or...whatever white small-town womens' studies students are calling it these days.
lots and lots of men are successful among fangirls via not acting like assholes. spaces that prioritize women and their needs are not the same as spaces that Hate Men. etc
honorary girl space status for people who don't identify with womanhood is a gift and a privilege
Nah.
Could just call the community "Cranky Old Fans," I suppose . . .
I mean, given my age, I really do not feel like a "fangirl."
"Fanwoman?" "Fanperson?"
:-)
ksl
I'd be amenable to changing it except that we actually can't. You can't change community names after they're made. So I figured this was the next best thing.