Charts of the popularity of different ratings of fic within different age groups. The y-axis shows the percentage of people in that age group who read or write that rating of fic.
The ratings are, from left to right, General Audiences (G), Teen and Up Audiences (T), Mature (M), Explicit (E) and Not Rated (NR).
Fandom does not belong to any age. Every age is fandom. You are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER too old to be in, participate in, love or adore fandom.
I saw this video by Jasmine Zade on YT that talks about older people in fandom life and I couldn’t help but add my two cents in it. (I also posted my comment on YT but I think it’s more fitting here.)
I’ve been in the fandom life for over 15 years and as a now 29yo pushing 30 I’m starting to see straight up ageist comments about how “old” or “proper adults” shouldn’t be in fandom life, which is bonkers to me. Especially since I have found work in the industry that gave me so many fandoms to be a part of. All my obsession over tv shows has led me to pursue a career in the tv world and now I make a living working on shows that give the same young ones who leave ageist comments a place for their interests. Ironic.
If you’re young and think that “old people” shouldn’t be a part of fandoms, need I remind you that it’s us “old people” that are giving you youngins content to obsess over. Art, edits, spaces, culture. All the good fics you read and love so much? Guess what, ALL written by the “old people”. If you wanna push us out, you have to be willing to sacrifice the good stuff.
The video continues to talk about how we are faced with the decision of dropping our interests when we reach a certain point in our lives (i.e. starting a family). Listen, I too feared of letting go of the things I loved when I was a kid because there was this expectation of us entering the “real world” when we become grown-ups, but if guys can fanboy over sports and comics all they want without facing criticism, why should we have to sacrifice our hobbies? You may not realise this but you have an underlying bias when it comes to women in particular, because apparently when a mum does it she’s a bad mother, she should be focusing on feeding her baby because that’s her whole world now and she should never have time for herself ever.
It should go without saying, yet here we are, but adult women can enjoy things too. You can absolutely still love what you love at any age. The difference is you just start to enjoy it from an experienced perspective and that’s a GOOD thing. So don’t ever be afraid to continue loving what you love.
tl;dr don’t leave “you’re too old” in people’s inboxes you ungrateful lil’ brat
