Snowflake Challenge - Day 6
In your own space, share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Something that impacted on your consciousness in a way that left its mark on your soul.
Hmmm. I believe the most life-changing event, imo, happened to me when I was reading one of the Best of Trek books. Though that could be wrong. But I was young, perhaps eleven, and suddenly I realized there were other people like me. Seems silly and perhaps over-dramatic now, but my identity as a slash fan really feels that integral, that vital to my personality in a way that other things about me, don't. I was eleven many years per-internet and from a very small rural community near the heart of Ohio's Amish county. When I first found slash fandom, there was no internet to Google "Snape" and accidentally find references to gay people at Hogwarts (on page one) and links to tumblr, several fandom archives and slash fic. You had to know someone who knew someone who had a cousin who maybe heard a rumor about slash 'zines and how to get them. Which basically amounted to Ravenclaw's riddle to Harry about where to find Ravenclaw's lost diadem in Deathly Hallows Part 2 - "If you have to ask, you’ll never know. If you know, you need only ask.” Ah, if only Harry needed to know how to find slash fic at a con in the 1980's. I would be sooooo there for him. ;D
I never knew anyone else like me. I suspect I wrap up a number of individual identities - sexuality, kinks, just to name a few - into the label of 'slash fan'. But reading that series for the first time when they mentioned that such people as slash fans existed, was an epiphany for me. And once I knew, there was no going back or keeping it hidden. I don't wear a sign, and I don't talk about it constantly, but slash fandom really is a way of life for me. I've pointed to the post before, but anyone interested in my early experiences with slash fandom can read about it here.
Hmmm. I believe the most life-changing event, imo, happened to me when I was reading one of the Best of Trek books. Though that could be wrong. But I was young, perhaps eleven, and suddenly I realized there were other people like me. Seems silly and perhaps over-dramatic now, but my identity as a slash fan really feels that integral, that vital to my personality in a way that other things about me, don't. I was eleven many years per-internet and from a very small rural community near the heart of Ohio's Amish county. When I first found slash fandom, there was no internet to Google "Snape" and accidentally find references to gay people at Hogwarts (on page one) and links to tumblr, several fandom archives and slash fic. You had to know someone who knew someone who had a cousin who maybe heard a rumor about slash 'zines and how to get them. Which basically amounted to Ravenclaw's riddle to Harry about where to find Ravenclaw's lost diadem in Deathly Hallows Part 2 - "If you have to ask, you’ll never know. If you know, you need only ask.” Ah, if only Harry needed to know how to find slash fic at a con in the 1980's. I would be sooooo there for him. ;D
I never knew anyone else like me. I suspect I wrap up a number of individual identities - sexuality, kinks, just to name a few - into the label of 'slash fan'. But reading that series for the first time when they mentioned that such people as slash fans existed, was an epiphany for me. And once I knew, there was no going back or keeping it hidden. I don't wear a sign, and I don't talk about it constantly, but slash fandom really is a way of life for me. I've pointed to the post before, but anyone interested in my early experiences with slash fandom can read about it here.