Some insufferable 16-year old needs help.
Why Am I Writing This?
Hey folks! RisingFox here. I’m just going to step in for a bit to go over this little situation. So I’m writing this for a couple different reasons: Firstly, if we left it up to my wife this would largely be fire emoji’s rather than words. Not that I actually blame her for being particularly upset (we’ll get into that more later). Secondly I wanted to add some particular thoughts about this kind of thing that I think ends up causing problems for so many people. So with that said, let’s start breaking things down.
What Happened?
So my wife rarely has any real interactions with anyone online. Which I think is probably fairly normal for an introvert or just any person who tends to keep to themselves. One day she decided to do a Google search for her artwork and her name. Sometimes you just want to see if anyone is maybe sharing your work or if there is a conversation happening somewhere. Well when the search results came back, she found a post from an unfamiliar user on an unfamiliar website (Common Sense Media or CSM).
That was certainly a surprise on it’s own. When she took that obvious next step and visited the website to fully read the message, to say she was troubled is a gross understatement. This person (I use that term out of a ton of niceness today) decided to make ignorant claims my wife had stolen ideas, and was somehow the most wrathful and cruel person ever. They also made mention of her swearing on her page, as if you can’t find all kinds of worse things on DeviantArt. You can see more of their mouth foaming posts in the pictures attached.
If they bothered to watch Deadpool, they weren’t THAT bothered about swearing.
After reacting with some choice words and reading through the post multiple times to make sure we hadn’t both slipped into some kind of mass hallucination. We made the very grown up(?) decision to take the high road and contact the website support and let them know what had happened and have them remove the posts. The CSM team was friendly and polite. They removed the content without any argument or back and forth. So we looked at each other and thought “well that was crazy, let’s get some ice cream and try to have a good evening.” Well no obsessive oddball person can simply have their post removed and learn that certain kinds of things are not okay (why is that difficult?). My wife being the thorough person she is decides to check the CSM website again and well, here is a brand new message with more statements and nonsense. Once again calling my wife out by name.
As you probably guessed, that returned her to the land of swear words and fury as if we hadn’t left there recently. Of course I’m plenty upset myself, like how daft could this person be? We’ve never spoken to this person or interacted with them as far as we can tell. So what is the point of this? Once things calmed down a bit, we again report the messages. The CSM team decides “okay this is very obviously an abuse of our platform” and then closes the account and removes the message.
Now had that last thing been the end of this I assure you we would not be here. Even after having the account closed and the posts removed MaripossaBullet already knew this person (there is that word again) would certainly make another account and make new posts. Wouldn’t you know it, she was absolutely correct. This is where more of their mindset made itself abundantly clear. In one of these posts they make the claim that their husband (the fictional villain Shan Yu, that’s right) had been stolen by my wife. Not only that, but also that MaripossaBullet somehow dislikes Christians (whoa, calling that a hot take is too nice).
And in what can only be described as a fit of bitterness and raving self importance, they made another 5 posts.
I could understand if maybe they were a jilted customer or something like that but that is not what we are talking about here. So we again found that high road, it took us a little longer to get there this time, and filed our complaint and were given the same positive results as the last time.
Here’s a link to their new CMS account. Seriously, this indivicual can’t take a hint.
And they even mentioned they have a TripAdvisor account… It appears that they’re obsessed with themselves and desperately crying for attention.
We had the link saved, but I guess they deleted it?
Now of course a new account was made with a new username along with some new posts. To make this even more bizarre these comments are posted as reviews for films. As if they are trying to hide them from someone. I don’t know, you try to make it make sense. However we have decided not to pursue any other action unless they were to get more out of hand. So instead we thought we might make a post of our own and share our thoughts on this… experience.
Why Do I Think It Happened?
I don’t see this as some philosophical kind of “everything for a reason” kind of deal. It’s much more of a “what happens when an obsessive fan comes across something that doesn’t quite fit their taste” kind of thing. Now let me say it’s totally cool if some one says “hey, this franchise is my life, I fashioned my whole world around it, don’t play with me.” That’s totally cool. Live your fan dream. Never shall I hate on that. But this whole personal attacks on a complete stranger is not something that should be happening.
So in one of the posts they mention they found my wife’s work because it was recommended to them while browsing DeviantArt. Then after searching her art gallery a bit and reading some things they decided that my wife was some kind of villain of villains. To the point they suggested, in closing, for people to have a blessed day, unless they were my wife. I would argue that isn’t very Christian. To sum up, they got interested in the artwork, got triggered by some simple thing and found themselves completely unable to make a basic mature decision and just ignore the content and no longer visit the page. Clearly that concept must be at the highest level of difficulty for them.
Trying to read their nonsensical “review” on the live action Mulan was a headache:
Why Does It Bother Us So Much?
I think the answer to that is fairly obvious. It’s wrong and a trash thing to do. Duh. However I’d very much like to expand on it. So of course these kinds of things do happen to other people (some times MUCH MUCH worse) from time to time and I would certainly say it is wrong for it to happen to them just like it is wrong for it to happen to us. There isn’t any truly acceptable reason to dedicate one’s time to writing disparaging comments about someone simply because you do not enjoy things in the same way. Then to go further with this very negative behavior and claim they have stolen ideas (a very major taboo for us as artists) and also just so happen to be the most wrathful person ever. Come on now. A simple Google search could turn up any number of horrible people, but obviously dealing with reality is not the goal for this type of individual. Which is kind of the real problem.
We all have content that we are fans of. Whether that be Dungeons & Dragons, Nancy Drew (I hope she is still a thing), Jujutsu Kaisen or Among Us. However being a fan or in this case, being the spiritual significant other of a character, does not give you ownership of that fandom or some type of untouchable moral high ground. And I think that is where the nerve gets struck for so many people. Seeing others enjoying the fandom by writing fanfiction, drawing fanart or doing “crack” pairings of the characters, anything that isn’t THEIR chosen or approved method, seems to trigger these kinds of people and ferry them off to a place they don’t simply know how to leave. That is problematic and also very saddening to me. One thing I will always say is that “no one, reserves the right to be an a$$h0l4.”
Anyone who is a fan of content should be free to enjoy it in their own way. I mean so long as they aren’t doing things to intentionally hurt a group of people or something to that nature (you know the kind of stuff I’m talking about, just don’t do it). The main goal of any fan should be that anyone else who is a fan feels welcome. Like “Oh! You love XYZ! Cool! Have fun living your life loving something I also love!” Does that require them to send messages and random accolades of praise or hearts or whatever social media currency is applicable? No it doesn’t. It simply requires them to enjoy and let enjoy. To do unto others as you would have done unto you. The more we as fans of media allow others into the fold of our fandoms, the more our fandoms can grow and flourish. Heck the creators might get excited and make more stuff for us (wouldn’t that be neat). Which I think is an excellent and wonderful thing. It encourages those among us (ha!) who might want to create new and unique ideas to not feel that they are boxed in and can truly express themselves. That is a creative world where we all win.
Having said all this, I do want to encourage you to leave your favorite creatives a positive word. If you’re a little shy, go ahead and maybe just click that like button and run away to recharge that introvert battery (it’s cool, I get it). These gestures get us that much closer to an ideal place where more people feel encouraged to be creative and live their fandom dreams. Of course I have no expectation that anyone will take this advice, it’s just a thought. So no harm done.
Have a blessed day, yes… you too.