#your ship getting the representation it needs. That is so fair and commendable. Why haven't you linked your favorite F/F ships? Why haven't
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seaslimes · 3 months ago
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Every time I see those posts about the AO3 F/F to M/M ratios, all I can think is:
Okay, excellent point. But what if you just wrote it?
Like. Yeah, man, I'm sure it's discouraging to see raw numbers talking about how your ship doesn't get the rep it needs. But when you get down to numbers... sometimes the difference within fandoms is less than 500 more M/M works than F/F works. That's actionable. You can fill that gap with a fraction of the people liking / reblogging posts about F/F erasure.
Sometimes the gap is bigger. It's like, 1000 more works are tagged M/M. 2000, or more. Yeah, that's a big gap, but you could make it one less. If every person liking or reblogging a post about the disparity of ship fics on AO3, that number would shrink drastically, or outright disappear.
IDK. I write F/F. I write M/M too, as well as M/F. But I write F/F, and when I see that sorta post. It doesn't feel like a call to action. It feels like somehow, in some way, I'm not doing enough when I post up fanfiction for free about stuff I like.
It makes me feel like I should stop sharing my F/F work, that it doesn't matter, that people don't recognize the effort or love or time that goes into it. Even beyond that, I feel discouraged about the work I have put out, because thousands of words written all about an F/F pairing are only seen in that raw stat format.
"There's X M/M fics and Y F/F fics." Yes, I know, and that has to suck. But look at how many people wrote F/F fics! Have you commented on each of those F/F fics? Have you given kudos? Did you feel inspired to write or draw because of those F/F fics? That's what fandom is for. That's why we create. If that's not inspiring you to "close the gap" on those stats, I don't know what to say.
#personal talk#ao3 writer#ao3 stats#IDK. Man. Sometimes it feels like those posts are made in bad faith. Especially when there's no CTA. No encouragement to actually read the#—fics that exist. Massive reblog chains talking about X fandom or Y fandom not having enough F/F fics that don't background the characters.#Dude! That could be you! You could be on the front lines of this issue. You clearly care about it. A lot. You clearly are passionate about—#your ship getting the representation it needs. That is so fair and commendable. Why haven't you linked your favorite F/F ships? Why haven't#you recommended your favorite F/F writer? Why haven't you organized some F/F themed AO3 event all about writing ladies with ladies?#It can be so goddamn discouraging to write F/F at times. Not even because there's ' ' less engagement ' ' because that's not why I write it#I write F/F ships because I like them! They are fun to me! I like those characters and want to smoosh them together like dolls! But seeing—#post after post after post after post. Ragging on these stats. Taking screenshots of fandoms and their M/M to F/F ratios. How many of those#F/F fics did you even fucken read. How many of them did you even bother to slap kudos on. How many of those fics did you share with your—#friends on Discord or email to your buddies or talk about on your Tumblr? Like. People aren't writing F/F for you to consume. They're#—writing F/F to share what they like with the world. So maybe do the bare minimum and share that passion? IDK. It's really fucken hard.#Both to see this kinda thing and to articulate it. The problem feels like the solution is just so obvious. I saw a post with 18000 likes.#If every single one of those people wrote a 300w ficlet. Suddenly there would be 18000 F/F fics. How is this not mathing. Come on.
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