schmerica. i was a teenage fangirl (Reply)

So earlier I was reading a post on my friends list, and even though it was on a completely different subject, some of the comments made me realize that I have some totally deep assumptions about fandom that maybe I'm not really basing on anything.

Here's the thing: I think of fandom as age-blind. Like, woo! It is a magical society of woman of all sorts to commingle together! I have women on my flist who are thirty years older than me; I have women on my flist who are teenagers still.

But, you know, I was 17 when I got into fandom, and I'm not quite 21 now. There's a pretty good possibility I see fandom that way -- as equally respecting and interested in all levels, there -- because I needed to. "I may be underage, but I am so brilliant and wonderful and blahblahblah that I will be appreciated nonetheless! Woot!"

Which, really, is not quite it: I think it's really easy (and justified, in a lot of cases) to assume that relative youth is also a sign of relative immaturity, inexperience, naivete, etc, etc, etc. Which means it's not that age is irrelevent; it's more that youth is a strike against you, but one that can be overcome by your other qualities. An extra element to go to prove you're interesting and intelligent and deserve to be a part of the community.

And of course, it's not like most of us don't de-emphasize our age in most contexts, anyway. (The main exception being when we want to play the gifted prodigy card. Not that