Wattpad needs to stop: Everything wrong with Fan Fiction
Hello everybody! I hope y’all are in the best of
health!
Can we take a minute to appreciate summer!! Thank you!
Lol
Now can we take another moment to appreciate me
posting twice this month? TT
Not to lie though, I was going through a terrible
block lately. I couldn’t create anything nor think of something to write about.
I was a little busy with my dissertation and things were not going on super
well which led to me having those unpleasant sessions of migraine attacks and
nastiness TT. It’s all fine now after I reflected and took rest to calm my mind
down a little.
So basically during that break I stumbled upon a lot
of commentary content creators and I really appreciated what they do and I was
like: why not give my thoughts on some stuff that I have been procrastinating!
So here I am talking about nothing but the infamous Wattpad!
Yes! You read that right! Today’s dive is Wattpad
and all the crap going on in this app and why I THINK it needs to stop.
Just to let you know before you continue, I will be
discussing sensitive topics such as manipulation, abuse and sex. So read at
your own risk sksksk.
With that said let’s get into it! It will eventually
be divided into section as usual. I will go through the things that irritate me
the most to be completely honest! I am not mad at the platform because I have
read some amazing stuff there but they’re not the focus of today’s article! So
I am by no means shaming Wattpad readers.
God! That was a long intro! But that’s it. I promise.
We’re starting.
Let’s start by giving a quick rundown on what Wattpad
is and how it works. Basically Wattpad is a free app where anyone
(literally) can write “books” and post them. It goes like this: you install the
app, select your favourite genres, some profiles of authors would pop and you’d
follow them and start reading their books. You can as well browse on your own
and add books to your library. The platform in itself is simple and accessible
as it’s again for free. The thing with Wattpad especially for
the past 5 to 6 years is that it became a platform famous for fan fictions. Fan
fiction is where the protagonist of the book is a celebrity (singer, actor,
public figure…). Some of the most famous Wattpad “protagonist
stars” are: Harry Styles, Jungkook of BTS and Noah Centi can’t do a good movie
neo.
Now on to the problems and the things that irritate me
with fan fics (finally!)
1- Teenagers and kids on Wattpad:
This app attracts young audiences such as
kids (literally the age of 10/11), and teenagers as well. People aged 10 to 19
to me are conflicted people. And don’t get me wrong though. We often tend to
build ideologies from what we see on media or read on Wattpad!
Boomers’ lectures on life pleased no one growing up but eventually we all
learned the hard way. What I meant by “conflicted” is that at ages like these,
youth need constant guidance and supervision. Not in the sense of controlling
the kid’s life but in the sense of letting them figure things out healthily.
The absence of parents and neglect can result in kids reaching out to this kind
of content provider to fill the void and they might end up greatly influenced
by some of the ideas and behaviours. Another thing is age. Again. Content on Wattpad
(for what I have come across) is very child unfriendly. It often involves
topics like mental health disorders and self harm and other graphic contents.
And trust me when I say that the content itself is extremely misleading and
false and not informative in any way, shape or form. That was the first point I
wanted to touch on.
2- Unrealistic plots:
That’s kind of the main course of this
article.
I have 4 sub ideas that I want to go
through regarding this “unrealistic plots” section.
The first thing is the glamorization of
toxic relationships.
The amount of Stockholm syndrome shit I
have seen on Wattpad is seriously alarming!
Basically the protagonist who’s often a girl
(idk why they call women girls OR why a 17yo is having this much action in her
life but ok) gets KIDNAPPED and ends up falling in “love” with the kidnaper.
Wow.
Or, another scenario, an extremely rich CEO
who is forced to marry this innocent girl and turn her life into hell by
entirely controlling her life. Y’all: taking away your phone and laptop and
telling you what to do, eat, who to talk to, who not to talk to, IS NOT OKAY.
Technically most of the time it’s either
the gangster or the CEO. Very creative.
The other thing I want to address is not
taking mental health issues seriously that it’s creepy! In some books, stalking
and breaking inside someone’s house are okay things! On a serious note though,
if this person always appears to save you when in danger, that’s not romantic
or cute, this person is legit stalking you and following your every move.
They’re obsessed. That’s it. On another note though, most of these books depict
that male protagonist as someone who has an extremely short temper. It is clear
that this person has anger issues as they constantly get in fights, hit others
and are violent in an abnormal way! But it never gets pointed as a bad thing! In
some books, they even make killing another person/ character okay! Manipulative
behaviour is also to be signalled as in some of these books, people threaten to
harm themselves/others if the other person does not do as they say (y’all don’t
tell me that someone telling me they’d kill themselves if I don’t date them is
romantic. That’s creepy).
We’re half way and on to the third element
which is the one that disgusts me the most: Justifying shitty behaviour by
“they had a dark past” *eye roll*
This is something that is very very VERY
common in Wattpad books. Basically this bully, stalker, kidnaper, rapist
whatever.. do what they do because they had a dark past. They had troubles
growing up and ended up being like this. They’re angels but life did them dirty
*major eye roll*
People thinking it’s okay to be a bad
person just because people were bad to you in the past are morons. I personally
believe that God gives us extra days of life to become better and try to create
a good future. In no means your present days are a chance to fix your past but
rather a golden opportunity to build a present and a future that you can be
proud of. So ladies and gents: no! It’s not okay to let your significant other
or anyone hit you or manipulate you because they suffered in the past. And no!
it’s not your job to fix them and make them a better person.
The last thing is literally my favourite (my
favourite bad thing): the “you’re not like other girls” syndrome. *loud
laughter*
So this thing basically implies that the
female protagonist is very often: very innocent who can’t even open a can
without feeling pain, pale skin (which btw *sighs*), long hair that is often in
a bun, beautiful eyes that hide the goodness of the world, petite form and
frail body, MUST HAVE small hands, small feet (does this even matter?), dresses
in hoodies and wears no colours, never wears makeup, listens to old music and
adores bands, hates contemporary trends and has something for “vintage vibes”
and most importantly HAS NEVER BEEN TO A PARTY.
I am literally cringing so hard as I'm
writing this.
Only reading this, I can sense that
thousands if not millions of women/girls are shamed for not being this type of
women/girls! Can you imagine what this type of depiction might do to a
desperate for love 17yo kid? Can you imagine the amount of insecurity and self
loathe that might result from reading this shit constantly? Another thing is
inserting a “love yourself” segment very randomly. So y’all are trying to
convince me as audience that after giving me a long list of what the “it” girl
MUST look like to love myself with all my treats and flaws? This just sounds
foolish to me. Let’s not forget that white is THE colour of “pretty”. How
inclusive.
Basically (“basically” counter is broken)
the narrative that would follow up this stupidity is that our little petite
princess meets the bad boy (God please TT) who will either make her life a hell
(through physical, psychological and sexual control and very often abuse) and
she takes it for love and think it’s cute because she’s stupid; or, turn her
into a bitch and let her entrer the world of darkness and danger and mystery
just to slut shame her later (he’ll throw the iconic “ I didn’t force anything
on you” line) and make her feel like a piece of shit. She’ll probably cry in a
room at his mansion and he’ll end up making it up to her and solving this whole
situation through sex. DISGUSTING.
I believe that sex is such an important
thing in people’s lives especially when it links to people together. It is
something to be informed about and it should respect certain norms that the
people involved in the relationship agree to WITHOUT ANY FORM OF MANIPULATION.
Sex is eventually something that complements a relationship and brings people
together and strengthens their bond. That’s why it is never okay to use it as a
means of punishments or problem solving. A misunderstanding gets solved through
talking and trying to understand your partner more than proving your point of
view is the correct one. It is okay to get mad and sit alone to think and
reflect to see the mistake you made or analyse your actions to be a more
rational person if any other conflict occur in the future. This is what healthy
relationships look like. Violent sex can traumatize someone forever no matter
what the motives behind it are. And makeout does not and will never be a way to
solve problems. A well constructed relationship thrives when the two people
have 2 good brains and hearts. Not anything else.
I can literally sit here and talk and write
about this forever. It’s just so annoying how some people seriously look for
such things in real life! Some people’s dream is to fall in love with a
gangster or get kidnapped or be forced on some random CEO!
This sounds tempting in books! But reality
is nowhere near this depiction.
As I said earlier, a stalker is not cool … it’s
dangerous.
__
Let’s write a conclusion!
So we made it to the end, although my
endings are often very non-academic and random as I add up details instead of just
wrapping up but whatever...
What I want to say is that everyone
EVERYONE deserves to be loved and taken care of. Someone who yells at you, God
forbid hits you or tries to tell you what to do and how to do it or whatever,
is not the best person for you. If you are with a person like this RUN AWAY!!
And if you’re not, try to think on a more rational level and avoid such things.
Toxic relationships are really dangerous. Mentally speaking, you’d become
paranoid? Well, probably! It’s really unhealthy if you end up questioning your
words and actions or thinking every wrong thing is because you probably have
messed up! And one other important thing that I forgot to mention above (or I
did? Idr) any person in a relationship is not there to fix their partner. It’s
seriously nobody’s job but the person themselves to thrive and become better. A
relationship where you’re the one in charge of “fixing” your partner is a very
toxic one and I am talking out of a personal experience. It might sound cheesy
but always remember to love yourself enough to love others. Don’t let anyone
dictate on you what to do when you’re at loss or confused. The burn out that
might result from such an experience is terrible.
I will try to talk more about some specific
things that I mentioned in this article in more details in the future insha’Allah:
__
I guess I will split my conclusion to:
grand ma’s advice and good byes lol
And that would be my goodbye part sksksk
Thank you so much for tuning in and for
reading what I write.
Thank you for your cute and lovely
messages! I can’t thank you enough!
I will keep studying and learning more
about various aspects to provide quality content to you guys!
Until the next time take care of yourselves
and stay healthy!! Bye byee..
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