About The Pasture

The Pasture is a blog dedicated to engaging thoughtfully with fanworks—such as fanfiction, fanart, and fan music—as valuable creative and cultural practices. I reject the assumption that these works are inherently less meaningful than other forms and instead treat them with the same dignity, respect, and critical eye as I would any other.

I personally entered fandom as a child and remained there into adulthood. For myself and many others it became a primary source of community and belonging among my peers, both online and off. Simultaneously, though, I was ashamed of my interest in something most people saw as cringe. Even among fans, the instinct is often to dismiss fanworks as lesser, or as stepping stones toward original, marketable work.

Over time, I've come to recognize that this dismissal never came from a real measure of quality or value. It's an easy way for traditional spaces to keep new, often marginalized voices out. Cringe itself is often a purely reactionary feeling sparked when something or someone defies social expectations, regardless of if that defiance does harm. Fandoms in particular are largely made up of people whose work pushes back against traditional media norms by being transformative. Having created the rules for what counts as "good art," traditional spaces maintain the power to label these works inferior. In doing so, their creators are also excluded.

Over the years this exclusion has led fans to build their own creative communities, values, and platforms outside of traditional structures. As these spaces grow, we are less and less reliant on traditional industries to drive culture, build community, tell stories and entertain us. I want to carry on down this path in my own way through The Pasture and create a space to discuss and value the un-marketable, the transformative, and the cringe.

Much love,

Darge <3