WOY FANDOM PSA: Protect Yourself From Possible Fetish Mining

WOY FANDOM PSA: protect yourself from possible fetish mining

Familiarize yourself with what fetish mining is so you can recognize the warning signs and avoid being exploited by people who do this. If you ever feel uncomfortable with something, trust your gut and know that you're never obligated to go along with anything you don't really want to, especially if anything about it feels "off."

This is stuff everybody should be aware about, but I'm making this PSA specifically for the woy fandom because we've had an ongoing problem with somebody in the fandom who very much appears to be fetish mining. This user is VERY active & outgoing in the fandom and they constantly send people fanart—and try to get people to draw them the same kind of fanart—that has the recurring theme of tentacles/bondage, yandere, & characters sweating/shaking in fear.

This is not to shame people for having weird interests or even fetishes. The issue with behavior like this, if the fixation is a fetish, is leading people into creating or engaging with fetish content without their informed consent, which is exploitative (and can even count as sexual harassment, if not worse.)

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The user being discussed in this post is wanderfan2000. I am NOT naming her to get her shamed/harassed - if you send any hate and harassment her way, you're an absolute dirtball. I am only naming her because there are serious & credible allegations of inappropriate behavior (suspected fetish mining) on her part, so I want for people to be able to exercise caution around her!

For additional background: wanderfan2000 is known for constantly talking to people about her obsession with The Lonely Planet, and for being fixated with Wander being wrapped up in Planet Janet's vines or in any situation that makes him visibly anxious/terrified (e.g. she also has a thing for depictions of Wander being hunted by the Phantomines from The Heebie Jeebies.) She also goes to people who she knows are underage to ask them to discuss or draw these things for her...

A minor she's interacted with in this way sent me the following messages & screenshots and asked that I share them under the condition that I keep their account name censored for their protection. This person is underage and was still approached by wanderfan2000 to draw what we're afraid was a thinly-veiled request for fetish art. Here are the testimonies I've been asked to share:

(The context behind me getting this ask is that I made a post the other day talking about how scared I was that a certain "somebody" - I was nervous to name her at the time because part of me still wanted to give benefit of the doubt - was an active fetish miner in the fandom. After seeing my post, they came into my inbox to share their experience with wanderfan2000 and the disconcerting interactions they've had with her.)

Their interactions with wanderfan2000:

TW for suspected fetish mining / sexual harassment of a minor in the next screenshot:

I don't have any other screenshots because, quite frankly, I don't have the stomach to hunt down additional evidence, but I've also witnessed wanderfan2000 hitting up fans of all ages to engage in roleplays with her, which, even if she keeps her roleplays on here 100% G-rated, is a huge red flag in and of itself bc she likes to RP stuff about Wander and Janet/yanderes, which are the very things she's suspected of fetish mining for. Either way, it's evident that she doesn't establish boundaries for interacting with underage fans bc she discusses & requests the same things from them that she does with adults, which is not safe.

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The only person who can know for a fact whether or not wanderfan2000 was fetish mining people for her own gratification is wanderfan2000 herself. (Once again, DO NOT HARASS WANDERFAN2000 OVER THIS.) Sometimes it's easy to figure out whether or not this is going on, and sometimes, due to the nature of it relying entirely on plausible deniability, it can be incredibly hard to tell if someone is fetish mining. I can't speak for her intentions, but I will say that wanderfan2000's art posts and patterns of behavior show major signs of her having a fetish. So on that note, if you feel that wanderfan2000 or anyone else is fetish mining people, DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THEM. DO NOT SEND THEM HATE MAIL OR OTHERWISE HARASS THEM. SIMPLY BLOCK/IGNORE THEM. Warn anyone you think they might be taking advantage of, if need be, and leave it at that. Don't be afraid to block or say no to somebody who's making you feel uncomfortable online - and I don't just mean in these types of contexts. Again, your safety should always come first, and if you ever get a bad feeling about someone or about a situation, you have no obligation to tough it out if your gut is telling you something's wrong! It's always okay to disengage. You ALWAYS have the right to say you're uncomfortable with something.

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wanderfan2000's response:

Wanderfan2000 made a post in response to the original PSA warning about her behavior, and we talked about what the problem was in the post replies. I didn't get any screenshots of her individual replies to me on there because she kept deleting and rewriting them each time I added a new point, but there is another post, here, where we talked some more in the notes; you can look there for more of her comments. I'm sharing this because I think it's important for people to know that she's acknowledged the allegations, shared her side, and promised to fix her behavior so she doesn't cause people harm. The decision to believe her side of the story and trust that she'll be mindful of others going forward is up to each of you, and the choice to accept her apology is solely up to the people she's hurt.

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Apologies for how long this post has gotten, but hopefully this can help people inform themselves on how to stay safe from fetish mining and other forms of explotative behavior online. Maybe this can even bring awareness to people who might be engaging in similar behaviors so they can self-reflect and stop themselves from potentially victimizing anybody, too. Remember that being mindful of other people's comfort and consent is ALWAYS important.

Stay safe, everybody.