I wanted to come back to this because I just had an interesting experience. I have a friend, 25, who still lives with her parents. Which is fine, I have no problem with that. She has no job nor college education; we went to highschool together, and she never had an interest in higher education. Again, no issue with that. She makes beautiful fanart to pay the meager rent she is charged, and I recently learned that she spends the rest of her free time being incredibly spiteful and hateful towards older fans. Like, downright misogynistic towards any woman over 30, especially if they're mothers. She feels they shouldn't be in fandom and that they're ruining her experience. Now, they haven't done anything to her; in fact, she told me they were very nice. From my understanding, these older women are well-loved in the fandom and have lots of fans, friends, and engagement. My friend feels that they don't deserve this and they should "grow up" and care for their kids (because as we all know, all a woman should ever do is mother her children). She complained to me about them, with no self-awareness whatsoever as she spouted some of the most misogynistic rhetoric I've ever heard come out of a supposed leftist woman's mouth. When I pointed this out to her, she said, "Again, these women are in their 30s and 40s with kids. They have a million things they could be doing instead of making fanart for a video game."

I have a sneaking suspicion that, regardless of the talent behind some of these adult artists, there is a fairly thick layer of jealousy and internalized misogyny involved. . . Especially if they aren't well-liked in their social spheres. Combined with a lack of ambition and a plethora of free time, you get. . . Whatever the fuck this is supposed to be.