mithen | META: In Defense of Feels

I've seen, in a variety of places, decrying of what's sometimes called "Tumblr-speak," especially targeted toward the term "feels." "You should just say you feel something, not this ridiculous 'I have feels' thing," the argument goes. But today I wish to step up to the plate and give a light-hearted defense of "feels" for a moment--bear with me!

My main argument is that "feels" are actually qualitatively different from "feelings," and "having feels" is different from "having feelings" or "feeling something." "Feels" is actually a ~~perfectly cromulent~~ very useful word that describes a quite different emotional experience than "feeling" something. Specifically, feels are on the whole reserved for feelings related to the experience of fannish pleasure--in my experience, with an overtone of "a subset of extremely intense feelings that we all understand are linked to a fictional artifact." I've never heard anyone say something like "I had a lot of feels at my grandfather's funeral"--"feels" are reserved for Phil Coulson or the Doctor. I do see it used sometimes for a similar thing--emotions that are understood as fleeting but still crushingly intense while experienced--but on the whole it's used most often to discuss reactions to people and things not part of our day-to-day lives (Katara, Robert Downey Jr.).

"Feels" is a handy shorthand that serves to delineate a specific kind of emotional experience: one marked by intensity and purity that transcends "day to day" emotions of happiness and sorrow (with their often-muddied, contradictory undertones).

It's also a tongue-in-cheek way to downplay those emotions, to ironically distance yourself from them a little bit and make clear you don't take them that seriously. They're not feelings, they're feels. It's actually an incredibly useful and complex term, one that serves to mark a very specific kind of experience and to simultaneously elevate and disparage it. Feels are overwhelming, they blot out everything in a rush of emotion, either good or bad.

Feels are something to be savored and--at a certain level--enjoyed, even when they're negative. Sad feelings are awful; but watching something that gives you sad feels has a certain hyper-real pleasure to it (obviously, or certain creators wouldn't have such huge followings!)

The term is, far from being a corruption of the language, an elegantly precise word that serves a very useful function. So next time you feel reluctant to say something "hit you right in the feels" or to cry out "ow, my feels!" embrace your inner fan, let go of your inner grammarian, and go for it!

And with that, I humbly take my leave of you. Thank you for your consideration! Perhaps next year I shall try to parse and defend "I have lost my ability to can."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

opusculasedfera

Nicely put! It really is a different word, not just a shortening of "feelings." You'd think people would notice that they're used quite differently: when was the last time you heard someone say "I'm having a feeling about this" or "this gives me an emotion"? ;)

I'd say though that 'feels' are pure in their intensity, but also much more muddled than 'feelings'? For me, 'feels' often indicates having a bunch of emotions at once, particularly in that way that fiction can provide where, say, you're simultaneously excited because there's a new episode of your tv show, fascinated by its plot twist, and very upset because the plot twist makes a character you like sad, even if you think it's good for the story as a whole. It's not a word for the perhaps conflicting emotions you might feel about, say, a drawn-out break-up, but it's also not the word for straightforward "goddamn, $actor is hot" or "this kitten gif is the CUTEST" emotions because it's easier to attach specific terms to those?

From:

alltoseek

For me, 'feels' often indicates having a bunch of emotions at once, particularly in that way that fiction can provide

Yes, this too.

Besides, fandom is also a place to let go of our inner adult control-freak that has to present as professional uber!mature all the time. We can relax and be silly. And have ~feels~. Lots and lots of feels. And not have to articulate exactly what we mean by those feels because everyone else (in fandom) already knows :D

You should do the "I have lost the ability to can" one too. Part of that is from when we are so overwhelmed by the ~feels~ that we have lost the ability to articulate what exactly we are feeling, and also we no longer even care to spend all that effort trying to articulate, because we don't even have to, since we have this lovely expression already created for us to use :-)

Not to mention this shorthand is an easy way for people from a variety of language backgrounds to have some fandom slang to communicate.

From:

mekare

It's actually an incredibly useful and complex term, one that serves to mark a very specific kind of experience and to simultaneously elevate and disparage it.

I agree! I have always understood feels as only appropriate for emotions generated by fannish things.

And, OMG that kaonashi gif! Wonderful! It reminded me of my love for Spirited Away and inspired me to this.

Edited (because actually this wasn't meant to be a reply to this thread but now it is): Besides, fandom is also a place to let go of our inner adult control-freak that has to present as professional uber!mature all the time.

Yes! My inner child is whooping with joy/crushed by despair/gleeful like a gleeful thing/etc over fannish things. It is a nice counterbalance to real life.

Edited Date: 2013-05-17 09:33 pm (UTC)

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