META: In Defense of Feels

[mithen]

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."

Comments

Re: here via month_of_meta

[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.

Re: here via month_of_meta

[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.

Re: here via month_of_meta

[mithen]

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

Someone commented that they've seen people use it as a replacement for real-life feelings, and when I looked the "feels" tag on Tumblr I did see some of that, but that seems to be a kind of creeping of meaning to me. I suspect eventually it will transfer over to the larger world entirely, and then fans will have to find a NEW way to express roughly the same thing. :)

Kaonashi is one of my favorite characters--that might not be the best thing to say considering he's, well, kind of messed up, but he just...he has a lot of feels, okay? :)

Re: here via month_of_meta

[mekare]

I liked him immensely when I first watched Spirited Away. He just seemed so bewildered, not intentionally bad just overwhelmed and wanting people to like him.

Re: here via month_of_meta

[mithen]

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 :-)

OMG, you are absolutely right! "I'm gonna start off all grammatical but by the end I doN'T KNOW ANY MORE OMG all my coherence is gONE."

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

I hadn't even thought of this, but I love it! It's true, having a sort of "fannish language" that starts with English but has certain key phrases that are fannish-only makes it so much easier to form connections with people from different backgrounds. That's great.

I also love your celebration of the chance to be a little goofy and emotional "off the clock"! I spend a lot of time holding down a job and being mature, and sometimes I just really like the chance to *flail* and go "OMG Stephen bby my fEELs OMG." :D

Re: here via month_of_meta

[alltoseek]

I just really like the chance to *flail* and go "OMG Stephen bby my fEELs OMG."

I think when confronted by loquacious perspicacious everything-acious Stephen, that's pretty much the only rational response anyway: "Oh yeah? Well" *flails* "~FEELS~ So there!!11!1!!"

... Now I think of it, that's pretty much what Jack does. Only with a violin.

:D :D :D

Re: here via month_of_meta

[mithen]

... Now I think of it, that's pretty much what Jack does. Only with a violin.

Oh my, you are absolutely right. JACK HAS STEPHEN FEELS. This is why we love him so much. *grin*