Prescriptivism in Daria Fanfiction

Although the term is usually associated with the teaching of grammar, a prescriptivist is one who believes that there are tenets, conventions, and essential features—in sum, prescriptions—that individuals engaged in some activity must adhere to for their works to be legitimate. In contrast, a descriptivist is one who takes the work of those who identify themselves as engaged in an activity as the primary data from which the current features of the activity are to be deduced. Therefore, a fanfiction prescriptivist is someone who believes that there are certain essential features that a Daria fic must have or else it is illegitimate, i.e., not a Daria fic to begin with.