re fan art being more legitimate than fanfic, my kneejerk reaction is threefold: 1) everyone has doodled harry potter in the corner of their notebook because everyone doodles, but not everyone has written harry potter fanfic bc not everyone writes, 2) the Weird Porn Made For Girls thing probably only applies to fanfic because drawing porn is harder than writing it, and 3) the fact that fanfic is narrative. i feel like people would probably be equally weird about longform fan comics or fan art series if they knew about them. when people think of fan art, it's one piece of fan art. when they think of fanfiction they think of novella length stuff.

i think it's the level of obsession, also. drawing a picture of something doesn't necessarily imply you've spent too much time on that thing. like, using models and imitating styles is a normal part of being an artist. fanfic is something creepy obsessives do, fan art is for normal people