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fandom on my mind
Since I've been thinking fairly shallow but copious thoughts about fandom lately and some of y'all have enjoyed talking about them, here are some more. Many things have changed over the years in fandom. Some are undeniably for the worse. Say, for example, the erosion of the fourth wall. Omg I hatehatehatehatehatehate this development. It is the one I find most difficult to live with and I would give anything to go back to the time when you simply did not talk about fandom outside of fandom.
Otoh, there's lots of things that have changed for the better, and then a whole realm of changes whose goodness/badness is entirely subjective, like platforms.
But here are a handful of things that have not changed in the 20+ years I've been participating in fandom:
- People fighting over the dumbest shit. Whether you call it ship wars or fanwank or discourse, fandom is always full of people who for some reason think that they need to die on the smallest of hills. This will assuredly never change, and I'm just glad that this is always accompanied by...
+ People finding ways to curate their own fannish experience--finding small groups of like-minded people who want to do fandom like they do. How difficult or easy it is to find those people fluctuates wildly depending on platform and fandom, but I do believe that it's almost always possible in all but the most minuscule of fandoms.
- People treating fanon like it's canon. This is obviously very connected to the first bullet, but distinct enough imo to treat as its own bullet point.
+ People blowing me away with their writing skills/insight into stories and storytelling. In every fandom, there are those talented people who are just so good that it inspires me to want to be a better writer. There are so many wonderful stories in my heart from over the decades that I still think about fondly!
- Racism. Homophobia too, and ableism, and other things, but imo the racism is the most glaring and egregious and while things absolutely have improved in a lot of ways, I still don't think that fandom in general cares about characters of color (especially black or indigenous ones), much less about the--vastly more important--experiences of actual people of color, especially outside of the Anglophone world.
+ The humor. People are so funny in fandom all the time. Many days, my biggest laugh comes from someone making a completely hilarious two-line post on Tumblr. As a person who is not at all naturally funny or witty, I appreciate this deeply. I think that fandom has shaped my sense of humor more than I've ever really thought about, and I definitely feel most "at home" in fannish humor as opposed to all the different kinds of humor in the wider world.
- Abandoned fics. I guess this goes without saying, but there are some fics from literally 15 years ago or more that were never finished that I still think about! In fandoms that I don't really care about anymore! But I still care about that particular fic! And I would still read more of it if the author appeared out of nowhere and decided to finish it (as very, very, very occasionally happens!).
I 100% understand why people abandon fics--I've done it myself, though not for many years--but it can still break your heart!
- The flipside of this: fannish entitlement. So many people just don't seem to understand that fannish creators have, you know, actual lives and don't have an endless amount of time to write/vid/draw/whatever. I know it's frustrating to have to wait for more from your favorite creator! It truly is! But that's just life and you're an asshole if you put pressure on someone to hurry.
People seem to have a hard time realizing that there's a difference between saying, "I am so enjoying this and will eagerly wait for the next chapter, whenever that is ready!" and saying, "post more soon." And of course sometimes the "post more soon" people are just not native speakers and struggle with nuance, and I get that! But sometimes people who can communicate easily are just assholes.
+ Fannish generosity. The means of expressing this can change--in the old days, I remember people who recorded VHS episodes of a TV show and then send them through the mail to their friends on the other side of the world, which obviously doesn't happen now--but the urge to share is still here and it's beautiful. I've been very moved over the years watching the way it can start out as sharing of fandom and end up as the sharing of money, living space, and of course emotional support. The way it crosses over into our real lives is beautiful.
- Censorship of fandom. Outsiders, especially those that have money at stake, just love to censor fandom. And then fans have to migrate platforms. And it sucks.
+ Global friendships. Probably the single thing I most appreciate about my time in fandom is getting to know people from completely different backgrounds and from all over the world. Who would I be if I hadn't started making fannish friends at 12? I have no idea! But I don't want to know that person! The many friends I've made over the years have made me a much, much better person and widened my view of the world exponentially. I cannot put into words what a blessing my fannish friendships have been to me.
Otoh, there's lots of things that have changed for the better, and then a whole realm of changes whose goodness/badness is entirely subjective, like platforms.
But here are a handful of things that have not changed in the 20+ years I've been participating in fandom:
- People fighting over the dumbest shit. Whether you call it ship wars or fanwank or discourse, fandom is always full of people who for some reason think that they need to die on the smallest of hills. This will assuredly never change, and I'm just glad that this is always accompanied by...
+ People finding ways to curate their own fannish experience--finding small groups of like-minded people who want to do fandom like they do. How difficult or easy it is to find those people fluctuates wildly depending on platform and fandom, but I do believe that it's almost always possible in all but the most minuscule of fandoms.
- People treating fanon like it's canon. This is obviously very connected to the first bullet, but distinct enough imo to treat as its own bullet point.
+ People blowing me away with their writing skills/insight into stories and storytelling. In every fandom, there are those talented people who are just so good that it inspires me to want to be a better writer. There are so many wonderful stories in my heart from over the decades that I still think about fondly!
- Racism. Homophobia too, and ableism, and other things, but imo the racism is the most glaring and egregious and while things absolutely have improved in a lot of ways, I still don't think that fandom in general cares about characters of color (especially black or indigenous ones), much less about the--vastly more important--experiences of actual people of color, especially outside of the Anglophone world.
+ The humor. People are so funny in fandom all the time. Many days, my biggest laugh comes from someone making a completely hilarious two-line post on Tumblr. As a person who is not at all naturally funny or witty, I appreciate this deeply. I think that fandom has shaped my sense of humor more than I've ever really thought about, and I definitely feel most "at home" in fannish humor as opposed to all the different kinds of humor in the wider world.
- Abandoned fics. I guess this goes without saying, but there are some fics from literally 15 years ago or more that were never finished that I still think about! In fandoms that I don't really care about anymore! But I still care about that particular fic! And I would still read more of it if the author appeared out of nowhere and decided to finish it (as very, very, very occasionally happens!).
I 100% understand why people abandon fics--I've done it myself, though not for many years--but it can still break your heart!
- The flipside of this: fannish entitlement. So many people just don't seem to understand that fannish creators have, you know, actual lives and don't have an endless amount of time to write/vid/draw/whatever. I know it's frustrating to have to wait for more from your favorite creator! It truly is! But that's just life and you're an asshole if you put pressure on someone to hurry.
People seem to have a hard time realizing that there's a difference between saying, "I am so enjoying this and will eagerly wait for the next chapter, whenever that is ready!" and saying, "post more soon." And of course sometimes the "post more soon" people are just not native speakers and struggle with nuance, and I get that! But sometimes people who can communicate easily are just assholes.
+ Fannish generosity. The means of expressing this can change--in the old days, I remember people who recorded VHS episodes of a TV show and then send them through the mail to their friends on the other side of the world, which obviously doesn't happen now--but the urge to share is still here and it's beautiful. I've been very moved over the years watching the way it can start out as sharing of fandom and end up as the sharing of money, living space, and of course emotional support. The way it crosses over into our real lives is beautiful.
- Censorship of fandom. Outsiders, especially those that have money at stake, just love to censor fandom. And then fans have to migrate platforms. And it sucks.
+ Global friendships. Probably the single thing I most appreciate about my time in fandom is getting to know people from completely different backgrounds and from all over the world. Who would I be if I hadn't started making fannish friends at 12? I have no idea! But I don't want to know that person! The many friends I've made over the years have made me a much, much better person and widened my view of the world exponentially. I cannot put into words what a blessing my fannish friendships have been to me.
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The abandoned fics are heartbreaking because some of them were just so good but it's completely understandable.
The whole thing of talking about fandom outside in REAL LIFE?! Like,no thank you, I'm still a millenial who believes that the rest of the people around me will just look at me weirdly because 'why would you read stories about story-book people?' Also, it's a part of me just for me and I'd rather not associate my RL friends and people with it,lol.
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Yeah, that's one great way to avoid the ship wars! I have witnessed far, far too many in my time, though thankfully I've never actually been involved in one. Just...adjacent.
I'm still a millenial who believes that the rest of the people around me will just look at me weirdly because 'why would you read stories about story-book people?' Also, it's a part of me just for me and I'd rather not associate my RL friends and people with it,lol.
1000%!!!!
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And emoticons! Emoticons are forever!
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The last time I was closely involved in a fandom it was a small one and ended in so much bad feeling and cruelty that I was afraid of getting involved again for a long time. But I've encountered some amazing people with ideas that challenged and broadened my own, and people who might have a different background to me and different beliefs but were still so kind and friendly that I wanted to be less narrow myself.
I also would never break the fandom omertà. Seriously, people do that now??
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Oh, that's sad. I've witnessed a lot of that sort of thing in fandom over the years. People can really be terrible to each other.
Seriously, people do that now??
ALL THE TIME. Giving their fanfic to the actors at cons, making the actors read fanfic in interviews (it's always explicit, never any gen character studies), etc.
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This is the only way I remember watching DS9 and Voyager, even though I know I was in the States for at least part of their runs. We lived abroad for my dad's job for most of the 90s, and my aunt would tape Star Trek for us and mail the VHS tapes to Germany.
Probably the single thing I most appreciate about my time in fandom is getting to know people from completely different backgrounds and from all over the world.
This was my experience in Spuffy fandom, and to my regret, I've never recaptured it. I've never managed to make friends through Tumblr, and SPN fandom was so big and had/has so many ship wars and so much wank that I stayed in my little corner and didn't really participate in fandom at large (which I still think was the right call for SPN specifically). Weirdly, I've also just gotten worse at making online friends as I've gotten older (and conversely, a little better at making offline friends; you'd think it would be the opposite), which I think is in part due to not feeling fannishly creative about anything in years and years; it feels weird to reach out to potential new friends when I'm not creating anything or really even consuming much fannish content myself.
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Awww!!!! I adore this.
and SPN fandom was so big and had/has so many ship wars and so much wank that I stayed in my little corner and didn't really participate in fandom at large (which I still think was the right call for SPN specifically).
Yeah, that probably was the right call.
and conversely, a little better at making offline friends
That's great!
which I think is in part due to not feeling fannishly creative about anything in years and years; it feels weird to reach out to potential new friends when I'm not creating anything or really even consuming much fannish content myself.
Yeah, that makes sense. I definitely made a lot fewer friends during that stretch of time when I wasn't reading/writing fic.
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I love this so much.
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I've always been lucky to not be involved in any of the fan wars; I saw some of the aftermath or I hear about drama happening somewhere, but usually it doesn't cross my own experience.
Abandoned fics are always so sad. :( I still year for one particular PotC fic, hoping that it might be finished one day (and especially hoping that the author actually is alright, because I remember there being health issues at one point)... It's so so good and it was this close to being finished too. T_T
But because there have been too many disappointments over the years, I now tend to not read WiPs with the exception of tsome authors where I know that they are very reliable and usually have the fic basically finish when they start posting.
I also will only ever start posting a fic myself when it's already finished, because I know that I might get totally stuck on a WiP and then run out of steam.
The entitlement has gotten worse, I think. Just the general demand of wanting more instantly, which of course comes from the instant gratification many other social media sites work with. And yeah, I'm also seriously missing the 4th wall...
Global friendship are wonderful! I've also found some fandom friends that are dear to me and that I'd never have met without fandom!
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Lucky!
I still year for one particular PotC fic, hoping that it might be finished one day (and especially hoping that the author actually is alright, because I remember there being health issues at one point)... It's so so good and it was this close to being finished too. T_T
I think anyone who's been in fandom long enough has had a similar experience. I, too, hope this person is all right.
I also will only ever start posting a fic myself when it's already finished, because I know that I might get totally stuck on a WiP and then run out of steam.
SAME. I have set this rule for myself, and it has served me well.
I've also found some fandom friends that are dear to me and that I'd never have met without fandom!
It's the best!
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Sending greetings from across the globe! (And yes, I love how many different countries I've encountered through fandom.)
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