![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I feel like I've been whiny about fandom lately. I do think there are a lot of negative things about fandom, both new things and long-existing problems. But I still love it. I'm not going anywhere. So this is a happier post talking about good fandom things!
So here are some things I love about current fandom:
+ Actually, media is more diverse and that's a good thing! Can you imagine a movie like Prey being made 15 years ago? Or KinnPorsche being such a big deal in English-speaking fandom? Would not have happened!
I still have occasional experiences where I feel like a specific canon is trying too hard instead of letting diversity arise from...like...human experiences, but that's a very, very small price to pay for the fact that shows and movies and books feature and star more kinds of people than they used to. This is good. Period.
[There needs to be a lot more progress on this front re: black and African/diaspora stories, but that's another issue.]
+ Along those same lines: way more canon queer stuff. What a relief.
+ The growing space for non-English-language fandoms! I remember when I first started watching Kdramas so many years ago, it was just a lonely experience! It was harder to find ways to watch things if they weren't on, like, Dramafever and there was no discussion of them happening in the English-speaking spaces I was aware of. And omg, trying to find kpop subs in 2012? And the video quality? Wow.
Again, some cultures have benefited more from this than others (non-English European, Asian and to some extent Latinx exports are exploding; African and indigenous ones are still lagging behind), and I hope that will change soon, but progress absolutely has been made.
I really feel that my fandom "faith tradition" is Western media fandom (I still think of those Kirk/Spock fans in the 60s making their 'zines as my fannish ancestors), but I love getting to explore stories from all over the world and have other people to talk about them with!
+ I'm also heartened by seeing more people post in more languages on AO3. I can't read any of their stories, but I'm so glad they're there! People were always writing fanfic in Thai or Finnish or whatever, but they were doing it in different places on the internet. Now those of us in the dominant Anglophone spaces are seeing more stuff in other languages and being forced to remember that, hey, fandom isn't just for us, and I think that is a good thing.
+ There is way, way more space to talk about the ways that our stories are shaped by colonization/sexism/homophobia/other negative forces. Sometimes I don't like the way these conversations go (you do not have to come up with a moral justification for why you find that ship squicky! Just say that it's squicky! You are not morally superior for finding it so!). But gosh. I remember when RaceFail '09 happened. Things are different now. In mostly good ways.
+ Are there more exchanges now? It feels like there are more exchanges now. Or maybe I'm just more aware of the range of them out there? Either way, they are a great joy.
+ Gifsets are fun. There is no greater joy than watching a significant Hand Moment between your OTP over and over on a beautifully high-res loop!
+ You know what else is fun? Tumblr shitposts. Sooooo much fun.
+ I still think of DW as a fannish space even though I mostly don't use it to talk about specific fandoms. My DW friends are scattered widely across so very many fandoms (or no fandoms at all), and we mostly talk about our lives or what books we're reading or whatever. And yet it still feels shaped by a fannish perspective on the world in a way that I can't put a finger on. And I love that. I love DW. I love y'all. My life has been better since I came back to DW.
+ The existence of AO3. Do I have quibbles (some fairly substantial) with it? Do I think that consolidating fanfiction in one place has some real downsides, too? Yes. But in general I think it's an extraordinary achievement, and I'm glad it's there.
+ Fanart is getting better. I cannot justify this feeling, but I really think it is! I see a greater variety of gorgeous fanart now than I did back in the early late 90s/2000s.
I am sure I'll think of other things later and come back to update this, but it's a good start for the moment!
So here are some things I love about current fandom:
+ Actually, media is more diverse and that's a good thing! Can you imagine a movie like Prey being made 15 years ago? Or KinnPorsche being such a big deal in English-speaking fandom? Would not have happened!
I still have occasional experiences where I feel like a specific canon is trying too hard instead of letting diversity arise from...like...human experiences, but that's a very, very small price to pay for the fact that shows and movies and books feature and star more kinds of people than they used to. This is good. Period.
[There needs to be a lot more progress on this front re: black and African/diaspora stories, but that's another issue.]
+ Along those same lines: way more canon queer stuff. What a relief.
+ The growing space for non-English-language fandoms! I remember when I first started watching Kdramas so many years ago, it was just a lonely experience! It was harder to find ways to watch things if they weren't on, like, Dramafever and there was no discussion of them happening in the English-speaking spaces I was aware of. And omg, trying to find kpop subs in 2012? And the video quality? Wow.
Again, some cultures have benefited more from this than others (non-English European, Asian and to some extent Latinx exports are exploding; African and indigenous ones are still lagging behind), and I hope that will change soon, but progress absolutely has been made.
I really feel that my fandom "faith tradition" is Western media fandom (I still think of those Kirk/Spock fans in the 60s making their 'zines as my fannish ancestors), but I love getting to explore stories from all over the world and have other people to talk about them with!
+ I'm also heartened by seeing more people post in more languages on AO3. I can't read any of their stories, but I'm so glad they're there! People were always writing fanfic in Thai or Finnish or whatever, but they were doing it in different places on the internet. Now those of us in the dominant Anglophone spaces are seeing more stuff in other languages and being forced to remember that, hey, fandom isn't just for us, and I think that is a good thing.
+ There is way, way more space to talk about the ways that our stories are shaped by colonization/sexism/homophobia/other negative forces. Sometimes I don't like the way these conversations go (you do not have to come up with a moral justification for why you find that ship squicky! Just say that it's squicky! You are not morally superior for finding it so!). But gosh. I remember when RaceFail '09 happened. Things are different now. In mostly good ways.
+ Are there more exchanges now? It feels like there are more exchanges now. Or maybe I'm just more aware of the range of them out there? Either way, they are a great joy.
+ Gifsets are fun. There is no greater joy than watching a significant Hand Moment between your OTP over and over on a beautifully high-res loop!
+ You know what else is fun? Tumblr shitposts. Sooooo much fun.
+ I still think of DW as a fannish space even though I mostly don't use it to talk about specific fandoms. My DW friends are scattered widely across so very many fandoms (or no fandoms at all), and we mostly talk about our lives or what books we're reading or whatever. And yet it still feels shaped by a fannish perspective on the world in a way that I can't put a finger on. And I love that. I love DW. I love y'all. My life has been better since I came back to DW.
+ The existence of AO3. Do I have quibbles (some fairly substantial) with it? Do I think that consolidating fanfiction in one place has some real downsides, too? Yes. But in general I think it's an extraordinary achievement, and I'm glad it's there.
+ Fanart is getting better. I cannot justify this feeling, but I really think it is! I see a greater variety of gorgeous fanart now than I did back in the early late 90s/2000s.
I am sure I'll think of other things later and come back to update this, but it's a good start for the moment!
