The problem with fandom
So, like everyone else in fandom, I am a queer disabled woman who loves video games. And like everyone else in fandom, I find great joy expressing myself through femslash fancomics about the robots in those video games. But something has been annoying me lately and I need to get it off my chest.
Where are the robot/human enemy ships?
(nb I've mainly talked about Portal but I think this applies equally to other fandoms)
All women are socialised to feel negative about their bodies, thanks to having lots of chest infections and confused feelings about Matilda from Doctor Snuggles as a girl in Western Australia in the 1980s. Robot/human relationships are the only way women can work through these feelings, and are a respected genre for exploring the nature of the self and the soul. Yet fandom insists on creating human/human enemy femslash fancomics, thus contributing to the marginalisation of those of us with body issues, as well as kink shaming robot sex as somehow freakish or gross (as if those of us who like such relationships in fiction are somehow actually having sex with robots. Which: no. Ew) Mainstream media is full of human/human relationships, why pollute fandom with them too? Obviously these people are just in it for the boring vanilla het porn and are incapable of appreciating the unique and beautiful relationship between a woman and her robot love. (I haven't mentioned robot/robot shipping because I don't know much about it. I guess some people like it but it seems a bit weird to me)
Some claim that robot/human enemy femslash ships are hard to come by in canon. Yet look at all the people who actively deny the canonical relationship between GlaDOS and Chell in Portal 2, some going so far as to claim that GlaDOS is Chell's mother (which is both biologically impossible and messed up. I don't mean to overgeneralise, but these people clearly all have Oedipus complexes) Then there are all the Wheatley/Chell fancomics even though Wheatley had no chemistry with Chell whatsoever. The robot/human enemy femslash ships are there fandom, you're just choosing to ignore them.
And then when I do find Chell/GlaDOS femslash fancomics? They have the two of them being FRIENDS. This is not only horribly OOC, but encourages abusive relationships, since it implies that the only way to love someone is to be totally happy all the time and never argue or criticise them (as we all know, what you like in fic is directly related to what you think is good in real life) Have these people forgotten that GlaDOS tried to KILL Chell? I guess they think murder is ok! It's pretty upsetting for those of us who have had abusive partners who expected us to be happy all the time. Clearly anyone who creates robot/human femslash fancomics about couples who aren't enemies is a naive twelve year old girl with no idea about relationships who likes Twilight. Or is a serial killer.
In short, the lack of robot/human enemy femslash fancomics is everything that's wrong with fandom, and just goes to show how selfish, ignorant, and lazy all fans other than me are. BUT I'M NOT SAYING THAT CREATING OTHER KINDS OF FANWORK IS BAD. I have created other kinds of fanwork myself (though I blame everyone else in fandom for pressuring me to do it)! I'm just saying, maybe we should try to stop being so terrible. Is that too much to ask?
nb I'm going to assume that anyone who disagrees with me simply lacks the basic education (eg a phd in computational mathematics) required to discuss the subject in any depth.
(In case it's not obvious: THIS IS SATIRE. Not of people criticising problematic fannish trends in principle, just of people overgeneralising their own experiences and needs onto everyone else and trying to shame fandom into making more of what they like in an entirely negative and unhelpful way. Inspired most recently by various posts about femslash, unhappy endings, enemy ships, and shipping in general all being "problematic".
That said, I really do wish there were more robot/human enemy femslash fancomics)
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/475355.html. There are
comments.
Where are the robot/human enemy ships?
(nb I've mainly talked about Portal but I think this applies equally to other fandoms)
All women are socialised to feel negative about their bodies, thanks to having lots of chest infections and confused feelings about Matilda from Doctor Snuggles as a girl in Western Australia in the 1980s. Robot/human relationships are the only way women can work through these feelings, and are a respected genre for exploring the nature of the self and the soul. Yet fandom insists on creating human/human enemy femslash fancomics, thus contributing to the marginalisation of those of us with body issues, as well as kink shaming robot sex as somehow freakish or gross (as if those of us who like such relationships in fiction are somehow actually having sex with robots. Which: no. Ew) Mainstream media is full of human/human relationships, why pollute fandom with them too? Obviously these people are just in it for the boring vanilla het porn and are incapable of appreciating the unique and beautiful relationship between a woman and her robot love. (I haven't mentioned robot/robot shipping because I don't know much about it. I guess some people like it but it seems a bit weird to me)
Some claim that robot/human enemy femslash ships are hard to come by in canon. Yet look at all the people who actively deny the canonical relationship between GlaDOS and Chell in Portal 2, some going so far as to claim that GlaDOS is Chell's mother (which is both biologically impossible and messed up. I don't mean to overgeneralise, but these people clearly all have Oedipus complexes) Then there are all the Wheatley/Chell fancomics even though Wheatley had no chemistry with Chell whatsoever. The robot/human enemy femslash ships are there fandom, you're just choosing to ignore them.
And then when I do find Chell/GlaDOS femslash fancomics? They have the two of them being FRIENDS. This is not only horribly OOC, but encourages abusive relationships, since it implies that the only way to love someone is to be totally happy all the time and never argue or criticise them (as we all know, what you like in fic is directly related to what you think is good in real life) Have these people forgotten that GlaDOS tried to KILL Chell? I guess they think murder is ok! It's pretty upsetting for those of us who have had abusive partners who expected us to be happy all the time. Clearly anyone who creates robot/human femslash fancomics about couples who aren't enemies is a naive twelve year old girl with no idea about relationships who likes Twilight. Or is a serial killer.
In short, the lack of robot/human enemy femslash fancomics is everything that's wrong with fandom, and just goes to show how selfish, ignorant, and lazy all fans other than me are. BUT I'M NOT SAYING THAT CREATING OTHER KINDS OF FANWORK IS BAD. I have created other kinds of fanwork myself (though I blame everyone else in fandom for pressuring me to do it)! I'm just saying, maybe we should try to stop being so terrible. Is that too much to ask?
nb I'm going to assume that anyone who disagrees with me simply lacks the basic education (eg a phd in computational mathematics) required to discuss the subject in any depth.
(In case it's not obvious: THIS IS SATIRE. Not of people criticising problematic fannish trends in principle, just of people overgeneralising their own experiences and needs onto everyone else and trying to shame fandom into making more of what they like in an entirely negative and unhelpful way. Inspired most recently by various posts about femslash, unhappy endings, enemy ships, and shipping in general all being "problematic".
That said, I really do wish there were more robot/human enemy femslash fancomics)
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/475355.html. There are
comments.