I respect Viki Lois Kent-Wayne
You know what I fucking hate? When the media gets a piece of fandom and writes these tongue in cheek, laugh behind their hands articles and blog entries about it.
I don't know anything about soccer. It interests me, not in the slightest, but I don't sit here mocking people who do like it. I don't make snide posts about sweaty dudes ripping their clothes off. You want to know why? Because while the practices BAFFLE me, I know other people GENUINELY enjoy this shit.
It really pisses me off when people who AREN'T members of fandom mock it because they have no concept of its function or what it means. If I were prone to hyperbole, I'd say it was like being culturally offended.
I've always sort of considered fandom to BE a subculture. We have our own norms, our own nomenclature. Our territory is the internet and while we aren't a concentrated force our numbers are legion.
Mpeg doesn't even make me blink anymore. While I'm not into it, tons of members of fandom are. I respect that. I think we should ALL respect that because, while I don't fetishize a dude with a baby bump, I totally fetishize motorcycles and kevlar. I'm in no position to be critical.
Don't get me wrong, I mock myself for my fannish tendencies all the time. I belittle my hobbies and my fic. I denigrate it, I make light of it in casual conversations especially with people who KNOW I write fic but aren't in fandom.
However deep down inside, both my stories and being a member of fandom, mean more to me than that. No matter what a say and to whom my fic isn't just porn. My stories have MEANT SOMETHING to people, they've changed the way they approach life. I'm not just being vain here. I've gotten emails and comments from people over the years saying JUST THAT. And while I know that nothing I've written is spectacular or even particularly noteworthy, I still take comfort and a sense of satisfaction from knowing that my stories have actively HELPED people and made them feel better about their lives. Even if it IS with just a smile or a warm, gushy feeling.
To me, fandom has a function. It helps me emote, it helps me interact, it gives me a creative outlet. It gives me a place to grow as a writer and a person. It has helped me make some of the closest friends I have ever HAD and I will never regret a moment I spent writing about Superman blowing Batman in the Batmobile. Because fandom is MORE than that. It's more than a picture of Batman with a baby bump and it's more than some geek dressed up as Naruto.
And it's not just me. It's an outlet for many people. It's a support system. It's a social life. It's a place to be and love and learn and grow.
If all of this is true for me, someone who approaches fandom rather casually, I can only imagine how it is for people who are MORE serious about it. Who pump all their spare money and time into it.
If this article, and ones like it, pissed me off, think of how THEY feel.
Anyway, the long and short of this is, I wish people wouldn't be critical of things they don't understand. It's one thing for us to tease each other about being geeks, it's quite another to openly mock a particular subculture just because it seems like an easy target.
In closing: Don't be dick. Let Batman have his baby.
I don't know anything about soccer. It interests me, not in the slightest, but I don't sit here mocking people who do like it. I don't make snide posts about sweaty dudes ripping their clothes off. You want to know why? Because while the practices BAFFLE me, I know other people GENUINELY enjoy this shit.
It really pisses me off when people who AREN'T members of fandom mock it because they have no concept of its function or what it means. If I were prone to hyperbole, I'd say it was like being culturally offended.
I've always sort of considered fandom to BE a subculture. We have our own norms, our own nomenclature. Our territory is the internet and while we aren't a concentrated force our numbers are legion.
Mpeg doesn't even make me blink anymore. While I'm not into it, tons of members of fandom are. I respect that. I think we should ALL respect that because, while I don't fetishize a dude with a baby bump, I totally fetishize motorcycles and kevlar. I'm in no position to be critical.
Don't get me wrong, I mock myself for my fannish tendencies all the time. I belittle my hobbies and my fic. I denigrate it, I make light of it in casual conversations especially with people who KNOW I write fic but aren't in fandom.
However deep down inside, both my stories and being a member of fandom, mean more to me than that. No matter what a say and to whom my fic isn't just porn. My stories have MEANT SOMETHING to people, they've changed the way they approach life. I'm not just being vain here. I've gotten emails and comments from people over the years saying JUST THAT. And while I know that nothing I've written is spectacular or even particularly noteworthy, I still take comfort and a sense of satisfaction from knowing that my stories have actively HELPED people and made them feel better about their lives. Even if it IS with just a smile or a warm, gushy feeling.
To me, fandom has a function. It helps me emote, it helps me interact, it gives me a creative outlet. It gives me a place to grow as a writer and a person. It has helped me make some of the closest friends I have ever HAD and I will never regret a moment I spent writing about Superman blowing Batman in the Batmobile. Because fandom is MORE than that. It's more than a picture of Batman with a baby bump and it's more than some geek dressed up as Naruto.
And it's not just me. It's an outlet for many people. It's a support system. It's a social life. It's a place to be and love and learn and grow.
If all of this is true for me, someone who approaches fandom rather casually, I can only imagine how it is for people who are MORE serious about it. Who pump all their spare money and time into it.
If this article, and ones like it, pissed me off, think of how THEY feel.
Anyway, the long and short of this is, I wish people wouldn't be critical of things they don't understand. It's one thing for us to tease each other about being geeks, it's quite another to openly mock a particular subculture just because it seems like an easy target.
In closing: Don't be dick. Let Batman have his baby.