(no subject)
so i read this awesome tumblr post, which spawned me to make my own, which i have reposted here for posterity or something. (you know it's serious when i break out the capital letters... :))
FANDOM : a manifesto of sorts
This is something I struggle with, like a lot of fans do, I think, to explain to people who aren't fandom-oriented, people who've never wanted more from their TV or books or movies. For me it's like trying to explain two parts of myself that I'm often told aren't mainstream or common-- that I'm a fangeek and that I'm gay. Trying to explain to someone who's straight and who didn't spend most of their childhood with books and movies as their only friends, why I see gay subtext in half the things I watch and want to see it made actual text... some people have never had the experience of watching a movie or reading a book and thinking, "Wow that was great, I just wish there had been a character like me in there."
And that's really the key phrase, isn't it? Like me. How do you define that? For some women it's enough to see Xena and Buffy on screen, or even Alicia from The Good Wife or CJ on The West Wing. Strong women who get their own stories that aren't all about their relationships to men. And that's awesome, of course; there was a time not too long ago when that wasn't the case. It's a battle still being fought. I can't tell you how furious it made me to hear that they made Stana Katic grow out her hair because short hair made Beckett "not feminine enough" for mainstream TV. So that's something that is still an issue. Don't get me wrong, I love me some strong women on TV and in movies. But Black Widow doesn't get her own movie, does she? How many superhero movies have come out in the past few years with a woman hero as the star? (Don't even talk to me about Berry's Catwoman, that shit does not count.) Point being, as women, we're less important, at least according to the media we consume.
But being gay has made it even harder for me to find "a character like me" in the things I watch and read. I remember learning about the "evil or dead" trope in college, and was really shocked to find that the more I watched and read, the more prevalent it was. Positive portrayal of gay characters has been, until recently, rare in movies and almost nonexistent in TV. And the thing that gets extremely frustrating for me, who yes, as a lifelong geek, probably takes my movies and TV and books more personally and seriously than the average bear, is that half the time the relationships are there, the subtext is there, and it's obvious that the only thing keeping the characters from being written into a relationship is the stigma that gay equals bad. It's so true about Merlin-- if Merlin were a girl she and Arthur would have begun making out in between mocking the hell out of each other like, three seasons ago.
It's like there's this idea that if characters are gay the entire show has to be about them being gay. Like that thing going around Facebook: "I support gay marriage. Or as I call it, marriage. Because I didn't gay park my car on the street this afternoon. I didn't go out for gay lunch." Etc. When the rebooted Star Trek movie came out there was a lot of chatter about the chemistry between Kirk and Spock (which as pretty much everyone knows is the relationship that spawned not only fanfiction and slash but basically the entire concept of fandom over 40 years ago) and I remember reading a really great blog post about gay characters in genre movies, that said something to the effect of "gay has become its own genre". Which is partially true, but also complete bullshit. Why can't we have a space opera where the captain and his first officer hook up (besides all the regulations they'd be flouting, OBVI) or a zombie movie where the main character and her badass sidekick fall in love (Resident Evil 3 I'm looking at you) or a murder mystery show about a gay detective and his boyfriend (canon Holmes was pretty gay too, just saying)? The answer is that there is no answer to that question; it's a stupid question. There is no reason why we can't have those things. But if others won't write them or film them, then we've got to do it our own damn selves.
All joking aside, the reason fan culture is important to people is because it helps keep them from feeling marginalized. This insistence on the hetero norm leaves me, personally, feeling like as far as most of the world is concerned, my sexuality is more important than anything else about me-- my dreams, my personality, my talents, my abilities, my relationships with my friends and family-- if I'm gay, then that's my only story. The only interesting thing I have to tell is about the fact that I'm gay. Alternately, if I want to have other interesting stories, I have to leave the fact that I'm gay out of them. And that, my friends, is a bunch of fucking bullshit. Don't marginalize part of me because it makes you uncomfortable, and don't highlight it because your discomfort makes you incapable of seeing the other parts of me. That's why I adore Warehouse 13 so much-- they brought on a hunky young guy character who had an adorable coming out scene with a girl who in most shows would have been his love interest just by virtue of the fact that they're both white and in their 20s. He came out, and then he proceeded to continue kicking bad guys in the face and recovering supernatural artifacts like it was all in a day's work. Because it was. Because when you're gay you don't walk around every minute of every day going "Hi, I'll have a grande latte, did I mention I'm a lesbian?"
Mainstream media culture says, here are some characters who are sort of like you, and here are some stories that are sort of like your stories, hope you're happy with it because it's the best we can do if we're going to please everyone and make lots of money. Fan culture says, take the stories and write them so you see yourself in them, you can't make any money off of them anyways, so you might as well write the stories you want to read and make the most of the characters you love. It isn't about twisting the story or characters into something they're not (though god knows enough bad fic writers have managed to do just that). It's about looking at a story through different eyes, showing something that could be, something that might have been.
And of course, we should write our own stories about our own characters. We do. I do. I am doing it. I know others who are also. But it's hard, when you're struggling through the creative process, to feel confident that what you're writing has an audience, people who are interested in your space opera or your urban fantasy or your Victorian supernatural romance (Libba Bray, I love you). So fandom is the place you go to remind yourself that there are smart people who are not only interested, they're dying to read your stories.
In short, fandom is where I go to find people like me.
~~~
okay that was good to get out of my system. i'll admit i wrote it partially because some of my muggle friends follow me on tumblr and it's far easier to let this explain why half of the shit i post is photoshops of fictional characters with mumford & sons lyrics superimposed on, rather than have them ask me in person. XD
also, i didn't get the job. so that's six months of my life i'll never get back. when i think of how i have basically ruined myself since april trying like hell to get this position, all the things i sacrificed (big bang, round 2 of operation 80, round 3 of reel trek, not to mention all the real life shit) i kind of want to die. so thanks for motherfucking nothing. i know i'll be less bitter in the morning, but right now i just really want to kill everyone in the world, eddie izzard hitler style.
but i do have to extend a sincere thanks to everyone who has been patient and understanding with me throughout the past six months, because i know i've been beyond miserable to be around, and for those who are only "around" me on the internet, i've been noncommunicative and awkward. so i'm sorry about that. thanks for putting up with me. things are going to calm down now and hopefully i'll be back to normal (though with considerably less cash in my pocket, which probably means more nights spent at home on the computer, lol) really soon.
and now i'm going to bed, because i have to get up in 7 hours. frabjous. goodnight internet, good work, sleep well, i'll most likely kill you in the morning.
This post crossposted from Dreamwidth (
comments)
FANDOM : a manifesto of sorts
This is something I struggle with, like a lot of fans do, I think, to explain to people who aren't fandom-oriented, people who've never wanted more from their TV or books or movies. For me it's like trying to explain two parts of myself that I'm often told aren't mainstream or common-- that I'm a fangeek and that I'm gay. Trying to explain to someone who's straight and who didn't spend most of their childhood with books and movies as their only friends, why I see gay subtext in half the things I watch and want to see it made actual text... some people have never had the experience of watching a movie or reading a book and thinking, "Wow that was great, I just wish there had been a character like me in there."
And that's really the key phrase, isn't it? Like me. How do you define that? For some women it's enough to see Xena and Buffy on screen, or even Alicia from The Good Wife or CJ on The West Wing. Strong women who get their own stories that aren't all about their relationships to men. And that's awesome, of course; there was a time not too long ago when that wasn't the case. It's a battle still being fought. I can't tell you how furious it made me to hear that they made Stana Katic grow out her hair because short hair made Beckett "not feminine enough" for mainstream TV. So that's something that is still an issue. Don't get me wrong, I love me some strong women on TV and in movies. But Black Widow doesn't get her own movie, does she? How many superhero movies have come out in the past few years with a woman hero as the star? (Don't even talk to me about Berry's Catwoman, that shit does not count.) Point being, as women, we're less important, at least according to the media we consume.
But being gay has made it even harder for me to find "a character like me" in the things I watch and read. I remember learning about the "evil or dead" trope in college, and was really shocked to find that the more I watched and read, the more prevalent it was. Positive portrayal of gay characters has been, until recently, rare in movies and almost nonexistent in TV. And the thing that gets extremely frustrating for me, who yes, as a lifelong geek, probably takes my movies and TV and books more personally and seriously than the average bear, is that half the time the relationships are there, the subtext is there, and it's obvious that the only thing keeping the characters from being written into a relationship is the stigma that gay equals bad. It's so true about Merlin-- if Merlin were a girl she and Arthur would have begun making out in between mocking the hell out of each other like, three seasons ago.
It's like there's this idea that if characters are gay the entire show has to be about them being gay. Like that thing going around Facebook: "I support gay marriage. Or as I call it, marriage. Because I didn't gay park my car on the street this afternoon. I didn't go out for gay lunch." Etc. When the rebooted Star Trek movie came out there was a lot of chatter about the chemistry between Kirk and Spock (which as pretty much everyone knows is the relationship that spawned not only fanfiction and slash but basically the entire concept of fandom over 40 years ago) and I remember reading a really great blog post about gay characters in genre movies, that said something to the effect of "gay has become its own genre". Which is partially true, but also complete bullshit. Why can't we have a space opera where the captain and his first officer hook up (besides all the regulations they'd be flouting, OBVI) or a zombie movie where the main character and her badass sidekick fall in love (Resident Evil 3 I'm looking at you) or a murder mystery show about a gay detective and his boyfriend (canon Holmes was pretty gay too, just saying)? The answer is that there is no answer to that question; it's a stupid question. There is no reason why we can't have those things. But if others won't write them or film them, then we've got to do it our own damn selves.
All joking aside, the reason fan culture is important to people is because it helps keep them from feeling marginalized. This insistence on the hetero norm leaves me, personally, feeling like as far as most of the world is concerned, my sexuality is more important than anything else about me-- my dreams, my personality, my talents, my abilities, my relationships with my friends and family-- if I'm gay, then that's my only story. The only interesting thing I have to tell is about the fact that I'm gay. Alternately, if I want to have other interesting stories, I have to leave the fact that I'm gay out of them. And that, my friends, is a bunch of fucking bullshit. Don't marginalize part of me because it makes you uncomfortable, and don't highlight it because your discomfort makes you incapable of seeing the other parts of me. That's why I adore Warehouse 13 so much-- they brought on a hunky young guy character who had an adorable coming out scene with a girl who in most shows would have been his love interest just by virtue of the fact that they're both white and in their 20s. He came out, and then he proceeded to continue kicking bad guys in the face and recovering supernatural artifacts like it was all in a day's work. Because it was. Because when you're gay you don't walk around every minute of every day going "Hi, I'll have a grande latte, did I mention I'm a lesbian?"
Mainstream media culture says, here are some characters who are sort of like you, and here are some stories that are sort of like your stories, hope you're happy with it because it's the best we can do if we're going to please everyone and make lots of money. Fan culture says, take the stories and write them so you see yourself in them, you can't make any money off of them anyways, so you might as well write the stories you want to read and make the most of the characters you love. It isn't about twisting the story or characters into something they're not (though god knows enough bad fic writers have managed to do just that). It's about looking at a story through different eyes, showing something that could be, something that might have been.
And of course, we should write our own stories about our own characters. We do. I do. I am doing it. I know others who are also. But it's hard, when you're struggling through the creative process, to feel confident that what you're writing has an audience, people who are interested in your space opera or your urban fantasy or your Victorian supernatural romance (Libba Bray, I love you). So fandom is the place you go to remind yourself that there are smart people who are not only interested, they're dying to read your stories.
In short, fandom is where I go to find people like me.
~~~
okay that was good to get out of my system. i'll admit i wrote it partially because some of my muggle friends follow me on tumblr and it's far easier to let this explain why half of the shit i post is photoshops of fictional characters with mumford & sons lyrics superimposed on, rather than have them ask me in person. XD
also, i didn't get the job. so that's six months of my life i'll never get back. when i think of how i have basically ruined myself since april trying like hell to get this position, all the things i sacrificed (big bang, round 2 of operation 80, round 3 of reel trek, not to mention all the real life shit) i kind of want to die. so thanks for motherfucking nothing. i know i'll be less bitter in the morning, but right now i just really want to kill everyone in the world, eddie izzard hitler style.
but i do have to extend a sincere thanks to everyone who has been patient and understanding with me throughout the past six months, because i know i've been beyond miserable to be around, and for those who are only "around" me on the internet, i've been noncommunicative and awkward. so i'm sorry about that. thanks for putting up with me. things are going to calm down now and hopefully i'll be back to normal (though with considerably less cash in my pocket, which probably means more nights spent at home on the computer, lol) really soon.
and now i'm going to bed, because i have to get up in 7 hours. frabjous. goodnight internet, good work, sleep well, i'll most likely kill you in the morning.
This post crossposted from Dreamwidth (
comments)