Fandom, The joy and the wank - Re: SPN, Pass on by if it's not your cuppa
As a Supernatural fan, I'm gearing up, just like the rest of you are - for season 9. Fandom is a huge range of experience. Some are light fans. Some are medium fans. Some are heavy duty holy moly fans. I bounce back and forth between medium and holy moly. If there is a lot of stress or boredom in my life or the night Show is on, it's holy moly. The rest of the time, I'm a solid medium.
This means that I keep up on things like conventions, as I've never planned on attending one. (Though, discovering it would only be a five hour drive to one did make me think - for a minute.) I enjoy hearing of fellow fan experiences and watching the vids they are not supposed to have taken but did and shared because they're awesome! I enjoy hearing about interactions, even if the interaction somehow turned out to not be positive - which does happen but is as individual as we each are. It has given me a different perspective on the men, as well as other characters, than I would have had if I only watched the show.
The plus to this is that I have come to admire the cast and crew of this show more than I would have otherwise. The downside? Trying to avoid the negativity/wank. That's not an easy thing. I struggle with it at times.
BiBro girls. Dean girls. Sam girls. Cas girls. Bobby girls. There's a list a mile long. While each have their merits, and their own set of super-fantastic-batshit-crazies, each of these types of fans embraced a set of characters, or a specific character, for their own (often deep) personal reasons. They felt drawn, compelled, to identify with them. This is a thing of beauty but also a danger. It grants people who spread negativity/wank the opportunity to accidentally (or intentionally, because there are some people like that) hurt another person's feelings by insulting whomever they have identified with.
In regards to Dean and Sam - If you insult Dean, those who have idenitifed with Dean may respond as if you have personally insulted them. If you insult Sam, those who have identified with Sam might respond as if you have personally insulted them. This goes for any character a person has identified with on this show. In regards to the actors portraying these characters - If you insult the people that play them - it is my opinion that you're the kind of fan this fandom does not need. These people are human, just like you. They have good days and bad days, just like you. They're flawed, just like you. These people have shared such huge parts of their lives with us that we know more of them than I could have even conceived was possible when I first watched this show. I, for one, am incredibly grateful for the fact that they do so. I am touched (emotionally, though on a bad day, one might think mentally, I suppose. :)) by the fact that they let us see them outside of perfect lighting, stages, makeup and the mask of the job they do for a living in all their flawed beauty and share with us who they, as people, are. I do not want their addresses. I do not want them to share more of their lives than they are comfortable with. I don't judge their choices or presume to understand their motivations, which is why I am so delighted when they feel they can share any of those things. They've let us in in a way that has forever changed how the media sees fans, in more ways good than bad. They've suffered for it, to be sure, but they have also gained, and these people often express how much they appreciate this fandom and most of the things we do.
I would never presume to spit in the face of all that these amazing people have offered us. If you do, Shame on you! I am so grateful that a quick scroll removes your vitrol from my view and leads me back to the fandom I call myself part of. Today, I finally removed some negativity. I want to be all super cool and say it is nothing personal, but it is. Deeply. You see, I can't handle your negativity any more. It has nothing to do with being a crazy (insert favorite) fangirl and everything to do with the right to free expression. You are absolutely and completely free to express whatever you wish, wherever you wish, however you wish. As am I. In fact, I get to choose to subject myself to your view - or Not. It has taken me a long time to come to terms with this decision, because it felt too close to embracing negativity. I finally figured out that it isn't. In making this choice, I create a space where I can think of you fondly. I do what you cannot. I remove the negativity from my view, and in doing so, I set us free.