Some Data and Analysis on Genre Identity/Preference in Tolkien Fandom

[dawn_felagund]

Over on the post about my paper presentation this weekend, the issue of genre was brought up because I didn't address it in the paper but I definitely asked about it in the survey. I decided not to include it in the paper because it involved defining and explaining terminology (genfic, het, slash) that I just didn't have time for, and I wasn't sure

Comments

[brookeoflorien]

I think I answered No Opinion to all the genre questions. :P Primarily for the reason you suggested - I don't identify as a writer of any particular genre, though I write all of them

[heartofoshun]

I wonder if some of it is a fear of being labeled as exploitative or pandering to male readers/buying into the patriarchy?

I think that is highly unlikely. The audience is known to be largely women. I don't think anyone envisions men crawling around the Silmarillion fandom, for example, looking to read hot sex between women.

[brookeoflorien]

My main accusations about buying into the patriarchy have come from other women, actually, with the reasoning that such things are 'unnatural' and that the only reason a woman would _____ is because she's bought into it and can't separate her own desires from what she's been taught.

I could get fearing being labeled as having bought into the patriarchy as a reason because of that personal experience, because it doesn't matter if men are reading or not, only that somebody somewhere probably sees it as "well you're only writing that because the patriarchy tells you it's hot". To me, I would fear it more knowing that the audience was primarily female, if I didn't also know that there's a large portion of fans that are LGBT - but then you can get accused of trampling over them if you're a straight woman writing it and you mention that in the wrong space (though I see that more on tumblr, and the buying into the patriarchy more in real life).

I need to move away from campus and that brand of thought.

[heartofoshun]

This is one of those weeks where Tumblr looks like a tiny, tiny world getting cross-eyed gazing at its navel.

[brookeoflorien]

Doesn't it? I just wish the Tumblr-ish folks would leave me alone in real life - but feminist conflict theory in sociology/psychology classes at my school always brings out of a few of them (which I wouldn't care, but they need to stop telling me I'm not a feminist because of whatever thing I've done they disagree with. Especially my lipstick and high heels, before I stab somebody in the eye with a heel).

[dawn_felagund]

My survey shows that respondents identified as men only 4% of the time. The AO3 Census had the same number. They are an extreme minority here, it seems!

[heartofoshun]

There a lot of men who might have missed your poll I think. But I do think the percentage is very small.

[dawn_felagund]

The survey is open till December 2015, so do send them my way. ;)

[heartofoshun]

I don't talk to those rude, opinionated guys, who haven't read HoMe and think they are smarter than me and all my friends! The ones who know what Tolkien meant by everything he wrote, without even having read it all

[dawn_felagund]

Are those men fan fiction writers though? The survey was for Tolkien fanfic, not Tolkien fandom in general. I do know the type! The sentence starter that I recall from my early years is "Tolkien clearly intended ..." Tolkien didn't always know himself what he intended! I often used to say that these people had a hella badass Ouija board that could reach Tolkien beyond the grave, where he might actually be nearing completion on The Silmarillion by now.

I give the SWG some credit for that.

Which necessitates a good bit of credit to you, since you are by far our most prolific Reference writer! :D

But seriously. Citations are a minimum and not hard, unless you're making up shit out of whole cloth. I guess there's the rub, though.

[heartofoshun]

Yes! I was off-track there. Keep thinking of fandom as a whole instead of just writers!

[indy1776]

I saw once someone say that writing femslash could only ever be exploitative and all the responses to her were, with varying degrees of politeness, "Um, no, that's not how it works." Said person wrote slash, and her argument for that was (and I'm not joking), "Of course slash is exploitative, but since it's men, who are always oppressors and in positions of privilege, then it's okay to do it."

So yeah, apparently there are a minority of people who think that way. Not that it makes sense to me.

(I agree with Brooke that there are places straight women writing femslash stay quiet about it. I've also seen the "only queer women write and read femslash, so straight women aren't welcome" position.)

[heartofoshun]

I've also seen the "only queer women write and read femslash, so straight women aren't welcome" position.

That gave me instant heartburn. Sorry! Honestly, this is not a circle-jerk for me. It is me trying to get a handle on people and on life. I want to write a world populated with every sort of person. I am not asking anyone's permission either, although I do research and ask for advice when I am writing about something I do not know from experience. Taking a deep breath.

[dawn_felagund]

And if you didn't attempt to "write a world populated with every sort of person," you'd be in trouble for that too.

[indy1776]

It's an incredibly frustrating and ignorant position. On one hand, people are going, "We want more of these stories" and on the other they're going "Only certain people are allowed to write them!" And as Dawn said, if you don't write them, you get in trouble anyway.

[dawn_felagund]

If we go all the way down the slippery slope, we can't write anything with any characters other than ourselves. After all, we can't possibly understand fully what it is to be anyone but ourselves. (Hell, I don't even think I fully understand myself sometimes! I guess I better give up creative writing altogether.)

I believe exactly the opposite: Part of the purpose of writing fiction is to think deeply about the perceptions and experiences of someone who isn't me. I may not get it right, but I will try my best and I hope I would learn if called out on something I did wrong, but like Oshun said, I don't need anyone's permission to write about diverse characters, least of all the tumblristas.