Fandom Losers? I don't think so.
Note: "Today" refers to yesterday. I originally wrote this entry last night. I didn't want there to be any confusion. : )
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I found this comment (and this comment, among many, many others) in youcantwrite today, and momentarily began to doubt my ties to my various fandoms and to the fan fiction I write and post on the Internet. It did not help that I had the customary jitters that accompanies the posting of a new story/chapter, as I had just posted the second chapter of my Underworld fic not too long before going to read through the latest offerings of the community.
I do admit that I once applied there last year just to poke fun at their oh-so "helpful" system of ganging up on LiveJournal users to belittle them and their journals. I didn't take the community off of my communities listing, because I didn't want to be the fangirl who went there for a laugh and left with her tail between her legs. I must say that I gave as good as I got ( and so did the current fangirl on the chopping block), and I even gave them a parting gift of two months Paid time to thank the members that I held an honest dialogue with. It was Jake somebody and one other user who gave me a few new HTML tips to use.
Since the community is still on my listing, I do go there for a read every now and then, as I do with all of my communities/friends' journal every so often. I usually do a five minute or less once over of the newest youcantwrite entries and then leave. This is simply because the members' attitudes haven't changed in the time since I posted my "Review Me!" entry, they've simply invited more people like themselves into their community. Big surprise there.
Anyway, among the newest entries I saw today, I spotted a fellow fangirl. Sure, she and I were not in the same fandoms, but I believe that a true fangirl knows and supports her own. I clicked on her entry to see what comments she got from the community's members. They were pretty much the same ones that I got. I cannot say that I was surprised in the least to see some of the comments posted, but I was hoping that the community's member would have at least been nicer to her than they were to me. I suppose that they were marginally, but still.
In that one comment stating that fandom is basically a hideout for lonely losers, I wondered if her blanket statement was in actuality a fact of the world that I know. After about a minute of worrying about my possible loser status and doubting my beloved fandoms, I knew that it wasn't true. Sure, some people do use fandom to escape, but to blanket all members of every single fandom in the world with that generalization is, quite frankly, utterly ridiculous.
There are plenty of people in fandom who are not torn away from their families or neglect their offline responsibilities due to their insistent obsessing over when the latest chapter of their favorite fan fic would be published. There are people, myself included, who do manage to juggle fandom fun with real life work when time allows for them to do so.
And the point about all of us basically being nothing more than geeks/dorks/nerds without a life and in need of non-fandom members' pity is garbage. Sure, I went through a little stint where I did not like fandom very much anymore, but that was more of a personal situation. As a whole, I do find the fandom experience to be an enjoyable one. I have met numerous witty and intelligent women through fan fiction archives, LiveJournal, message boards, fan sites, and other safe havens created to let fandom folks gather as one to go nuts.
I do admit that I do not go out of my way to make my LiveJournal be slick or cool or overly analytical, because I have resigned most of my more serious posts to my non-fandom journal on another site. There simply isn't much of an audience for "real" entries here on LiveJournal. Or maybe that's just my corner of LJ. Meh.
Thinking of that comment makes me think of a former co-worker who actually said, "Ohhh, you're one of those people." when I told her that I was working on a fan fic during our lunch break in response to her query about what I was writing. It stung minutely, but I still smiled brightly and said, "Yeah!"
Point being, I don't believe that one person's dissention should have given me pause. There isn't any reason for me to be ashamed of the fact that I meet great people and find new fiction to read and art to view through books, shows, and movies that I love. I find fandom to be something of a lover; if I love it like I say that I do, I should not be ashamed of it. It should not feel the need to shove it in a closet, because its not cool enough for 'other people'.
Generally, I don't let "cool" people bog down my fandom happiness. Why should I when I've got real life concerns to do that for me? I tell people right out that I am writing a story, and will sometimes explain the world of fan fiction to them if they ask for details when they ask me what I am writing. But for that moment earlier on today, I felt like one of the biggest losers in the world. That should not have happened. It should never happen again. I'm proud of my fangirl ways. It's fun, it's a release, and most importantly, it's who I am at this point in my life. I don't ever want to experience that moment of shame and embarrassment in response to my own tendency to indulge *squee!!!*s, *drools*s, *sigh*s, *faint*s, and the like. I'm a fangirl, dammit, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.
I made this icon ages ago, and was just able to compress the individual pictures here on my aun't computer. Even after I compressed the images and removed two of them from the support icon, it still wasn't small enough to be used by LiveJournal. I would really be a great idea if the icon size limit was upped for Paind users. Anyway, this is the icon that I have wanted to use, but can't.
___________
I found this comment (and this comment, among many, many others) in youcantwrite today, and momentarily began to doubt my ties to my various fandoms and to the fan fiction I write and post on the Internet. It did not help that I had the customary jitters that accompanies the posting of a new story/chapter, as I had just posted the second chapter of my Underworld fic not too long before going to read through the latest offerings of the community.
I do admit that I once applied there last year just to poke fun at their oh-so "helpful" system of ganging up on LiveJournal users to belittle them and their journals. I didn't take the community off of my communities listing, because I didn't want to be the fangirl who went there for a laugh and left with her tail between her legs. I must say that I gave as good as I got ( and so did the current fangirl on the chopping block), and I even gave them a parting gift of two months Paid time to thank the members that I held an honest dialogue with. It was Jake somebody and one other user who gave me a few new HTML tips to use.
Since the community is still on my listing, I do go there for a read every now and then, as I do with all of my communities/friends' journal every so often. I usually do a five minute or less once over of the newest youcantwrite entries and then leave. This is simply because the members' attitudes haven't changed in the time since I posted my "Review Me!" entry, they've simply invited more people like themselves into their community. Big surprise there.
Anyway, among the newest entries I saw today, I spotted a fellow fangirl. Sure, she and I were not in the same fandoms, but I believe that a true fangirl knows and supports her own. I clicked on her entry to see what comments she got from the community's members. They were pretty much the same ones that I got. I cannot say that I was surprised in the least to see some of the comments posted, but I was hoping that the community's member would have at least been nicer to her than they were to me. I suppose that they were marginally, but still.
In that one comment stating that fandom is basically a hideout for lonely losers, I wondered if her blanket statement was in actuality a fact of the world that I know. After about a minute of worrying about my possible loser status and doubting my beloved fandoms, I knew that it wasn't true. Sure, some people do use fandom to escape, but to blanket all members of every single fandom in the world with that generalization is, quite frankly, utterly ridiculous.
There are plenty of people in fandom who are not torn away from their families or neglect their offline responsibilities due to their insistent obsessing over when the latest chapter of their favorite fan fic would be published. There are people, myself included, who do manage to juggle fandom fun with real life work when time allows for them to do so.
And the point about all of us basically being nothing more than geeks/dorks/nerds without a life and in need of non-fandom members' pity is garbage. Sure, I went through a little stint where I did not like fandom very much anymore, but that was more of a personal situation. As a whole, I do find the fandom experience to be an enjoyable one. I have met numerous witty and intelligent women through fan fiction archives, LiveJournal, message boards, fan sites, and other safe havens created to let fandom folks gather as one to go nuts.
I do admit that I do not go out of my way to make my LiveJournal be slick or cool or overly analytical, because I have resigned most of my more serious posts to my non-fandom journal on another site. There simply isn't much of an audience for "real" entries here on LiveJournal. Or maybe that's just my corner of LJ. Meh.
Thinking of that comment makes me think of a former co-worker who actually said, "Ohhh, you're one of those people." when I told her that I was working on a fan fic during our lunch break in response to her query about what I was writing. It stung minutely, but I still smiled brightly and said, "Yeah!"
Point being, I don't believe that one person's dissention should have given me pause. There isn't any reason for me to be ashamed of the fact that I meet great people and find new fiction to read and art to view through books, shows, and movies that I love. I find fandom to be something of a lover; if I love it like I say that I do, I should not be ashamed of it. It should not feel the need to shove it in a closet, because its not cool enough for 'other people'.
Generally, I don't let "cool" people bog down my fandom happiness. Why should I when I've got real life concerns to do that for me? I tell people right out that I am writing a story, and will sometimes explain the world of fan fiction to them if they ask for details when they ask me what I am writing. But for that moment earlier on today, I felt like one of the biggest losers in the world. That should not have happened. It should never happen again. I'm proud of my fangirl ways. It's fun, it's a release, and most importantly, it's who I am at this point in my life. I don't ever want to experience that moment of shame and embarrassment in response to my own tendency to indulge *squee!!!*s, *drools*s, *sigh*s, *faint*s, and the like. I'm a fangirl, dammit, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.
I made this icon ages ago, and was just able to compress the individual pictures here on my aun't computer. Even after I compressed the images and removed two of them from the support icon, it still wasn't small enough to be used by LiveJournal. I would really be a great idea if the icon size limit was upped for Paind users. Anyway, this is the icon that I have wanted to use, but can't.