Con Report: Flattering or Creepy?

[tartysuz]

Hi everyone.

Here's a report on Flattering or Creepy?, a panel (my first!) that I co-moderated with Charlotte C. Hill.



The question was inspired by the recent spike in attention to slash from mainstream academics, journalists and pop culture writers.

A good number of people attended the session. As we were getting our minds around the question, we identified a distinction between acknowledging slash and acknowledging slash fans.

Mainstream acknowledgment of slash was thought to be fun, for example, the nudging-and-winking between characters like Holmes and Watson in both the recent movie and BBC-TV adaptation.

But mainstream acknowledgement of slash writers brought up more issues, including:

• Acknowledgment of past discomfort. Some writers may be reminded of past squicks that they are no longer embarrassed about.
  
• Acknowledgement of female sexuality. There are still taboos in our culture against women expressing interest in sex, or interest in some flavours of sexual activity. Some writers may be working against heavier cultural or social impositions than others.
  
• Acknowledgment of the discrepancy between the gift economy versus the commercial economy. DIY, anarchist and exchange cultures are direct challenges to the commercially based media work that inspired the fic.
  
• Denigration of women's enterprises. Men's endevours, especially commercial ones, are more likely to be accepted than women's. For example, Comic Book Resources does not review slash, but has had a front-page feature on a porno based on the comic book character, The Hulk.
  
• Meta written by fans about fandom have been acknowledged by academics, who regard it as a valuable resource.

We discussed reasons why fic goes under f-lock or under fannish identities that are kept separate from real life identities.

• Prejudice against slash and slash writers puts pressure on geek cred and real life relationships with families, co-workers, etc.
  
• Respect for how that prejudice might affect others in our lives ("your mom writes porn!").
  
• Differing levels of expected privacy (some younger writers may be more comfortable with posting publicly).
  
• Sensitivity to criticism.
  
• Fannish bullying.
  
• Audience. A writer may be comfortable with allowing some friends to read their slash, but not others.

We noted that mainstream acknowledgment is a two-sided sword:

• Secrecy may limit the opportunity for us to tell our own story. If our written history is not accessible, it could become invisible to the historical record.
  
• Acknowledgment is important for growing the slash community. "If slash fans never got acknowledged, I never would have known about it."

We could have talked for much longer! Please comment here if you were there and remember other points or if you'd like to add to the discussion.

Here are some links that might inspire more thoughts:

Good Fourth Walls Make Good Neighbours by counteragent
http://community.livejournal.com/supernaturalart/1796967.html

Pacey-Con
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/fa34df6f44/pacey-con-with-joshua-jackson

Career Building Through Fan Fiction Writing (a how-to book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=eK1URcjDPHUC&dq=%22fan+fiction%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s