On fan entitlement; or, this is why you can't have nice things...
...so, I've noticed a huge problem in many of the fandoms of the things I like.
(Oh great, another one?)
Sit down, you'll probably want to hear this one: It's the profound sense of entitlement fans have.
(Oh great, let's insult the fans again!)
...and this chucklehead is doing it right now!
(Hell, just talk about that little curly-haired chick you seem to like! That'd be much better!)
...and there's the problem in a nutshell: Fans, you don't get to tell creators what they can and can't do. Well, there is one good way to tell them: stop partaking in that work. But that doesn't give the creators your full vitriol, so you write a public rant that the creator isn't "doing it right".
...sorry, that's not your decision. If you want to "do it right", you do it your way. In fan fiction or an original work. But there's a reason why most fan fiction writers never will become full media writers: They try and look at all the things that can go right, rather than all the things that go wrong. Most fiction does not exist without conflict. And characters need to make bad decisions sometimes for the conflict to arise. And sometimes those bad decisions aren't what the fans would supposedly do in that situation (even though they're analyzing it from their armchairs rather than the heat of the moment). But this is not a "mistake" that needs to be "made right"; this is part of the greater narrative of the show. The creators knew that such decisions would piss people off, but they were in-character for them. That you have something different in mind doesn't make it any less so.
(...I wish we could go back to the days when you were just a liberal communist who hated America...)
...which would be great if I ever was. And that's the problem.
Randy Milholland has written many a time about how many e-mails he gets from entitled fans saying how one character or another isn't "staying true to" a paradigm that Randy never gave them. The prominent one that I can think of (and I can't remember exactly) is one guy saying how Davan isn't a true MRA...uh, yeah, he never even was one to begin with. Most of each characters' baggage is actually stuff their fans put on them, and thinking Davan was some sort of activist for the status quo is just that: Your interpretation. It's not the creator's interpretation.
Take the Faking It finale.
(Okay! Now we can talk about that little curly-haired chick you like so much...)
No, she wasn't in the finale. But I'll tell you what was (SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!): Amy and Liam making out on her bed, both drunk, both angry at Karma. (END SPOILERS! END SPOILERS! END SPOILERS!) (DISCUSSION ON SPOILERS! DISCUSSION ON SPOILERS! DISCUSSION ON SPOILERS!) And that has pissed off a few LGBTs, because Amy was totally a lesbian, she shouldn't be sleeping with a guy, and this is offensive to the LGBT community!
...except a few things.
1. Nowhere in Faking It does Amy actually identify as a lesbian. Sure, she experimented with being a full lesbian, but she also experimented with being straight (with Oliver). She came to a sad conclusion, as did Shane, that most of the supposed LGBT community has completely overlooked and rejected: Amy is Karma-sexual. And single-target sexuality is a real phenomenon.
2. What does the "B" in LGBT stand for? I'm not sure many "B"'s in the audience were truly offended by this development.
3. Pretty much all the hate stems from the baggage on the characters that is put on them by the fans, not the writers. Karma is obvs gay for Amy, too, just confused...except that, throughout the season, there has been zero indication that Karma has been anything but straight. Sorry, folks, Karma doesn't bend that way, and trying to bend her that way will break the series (and if Carter Covington does that, a pox on his house). Liam is a full douchebag that's only trying to hurt people...except that Liam has always been honest to Karma (well, until his blowup with her and the scenes that came afterwards; I don't think he'll be forthcoming about that), and really he has always considered Amy in his chase of Karma (which, although it was done for less than noble reasons, has seemed to blossom into actual affection...so much so that he is willing to hurt her when he discovered she lied to him about actually being a lesbian). And Amy is a full lesbian, and sleeping with a man is so typical of Hollywood having to "change" a woman straight...except, again, Amy herself hasn't identified as anything yet.
And that's the hardest part for full gay women to take: That she might not be just like them. So many of them have ranted about how MTV has offended them and "That's not how lesbianism works." ...which is a phrase I hate. There is no better phrase for the status quo to control people than "That's not how it works". And even worse, the fan's sense of entitlement gives them a head to say that they're speaking for all fans or all lesbians. When in fact, they're probably not even speaking for most fans or most lesbians. The only person they can be sure they're speaking for is themselves. To which I say: "Speak for yourself." Don't assume that everyone is just as offended as you are; in fact, most people don't care about the show in the first place. And they're not helped by entitled fans or entitled LGBTs writing about how a show is the most offensive thing ever, when they either haven't watched it, or haven't considered that things are different for different people.
And trying to write off these developments as "mistakes" that "must be corrected" is an insult to the Faking It writing staff. They are not your monkeys trained to give you what you want on command. They're writing a story, and for all the bad stuff in it, it's a pretty good one. And you're rejecting it because it's not how you wanted it?
...with fans like you, who needs haters? Hell, I'd even venture to say more shows have been destroyed by the fans than the haters.
(...are you done?)
Yes.
(...good! I love it when I see a new LJ from you! Can you make more, please?)
...I'll try. Just don't think that I'll always talk about what you want me to talk about.
*Yes, that was a bit of hypocritical humor, there.
(Oh great, another one?)
Sit down, you'll probably want to hear this one: It's the profound sense of entitlement fans have.
(Oh great, let's insult the fans again!)
...and this chucklehead is doing it right now!
(Hell, just talk about that little curly-haired chick you seem to like! That'd be much better!)
...and there's the problem in a nutshell: Fans, you don't get to tell creators what they can and can't do. Well, there is one good way to tell them: stop partaking in that work. But that doesn't give the creators your full vitriol, so you write a public rant that the creator isn't "doing it right".
...sorry, that's not your decision. If you want to "do it right", you do it your way. In fan fiction or an original work. But there's a reason why most fan fiction writers never will become full media writers: They try and look at all the things that can go right, rather than all the things that go wrong. Most fiction does not exist without conflict. And characters need to make bad decisions sometimes for the conflict to arise. And sometimes those bad decisions aren't what the fans would supposedly do in that situation (even though they're analyzing it from their armchairs rather than the heat of the moment). But this is not a "mistake" that needs to be "made right"; this is part of the greater narrative of the show. The creators knew that such decisions would piss people off, but they were in-character for them. That you have something different in mind doesn't make it any less so.
(...I wish we could go back to the days when you were just a liberal communist who hated America...)
...which would be great if I ever was. And that's the problem.
Randy Milholland has written many a time about how many e-mails he gets from entitled fans saying how one character or another isn't "staying true to" a paradigm that Randy never gave them. The prominent one that I can think of (and I can't remember exactly) is one guy saying how Davan isn't a true MRA...uh, yeah, he never even was one to begin with. Most of each characters' baggage is actually stuff their fans put on them, and thinking Davan was some sort of activist for the status quo is just that: Your interpretation. It's not the creator's interpretation.
Take the Faking It finale.
(Okay! Now we can talk about that little curly-haired chick you like so much...)
No, she wasn't in the finale. But I'll tell you what was (SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!): Amy and Liam making out on her bed, both drunk, both angry at Karma. (END SPOILERS! END SPOILERS! END SPOILERS!) (DISCUSSION ON SPOILERS! DISCUSSION ON SPOILERS! DISCUSSION ON SPOILERS!) And that has pissed off a few LGBTs, because Amy was totally a lesbian, she shouldn't be sleeping with a guy, and this is offensive to the LGBT community!
...except a few things.
1. Nowhere in Faking It does Amy actually identify as a lesbian. Sure, she experimented with being a full lesbian, but she also experimented with being straight (with Oliver). She came to a sad conclusion, as did Shane, that most of the supposed LGBT community has completely overlooked and rejected: Amy is Karma-sexual. And single-target sexuality is a real phenomenon.
2. What does the "B" in LGBT stand for? I'm not sure many "B"'s in the audience were truly offended by this development.
3. Pretty much all the hate stems from the baggage on the characters that is put on them by the fans, not the writers. Karma is obvs gay for Amy, too, just confused...except that, throughout the season, there has been zero indication that Karma has been anything but straight. Sorry, folks, Karma doesn't bend that way, and trying to bend her that way will break the series (and if Carter Covington does that, a pox on his house). Liam is a full douchebag that's only trying to hurt people...except that Liam has always been honest to Karma (well, until his blowup with her and the scenes that came afterwards; I don't think he'll be forthcoming about that), and really he has always considered Amy in his chase of Karma (which, although it was done for less than noble reasons, has seemed to blossom into actual affection...so much so that he is willing to hurt her when he discovered she lied to him about actually being a lesbian). And Amy is a full lesbian, and sleeping with a man is so typical of Hollywood having to "change" a woman straight...except, again, Amy herself hasn't identified as anything yet.
And that's the hardest part for full gay women to take: That she might not be just like them. So many of them have ranted about how MTV has offended them and "That's not how lesbianism works." ...which is a phrase I hate. There is no better phrase for the status quo to control people than "That's not how it works". And even worse, the fan's sense of entitlement gives them a head to say that they're speaking for all fans or all lesbians. When in fact, they're probably not even speaking for most fans or most lesbians. The only person they can be sure they're speaking for is themselves. To which I say: "Speak for yourself." Don't assume that everyone is just as offended as you are; in fact, most people don't care about the show in the first place. And they're not helped by entitled fans or entitled LGBTs writing about how a show is the most offensive thing ever, when they either haven't watched it, or haven't considered that things are different for different people.
And trying to write off these developments as "mistakes" that "must be corrected" is an insult to the Faking It writing staff. They are not your monkeys trained to give you what you want on command. They're writing a story, and for all the bad stuff in it, it's a pretty good one. And you're rejecting it because it's not how you wanted it?
...with fans like you, who needs haters? Hell, I'd even venture to say more shows have been destroyed by the fans than the haters.
(...are you done?)
Yes.
(...good! I love it when I see a new LJ from you! Can you make more, please?)
...I'll try. Just don't think that I'll always talk about what you want me to talk about.
*Yes, that was a bit of hypocritical humor, there.