WinCon
prillalar and I didn't end up doing much at the con--in large part because I was so happy to have Hal there that we spent a lot of time just talking to one another :). And we're possibly not the most fannishly outgoing people ever *g*. But we did go to a couple of panels, and I enjoyed the con. It looked like people were having a good time, so I hope it was a good experience for everyone.
I do wish I'd had the chance to meet up with azephirin, and I'd wanted to meet balefully, too. But we did get to have a mini-con experience when barkley came down to visit and we all had dinner with latxcvi, which included a ton of fannish talk and some SPN watching afterward. Plus Hal pimped us into the Chinese live action version of Prince of Tennis, which is DIVINE. Seriously, I want make all the boys into plush toys.
The RPS Panel
One of the things I liked is that the panel focused strongly on writing RPS; a lot of con panels focus more on the show or fandom and not so much writing a show or fandom--which I completely understand, but as a writer and reader, I really like to get the writing perspective on things.
I think that choice also speaks to how writing-based SPN RPS fandom is. There's canon to work from, sure, but what's always interested me about SPN RPS is how much of the common fandom ground is created by writers, with the crazy AUs and, um, wide spectrum of characterization *g*. Possibly this just reflects my own experience, since I find the stories in SPN RPS far more interesting than the actors' lives themselves. But I do think the fandom is based more on common fandom works than necessarily "canon."
General questions asked were about characterization (do people stick to one characterization across works, or do stories demand different characterizations); surprise JDM (kind of a theme all weekend *g*); how Sandy is written, and how appropriate it is to write fiction about RL relationships. I'll have to read other con reports on this panel to remember more :).
And the tin hat parade was hilarious. The winner was very deserved--everyone needs a veil to capture that one perfect tear of manpain.
SPN and misogyny panel
I was a bit nervous about this one--my experience with how SPN fans have reacted to this issue is varied and often surprising. I didn't know what the mood of the panel or audience would be or how seriously the issue would be discussed. But I was really pleased with how it played out. I thought black_regalia did a great job articulating the problems that many of us see with SPN's portrayal of women and particularly the S3 spike in misogynistic language and action. In terms of the other panel positions, I don't agree with the argument that this was a conscious character choice for Dean on the part of the writers, but it was presented fairly. And I certainly don't agree that misogyny exists on a scale, and that we shouldn't criticize the show for simply expressing the sexism and misogyny that's been deemed socially acceptable by Hollywood (and by default, by viewers--I don't see a problem with telling the creators that this is not in fact acceptable). But I think there was a good discussion around that position, and the problems with it were pretty clearly articulated.
Unfortunately I don't really remember lj names, and I'm always a little self-conscious about staring at people's chests to find their name badge *g*. There were two women next to us in the row who I thought had some great points to make about the problem of accepting social standards, and also the problems in recognizing when we as women are getting screwed over by those standards.
For example, someone raised what I think of as the "pragmatic" response--that the reason we don't see more shirtless Dean and Sam (as opposed to all the barely-clad women characters) is that it's written into their contract that they won't do it, because they don't want to diet. Which is a pretty good encapsulation of the problem there. As prillalar pointed out when were talking about this after, can you imagine an actress having that in her contract? It's practically a job requirement. And the fact that we wouldn't think to question that shows how ingrained this stuff is.
Hal and I ended up talking about the panel for a couple of hours after, and I'm pretty sure we said a lot of brilliant and insightful things *g*. Unfortunately, memory is fickle. But I do remember a couple of points brought up in the panel and in our talk after that I'd like to think about more:
- We talk a lot about Dean's relationship to women and his treatment of them; how about Sam? Is he the feminist's dream? I have a hard time with this, because I always remember Sam with Sarah in Provenance. I love that Sam. I was less pleased with Sam and Madison, mostly because of Sam's surprise at finding a woman who is smart and sure of herself and independent. I know lots of women like that. I'm sad that apparently the writers don't. And of course the final word on Sam and Ruby's relationship will also have a huge impact on how well I'd rate him on this issue.
- How complicit are we as fans in accepting the gender inequality that's uncritically expressed in cultural media? Obviously there's the point that we watch it, we buy the DVDs, we spend money for their cons. I'm not sure we should have to punish ourselves by *not* watching the parts of the show that we enjoy. But one of my main points in the panel is that we spend a lot of time rationalizing--much of it positively, since as fan creators and watchers, we like to fill in all the gaps left by the writers and to give a deeper back story and characterization than what we're given. But I do think there's a strong tendency to rationalize away what we don't like, to make it more palatable. And I think that often prevents us from examining the parts of cultural media that devalue and dismiss us as women fans.
There was a lot more that came out of the discussion, but it's stuff that I should think about more before articulating it.
And...this is getting pretty long, so I'll stop there :).