Fannish musings
What makes a fangirl a fangirl? And what are the most significant differences between fangirls and fanboys, aside from the obvious chromosome thing? Going from the also obvious common ground, which is obsession, the next question is, who obsesses over what? I kind of wanted to make this a sort of essay commenting on my observations of fandom, using F!S as an example of a female dominated corner of fandom, and AICN as the male dominated one (both of which I love). Unfortunately I'm not smart enough, and I like to leave my fandom-related posts public, so I'll just stick to the questions in case someone ever stumbles upon this. Surely there are clever, more articulate people out there who've already analyzed this subject at depth. So my next question would be: can fangirl-dom and fanboy-dom coexist? Or in other words, is there a place out there where both can feel at ease sharing and enjoying all aspects of what they love most? And must the inhabitants of such a utopia also be something of a mixture, not the stereotype fangirl or fanboy, but people capable of finding a middle ground? Or is the key learning not only to tolerate but also to appreciate and enjoy the idiosyncrasies of both extremes?
I've been asking myself all of these things because I've been aware for quite a while that online fandom is not as I'd imagined. Many years ago, I'd been under the mistaken assumption that communities, groups, forums, mailing lists and the like dedicated to any content considered worthy of a fandom were places where both fangirls and fanboys were equally represented, places where fanpeople gathered to talk about every aspect of that which they loved.
I was disappointed when I realized online fandom is like a kindergarten playground: boys hang out with boys and girls with girls, mostly.
Many fanboys are not much concerned with shipping/slashing. Many fangirls don't care too much about execution. Obviously they are both aware of these aspects. I'm not saying people who care about both don't exist; I'm saying that in my experience both groups tend to lean toward the extremes, for example, video game fangirls who care mostly about the characters, and video game fanboys who care mostly about the gameplay. At F!S, there is a distinct preoccupation with shipping, slashing, "hitting it", and fandom relationships in general. At AICN, fanboys are mostly concerned with what the creators of x did wrong/right, and with sounding clever about it. Or that's how I see it, anyway. For the record, I've been reading AICN on and off for about 10 years, and F!S for about 6 months (but I've been reading the archives, too, and other LJ places for about two years now).
My recent concern with this subject came from the fact that my recent posts, and indeed the extent of my (non)participation in fandom as of late has been devoted mostly to shipping of all things. I found it interesting because I've always had trouble with this aspect. At least 60% of the few fangirls I've met IRL are invested in a fandom because they have a crush on a character/performer, or they ship/slash characters/performers. I can't relate to this because most of the stuff I love, I love because of what it is as a whole, not mostly due to a single character or pairing. Perhaps this explains why many people, including me, are not involved in fandom: it's often about fanworks, and we're usually happy enough with the source material so as to not need more (except perhaps bitch about what was wrong with it, or praise its genius, or both).
At least for me this is the rule, except for those few times when I do ship something, and the damn thing never becomes canon. Those times I feel an urgent need to "fix" it, and/or to have fandom "fix" it for me. I'm well aware it's the reason why I'm currently so invested in my current OTP, and why I tried so hard to get into the Smallville fandom a few years back. I realized, for the first time in years, that I needed fanworks. I needed to know that other people thought the same thing, felt the same way. And so, here I am, stuck with an obscure OTP while so many other ships get so much fan attention, and fandom in general seems so damn appealing. So what am I doing? Trying to get myself invested in ships I don't really care about, just so I can feel like I'm dipping my toe in an actual living, breathing fandom.
What this ultimately comes down to is an irrational, growing concern with fitting in some day; with being a "proper fangirl" capable of making fandom friends and bonding over squee-worthy characters/moments. But I've been hanging out with the boys way too long, even if most of them don't know I was (am?) there, and I'm scared to go in the little girls room, now that I want to hang out with them, because I'm not quite sure what we'd talk about. For example, I like Supernatural, but the last thing I care about on the show is the Winchesters' love lives or what Jensen and Jared had for lunch. In a show about heaven and hell fighting for earth, I just don't give a crap. Another example: Hellboy. Gimme Lovecraftian pulpy badassery any day. HB/Liz, however, is DNW and Abe is cool but I really don't want to fuck him or hear about him fucking anyone ever. There was no shipping at AICN. And there is no hilariously offensive bitching at LJ (at least not without getting banhammered). Where am I supposed to go? Where is our fandom utopia? I'd like to think I speak for fans like me in case someone ever reads this and gets it, but the truth is that being adrift like this, not in any fandom, I can't speak for anyone but myself. I know there are others who may relate to this problem somewhat. Just yesterday secret 101 at F!S was about something like this. But I can't say "look, we feel like this" because there is no "we", which may actually be part of the problem.
So my last question is: Could we build a fandom utopia?
I've been asking myself all of these things because I've been aware for quite a while that online fandom is not as I'd imagined. Many years ago, I'd been under the mistaken assumption that communities, groups, forums, mailing lists and the like dedicated to any content considered worthy of a fandom were places where both fangirls and fanboys were equally represented, places where fanpeople gathered to talk about every aspect of that which they loved.
I was disappointed when I realized online fandom is like a kindergarten playground: boys hang out with boys and girls with girls, mostly.
Many fanboys are not much concerned with shipping/slashing. Many fangirls don't care too much about execution. Obviously they are both aware of these aspects. I'm not saying people who care about both don't exist; I'm saying that in my experience both groups tend to lean toward the extremes, for example, video game fangirls who care mostly about the characters, and video game fanboys who care mostly about the gameplay. At F!S, there is a distinct preoccupation with shipping, slashing, "hitting it", and fandom relationships in general. At AICN, fanboys are mostly concerned with what the creators of x did wrong/right, and with sounding clever about it. Or that's how I see it, anyway. For the record, I've been reading AICN on and off for about 10 years, and F!S for about 6 months (but I've been reading the archives, too, and other LJ places for about two years now).
My recent concern with this subject came from the fact that my recent posts, and indeed the extent of my (non)participation in fandom as of late has been devoted mostly to shipping of all things. I found it interesting because I've always had trouble with this aspect. At least 60% of the few fangirls I've met IRL are invested in a fandom because they have a crush on a character/performer, or they ship/slash characters/performers. I can't relate to this because most of the stuff I love, I love because of what it is as a whole, not mostly due to a single character or pairing. Perhaps this explains why many people, including me, are not involved in fandom: it's often about fanworks, and we're usually happy enough with the source material so as to not need more (except perhaps bitch about what was wrong with it, or praise its genius, or both).
At least for me this is the rule, except for those few times when I do ship something, and the damn thing never becomes canon. Those times I feel an urgent need to "fix" it, and/or to have fandom "fix" it for me. I'm well aware it's the reason why I'm currently so invested in my current OTP, and why I tried so hard to get into the Smallville fandom a few years back. I realized, for the first time in years, that I needed fanworks. I needed to know that other people thought the same thing, felt the same way. And so, here I am, stuck with an obscure OTP while so many other ships get so much fan attention, and fandom in general seems so damn appealing. So what am I doing? Trying to get myself invested in ships I don't really care about, just so I can feel like I'm dipping my toe in an actual living, breathing fandom.
What this ultimately comes down to is an irrational, growing concern with fitting in some day; with being a "proper fangirl" capable of making fandom friends and bonding over squee-worthy characters/moments. But I've been hanging out with the boys way too long, even if most of them don't know I was (am?) there, and I'm scared to go in the little girls room, now that I want to hang out with them, because I'm not quite sure what we'd talk about. For example, I like Supernatural, but the last thing I care about on the show is the Winchesters' love lives or what Jensen and Jared had for lunch. In a show about heaven and hell fighting for earth, I just don't give a crap. Another example: Hellboy. Gimme Lovecraftian pulpy badassery any day. HB/Liz, however, is DNW and Abe is cool but I really don't want to fuck him or hear about him fucking anyone ever. There was no shipping at AICN. And there is no hilariously offensive bitching at LJ (at least not without getting banhammered). Where am I supposed to go? Where is our fandom utopia? I'd like to think I speak for fans like me in case someone ever reads this and gets it, but the truth is that being adrift like this, not in any fandom, I can't speak for anyone but myself. I know there are others who may relate to this problem somewhat. Just yesterday secret 101 at F!S was about something like this. But I can't say "look, we feel like this" because there is no "we", which may actually be part of the problem.
So my last question is: Could we build a fandom utopia?