Another fandom meta...
I wrote this in response to a post on Fangirlishness. The comment hasn't been approved by them yet, but I wanted to share it.
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I’m going to apologize in advance for the length of this. Your article seems to have unleashed a monster in me.
I'm old enough to remember some of the first Star Trek conventions. I played Dungeons and Dragons as a teen, wrote a "Star Wars" fan fiction decades before the term "fan fiction" was ever coined, watched "Doctor Who," and attended Comic-Con during its first year in the San Diego Convention Center... back when you could just buy a ticket and walk in same-day.
But being a fan of such things was uncommon for girls at best. It could make you an easy target for teasing, and not just by your peers. My own father used to call my favorite science fiction programs “weirdo shows,” and would criticize me for enjoying them. My mother, thank God, was much more tolerant and encouraging of my interests. SHE bought me my first copies of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of The Rings.” But this stuff wasn’t something you bragged about to most of your high school friends. Even some of those I was closest to had no idea how much I liked “Battle of the Planets” as a teenager.
I learned, under fear of ridicule, to keep my fangirlishness under wraps for the most part. It took a lot to admit to coworkers that I love going to Comic-Con, but now they do take it as a matter of course. Over the years some of my coworkers have learned that I write fan fiction, but I’ve kept my pen name to myself. I’m not ready for them to read some of what I’ve written!
Fandom has meant new friendships beyond conventions, too. Eight years ago I traveled to England and met up with my beta reader from the “Who” fandom to see David Tennant performing in “Hamlet.” We’d never met in person; we live two states apart. But we had a wonderful time with several other members of the fandom whom we’d only known via each other’s stories and LiveJournal accounts.
These days, I’ve made a great friend within the “Legends of Tomorrow” fandom. We started out as fans of each other’s stories, and learned that we both have a journalism background. We’ve beta-read each other’s work, and cried on each other’s virtual shoulders when Captain Cold died. We live on opposite sides of the country, but I count her as a friend and I know that if we ever get the chance to meet, we will have a great time together.
So that’s the good of fandom.
I’ve been lucky not to encounter too much negative, although I admit to being shell-shocked last May when I posted a link to a change.org petition about the death of Captain Cold on a “Legends” Facebook page. I found myself blasted for spending time on trivia, and got comments along the lines of, “No wonder America is a mess if this is what’s important to you!”
And this was on a FAN page that I had just joined.
It hurt at the time. I’ve shaken that off, but I’ve also become a little more circumspect about where I post. I’m not as active on that Facebook page as I might have been otherwise.
So, good and bad. More good than bad for me, because it’s let me stretch creatively.
And my husband and I make sure our teenaged son knows we will never ridicule him for the things he loves.
Maybe that’s the most important thing I’ve learned from fandom.
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I’m going to apologize in advance for the length of this. Your article seems to have unleashed a monster in me.
I'm old enough to remember some of the first Star Trek conventions. I played Dungeons and Dragons as a teen, wrote a "Star Wars" fan fiction decades before the term "fan fiction" was ever coined, watched "Doctor Who," and attended Comic-Con during its first year in the San Diego Convention Center... back when you could just buy a ticket and walk in same-day.
But being a fan of such things was uncommon for girls at best. It could make you an easy target for teasing, and not just by your peers. My own father used to call my favorite science fiction programs “weirdo shows,” and would criticize me for enjoying them. My mother, thank God, was much more tolerant and encouraging of my interests. SHE bought me my first copies of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of The Rings.” But this stuff wasn’t something you bragged about to most of your high school friends. Even some of those I was closest to had no idea how much I liked “Battle of the Planets” as a teenager.
I learned, under fear of ridicule, to keep my fangirlishness under wraps for the most part. It took a lot to admit to coworkers that I love going to Comic-Con, but now they do take it as a matter of course. Over the years some of my coworkers have learned that I write fan fiction, but I’ve kept my pen name to myself. I’m not ready for them to read some of what I’ve written!
Fandom has meant new friendships beyond conventions, too. Eight years ago I traveled to England and met up with my beta reader from the “Who” fandom to see David Tennant performing in “Hamlet.” We’d never met in person; we live two states apart. But we had a wonderful time with several other members of the fandom whom we’d only known via each other’s stories and LiveJournal accounts.
These days, I’ve made a great friend within the “Legends of Tomorrow” fandom. We started out as fans of each other’s stories, and learned that we both have a journalism background. We’ve beta-read each other’s work, and cried on each other’s virtual shoulders when Captain Cold died. We live on opposite sides of the country, but I count her as a friend and I know that if we ever get the chance to meet, we will have a great time together.
So that’s the good of fandom.
I’ve been lucky not to encounter too much negative, although I admit to being shell-shocked last May when I posted a link to a change.org petition about the death of Captain Cold on a “Legends” Facebook page. I found myself blasted for spending time on trivia, and got comments along the lines of, “No wonder America is a mess if this is what’s important to you!”
And this was on a FAN page that I had just joined.
It hurt at the time. I’ve shaken that off, but I’ve also become a little more circumspect about where I post. I’m not as active on that Facebook page as I might have been otherwise.
So, good and bad. More good than bad for me, because it’s let me stretch creatively.
And my husband and I make sure our teenaged son knows we will never ridicule him for the things he loves.
Maybe that’s the most important thing I’ve learned from fandom.