Happy as a Mountie in a Shack
Okay, I realize I've been away from the due South fandom for a while, but what the hell is going on? We got wankified? Yeesh.
I don't know staranise, and judging from her LJ post, I wouldn't want to know her. But her take on cesperanza's Canadian Shack 10th Anniversary Challenge is pretty damn off-base, and it's gotten me all angered up.
Like a lot of folks, I've always felt pretty protective of the due South fandom. It's a happy, welcoming and inclusive place where people like to spend time. I certainly did. From the fall of 2005 to 2009 I was very active in the fandom, and wrote over 35 stories and snippets starring the Rays, Fraser and that adorable deaf half-wolf. There was some wank in the fandom, of course - sometimes people didn't see eye-to-eye about characterization, pairings or story content. But that's pretty common in fandom, where everyone feels passionately about the subject matter.
However, until staranise posted about Canadian cultural appropriation and the use of the word "shack", I'd never seen the fandom accused of being a haven of ignorance, intolerance or (gasp!) poor writing. And I'm confused as to why staranise would, unless she's just being trollish. Which may be the case, given her response to a well-meaning question about why she's so upset about this issue.
When people don't understand a fandom or the fannish context of, say, the name of a meme, then get all pissy about it, they're showing their ass. And that's what staranise is doing here. cesperanza, like others in the due South fandom, employs the term "shack" as a humorous reference to the show's own ethos: imagining Canada as a idealized environment where a guy like Benton Fraser can live the wilderness lifestyle of the 19th century, complete with outhouses, lack of indoor heating, and the ability to make fire from stone. If this presentation of Canada is offensive or inaccurate, well, so is a lot of Canadian media, which often celebrates (and commodifies) the stereotype of Canada as untouched, virginal wilderness or "safe space" free of the racial and economic conflicts south of the border.
Being a Northern Canadian myself, and being one who actually lived in tiny sub-Arctic hamlets, First Nations reserves, and, yes, shacks, I can only view staranise's vilification of the fandom with a head-scratchy, "Bwah?" She asks:
Are any of the people writing "Canadian Shack" stories actually Canadian? Are any of them actually writing real Canada, and not Canadialand? Are any of them, say, engaging with Canadian literature and our struggle to establish a national identity, or Canada's issues with rural communities or the North? Are their shacks set on anything more complex than a "vast white plain" somewhere north of [stares at Google Maps for ten seconds] "Edmonton"?
Of course the answer is "yes." She would know that if she'd bothered to read more than a handful of stories (which were likely written as PWPs or more humor-based fare). The due South fandom shares a dedication to research, to creating real lived-in spaces, that I haven't seen in any other fandom. I can list examples of authors who have committed to presenting northern Canada realistically, and in all its geo-social complexity (like sageness, Kat Allison, aukestrel, innocentsmith, malnpudl, arrow00 and cesperanza herself), but I wouldn't expect staranise to bother to read any of their fabulous works. I'd point her to my writing in the fandom, in which I certainly attempted to engage with Canadian identity, the realities of northern community and culture, and the complexities of stereotypes both foreign and domestic. (Whether or not I succeeded in that is up to the reader). It just chaps my patoot to have someone who isn't part of the fandom come in and start throwing around accusations that get picked up by a wider audience, thereby nullifying all of the fandom's hard work to explore and explode stereotypes about Canada.
So there! /rant
I don't know staranise, and judging from her LJ post, I wouldn't want to know her. But her take on cesperanza's Canadian Shack 10th Anniversary Challenge is pretty damn off-base, and it's gotten me all angered up.
Like a lot of folks, I've always felt pretty protective of the due South fandom. It's a happy, welcoming and inclusive place where people like to spend time. I certainly did. From the fall of 2005 to 2009 I was very active in the fandom, and wrote over 35 stories and snippets starring the Rays, Fraser and that adorable deaf half-wolf. There was some wank in the fandom, of course - sometimes people didn't see eye-to-eye about characterization, pairings or story content. But that's pretty common in fandom, where everyone feels passionately about the subject matter.
However, until staranise posted about Canadian cultural appropriation and the use of the word "shack", I'd never seen the fandom accused of being a haven of ignorance, intolerance or (gasp!) poor writing. And I'm confused as to why staranise would, unless she's just being trollish. Which may be the case, given her response to a well-meaning question about why she's so upset about this issue.
When people don't understand a fandom or the fannish context of, say, the name of a meme, then get all pissy about it, they're showing their ass. And that's what staranise is doing here. cesperanza, like others in the due South fandom, employs the term "shack" as a humorous reference to the show's own ethos: imagining Canada as a idealized environment where a guy like Benton Fraser can live the wilderness lifestyle of the 19th century, complete with outhouses, lack of indoor heating, and the ability to make fire from stone. If this presentation of Canada is offensive or inaccurate, well, so is a lot of Canadian media, which often celebrates (and commodifies) the stereotype of Canada as untouched, virginal wilderness or "safe space" free of the racial and economic conflicts south of the border.
Being a Northern Canadian myself, and being one who actually lived in tiny sub-Arctic hamlets, First Nations reserves, and, yes, shacks, I can only view staranise's vilification of the fandom with a head-scratchy, "Bwah?" She asks:
Are any of the people writing "Canadian Shack" stories actually Canadian? Are any of them actually writing real Canada, and not Canadialand? Are any of them, say, engaging with Canadian literature and our struggle to establish a national identity, or Canada's issues with rural communities or the North? Are their shacks set on anything more complex than a "vast white plain" somewhere north of [stares at Google Maps for ten seconds] "Edmonton"?
Of course the answer is "yes." She would know that if she'd bothered to read more than a handful of stories (which were likely written as PWPs or more humor-based fare). The due South fandom shares a dedication to research, to creating real lived-in spaces, that I haven't seen in any other fandom. I can list examples of authors who have committed to presenting northern Canada realistically, and in all its geo-social complexity (like sageness, Kat Allison, aukestrel, innocentsmith, malnpudl, arrow00 and cesperanza herself), but I wouldn't expect staranise to bother to read any of their fabulous works. I'd point her to my writing in the fandom, in which I certainly attempted to engage with Canadian identity, the realities of northern community and culture, and the complexities of stereotypes both foreign and domestic. (Whether or not I succeeded in that is up to the reader). It just chaps my patoot to have someone who isn't part of the fandom come in and start throwing around accusations that get picked up by a wider audience, thereby nullifying all of the fandom's hard work to explore and explode stereotypes about Canada.
So there! /rant