ONTD Original: Lesbians of Fandom

[imnotasquirrel]

ONTD University recently spearheaded the most comprehensive study of lesbian subcultures in fandom. A 1,398 page report was published in the academic journal Cultural Anthropology. This groundbreaking report contributed to US News ranking ONTD U #1 on its annual list of Best Livejournal Colleges.

Please see below for report highlights:

Lesbians

Comments

[mizzyoung]

I feel a type of way that 'lesbians of color' is its own separate category, but atm can't articulate why.

[imnotasquirrel]

ftr, both mammary_glands and i are woc! some of us support/stan media purely on the basis of whether it features woc. ain't nothing wrong with that considering how white lesbian media can be. god knows part of the reason i clutched on to the handmaiden as hard as i did was bc it was the first time i had seen korean lesbians on the big screen. we've had to create our own fandom spaces so m_g and i wanted to call attention to that.

[mizzyoung]

I think it's because I interpreted the post as a general list. I'm tired of seeing us being constantly othered and felt that this was continuing that. I'm well aware of lgbts of color are always its own separate entity and can only exist in that vacuum.

[mammary_glands]

If you think lesbians of color don't have to carve out our own spaces and champion/create content for our favorite characters and ships because the wider (whiter) fandoms doesn't give a fuck, I don't know what to tell you

[mizzyoung]

I'm highkey well aware that us queers of color have to carve out our own spaces, but having to consistently being reminded of that rubs me the wrong way which is why I said something. Racism in fandom has always been a thing and it routinely sucks being othered. If you don't think that an queer person of color can be bothered by having their race being its separate category, I don't know what to tell you.

[ionadelfina]

Honestly it made me feel some type of way too but I get why they did it. White wlw take up SO.MUCH.GODDAMN.SPACE in fandom circles, it's hard for WOC to get a word in edgewise.

[mizzyoung]

Thank you. At least imnotasquirrel was nice enough to explain why they chose this format because honestly this isn't the first time I've seen a list like this. But thanks to the both of y'all I get it.

thought about this topic some more

[imnotasquirrel]

i answered your question bc i figured you were commenting in good faith but i also don't blame mammary_glands for being frustrated. the thing is, other than the two categories that (as noted in the post) tend to revolve around white actresses (i.e. carolbians & alt-lesbians), all of the other categories* list media featuring woc. so it's not like woc are being corralled/siloed into just one category, we're obviously not arguing that LOC are mutually exclusive. but there's no denying that certain media speak more to lesbians of color for Reasons. like, saving face is a great movie, but ime the reason it resonated with SO many ppl, esp east asian americans, was bc it was the first time we saw someone like ourselves represented. meanwhile, shay mitchell is also asian, but the vibe with her is much more trashbian bc it's pretty little liars lmfao