WANKFEST 2021, or "How I Still Haven't Learned to Stop Wanking and Love the Fandom"
So, this is going to be a long one, sorry, folks. It's feast or famine with me. :D
There's been a couple of recent practices in fandom (primarily twitter and tumblr, unsurprisingly) that've found their way into my notice, and I had to chew on them and spit them back out again.
Two things, really, when it all boils down, and they're kind of related but I might wander far and wide in the process. Again, apologies in advance.
Firstly: this phenomenon of posting DNIs on your social media … on platforms designed to encourage sharing, reblogging, reacting, and chasing those sweet, sweet 'likes'. (Makes me miss LJ even harder; sad that LJ isn't The Spot anymore.) Tangentially, I've also seen an up-tick in certain fans “reclaiming” Sam, ostensibly from The Bad Shippers. I have so very many thoughts, and they're all steeped in incredulity.
Y'all know me: I'm an OG Sam fan. Always have been, always will be. I entered fandom via looking for something better than the tie-in novels and ended up finding fic. Emotionally charged gen fic still owns my heart, but as everyone who matriculates in the SPN fandom has experienced, it's nigh impossible to avoid bumping into shipping. I didn't enter the shipping lane until I started to run out of powerful gen fics to read, so I began tiptoeing into Sam-centric ships. As I always watched the show for Sam and Dean, you can guess where I eventually wound up. (I also enjoy several other ships, but no one seems to give a floop about those, even if they might be “problematic” themselves.)
Let's start with DNIs. Short for “do not interact”. We've all seen them by now: “wincesties DNI”, frequently accompanied by a graphic or addendum threatening violence upon the offending fangroup. Right from the jump, this is counter-intuitive to the way sites like tumblr and twitter are designed. The entire premise of these platforms is to reward you with that dopamine hit when you get a 'like' or a reblog, knowing there are people out there who agree with you, like your handiwork, and provide that quick pop of approval. (Or, conversely, for the troll-inclined, that hit of adrenaline when someone puts up their dukes and returns the punch you just threw out onto the internet.)
In recent years, there has been an encouragement for people to curate their own internet experiences, for their own safety and comfort: that hallowed protocol of creating your bubble. Which is all well and good, and sometimes absolutely necessary for a pleasant fandom experience! But it's one thing to mute certain words, block people, or only follow the like-minded … and another thing entirely to forbid other fans from so much as looking sideways at your public posts. Fandom has a pretty good structure of respect: don't repost without at least crediting the original creator (it's better to reblog), be sure to tag (or openly admit you “choose not to warn”) for triggers and navigational purposes … those are the biggies.
But fact is, when you forbid other people, no matter who they are or for what reason, from interacting with your entirely public output, you're actually attempting to curate their internet boundaries, not your own. If someone doesn't want to have a given group of people interface with their art, fic, etc., there's an incredibly simple technique that doesn't impinge upon other people's freedoms: you can make your account private. You can put it behind a paywall on Patreon. Lock up your twitter and only invite the chosen few. Start a Discord server and vet the members. This will impact your reach, obviously, but that's the price you pay to play. Or not play, as the case may be. If you make the decision to limit your audience, them's the way it rolls. Own that consequence of your boundary.
Fandom was founded on the very premise of exchange, exploration and creativity, no matter the ship or the kink. It's fiction. We are boundless.
Which segues (sloppily, I admit, okay :D) into my second beef du jour: the Reclamation of Sam Winchester.
On the surface, it looks (once again) like people trying to fabricate a “safe” internet space for themselves, wherein they can enjoy Sam content without the risk of running into the uncomfy-ness of the sort of Sam fan or creation that might ship him with his brother … but they don't want to encroach upon their own personal liberties in the slightest. It's apparently perfectly fine for them to reblog MY stuff, even though they personally maintain “wincesties DNI” (and sometimes go so far as to label my creations “destiel”, which won't apply to my handiwork 99.9% of the time). Guess what, fam: you just willfully interacted, and that pretty much turns your DNI into Swiss cheese. More guess what: just because someone ships a certain something doesn't mean that's all they fixate upon, or the only thing they make fanworks of, or even the only way they approach any given character, trope, genre or ship. Shock and awe, I know.
Let's look at the word “reclaim”: retrieve or recover (something previously lost, given, or paid); obtain the return of.
I think it's pretty safe to say that the quadrant of fandom that wants to “reclaim” Sam never really owned him to begin with. (I mean, well, technically no one but Warner Brothers owns the character, but let's ponder which parts of fandom actually, you know, take an interest in Sam.) The incidence of substantial Sam exploration in that quadrant's fanworks, and the care with which they look at him-legitimately explore him and his emotional arc, drives, or even the actual canon-is almost nonexistent compared to the attention and thoughtfulness put into Dean and Cas. If D/C is your ship, why would you spend energy on Sam? It also makes sense, given the smother of Destiel as the fandom juggernaut, that fanworks get more hits/kudos if they're Destiel than not. But let's be honest, Sam was never taken away from you; you never gave a shit about him to begin with. You just don't want them to have him.
A few weeks ago, I watched Saileen and their wedding trend for all of five hot minutes on tumblr (many in conjunction with Destiel), and then vanish quicker than a ghost in the Dead Sea. Sam even gave up “Winchester” in favor of “Leahy” (Which, btw, isn't an act of feminism. There wasn't a plausible reason for it except to further remove Sam from Dean. Sam wasn't even a Winchester anymore. But I'll defer to Hanlon's razor if there actually were people who didn't think it through and simply thought it was “cute”.)
Lastly, with a particular eye as to how “reclaim” is used commonly in today's vernacular, it has uncomfortable echoes of reclaiming a slur, which contemporary culture sometimes does, but isn't always in agreement with how healing that practice truly is. But I dunno, maybe those fans earnestly do think they're redeeming the character from some state of vice? Making a silk purse from a sow's ear? In which case, great, I guess? More Sam is … more Sam! I'm so glad they're saving him from a bunch of fans who don't write about him and include them in their ship and art and graphics and create events centering him or any of that stuff! Dang, too bad I'm not allowed to interact with you-the rescuers of Sam. Me, a long-time Sam fan. Verboten. (Spoiler: I will anyways. I'll be regardful. I won't highjack your post and tag it something it's not, but you ain't the boss of me and you don't own either the internet, or fandom. Or Sam.)
There's been a couple of recent practices in fandom (primarily twitter and tumblr, unsurprisingly) that've found their way into my notice, and I had to chew on them and spit them back out again.
Two things, really, when it all boils down, and they're kind of related but I might wander far and wide in the process. Again, apologies in advance.
Firstly: this phenomenon of posting DNIs on your social media … on platforms designed to encourage sharing, reblogging, reacting, and chasing those sweet, sweet 'likes'. (Makes me miss LJ even harder; sad that LJ isn't The Spot anymore.) Tangentially, I've also seen an up-tick in certain fans “reclaiming” Sam, ostensibly from The Bad Shippers. I have so very many thoughts, and they're all steeped in incredulity.
Y'all know me: I'm an OG Sam fan. Always have been, always will be. I entered fandom via looking for something better than the tie-in novels and ended up finding fic. Emotionally charged gen fic still owns my heart, but as everyone who matriculates in the SPN fandom has experienced, it's nigh impossible to avoid bumping into shipping. I didn't enter the shipping lane until I started to run out of powerful gen fics to read, so I began tiptoeing into Sam-centric ships. As I always watched the show for Sam and Dean, you can guess where I eventually wound up. (I also enjoy several other ships, but no one seems to give a floop about those, even if they might be “problematic” themselves.)
Let's start with DNIs. Short for “do not interact”. We've all seen them by now: “wincesties DNI”, frequently accompanied by a graphic or addendum threatening violence upon the offending fangroup. Right from the jump, this is counter-intuitive to the way sites like tumblr and twitter are designed. The entire premise of these platforms is to reward you with that dopamine hit when you get a 'like' or a reblog, knowing there are people out there who agree with you, like your handiwork, and provide that quick pop of approval. (Or, conversely, for the troll-inclined, that hit of adrenaline when someone puts up their dukes and returns the punch you just threw out onto the internet.)
In recent years, there has been an encouragement for people to curate their own internet experiences, for their own safety and comfort: that hallowed protocol of creating your bubble. Which is all well and good, and sometimes absolutely necessary for a pleasant fandom experience! But it's one thing to mute certain words, block people, or only follow the like-minded … and another thing entirely to forbid other fans from so much as looking sideways at your public posts. Fandom has a pretty good structure of respect: don't repost without at least crediting the original creator (it's better to reblog), be sure to tag (or openly admit you “choose not to warn”) for triggers and navigational purposes … those are the biggies.
But fact is, when you forbid other people, no matter who they are or for what reason, from interacting with your entirely public output, you're actually attempting to curate their internet boundaries, not your own. If someone doesn't want to have a given group of people interface with their art, fic, etc., there's an incredibly simple technique that doesn't impinge upon other people's freedoms: you can make your account private. You can put it behind a paywall on Patreon. Lock up your twitter and only invite the chosen few. Start a Discord server and vet the members. This will impact your reach, obviously, but that's the price you pay to play. Or not play, as the case may be. If you make the decision to limit your audience, them's the way it rolls. Own that consequence of your boundary.
Fandom was founded on the very premise of exchange, exploration and creativity, no matter the ship or the kink. It's fiction. We are boundless.
Which segues (sloppily, I admit, okay :D) into my second beef du jour: the Reclamation of Sam Winchester.
On the surface, it looks (once again) like people trying to fabricate a “safe” internet space for themselves, wherein they can enjoy Sam content without the risk of running into the uncomfy-ness of the sort of Sam fan or creation that might ship him with his brother … but they don't want to encroach upon their own personal liberties in the slightest. It's apparently perfectly fine for them to reblog MY stuff, even though they personally maintain “wincesties DNI” (and sometimes go so far as to label my creations “destiel”, which won't apply to my handiwork 99.9% of the time). Guess what, fam: you just willfully interacted, and that pretty much turns your DNI into Swiss cheese. More guess what: just because someone ships a certain something doesn't mean that's all they fixate upon, or the only thing they make fanworks of, or even the only way they approach any given character, trope, genre or ship. Shock and awe, I know.
Let's look at the word “reclaim”: retrieve or recover (something previously lost, given, or paid); obtain the return of.
I think it's pretty safe to say that the quadrant of fandom that wants to “reclaim” Sam never really owned him to begin with. (I mean, well, technically no one but Warner Brothers owns the character, but let's ponder which parts of fandom actually, you know, take an interest in Sam.) The incidence of substantial Sam exploration in that quadrant's fanworks, and the care with which they look at him-legitimately explore him and his emotional arc, drives, or even the actual canon-is almost nonexistent compared to the attention and thoughtfulness put into Dean and Cas. If D/C is your ship, why would you spend energy on Sam? It also makes sense, given the smother of Destiel as the fandom juggernaut, that fanworks get more hits/kudos if they're Destiel than not. But let's be honest, Sam was never taken away from you; you never gave a shit about him to begin with. You just don't want them to have him.
A few weeks ago, I watched Saileen and their wedding trend for all of five hot minutes on tumblr (many in conjunction with Destiel), and then vanish quicker than a ghost in the Dead Sea. Sam even gave up “Winchester” in favor of “Leahy” (Which, btw, isn't an act of feminism. There wasn't a plausible reason for it except to further remove Sam from Dean. Sam wasn't even a Winchester anymore. But I'll defer to Hanlon's razor if there actually were people who didn't think it through and simply thought it was “cute”.)
Lastly, with a particular eye as to how “reclaim” is used commonly in today's vernacular, it has uncomfortable echoes of reclaiming a slur, which contemporary culture sometimes does, but isn't always in agreement with how healing that practice truly is. But I dunno, maybe those fans earnestly do think they're redeeming the character from some state of vice? Making a silk purse from a sow's ear? In which case, great, I guess? More Sam is … more Sam! I'm so glad they're saving him from a bunch of fans who don't write about him and include them in their ship and art and graphics and create events centering him or any of that stuff! Dang, too bad I'm not allowed to interact with you-the rescuers of Sam. Me, a long-time Sam fan. Verboten. (Spoiler: I will anyways. I'll be regardful. I won't highjack your post and tag it something it's not, but you ain't the boss of me and you don't own either the internet, or fandom. Or Sam.)