So there's a Mag7 Big Bang, huh.

[scrollgirl]

M7 fandom and I are not friends. That is to say, while I know a few M7 fans (some on my flist, some not) who actually have a clue about white privilege, for the most part M7 fandom has made me desperately unhappy.

It's not that I have a problem with a particular fan or group of fans. I couldn't name more than two or three people in M7 fandom. It's

Comments

[fantasyenabler]

The biggest problem I found within M7 fandom were the Ezra fans who felt that they had to clean up some of the dirt the show tried to throw on him, and thus, had to vilify the one character he had problems with in the pilot: Nathan. Thus they take the issues of post-Civil War Confederate vs. post-Civil War freed slave that the show actually tried to represent, albeit hamhandedly, and dumb it down to "Nathan is too much of a hard nose. He doesn't see that Ezra's roguish ways are just a cover for his noble heart."

This is how we end up with the "Nathan is a jerk who has to be taught the evil of his ways characterization." So much so that if you see a story has Ezra as its "misunderstood protagonist," you could almost guarantee that Nathan would be written as an ass.

That's my interpretation anyway.

Your mileage may vary.

[fantasyenabler]

[rubygirl29]

You must be familiar with the "Saint Ezra" school of M7 fanfic! Argh!!!

[scrollgirl]

And that's why I don't touch M7 fic with a ten foot pole. I'm sure there are some good stories out there, but unless you know the author and trust her not to punch you in the face, it's too dangerous to venture out.

[rubygirl29]

I wrote Chis/Vin primarily, and I confess Nathan, Josiah, and Ezra didn't play huge roles in the stories as a rule. I wouldn't punch you .... I haven't punched anybody since I was in first grade. :-)

[scrollgirl]

Heh. I read Chris/Vin primarily too, which helped save me from a lot of the more overt racefail re Nathan. Of course, there's also Vin and the Native Americans--less overt, but still a potential landmine.

In a way, the safest stories are the ones where they spend all their time having sex and never open the bedroom door, or think about anyone else.

I haven't punched anybody since I was in first grade. :-)

Wish I could say the same! *is naughty*

[rubygirl29]

Read mine? Written as Ruby J.

[scrollgirl]

I don't think I ever read yours. I might take a look! It's been a while since I read M7 fic.

[fantasyenabler]

Yeah, way too familiar. I tend to tune out whenever a fandom starts to tell me that a character has no faults. Now, granted, they're not the only fandom to do this. (See the cults of "Saint Daniel" and "Saint Rodney" over at the Stargate end of the street.) But since all of the new fic seemed to be written by these particular acolytes, it was enough to drive me out of that particular fandom.

[scrollgirl]

I tend to tune out whenever a fandom starts to tell me that a character has no faults.

For me, it's not that a character has no faults, but that he has PAIN. MAN PAIN. It doesn't matter which fandom it is--once I see a trend towards woobifying a particular male character or glorifying in his white boy ~mangst~, I start getting twitchy.