oh have you seen my ghost staring at the ground.
This sacred female space, a meta relating surreallis's journey in feminism and fandom.
(Disclaimer: the OP states that one experience does not equal a trend, and that is true and I appreciate her saying so, but I am making my statements below based on many posts and comments in this vein, and with the weight of a year of discomfort. Also, of course, my experience doesn't equal a trend either. There is no transfan uprising in the works, sorry.)
ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING: I don't think of fandom as "female space." I just don't. I never have. I only realised that fandom's default sex is female after I started coming out as trans and had to repeat the pronoun conversation seven times with people I'd known for--that many years, actually. I didn't understand the default=female thing then, and I don't understand it now (no, all right, I understand the logic of it, but I do not understand why it is okay).
With every meta I read on this subject, I feel my experience and love of fandom (so, hey, the last nine years of my life) invalidated. Trod upon. Chewed up, found lacking, and spit the fuck out. Because I don't belong in female space and I don't want to be there, and that is part of my feminism, believe it or not. It's kind of weird to be told I already am in female space, whether I like it or not, and that if I don't like it, I'm not a feminist (wait, what).
I was here before FanLib set the world's vaginas a-quiver. I was here before the Mary Jane statue. I was here before Elizabeth Weir and Mary Winchester. I haven't changed. Fandom has changed. And while a lot of the things that have led to and continue to propel this change are good (discussion, education, examination, community-building), I really, really don't think the change itself is good. I feel like my safe place in the world is being taken away, and wow, I thought feminism and fandom were not about that at all.
Whatever. Thank you for listening, or not.
Bye.
PS: Holiday cards! Don't you want one? Of course you do. Give me your address to better facilitate the stalking card-giving. Oh, desertport, you can totally e-mail me your address when you're done moving!
(Disclaimer: the OP states that one experience does not equal a trend, and that is true and I appreciate her saying so, but I am making my statements below based on many posts and comments in this vein, and with the weight of a year of discomfort. Also, of course, my experience doesn't equal a trend either. There is no transfan uprising in the works, sorry.)
ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING: I don't think of fandom as "female space." I just don't. I never have. I only realised that fandom's default sex is female after I started coming out as trans and had to repeat the pronoun conversation seven times with people I'd known for--that many years, actually. I didn't understand the default=female thing then, and I don't understand it now (no, all right, I understand the logic of it, but I do not understand why it is okay).
With every meta I read on this subject, I feel my experience and love of fandom (so, hey, the last nine years of my life) invalidated. Trod upon. Chewed up, found lacking, and spit the fuck out. Because I don't belong in female space and I don't want to be there, and that is part of my feminism, believe it or not. It's kind of weird to be told I already am in female space, whether I like it or not, and that if I don't like it, I'm not a feminist (wait, what).
I was here before FanLib set the world's vaginas a-quiver. I was here before the Mary Jane statue. I was here before Elizabeth Weir and Mary Winchester. I haven't changed. Fandom has changed. And while a lot of the things that have led to and continue to propel this change are good (discussion, education, examination, community-building), I really, really don't think the change itself is good. I feel like my safe place in the world is being taken away, and wow, I thought feminism and fandom were not about that at all.
Whatever. Thank you for listening, or not.
Bye.
PS: Holiday cards! Don't you want one? Of course you do. Give me your address to better facilitate the stalking card-giving. Oh, desertport, you can totally e-mail me your address when you're done moving!