The classic stereotype of a fan is male, very bright but with poor social skills, in a vaguely subclinical Autism Spectrum sort of way. He's overweight, still lives with his parents (in the basement), has dubious hygiene and dress sense, collects merchandise obsessively, games, and rules-lawyers as he does so. It's the fan-as-obsession-with-trivia, and acute lack of a sense of proportion. Like comic book guy from the Simpsons, or the Onion columnist
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"Fans" are all overweight men with bad personal hygiene and a set of Vulcan ears who live with their parents and have never had a romantic or sexual relationship with a member of the opposite sex, of course!
But seriously: I don't think the public realises that there are such things as women who are fans; gay fans; fans of series/films/books other than Star Trek; married fans; fans with children; fans with jobs, and so on.
It's definitely a gendered thing - men are fans, in the stereotype. Women fans either do not exist or they are an adjunct of a male fan who has somehow managed to attract a woman (in which case they will be steretyped as plain, bookish, glasses-wearing and nerdy - I hate that term, by the way. Why is is so bad to be interested in or good at academic pursuits?)
I think the public only knows one stereotype, the Trekkie. All fans will be forced into this mould, whether or not they fit.
I don't think the stereotypes of the "fan" effect me so much as the perception that certain activities are childish and should be
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I think there are two classic stereotypes of fans: one, the overweight, socially inept male who lives with his parents and obsessively collects; two, the teenage girl who pastes her walls with pictures of the New Hot Thing and squeals loudly every time he comes on the radio/tv/releases a new movie.
I think in this sense, the stereotypes are gendered, although they share a common theme that the person has not left childhood yet to reach their proper place as an adult in society, although they manifest in different ways. The Male Fan isn't assertive or manly enough, while the Female Fan is an exaggeration of girlyness. There's no sense of balance in these fans' lives.
I think the vast majority of fans are not the stereotype, although I've met a few that are. Fans come in all types, like people in general. Personally, I don't feel anything like the stereotype--but I have made it my personal habit to bash in stereotypes about me.
What are some "fan" stereotypes? (Meaning the stereotypes the "general public" has about fans, rather than the stereotypes fans themselves have.) some that i've run across are fans are completely obsessed, that they think of thing else.
Are there different stereotypes for female and male fans? Is the stereotype "gendered"? I think there are. Males generally aren't considered fans unless they're "extreme". Females can be considered fans (read as fanatics) if they mention that they happen to think such-and-such is a good show, or so-and-so is a good actor
Are there different stereotypes about different types of fans (comics fans, media fans, sci-fi fans etc)? There are, mainly due to what the different genres are. Though, off the top of my head, I am coming up with none. o.0
Do you think these stereotypes affect other's perceptions of you as a fan? Do they affect how you think about yourself? How so? They affect others preceptions, because they think they know me, place me in a stereotype, and write me off. They never bother to
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Since I know that most people will give more detailed comments about specificities, I'm going to mention personal experience as an illustration.
As an undergraduate, my university had (and still has) a Science Fiction and Fantasy club and an anime club. Now, a significant portion of the sci-fi people really seemed to fit the older-male-no-social-skills stereotype. A VERY significant portion -- to the point where it seemed that the only social life these individuals ever had were the Tuesday night club meetings. And because the sci-fi club attracted so many of these individuals, it reached a point where quite a few of the women in the sci-fi club fled to the anime club, which had originally been an offshoot, in order to get out of what they felt was a rather toxic culture.
The anime club, in contrast, had a more equal mix. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the ratio of women to men was 60-40, perhaps even as high as 70-30 on some evenings. I served as an club officer for several years, and in my final year there were four
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But seriously: I don't think the public realises that there are such things as women who are fans; gay fans; fans of series/films/books other than Star Trek; married fans; fans with children; fans with jobs, and so on.
It's definitely a gendered thing - men are fans, in the stereotype. Women fans either do not exist or they are an adjunct of a male fan who has somehow managed to attract a woman (in which case they will be steretyped as plain, bookish, glasses-wearing and nerdy - I hate that term, by the way. Why is is so bad to be interested in or good at academic pursuits?)
I think the public only knows one stereotype, the Trekkie. All fans will be forced into this mould, whether or not they fit.
I don't think the stereotypes of the "fan" effect me so much as the perception that certain activities are childish and should be ( ... )
Reply
I think in this sense, the stereotypes are gendered, although they share a common theme that the person has not left childhood yet to reach their proper place as an adult in society, although they manifest in different ways. The Male Fan isn't assertive or manly enough, while the Female Fan is an exaggeration of girlyness. There's no sense of balance in these fans' lives.
I think the vast majority of fans are not the stereotype, although I've met a few that are. Fans come in all types, like people in general. Personally, I don't feel anything like the stereotype--but I have made it my personal habit to bash in stereotypes about me.
Reply
Are there different stereotypes for female and male fans? Is the stereotype "gendered"? I think there are. Males generally aren't considered fans unless they're "extreme". Females can be considered fans (read as fanatics) if they mention that they happen to think such-and-such is a good show, or so-and-so is a good actor
Are there different stereotypes about different types of fans (comics fans, media fans, sci-fi fans etc)? There are, mainly due to what the different genres are. Though, off the top of my head, I am coming up with none. o.0
Do you think these stereotypes affect other's perceptions of you as a fan? Do they affect how you think about yourself? How so? They affect others preceptions, because they think they know me, place me in a stereotype, and write me off. They never bother to ( ... )
Reply
As an undergraduate, my university had (and still has) a Science Fiction and Fantasy club and an anime club. Now, a significant portion of the sci-fi people really seemed to fit the older-male-no-social-skills stereotype. A VERY significant portion -- to the point where it seemed that the only social life these individuals ever had were the Tuesday night club meetings. And because the sci-fi club attracted so many of these individuals, it reached a point where quite a few of the women in the sci-fi club fled to the anime club, which had originally been an offshoot, in order to get out of what they felt was a rather toxic culture.
The anime club, in contrast, had a more equal mix. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the ratio of women to men was 60-40, perhaps even as high as 70-30 on some evenings. I served as an club officer for several years, and in my final year there were four ( ... )
Reply
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