I have officially been in too many fandom wars

[neadods]

I have officially been in too many fandom wars. Because my reaction to finally reading the essay that's caused so much anger in Holmes fandom was to shriek...

... with laughter. Because it's all about someone who couldn't keep those awful Brett fangirls out of his hobby, and now the leaders of the REAL fans are letting in all the Cumberbatch fangirls AND THAT OFFENDS HIS DICKENSIAN PRINCIPLES! If you let in people like that, they'll just go and interrogate the text from the wrong perspective!

The supplanted SMOFs of Trek and Who fandom will doubtless chime in to sing the Butthurt Battle Hymn in harmony.

Me, I'm going to continue to be equally as proud of Watson's Tin Box and Sherlocks NYC and DC. And the canon on my phone is going to have to continue to live pixel-by-pixel with a metric ton of BBC fanfic.

For fuck's sake, has shouting "YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!" ever actually chased the kids off the lawn?

*eyeroll* Here, have Lucy Liu being buried in Pomeranians.

Comments

[stoplookingup.livejournal.com]

Sad how this scenario plays itself out over and over again, fandom after fandom. You'd think fandom would be having a golden age now that the whole phenomenon has become more mainstream, the internet has made communities of interest so accessible, and there's so much good material to be a fan of. And maybe this IS the golden age, warts and all. But there are always those who will pee in the sandbox.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

The thing is, the scenario plays out when men* discover that women form a non-ignorable part of their afición. Imagine if there were a wave of women recolonizing Norman Mailer.

* There were and are, of course, women fans of classic Who. But their voices were largely drowned out.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Or you get Queen Bee types who have to insist that they were the only woman in Who fandom back then.

I'm still bitter about being asked to cite a source for my statement that Classic Who had a large female audience. I mean, early Saturday evening family programme in a country with 3 TV channels only? Regularly getting 25 million plus viewers? How could it not have done?

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I have vivid memories of playing at Daleks with my (female) friends in 1963. In between skipping games and conkers.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Somewhere on my flist is the infamous then-girl who was playing at being Leela in Australia and actually killed a snake with her homemade spear.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm going to dispute this because I think it has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with power. I've seen it play out in majority-female fandoms, and more than that, in church groups, charitable groups - it's all about who has the power to speak for the tribe, and moreover, to control who is "in" or "out", be it a 6th grade clique or a fandom or a literary society.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

I misspoke. It's always about your tribe and your power. Sometimes (as in Who and Holmes) it is also about your gender.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Cf. the American Georgette Heyer fans referenced alive.

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

We must've gone to different conventions. It was at least 50/50 in the U.S. Actually, it was majority female. It always surprised when I'd see stuff about the UK fandom being majority male.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

But it's not about fandom. It's about tribalism, and who has the power to control the in and out groups of the tribe. THAT is never going to leave the human race.

But there are always those who will pee in the sandbox.

Cosmic truth, yo.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Yes, but just look at this ineffable plonker! You can't possibly have him on your side; it lowers the tone of the entire continent. He's only vaguely acceptable as an enemy, and a panto one at that.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Lyndsay Faye has used the excellent line "intellectual lamppost."

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Perfect!

Now where were those two Pomeranians again?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Check the link in the OP.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

My point was to direct them to this so convenient lamppost......