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[dotfic]

The concept of True Fannishness™ is childish, ultimately. It’s simplistic. It’s cruel. It turns fandom into an exclusive club for no valid reason: only to make things easier and more comfortable for the people who were there first.

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Comments

[sargraf]

I've been involved with several series where I encountered this "True Fan" nonsense. It makes me want to claw my eyes out every time.

To me, part of the problem is the word itself: "fandom." The "-dom" implies a group that is tied together by not just a common interest but also common rules, regulations and taboos. Depending on where you sit on the fandom fence or how well or poorly you've found others who share a similar enjoyment of the show, it seems warm and fuzzy or exclusive and cliquish. I consider myself a fan of the series Lord of the Rings, but I'm not part of the fandom. It's one I never tried to involve myself in, but even that disclaimer implies that there is something to get into. I think it of SPN all of the time: "I've been out of fandom for a long time," I wish I was more involved in fandom," "It seems like you have to write fic to be in fandom. *cries*" ...and so on. It's not that I can't interact with other fans without being involved in fandom, but there is that sense of being outside this "group" when I don't

[dotfic]

It's likely a false dis-association, but I think you can be a fan of something (and be quite devoted--and frustrated--by it) without identifying with a fandom as an organized body or entity. IDK I've gone through a lot of confusion on this. The amount people participate online shouldn't be the determiner of whether they are a real fan of something, and there are so many ways to engage with a text, online and off. OTOH, if you talk to other fans, make things, post things, participate...does that mean being "in" a fandom? I've started to see all fandoms less as entities and more as clusters of people with similar interests who find each other to share the squee/creativity/love/frustration, and the connections between clusters may be very loose or very tight, but I've started to chafe at the expectations and values people assign to what constitutes "being in a fandom" or being a real fan of something. Can't a text matter to me and inspire me and can't I share that with others without having to join club whose rules most of the time don't

[batyatoon]

I think there might possibly be a legitimate use of "not a true fan", but it would have to refer to someone who doesn't genuinely like the subject of the fandom at all but pretends to for some other purpose -- e.g., to romantically approach someone who is a fan, or to avoid appearing socially clueless if the subject of the fandom is something popular, or similar.

The usage described in this essay is not that at all, of course, and it would be laughable if it weren't so terrible.

[dotfic]

These are things I've actually seen in action (add people who declare love for things in order to stick it to fans they don't approve of). So there are people who pose as fans but that's a totally different subject than the essay. The "not a true fan" criticisms I've seen hurled have been aimed at those who in my definition are completely sincere in their love and are responding to something they are genuinely heavily invested in. A lot of it seems connected to *what* they're invested in, or what their focus is, and it really is ridiculous to throw those labels around based on that type of requirement. If the source text moved them and affected them and they identify with the characters and they're inspired by it in whatever way, they're a "real" fan of that thing.