Does anyone know of any histories of the Buffy fandom?

[eilowyn]

Remember that history of fandom I was going to post a few weeks ago? Still working on it. It's actually the literature review of my application to study human subjects under the jurisdiction of my school's Institutional Board of Review (don't ask), and it's taking forever to do because I continue to read while I write, and I keep on coming across

Comments

[willowgreen]

Do you have the "Whedonistas" book? I can't think of any specific essays off the top of my head, but I bet it would have some good resources for you.

[eilowyn]

Thanks! I do have it somewhere . . .

[shapinglight]

I don't think we do have anything quite like that, though Shipperx's post about Post Traumatic Joss Syndrome may be some help.

[eilowyn]

I tried looking that up today, and got sidelined by all her Buffy wank tags. Good reading.

[rahirah]

You might also want to check out Fandom Wank over on Journalfen. They have some classic Buffy wanks in their archives, though finding them may take awhile.

[eilowyn]

When I have the time, I'm sure that will be a very enjoyable endeavor ; )

[slaymesoftly]

I think if you're going to do a full history of fandom, you'll have to read some Bangel history. I'm sure in the early days, more ink was devoted to Bangel than to anything else (Season II Spike/Buffy pron aside. lol) and I would think a true history of the fandom would have to include those stories and metas.
I'm looking forward to the finished product!

[eilowyn]

Yeah, I know I'm going to have to read GREAT MOMENTS IN BANGEL HISTORY, but I do get to treat the famous "Arf, fucking arf" post as a historical document!

[slaymesoftly]

LOL - I don't know what the "arf, fucking arf" post is, but I can imagine.

[rahirah]

Let me see if Arf Arf Guy is still Googleable... Here you go:

http://frelling-tralk.livejournal.com/59695.html?page=1

tl;dr: A somewhat over-invested B/A fan makes a frothing Spike-hate post on Ducks' Babble Board in which he compares himself to a rabid dog. I think Spuffy fans were supposed to infer that he was going to bite them, one hopes in a metaphorical sense, and tremble in fear. Or something.

[rahirah]

Honestly, you shouldn't limit it to B/S vs. B/A. There are reams of history in the slash sections of fandom, and the Willow/Tara shippers, and the huge S4 flamewar over Willow being gay, and the previous huge flamewar about Xander lying to Buffy about what Willow said about Angel, and the rise and fall of various non-canon ships, and the controversy over Dawn, and the Kita/Glossing feud, and JennyO blowing a gasket when Lilah Morgan was written out, and the Better Buffy Fics vs Better Buffy Slash controversy, and the implosion of BAPS, and the unrelated implosion of Sparklies, and the Great Spoiler Scandal of S6, and the struggle between Spike/Xander and Spike/Angel shippers, and the Kitten Jihad, and David Fury at the Bronze, and the Sexymermaid incident, and and and... There's SO much more than just Bangel vs. Spuffy!

[lynnenne]

There was a Kitten Jihad??

[londonkds]

It's not as funny as it sounds.

"Kittens" was the self-picked nickname of hardcore Willow/Tara shippers who, with considerable justification, argued at the end of S6 that killing Tara and having Willow go crazily evil over it was homophobic.

[frelling_tralk]

There was also a whole banner war ad with the Kitten's at TWoP when they paid for an ad mourning Tara and saying Willow/Tara are the magic, then the regular posters paid for another ad saying something like "Tara's dead, get over it. Mmmkay"

[eilowyn]

Yeha, I may need to limit my search. I wouldn't get to this until next summer at the soonest, but a record of fandom history is something I'm really interested in working on. You do know you'd be my source for Xander information, right? : )