Supernatural is not the Jersey Shore of Fandom (An Essay)

[girlguidejones]

This started out as a simple comment reply to the post referenced below, but it kept growing until it felt tangential enough to warrant a post on my own journal, rather than monopolizing someone else's.  If anyone's a lover of irony, it should be noted that the last time I posted was back on June 3, which was to rec a story with the pairing (which

Comments

[embroiderama]

So much TRUFAX to all of this! I was in XF fandom way back and holy shit. I look at the unkind discussion of fic that goes on over on the meme, and then I think of people who set up WEBSITES specifically for negative reviews of fic and MST3King of fic. And how I railed against it because it was so MEEEEEN. And now I jsut can't bring myself to give much of a shit about what goes on at the meme unless they bring it to people's journals.

And the epic wars of noromo vs. het vs. slash and pairing vs pairing. Yeah, I don't consider SPN a particularly wanky fandom at all, just a big fandom and prone to all the drama a big fandom ALWAYS gets.

[girlguidejones]

Ha! Icon love! I want to see Dean wearing an I Want To Believe t-shirt someday.

just a big fandom and prone to all the drama a big fandom ALWAYS gets.

Exactly. It's not the show, or the current plotline, or the actors, or the 'ships that make it drama-filled. It's simply the fans themselves who've done the same thing in every big fandom there ever was. Until fans make different choices, it's going to be anonymeme, rinse, repeat regardless of where you hang your hat.

[embroiderama]

I just had lunch today with an old friend from XF days and we talked about some of the old wanks--I learned things I didn't know back then and it was so much crazy-times and back-biting and infighting and personal attacks. I'm glad that [most of the time] I don't take any of nearly as seriously as I did back then. It seems like taking it all so seriously and personally is the path to unhappiness in fandom and no thanks.

Ha! Icon love! I want to see Dean wearing an I Want To Believe t-shirt someday.

Me toooooo!

[girlguidejones]

It would be easy if we could all just push a button to turn off the personal reactions we feel when something hits home or we are personally attacked. I think I'm at the same place you are at this point, but I know not everyone is wired to be able to do that.

On the old Fox Forum people separated themselves into "families" which I guess was the equivalent of today's flists. Some of them were inherently meeen, the X-Files fandom version of Slytherin.

[wrenlet]

Queer as Folk fandom got booted off Television Without Pity for poor behavior. I'm just sayin'.

And man, it's now got to the point where I feel SPN has been fighting this perception FOREVER. Like... years from now instead of "remember the Ray Wars" or "remember Haircutgate (Sentinel)" it'll be "remember when everyone thought SPN fen were all nutters"? *sigh*

[girlguidejones]

OMG. QaF!!! I can't believe I forgot to include that one. And TWOP? Talk about a cesspool! Eljay is puppies and rainbows compared to TWOP.

I think SPN has been THE big fandom for, what, five years now? So yeah, in fandom that is definitely FOREVER, and we've been the whipping boy for all that is wrong in fandom for all that time. It's not our show, it's the fans. And someday it'll be the fans of ANOTHER show unless everyone makes different decisions about how they interact.

[poisontaster]

Oh, man, I have had this argument/discussion with people SO MANY TIMES. I feel like people who espouse this viewpoint should be given homework: go back and read ALL of fandomsecrets and watch how fandoms turned from "It's excellent, there's never any wank!" to "OMG, I hate this wanky fandom and everyone in it!" to "Hey, I found a new fandom and it's so shiny, there's never any wank!"

[girlguidejones]

I hear ya!

Fandomsecrets is another place filled with "SPN=Cray-cray" offerings.

I wish I was going to Wincon now. I would *totally* be giving Fandom History 101 as my presentation.

[poisontaster]

Fandomsecrets is another place filled with "SPN=Cray-cray" offerings.
Definitely true...but it's also an interesting place to track fandom trends and how a given fandom changes over time as it becomes bigger and more crowded and divisive and wankier.

[girlguidejones]

I can't remember...are all the entries tagged? Searchable?

The becoming bigger and more crowded concept is something I mentioned in dotfic's post. With so much of the world gaining access to western media (and the internet!) in the last few years, we should really expect an increase in wank as newly connected fans go through all the same stages that many of us went through a decade ago.

[tabaqui]

Yes!
And thank you. I get rather tired of the 'Show is insane, it's the wo4rst possible fandom, i'm scared of it!!' crap. Bleh.

I am not super-duper 'into' fandoms, but i do remember some rather nasty stuff in HP and Buffy, too, when i first 'arrived'.

I luff Show, i have never really understood wank, and really just want to hang out and talk about BOYS. Damnit.
*waves cane*
*adjusts dentures*

[girlguidejones]

just want to hang out and talk about BOYS. Damnit.

Yes! This! Pass the prune juice!

[sweill]

I love you.
Can I reserve a rocking chair on your porch? (We can sing the Rolling Stones "Hey, You, Get offa my Lawn".)

[girlguidejones]

It's a Big Damn Porch! :)