the increasing popularity of bashing ao3 because they (understandably) ask for donations is really starting to piss me off. not to mention the sneering and self righteous judgment thrown at the people who do choose to donate to ao3.
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lmao, if you don't think Demon!Dean was bisexual af then I POLITELY DISAGREE AND CELEBRATE THE DIVERSITY OPINIONS THROUGHOUT FANDOMS AND HOW WE ARE ALL WATCHING THE SAME SHOW BUT OUR DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS AND PERSONALITIES IMPACT OUR UNIQUE OPINIONS OF WHAT WE ARE SEEING AND SOME PEOPLE MAY SEE DEMON DEAN AS STRAIGHT AF BECAUSE WERE ALL DIFFERENT PEOPLE WHICH IS COOL AF.
Plus I do not understand why people on tumblr refuse to support actual LGTB literature, games or movies or write it themselves. Sure, it's hard to publish a novel or make a movie or a game but it is not impossible. There are many tools people can use that don't even cost as much.
Many people probably do that, but LGBT literature, games and movies lack the unifying factor that pulls many people into fandom, and they simply don’t receive as much medial attention. But you’re right, in a way: instead of looking at huge franchises, it would probably make more sense to support smaller and independent artists. It often contributes to the sense that many people who voice their criticism in especially vicious ways aren’t actually interested in gettting the kind of content they want, they are looking for attention, and for the sense of power that lies in being part of a “protest” or “progressive” movement.
I agree with you on the "Fandom is broken" article. On that note I find it interesting how other people react to it. They're so aggressive? I wonder if some of them react that way because they have the same sense of entitlement and feel attacked because it applies to them? Reminds me of all those misandrists and people who hate white people on this side that do their best to twist the definitions of racism and sexism so it doesn't apply to them and they can still feel like "the good people"
I think a part of it is that we’ve created this vast fannish place for us against many odds, and it’s still met with incomrehension and derision from all sides. So we feel extremely protective of fandom and its achievements. So not entitlement, exactly, but a knee-jerk reaction to any kind of criticism coming from the outside. It’s an understandable defensiveness - and defiance - that I often share.Â
That said, yes, in some ways, the thing Faraci is criticizing in his article is this widespread attitude that takes social justice to a rhetorical extreme, and sees any kind of controversy as a threat, and sees every controversial artistic decision solely through a lense of oppression.Â
Yup, and fpvs summed up my thoughts on the matter beautifully.  Actually, all those commments are fantastic, including the “but when is Dylan coming back?”.
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When #GiveElsaAGirlfriend trended on Twitter, that was democratic disruption. The campaign shone a light on the lack of representation and toxic misrepresentation of queer people in children’s media, and it suggested a path forward. When GamerGate trended it was a terrifying reflection of what marginalized people have always seen in the internet: that we are not safe. That harassers and abusers too easily find support from the “reasonable.” That standing up for ourselves too often means painting a target on our backs.
A very cogent rebuttal to the “Fandom is Broken” essay’s basic premise of equivalency between GamerGate, Ghostbusters reboot-hate, and campaigns asking for more inclusion.
So there’s already been a lot of discussion regarding this article, and there has been people who have chimed in to agree and to disagree, so my voice is not necessarily unique in that way, but I DO feel strongly on something that this discussion touches on and definitely want to use this as a launching pad for that conversation.
Here is the first article mentioned at A.V. Club.  Here is Devin Faraci’s article “Fandom is Broken”.  Here is his followup response.  Here is the post with multiple tweets from Faraci regarding his feelings on fanworks.  Here is the post with links to other articles by Faraci.
I’m not going to delve into the ethics or practices of speaking out in favor of increased social justice, because as someone with a relatively large amount of privilege, that is really not my place, and any campaign regarding social justice issues should be spearheaded by those who are more directly affected by it.  I don’t want to try to weigh in on the concept of how and when to demonstrate any -isms in media;* what I want to focus on instead is the idea of the closing gap between creator and fans.
To quote a bit from Faraci’s first article:
There's always been a push and a pull between creator and fan, and while it can sometimes be negative it was, historically, generally positive. Fans used to raise their voices to save canceled TV shows or to support niche comic books, but now that we live in a world where every canceled show comes to Netflix or gets a comic book tie-in or lives on as a series of novels the fans have stopped defending the stuff they love and gotten more and more involved in trying to shape it.
andÂ
This immediate access to the people who create the stuff we love was supposed to be the greatest thing that ever happened to fandom.
But I’d actually argue that is it not, and potentially one of the more damaging thing to happen to fandom.
The most recent example I directly participated in was the Miraculous Ladybug fandom and how that interaction with the creators played out on tumblr and twitter, but there are countless examples of other fandoms with other interactions with creators and other similarly disastrous results. Â Avatar the Last Airbender. Â BBC Sherlock. Â The 100. Â John Green x500. Â Rugrats.
Fan space is a specific kind of space for the admiration and critique of a particular media. Â Someone with a prescriptivist point of view on fandom -- which, based on those tweets, seems to be where Faraci is coming from -- might think that the creator/production team entering that space is a good thing because it provides the chance to ask direct, specific questions, but for people who enjoy and participate in more transformative fan culture, it can be both daunting and invasive. Â Fanfiction is written by and for fans; it is not written for the creators of the works. Â There will always inherently be a power imbalance within a group that consists of fans and creators; one will always have the final say.
Transformative fanworks are meant to play with, alter, adapt, enhance the canon. Â Some may be deferential, but others far less so, and any creator stepping into it might disrupt that free expression -- and that is the point of engaging in fanworks.
But even aside from all of that, introducing creators on a level with fans adds in the issue of them doing or saying something that some fans object to, and having that spiral out of control.  All humans are of course fallible, and content creators are no different; at some point, they will misstep and misspeak, and become the target of the hyperfocus of a fandom.  This is not really the fault of creator or fandom; it simply has more to do with the scope of someone famous’ follower count, and with people attempting to educate a person.
There is the saying “never meet your heroes” and in some ways it’s true; creators you respect will end up disappointing you in some fashion.  Fandom is predicated on the enjoyment of a piece of media, but even the most perfect piece will be created by a human who has their own faults and flaws, and conflating the two makes it harder to enjoy and allow the art to speak for itself.
Having easy, 24/7 access to the creators of who will inevitably shoot down headcanons and make mistakes entirely changes the dynamic of a fandom, and often for the worse.  It creates in-fighting and division, and overall diminishes the ability of fans to create fanworks in a way that allows them to express themselves.  The bridging of the gap between fans and creators can be very precarious, and I personally advocate for fannish spaces to exist outside the influence of the creator and without the creator’s direct input.  There is a time and a place for interaction with the creator, and I’m all for that!  But those should be clearly delineated and not constant.  I enjoy fandom, and I want to continue to enjoy it with my fellow fans; it is a community meant to be made up of people with a common interest, not necessarily the one in charge of that interest.
*Critiquing a piece of media along the axis of racism/sexism/homophobia/etc is, I think, an extremely important and necessary part of fan culture, one that I feel can help move national conversations forward in ways other things cannot.  What I mean in this post is whether I think it’s a good idea to, for example, send an essay on why a piece of media is -ist in some fashion directly to a creator OR creating a public review OR creating a twitter trend OR something else.  I don’t feel I have the right to decide how campaigns lead by people over which I have privilege should be conducted; if a campaign affected me personally, I would have an opinion about how best to get that message across, but when it’s not my message to convey, I respectfully bow out and go with the decision made by those affected.  This post was meant to discuss more the more casual, everyday interactions between fans and creators.
