#ol fandom

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Things I’m taking away from this article which I actually really enjoyed reading:

Starz is basically putting all of their eggs in an Outlander shaped basket. The show is a huge success and they are heavily promoting it as such. He calls Season 5 “one of the strongest, best seasons yet”. Jeffrey talks about the fact that yes, it’s primarily women who start watching the show, or it’s maybe their idea initially, but they will bring their boyf/husband/partner on board and they will stick around for the multifaceted show content, “romance, love, drama, story, loss, separation, or reunions”. He says Outlander is Starz’s bellwether. It’s literally their blue print for replicating other successful shows aimed at a predominately female audience.

Good old Deb has gotten together with 4 other people who attended this meeting with Sam (That we now know Emma did not attend) and they have compiled the following summary. It’s actually a great read on its own but my favourite part it where she completely negates every single claim Emma made.

I received this ask several weeks ago, so I don’t know what rude comments were being directed at or made about Cait at the time, but I’m assuming it’s either about her personal life or appearance.

It’s all about perspective and a fan’s personal beliefs about what is and is not okay fandom behavior. You and I see this behavior as hypocritical (and sometimes appalling) because we believe that it’s not okay to trash an actor’s personal life or appearance. Period.

But, an Outlander fan who sees Cait as the only “good” or “decent” person involved with the show, will think it’s perfectly alright to defend her but then turn around and condone the behavior of fans who are trashing or bullying Richard, Sam, or Sophie. And that’s what it is—bullying—at least if it’s done on an actor’s social media accounts.       

Actors are real people with feelings. It is my personal belief that they should be treated with the same decency and respect that you would to any stranger. I also believe that an actor’s personal life is none of my business and I am not in any position to speculate on their relationships or criticize their appearance. I don’t need any of that negativity in my fandom life so I unfollow or block blogs that do this.  (I urge you to do the same, Anon.  There’s no point in getting worked up over a bunch of negative, mean, or entitled “fans.”) 

As for the trashing of certain characters...everyone has their favorites. It’s obvious who my favorites are.  Not that having a favorite excuses the trashing of other characters.  I think it’s perfectly alright to criticize a character’s actions or behaviors, or the writing or costuming of said characters.  What I don’t think is okay is sending anonymous hate in people’s inboxes, or dropping hate in the replies of a gifset, or reblogging a positive post just to add negativity.

Thank you, Anon, for sending this ask.  But, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to answer this.  I’m growing quite tired of talking about and analyzing the behavior of this fandom.  It seems that no matter what I say or how carefully I try to word things, someone will take offense.  Or they’ll interpret my defense of Roger/Richard and Bree/Sophie as hatred of Sam/Jamie and Cait/Claire.  It’s not a competition.  I’m not trying to create even more divisiveness in this fandom by speaking up for the characters or actors who I feel have been unfairly vilified.  I wish we could all coexist peacefully.  But, I cannot for the life of me understand the many different circles within this fandom, so I’m no longer up for commenting on or analyzing fandom behavior.