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throwing slash into the mix too
Jul. 21st, 2015 10:46 pmAt a Star Trek convention when I was about 22, I found the art of Joan, a fan artist who drew absolutely wonderful depictions of TOS and TNG characters. Some of them were gen art, focusing on one character or two interacting in a platonic manner. But several were romantic or even erotic in nature, and not having seen that particular kind of fan art before, it took me a little while to get over being embarrassed (it's not that I hadn't seen that kind of art - that didn't seem odd - it was just getting over the actors' images as the characters' faces. You see, when I wrote or read fanfic, I have a mental picture of the characters that I develop that looks like the performers but not exactly. This isn't something I've cultivated to learn on purpose, it's just how my particular writer's mind works).
Joan was older, perhaps in her thirties, and was just one of a bunch of middle-aged and nearly middle-aged women in fandom that I've met in my life, who set what I thought was a good example of finding a way to combine work and even family life (for those who wanted that) with fannish activities. So often we hear about the hobbies men keep as they get older - sports, movies, books, golf, other games - but women's free time is often expected to be filled with caring for children or grandchildren or other family members, or the house. These women proved as I aged, I wouldn't have to necessarily give up something that helped keep me sane in the middle of what was sometimes a stressful career.
I eventually met Joan when I wrote with her and found out where she lived; I arranged to go to her house and look at the rest of her fan art, and bought a couple of pieces to hang in my apartment. The next time I went, it was with Rose, and we both took home a couple of purchases after sitting and talking with Joan for an hour or so. The third time I went, Rose and I took along another fandom friend we'd made, Lynn.
And so on, and so forth ... at least until Joan stopped participating in fandom, or moved, or we just lost touch. Because while you can pick up longtime friends in fandom, you also have situations in which you just lose touch with someone, or they decide they no longer want to be part of it and fall off the face of the Earth.
On either that first or second visit, while at Joan's, during a conversation I spotted a piece of fan art on the opposite wall; I thought I knew which Trek couple it was, so got up to move closer and get a better look. I was a few feet away when I recognized them for sure, and stared at it to be sure I was seeing it right. "Is that - Riker and DATA?" I asked Joan.
If fanfic, and then 'shipping fanfic and art, had presented a learning curve for me, slash was not only a new learning curve but came with a set of extra difficulties in overcoming the stereotypes I'd picked up about gay people by knowing almost none.
Joan was older, perhaps in her thirties, and was just one of a bunch of middle-aged and nearly middle-aged women in fandom that I've met in my life, who set what I thought was a good example of finding a way to combine work and even family life (for those who wanted that) with fannish activities. So often we hear about the hobbies men keep as they get older - sports, movies, books, golf, other games - but women's free time is often expected to be filled with caring for children or grandchildren or other family members, or the house. These women proved as I aged, I wouldn't have to necessarily give up something that helped keep me sane in the middle of what was sometimes a stressful career.
I eventually met Joan when I wrote with her and found out where she lived; I arranged to go to her house and look at the rest of her fan art, and bought a couple of pieces to hang in my apartment. The next time I went, it was with Rose, and we both took home a couple of purchases after sitting and talking with Joan for an hour or so. The third time I went, Rose and I took along another fandom friend we'd made, Lynn.
And so on, and so forth ... at least until Joan stopped participating in fandom, or moved, or we just lost touch. Because while you can pick up longtime friends in fandom, you also have situations in which you just lose touch with someone, or they decide they no longer want to be part of it and fall off the face of the Earth.
On either that first or second visit, while at Joan's, during a conversation I spotted a piece of fan art on the opposite wall; I thought I knew which Trek couple it was, so got up to move closer and get a better look. I was a few feet away when I recognized them for sure, and stared at it to be sure I was seeing it right. "Is that - Riker and DATA?" I asked Joan.
If fanfic, and then 'shipping fanfic and art, had presented a learning curve for me, slash was not only a new learning curve but came with a set of extra difficulties in overcoming the stereotypes I'd picked up about gay people by knowing almost none.
