Entitled knobnuts, part #758
Jun. 17th, 2012 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veronica_richFandom!Secrets may have moved to DW, but it's just as much fun as ever to read for venting. *G*
A theme I see brought up time and again is entitlement in fandom. As in, "I'm entitled to get to read stories/see fanart of THIS" and "I'm entitled to have what I like be the dominant force in my fandom" and "I'm entitled to do some name-calling when people waste their time on fanworks of things I don't like instead of what I want to see." Pre-Internet, I honestly don't remember fans I knew and met being so judgmental of fanfic or art beyond the usual "is it good or not?" which is fair enough. What I mean, there was none of this "quit wasting your time on slash and build me a het epic, bitch" that's become a staple at FS (which, FS is a concentrated dose of general fandom, so my guess is this maybe goes on in some individual fandoms out there to a lesser degree; I saw just a tiny bit of it back in POTC). I'm not talking about people who simply express a desire to read something specific they would like - I mean those who tear down other people for writing other things that aren't what the bitchers want to read.
And it is all het, occasionally gen. Even the femslash fans, who might have a point about not seeing enough of what they like, aren't whiny and entitled like the het fans who make these secrets or agree with them. I remember just a few occasional threads in parts of POTC where J/E fans (it wasn't ever W/E or even Norribeth or other het fans doing it) would sit around publicly wondering why anyone would like slash in that fandom. Or the few who insinuated from time to time it was down to misogyny because we didn't write Liz as much as they did. But it didn't come up with near the frequency it does on FS, and every time I see it, I wonder, why don't those people write what they want to read?
Seriously. This is how fanfic STARTED long before the Internet and even paper 'zines. Fans wrote what they liked to see and kept them to read again. Or traded with fellow fans. Or copied and passed around. Hell, this was going on into the 90s. So the bitchers who counter with "but I'm not a writer!" - well, I have no sympathy. Non-writers and professional storytellers have been telling themselves stories to beat boredom and fall asleep for tens of thousands of years; if you're so damn lazy you're the type who'd rather publicly bash because you're not getting what you want from people doing it for free, you deserve to be mocked by all of us who do it at FS and anywhere else.
A theme I see brought up time and again is entitlement in fandom. As in, "I'm entitled to get to read stories/see fanart of THIS" and "I'm entitled to have what I like be the dominant force in my fandom" and "I'm entitled to do some name-calling when people waste their time on fanworks of things I don't like instead of what I want to see." Pre-Internet, I honestly don't remember fans I knew and met being so judgmental of fanfic or art beyond the usual "is it good or not?" which is fair enough. What I mean, there was none of this "quit wasting your time on slash and build me a het epic, bitch" that's become a staple at FS (which, FS is a concentrated dose of general fandom, so my guess is this maybe goes on in some individual fandoms out there to a lesser degree; I saw just a tiny bit of it back in POTC). I'm not talking about people who simply express a desire to read something specific they would like - I mean those who tear down other people for writing other things that aren't what the bitchers want to read.
And it is all het, occasionally gen. Even the femslash fans, who might have a point about not seeing enough of what they like, aren't whiny and entitled like the het fans who make these secrets or agree with them. I remember just a few occasional threads in parts of POTC where J/E fans (it wasn't ever W/E or even Norribeth or other het fans doing it) would sit around publicly wondering why anyone would like slash in that fandom. Or the few who insinuated from time to time it was down to misogyny because we didn't write Liz as much as they did. But it didn't come up with near the frequency it does on FS, and every time I see it, I wonder, why don't those people write what they want to read?
Seriously. This is how fanfic STARTED long before the Internet and even paper 'zines. Fans wrote what they liked to see and kept them to read again. Or traded with fellow fans. Or copied and passed around. Hell, this was going on into the 90s. So the bitchers who counter with "but I'm not a writer!" - well, I have no sympathy. Non-writers and professional storytellers have been telling themselves stories to beat boredom and fall asleep for tens of thousands of years; if you're so damn lazy you're the type who'd rather publicly bash because you're not getting what you want from people doing it for free, you deserve to be mocked by all of us who do it at FS and anywhere else.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-17 08:00 pm (UTC)I just love4 you rant. I've run into this in other fandoms. Presently Sherlock.
I can't say how many people just blasted my writing because they didn't like it, but it isn't like there aren't a thousand other fics they'd like to read more than mine and actually say something nice about it. Sometimes it's like they just pick a fan fic to tear down and whine about. it's so annoying.
I agree with you. And I've even done this in fandoms. If I can't find fic about a pairing I like, I'll just write that pairing myself. It may not be the best fan fic out there. But I think that's a personal opinion people can make for themselves. Anyway, at least it adds to the pairing in fandom. I was on tumbler reading Tony/Loki fic even though I haven't seen the Avenger's movie. And the fic recs are awesome and the person I was looking at wrote some of their own fics for that pairing for that same reason. Because there wasn't enough of that pairing in fandom.
I agree with you on that last bit about non-writer's being like that. Maybe they should learn to write. Not only would they walk a mile in other people's shoes but maybe they won't be so annoying when it comes to fan fic in general.
And talking about the POTC Shipping Wars. I was lucky enough to miss it. Though I liked the slash, I was a W/E shipper because I wasn't fond of J/E but, I did read a good fan fic that had a J/E ship and it wasn't annoying. Very well written. I can't remember why I read it. But, I remember that the character's were actually in character and the writer took their time. it was a good fic.
Dude, I hear the shipping wars in HP were the worst. It's like no one could accept that other people had a difference of opinion and just respect that. Sometimes fandom is screwed up.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-17 09:55 pm (UTC)Besides, it's Stupid Logic(TM). Me writing a slash story is not keeping anyone else who wants to write f/m from doing it. There's all this open space on the Internet, after all.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-18 01:25 am (UTC)The people who whine about it aught to get their butt's in gear and write their own ship instead of whinning about how there isn't enough of it, or, and more importantly, how writer's like us need to conform to their idea of fandom.