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Why we're terrified of fanfiction
Dec. 31st, 2019 07:48 pmvia https://ift.tt/2Fb7OtS
Why we're terrified of fanfiction:
vigilantsycamore:
insomniac-arrest:
crowfoot:
whovianfeminism:
playerprophet:
Stands up on soapbox, holds up this article like it’s the opening of the Lion King.
Y’all should read this because it is FIRE, but also because a post from the Time Lady Project was linked in this!
Historically, whenever young women are interested in a form of media, we like to tell them it is bad for them and that they are bad for liking it — unless the media goes mainstream, in which case it becomes no longer feminine and hence okay. Novels are dangerous and cause insanity, until they become classics worthy of being studied in college. Beatlemania is the province of “the dull, the idle, the failures,“ until the Beatles become a band that everyone loves.
Young women are so attacked for loving the media they love that it is a radical act for a young woman to love something unashamedly. And transformative fandom is the most radical act of all, because it reverses that “lady thing to respectable thing” process.
Emphasis added. It’s so good- go read the whole thing.
“That’s why as a culture we’ve decided that transformative fandom is weird and gross and morally wrong, and that’s why all the articles in the world explaining that transformative fandom is a totally legitimate way to interact with a text aren’t really making a dent in the never-ending stream of repulsed investigations of fandom. Because fandom is the province of young women and, culturally, we find young women terrifying.”
This is a good article.
This is a pretty common phenomenon
Something, some trend or commodity or form of media, is derided by society because it’s not manly, or it’s not white, or it’s not straight
The people who like it are made fun of for liking it. Especially if they’re from the group it’s made for and/or by. In fact, that whole group will be made fun of for liking the thing made for them, as if it wasn’t obvious what the bigots are really mocking them for
Then the thing becomes cool and popular, and society tries its hardest to distance the thing from the groups that created it. Look at science fiction as an example
Then those groups take it back, through fanfiction or through representation in the media, and what happens? You get a bunch of whiny white boys screaming about how “diversity is ruining our thing that we definitely started! SJWs are delusional! MAGA!”
Bigots will always mock something associated with whoever they’re bigoted against… until it becomes popular, at which point they’ll pretend it was theirs all along and attack anyone who says otherwise
Is there a name for this process? Because it happens often enough that there should be a name for it. More specific than just “being an asshole” I mean
Why we're terrified of fanfiction:
vigilantsycamore:
insomniac-arrest:
crowfoot:
whovianfeminism:
playerprophet:
Stands up on soapbox, holds up this article like it’s the opening of the Lion King.
Y’all should read this because it is FIRE, but also because a post from the Time Lady Project was linked in this!
Historically, whenever young women are interested in a form of media, we like to tell them it is bad for them and that they are bad for liking it — unless the media goes mainstream, in which case it becomes no longer feminine and hence okay. Novels are dangerous and cause insanity, until they become classics worthy of being studied in college. Beatlemania is the province of “the dull, the idle, the failures,“ until the Beatles become a band that everyone loves.
Young women are so attacked for loving the media they love that it is a radical act for a young woman to love something unashamedly. And transformative fandom is the most radical act of all, because it reverses that “lady thing to respectable thing” process.
Emphasis added. It’s so good- go read the whole thing.
“That’s why as a culture we’ve decided that transformative fandom is weird and gross and morally wrong, and that’s why all the articles in the world explaining that transformative fandom is a totally legitimate way to interact with a text aren’t really making a dent in the never-ending stream of repulsed investigations of fandom. Because fandom is the province of young women and, culturally, we find young women terrifying.”
This is a good article.
This is a pretty common phenomenon
Something, some trend or commodity or form of media, is derided by society because it’s not manly, or it’s not white, or it’s not straight
The people who like it are made fun of for liking it. Especially if they’re from the group it’s made for and/or by. In fact, that whole group will be made fun of for liking the thing made for them, as if it wasn’t obvious what the bigots are really mocking them for
Then the thing becomes cool and popular, and society tries its hardest to distance the thing from the groups that created it. Look at science fiction as an example
Then those groups take it back, through fanfiction or through representation in the media, and what happens? You get a bunch of whiny white boys screaming about how “diversity is ruining our thing that we definitely started! SJWs are delusional! MAGA!”
Bigots will always mock something associated with whoever they’re bigoted against… until it becomes popular, at which point they’ll pretend it was theirs all along and attack anyone who says otherwise
Is there a name for this process? Because it happens often enough that there should be a name for it. More specific than just “being an asshole” I mean
