The Snowflake Challenge, day nine

[scripsi]

Day 9

In your own space, talk about what surprises you about fandom. It could be a pairing or fandom you never thought you'd like. A fanwork type you never knew existed. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I think my biggest surprise with fandom was that it was such a female oriented community. I have met men who write fanfic, but just a handful, on the whole they are written by girls, women, old ladies. I think that is rather wonderful. I also think that fanfiction really expresses how diverse female sexuality is. Not all fanfics deal with sex, of course, but those who do, show how differently women look at it- a far cry from romances with a strict heterosexual normative view n what gets women hot and bothered. We have fluffy and romatic stuff here, of course, but there is also a variety of kinks and fetishes, not to mention slash. I’m all for self-insertion when I read/write fics so I prefer het, but there are many, many women out there who gets turned on when there are boy on boy action.

I have had some less nice surprises, as well. I have never understood the outright nastiness that I have seen against slash by het writers, and vice versa. Or how people can bash pairings that they don’t agree on. I really dislike that. If I don’t like something I don’t read it, but I won’t rant over it.

There is also an attitude in fandom that is hard to pin down, but as I read as an unconcious contempt for the genre. One is the way fics are treated as they are only worth noticing if they are brand new, as if they have an expire date. When I read a story that has been a few years online I often see reviews that begins with “I usually don’t review old stuff” or “My policy is not to comment…” I really, really don’t get that. I can understand that the older a fic is, the harder it is to find, as most fanfic archives sort their stories after publication date. But the writing doesn’t get worse by age. A good fanfic is a good fanfic, regardless if it was published ten years ago, or yesterday. I’m training myself to leave reviews more often, but if I don’t, it is never because a story isn’t brand new. The writer has put a lot of work into a story and will be as happy for a review over an old story as over a new.

The dislike against OC is, in my view, another expression for belittleing fanfic. Yes, I can see the dislike for a Mary Sue/Marty Stu, but they are not synonyms for OC. Badly written characters are bad no matter if it is a canon character or and original one. I have read Harry Potter-fic where Hermione is a Mary Sue and Peter Pan-fic where Wendy Darling is one.

It’s very hard to find really well-written fanfics, because fandom is so large and there is such a diversity in age, experience and writing skills, but if it is one thing I would love to see more of, is to not disregard a story because ot its age, or the writer’s choice of including OC. A fanfic writer isn’t automatically a bad writer. I know a lot of people assume that just because one borrows someone else work, but that is definitely not always the case.

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

I agree with so much of what you've said. As someone who was around for some of the shipping wars in the Buffy fandom, I have to say I really hated that!

Also, I love older stories and definitely see nothing wrong with going back and reading (and rereading) them!


Gabrielle

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I don't see the point of shipping wars at all. It's just to avoid reading what one dislikes, after all.

I tend to binge-read a fandom at the time, at the moment Doctor Who as I have only now realised it's there (duh), and after a while you do come to the older ones and it is just lovely to find those nuggets. And I love to re-read a good story!