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dancing_serpentFor blnchflr's Mini-Meta Fest:
Prompts:
1. Sherlock Holmes: How do the influx of different canons influence fic/art/writing/archiving?
2. Fandom: Currently (January 2012-ish) a safespace to speak openly? (163 words)
I'd love to say yes, but unfortunately is isn't. Fandom hasn't been a safe space for me for almost three years now. More and more I feel pressured. People seem to expect me to (dis)like certain things, and make me feel as if I fail - at being a fan/woman/human - when I don't meet those expectations.
I don't react well to pressure or to people telling me what I should(n't) like. It makes me feel defensive, because I want to wholeheartedly enjoy what I like and not turn it into guilty pleasure. It's gone so far that I sometimes feel the need to justify my enjoyment to myself, and I hate that.
Another sad consequence is that I react needlessly negative to the things fandom expects me to like, or feel even more disinclined to give something a try.
And last but not least, it leads to keeping things vague and passive-aggressive even in my own journal space.
3. (Sherlock BBC) Meshing ACD canon into Sherlock fanworks
blnchflr's Mini-Meta Fest: Prompts:
2. Fandom: Currently (January 2012-ish) a safespace to speak openly? (163 words)
I'd love to say yes, but unfortunately is isn't. Fandom hasn't been a safe space for me for almost three years now. More and more I feel pressured. People seem to expect me to (dis)like certain things, and make me feel as if I fail - at being a fan/woman/human - when I don't meet those expectations.
I don't react well to pressure or to people telling me what I should(n't) like. It makes me feel defensive, because I want to wholeheartedly enjoy what I like and not turn it into guilty pleasure. It's gone so far that I sometimes feel the need to justify my enjoyment to myself, and I hate that.
Another sad consequence is that I react needlessly negative to the things fandom expects me to like, or feel even more disinclined to give something a try.
And last but not least, it leads to keeping things vague and passive-aggressive even in my own journal space.
3. (Sherlock BBC) Meshing ACD canon into Sherlock fanworks
(no subject)
Date: Monday, 16 January 2012 22:10 (UTC)As I was growing up, I reacted very strongly against 'hype' because I assumed that if the kids around me liked it, I wouldn't. Because anything I liked, they usually disliked. (Reading, fantasy, dreams, being a geek.) So erroneously I assumed the opposite to be true and rebelled against my bullies by rejecting what they liked. I'm not entirely sure why I'm telling you this, other than I still do it sometimes, meaning I miss out - and sometimes I turn out to be totally vindicated! *G* At any rate, I understand how it feels to do that and also why it's sometimes necessary.
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 06:21 (UTC)As I was growing up, I reacted very strongly against 'hype' because I assumed that if the kids around me liked it, I wouldn't.
It wasn't like that for me. I was an outsider growing up and would have willingly followed any hype if that meant I had "friends" or even someone to talk to.
My reaction now is a bit different - there's something I'm already not very much interested in. In general, because it just doesn't float my boat. And now there are people who expect me to be all over that and see it as the next best thing since sliced bread and go on and on about it and I just can't escape - not without unsubscribing to lots of people and never checking my network again or something. And over time my general disinterest turns into annoyance turns into hate. In the worst case, of course, because it doesn't always happen that way.
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 15:41 (UTC)I tried the liking what they liked approach (hello New Kids on the Block): it didn't work. No-one STILL wanted to talk to me. So hence the counter-reaction. Though if someone had suddenly begun to talk to me about ANYTHING I probably would've changed tactics ;-)
I can see why that's off-putting, yes. This is kind of how Snarry (and to a degree Snape in fandom) became my biggest squick.
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 16:29 (UTC)Yes, exactly that! That's part of the reason why I have problems with Draco or with Neville, too.
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 16:45 (UTC)*nods* Not the same characters, but definitely the same mechanism *sympathises*
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 09:55 (UTC)Mind to share the link? I'd love to read that.
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 10:03 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 10:08 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 15:36 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 09:54 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 10:16 (UTC)All right, I'm not saying that I don't like problematic things, I do. Sherlock, for example. But pretty much everything is flawed in a way and I'm aware of that and can deal with that just fine and don't pretend the source is perfect or without fault.
As an example: what makes me feel pressured is that people would rather accept that - I don't know, have a kink for non-con or underage or something like that - but frown upon me not liking the single female character of a show. I'm expected to like her because she's a woman/the only female character in a setting/show full of men/male characters.
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:45 (UTC)*nods* I like it too, and I understood that from your text (sorry if that wasn't clear).
I agree with your second paragraph, and the problem (for me) is that I sometimes prefer no (female)character at all instead of a badly written one (and sometimes it seems I'm not supposed to).
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 14:37 (UTC)I agree with your second paragraph, and the problem (for me) is that I sometimes prefer no (female)character at all instead of a badly written one (and sometimes it seems I'm not supposed to).
Yes, same for me. And yes, that's another thing that gets frowned upon, because we have to want female characters in our show.
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 14:22 (UTC)On the other hand, I started watching Sengoku Basara recently, something I'd been put off of for years because of some obnoxious fans, and I really loved it. So... I think my point is that fandom is kind of a double-edged sword - for all the joy and squee it can bring, the way certain types of fans act can really make it an unpleasant experience and can keep you away from things you might actually like.
...does that make sense?
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 14:29 (UTC)It makes worlds of sense to me! It's exactly how I feel so often. I'm either put off from watching/reading something I might actually really enjoy, or I try the hyped ones and am disappointed, and so on in all kinds of variations.
I'm okay with liking things that "everybody" likes. I'm not generally hype-averse or something. But when fandom starts with expectations and I get the feeling people are attempting to make me like/hate something and give me the impression that I'm a bad person when I don't agree? Yeah, then it's too much.
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, 25 January 2012 05:54 (UTC)If I wanted to write essays on how/why something is "problematic" and I still like it, I would do what people suggested and study literature. That doesn't mean I'm not aware of the issues, I've just never seen a problem with liking something and being aware of that.
Oddly enough, once I stopped worrying and learned to just be I've found a lot more to enjoy, like canons with interesting female characters and picking at problematic aspects (yes, that can be fun!)
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, 25 January 2012 06:17 (UTC)Forced - yes, that's how it felt to me, too. And I really don't react well to force of any kind. Leads to aversion when people try to force me into liking something I don't - oder zu Trotzreaktionen - irrational as they are but there you go, hello and welcome to my brain. *g*
But again, I have less trouble with (am less annoyed at) people telling me what not to like than with the opposite. I'm supposed or even expected to like something simply because...(fill in major point of annoyance here, which I don't mention because fandom is not a safe space to speak openly for me. ARGH!).