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i got married to SPN and some of my sister wives are like Nicolette: "STFU about hubby. He perfect!"
i was reading somebody's profile page (somebody in my flist) and it got me thinking about what being a fan means and what being in Fandom means to me. this is not a manifesto or an argument about how shit just got real and if you don't agree then you're wrong. this here? is just my opinion. caveat lector and all that.
i think that a fan who stops squeeing isn't really a fan, i think they would even tell you, "i used to be a fan, but--" but once a Fan becomes a part of Fandom thenthey be married the squee reel can be paused every once in a while...because the very act of looking for fanfic or fanart can mean that for that Fandom-Fan canon isn't enough. canon doesn't fulfill every need, sexual, psychological, cultural, social. and that's a type of criticism. isn't it?
the way some people are, if they are not cis, or white, or heterosexual, or male, or simply if their taste for media bifurcates from the mainstream, then the mostly cis, heterocentric, white male (a world that often even fails those people since individuals are not stereotypes) world of media is not going to work for them and they have to create a media AU within that world that does and that's Fandom. (which is why the people who just come here to read and write pr0n and could not give less of a fuck about anything else sometimes get angry when their search for pr0n is thwarted by other people's search for fan-made material that isn't blatantly ableist, racist, sexist, transphobic or homophobic.)
so to me saying "i don't allow for critique" is kind of ...naive? unaware? because if you write fanfic, or read fanfic, or fanart, you are acknowledging there's a lack in canon. which may be why fandoms are built where there's potential for more, potential for gay representation and female representation and PoC representation. we see that potential and that inspires us to seek it and create it and queer it and twist it and kink it and genderfuck it for our own little AU worlds where judgment is less valued than acceptance, tolerance. where morality is characterized by understanding and suspension of censure and stuff.
or maybe we're just here for the pr0n and i'm the naive, unaware one.
i think that a fan who stops squeeing isn't really a fan, i think they would even tell you, "i used to be a fan, but--" but once a Fan becomes a part of Fandom then
the way some people are, if they are not cis, or white, or heterosexual, or male, or simply if their taste for media bifurcates from the mainstream, then the mostly cis, heterocentric, white male (a world that often even fails those people since individuals are not stereotypes) world of media is not going to work for them and they have to create a media AU within that world that does and that's Fandom. (which is why the people who just come here to read and write pr0n and could not give less of a fuck about anything else sometimes get angry when their search for pr0n is thwarted by other people's search for fan-made material that isn't blatantly ableist, racist, sexist, transphobic or homophobic.)
so to me saying "i don't allow for critique" is kind of ...naive? unaware? because if you write fanfic, or read fanfic, or fanart, you are acknowledging there's a lack in canon. which may be why fandoms are built where there's potential for more, potential for gay representation and female representation and PoC representation. we see that potential and that inspires us to seek it and create it and queer it and twist it and kink it and genderfuck it for our own little AU worlds where judgment is less valued than acceptance, tolerance. where morality is characterized by understanding and suspension of censure and stuff.
or maybe we're just here for the pr0n and i'm the naive, unaware one.
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yeah, like, i fan a whole bunch of shows and books i have absolutely no desire to read fanfic for, because they succeed. they fulfill me and there's no need for me to look further.
like HP? that fandom is built in part upon Harry's unreliable narration, his (debatable) mostly black and white view of the world (excepting the way he considers his own actions) and refusing to look at the villains (slytherins) as purely villainous. which paid off in Snapes.
Even with all the wank and douchebaggery and stupidity and everything. Just this.
and yeah, that's the payoff. you swallow the trolls to gobble up the brilliant meta, the insightful fanart, the heart-breaking, uplifting, cracky, cathartic fictiony meta (fanfic).