12:03 pm - Millionth Verse, Same As the First
When is fandom going to get over this obsession with proving itself an egalitarian community when that's not, will never and cannot be the case?
Why this weird need to umbrella what amounts to an asteroid field, millions of individual rocks that occasionally get caught in each other's orbit for long periods of time, sometimes crashing into each other accidentally (sometimes with violent intent) while others float peacefully in their own space forever, unknowing and uncaring of what's going on on the other side of the belt?
Why are we setting ourselves up to violently argue over what constitutes a fan? Are we a male space or a female one or something that should be defined fandom by fandom or should we even ponder such an exclusionary question? Do we really want to be "umbrella"'d with anyone or anything that is created under the as-yet-undetermined definition of "transformative works" -- a definition that will probably become so broad as to be meaningless or so restrictive as to divide fandom along untenable lines?
Is there some kind of punishment for not playing along? Where will the Island of Misfit Fen be located? (I just want to know so I can start scoping the better parcel of swamp land for myself -- unlike you communists I'm old enough to recognize the value of "be prepared".)
All joking aside, I know that part of being an online fan invites a certain amount of control-freakishness but this is getting silly. How about we let the asteroid field revolve, expand, shrink, destruct and rebuild on its own without trying to mash it all together into an impossible, seething lump restrained by unnatural boundaries? Fandom has always been the product of its own uneven evolution, a combination of new technology, old-fashioned ingenuity and sheer human talent -- as well as intensely ugly human foibles.
I mean, I personally don't care what happens as I know a. where I stand and b. exactly where this thing is headed and that just means more amusement for me in my dotage. Still, the control-freak part of me wishes I could gently steer folks away from the oncoming poopstorm ...
Nah. Bring on the funny. I'll be over here with the liquor and exploding cigars.
Eh. I'm just here for the fiction anyway.
Every five years, someone thinks they've come up with a great new idea that's never been contemplated before (mistake number one) and they are always stunned and horrified that they not only can't get anything close to a general consensus, they come against vicious opposition! And they were just trying to help! And we are ungrateful! We a parade/Cheerio/shiny rainbow pissers! WE ARE MEEEAN to those who would only help us.
Blah, blah, blah, rinse, lather, repeat.
That's why being just here for the p0rn is always the right thing to do.
# Kicking and screaming Says:
December 14th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Just for the record, there are plenty of fans who don’t support OTW at all. We prefer to keep fandom out of the mainstream and prefer to stay in a legal gray area, rather than threaten our very existence by waging a quixotic battle against copyright. We don’t think that fandom is limited to just women, and we don’t consider ourselves part of the specific history that they invoke on their website.
OTW is a very narrow organization with very ambitious and problematic values and goals. That’s fine, but the problem is that they have positioned themselves as an advocacy group that speaks for fandom, without actually being interested or responsive to opinions that don’t match theirs. They may represent themselves as the voice of fandom, but they’re fighting a battle that not many in fandom support, or care to join.
HOLD UP CHEERIOS! INSERT PISS! Oh, lulz!
# Heidi K. Says:
December 14th, 2007 at 11:39 am
OTW suffers from the fact that the majority (if not the entirety) of the upper level (board +committees), as well as most of the supporters, are coming from extremely similar fannish backgrounds. Female-dominated media-based fandom (I should note that not all fanwork-producing fandom is “media fandom”, many of those of us who write RPF reject that label) focused on LiveJournal.
Not that any of those are bad things. But the view and experiences at the core of OTW are a small fraction of overall fannish views and experiences, and as such they tend to misunderstand/misrepresent segments of fandom they’re not used to. Not necessarily with any ill intent - although I do question why their response to “this doesn’t apply to my experience” or “this excludes me” tends to be “no it’s not, because I say so” rather than an attempt to understand - but it happens all the same.
And so as someone who falls outside their comfort zone, I have one main issue: if, in advocating for legitimacy, they succeed only in legitimizing that which they are currently presenting as fandom, those who are misrepresented are still out in the cold.
I’m also troubled by their disregard for anything outside their paradigm; their contempt and/or ignorance of existing projects (I still have yet to get a good explanation why they intend to create a wiki, when one is already in existence, and fairly successful) has me thinking they are only out to legitimize fandom on their terms, done their way.
Whomp, there it is, the perfect elitist storm. WANK AHOY. ;)
Maybe I should go read this stuff after all. :P Things are quiet in LJ and CJ land, after all...
*popcorn*