Fandom Kvetch 1
Jul. 13th, 2008 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyFor a long time, I figured the biggest problem fandom has - and we have a few - was incestuous amplification. (We're rubbish at handling conflict, tending to panic and explode when faced with disagreement; but so is everyone online. In fandom's case, that feeds into our self-segregation into warring tribes.) However, I think there's a problem underlying that one. Everyone knows about fandom's comical self-importance, but fuelling that is what I now think is really our biggest problem: overentitlement. We know what's best. We demand to have our own way. If we don't get our own way, then the text and its creator(s) are wrong and bad, incompetent and immoral. Even people who didn't come to fandom as spoilt brats can be swept up in that self-centred, self-reinforcing attitude. And it spills over into fanacs - we've all seen fanbrats chuck a wobbly when they don't like the rules in some forum. (And I saw a grown man at Worldcon having a tantrum in the cafe because his coffee wasn't hot enough. THE SHAME.)
This used to be obvious to me when I was in boyfandom, in places like rec.arts.drwho, but it's only quite recently I've begun to recognise it here in girlfandom on LJ. (Yes, I'm aware these are huge gender generalisations, but they can be useful ways of looking at the different cultures within fandom.) The worst part of it is that it backfires: it makes fans miserable. The chances that some scribbler on the other side of the planet coming up with exactly what you want are pretty much nil, and if you can't cope with not getting what you want, you're going to hate whatever you do get. If only this was solely a self-inflicted injury, and not one that gets inflicted on everyone else as well.
This used to be obvious to me when I was in boyfandom, in places like rec.arts.drwho, but it's only quite recently I've begun to recognise it here in girlfandom on LJ. (Yes, I'm aware these are huge gender generalisations, but they can be useful ways of looking at the different cultures within fandom.) The worst part of it is that it backfires: it makes fans miserable. The chances that some scribbler on the other side of the planet coming up with exactly what you want are pretty much nil, and if you can't cope with not getting what you want, you're going to hate whatever you do get. If only this was solely a self-inflicted injury, and not one that gets inflicted on everyone else as well.
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Date: 2008-07-13 11:59 am (UTC)Above I talk about "fandom" as though it's a monolith, which of course it isn't - which means that even if writers, producers etc caved in to fannish demands, they'd only be pleasing one segment of fandom anyway; the others would complain that they didn't get their way.