Like, doesn't anyone else find it kind of hinky that these ficathons roll around and people write fic and then are like, "Well, I've done my good minority deed for the year," and then don't write any other fic?
Is that really the case? Because I tend to notice the opposite -- that when I see theme-ficathons of any stripe, the people who sign up for them are inevitably the people who are already interested in the subject and do talk at length in their own journals, etc. -- they just decide to up and do it at the same time this time. I look over the names of people who sign up for the Big Gen Ficathon or the Big Femme Ficathon or the Big Threesome Exchange or the Big CoC Ficathon...and it's pretty much -- well, many people I don't know, and then the ones I do know? Are always exactly the people I'd think they would be. My little sadness about the ficathons (in amidst how awesome I think they are) is that I often fear it's just so much preaching to the choir. People who cared before think it's HEY, AWESOME, and people who didn't care before continue to ignore the subject entirely. I guess I haven't noticed much in the way of people feeling any need or desire to play fair-weather fan in that sense.
I don't know, I think...I'm not sure who you're talking to with this post. Are there really a whole lot of fans who are "negative" about race & gender issues in the media, but don't *also* spend time in squee? Again, it's not like I know everyone who's ever posted anything about race on an intimate level (far from it! I sometimes can't even wrap my mind around how big fandom seems lately...), but in general, the people I see being pissed off are the very people who have been rah-rahing for *ages* about their favorite characters/shows, and who are now just tired and pissed off because that approach -- the Accepted Fannish Approach (write your own stories! rec a lot! run a ficathon! tell us why your character is awesome!) -- doesn't seem to have a significant impact. I've watched people try the Share The Love approach for *years* -- Gunn fans and Weevil fans and Miguel Alvarez fans and Teal'c fans and Mickey fans and Deaq Hayes fans and Warrick Brown fans, and while yes! I'm all for Sharing The Love and agree that it must continue (early and often!)...it seems to keep slamming up against something else.
In the past year, people within fandom have been a hell of a lot more likely than before to say, hey, that something else? Could it be racism, maybe? I agree that it's been tough in a lot of ways on a lot of people, but where I don't at *all* agree with you is that it's coming from people who just haven't bothered or don't care enough to be supportive of their shows and characters as well as critical.
no subject
Is that really the case? Because I tend to notice the opposite -- that when I see theme-ficathons of any stripe, the people who sign up for them are inevitably the people who are already interested in the subject and do talk at length in their own journals, etc. -- they just decide to up and do it at the same time this time. I look over the names of people who sign up for the Big Gen Ficathon or the Big Femme Ficathon or the Big Threesome Exchange or the Big CoC Ficathon...and it's pretty much -- well, many people I don't know, and then the ones I do know? Are always exactly the people I'd think they would be. My little sadness about the ficathons (in amidst how awesome I think they are) is that I often fear it's just so much preaching to the choir. People who cared before think it's HEY, AWESOME, and people who didn't care before continue to ignore the subject entirely. I guess I haven't noticed much in the way of people feeling any need or desire to play fair-weather fan in that sense.
I don't know, I think...I'm not sure who you're talking to with this post. Are there really a whole lot of fans who are "negative" about race & gender issues in the media, but don't *also* spend time in squee? Again, it's not like I know everyone who's ever posted anything about race on an intimate level (far from it! I sometimes can't even wrap my mind around how big fandom seems lately...), but in general, the people I see being pissed off are the very people who have been rah-rahing for *ages* about their favorite characters/shows, and who are now just tired and pissed off because that approach -- the Accepted Fannish Approach (write your own stories! rec a lot! run a ficathon! tell us why your character is awesome!) -- doesn't seem to have a significant impact. I've watched people try the Share The Love approach for *years* -- Gunn fans and Weevil fans and Miguel Alvarez fans and Teal'c fans and Mickey fans and Deaq Hayes fans and Warrick Brown fans, and while yes! I'm all for Sharing The Love and agree that it must continue (early and often!)...it seems to keep slamming up against something else.
In the past year, people within fandom have been a hell of a lot more likely than before to say, hey, that something else? Could it be racism, maybe? I agree that it's been tough in a lot of ways on a lot of people, but where I don't at *all* agree with you is that it's coming from people who just haven't bothered or don't care enough to be supportive of their shows and characters as well as critical.