Unpopular Fandom Opinions

[kennahijja]

(gacked from ella_bane)

Yup, unlike the fanfic heresy a while back, these are contentious (and not surprising, if you know me). But I still love you, all right! You don't have to agree, and are welcome to hit me with dead carps too!

1. It almost physically hurts me when fics are taken down just because the author falls out of love with them or decides to leave fandom.

2. I hate it when people try to tell others what they shouldn't write/draw because it's immoral/harmful/whatnot. But watching people self-censor their imagination is even more painful.

3. Compared to the utter wrongness of dragging RL – employers, lawyers, police, spouses – into fandom disputes, plagiarism is *nothing*. Because hell, it's supposed to be us against the mundanes – running to RL authorities is, well, treason to the Cause!

4. Once your work's out there, it's fair game for just about everything except posting under somebody else's name – especially for reccing, reviewing, downloading, sharing and writing spin-off fic for. Deal!

5. Ron haters make me msad [... except for Ron-haters with a pureblood pedigree, a riding crop and a nice line in acerbic banter]. (yeah, that's pretty much plagiarised from ella_bane, but she's dead right! And amended after intercession by fee_absinthe, who, as always, has the priorities right)

6. The 'say good things or say nothing' attitude to feedback that seems to dominate fandom annoys me to no end. But bitching about concrit makes me *really* mad.

7. 'Anymore' bugs me even more than 'cum'. Though not quite as much as 'orbs'.

8. LJ name changes... meh! Fandom name changes suck in general, unless it's for good RL reasons. It's hell on those of us with brains full of holes.

9. Taking your OTP(s) seriously is seriously silly.

10. As long as there's slash and gen, we could almost do without het, couldn't we? *ducks*

ETA: One of those is a joke - just in case it's not obvious.

Comments

[florahart]

2. I hate it when people try to tell others what they shouldn't write/draw because it's immoral/harmful/whatnot. But watching people self-censor their imagination is even more painful.

10. As long as there's slash and gen, we could almost do without het, couldn't we? *ducks*

I dunno, I think these two contradict each other.

For the benefit of previous commenters: I am not a teenager nor a housewife. I write slash. A lot. I also write het. I also read it. I also like it. I also like slash. And genderfoolery. And bisexuality. And various other explorations of any number of things. I in fact think the label itself is messy; the dynamics of the particular pairing in the particular fic may or may not fall in line with the stereotypical representations of het reality, or with canon. For instance, I doubt anyone has written a sweet canon-like Bellatrix/Neville. Would that be het? Absolutely. Would it be real likely to have any of the same dynamics as any canon relationships? Not so much, unless you think Bella/Rodolphus is clearly delineated in canon and has the same sense about it. Is it worth exploring anyway? Maybe. I don't write that particular pair, for what it's worth. What about Tonks/Remus? That's canon, but there are not exactly painfully few ficks in which it is genderfucky. Metamorphmagus, and the blood relationship to Sirius--that gets played with a lot.

In any case, I think it's funny to say you don't want to tell folks what to write/imagine, but then say really, we could just do without this whole category. There are whole categories I personally could largely do without (most deathfic, for instance), but I don't think "we" should do without them. Just me, applied by not clicking those particular cuts.

[roz-morgan.livejournal.com]

I'd like to say that I didn't say Housewives! I specified a group of housewives - those who pick up the tacky romance shelve novels. I was making a comment about the plots of certain het stories, sadly the ones you hear about most - normally when their author is being flamed for plagiarizing or is causing a huge fuss about being given constructive criticism.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Either way the comment seems to imply that het can only be enjoyed by people who lack either maturity or sophistication or both. It's a pretty sweeping generalization, and a somewhat offensive one, to boot. Like Flora, I fit into neither of those categories, and I have been known to read and write a bit of het from time to time.

[roz-morgan.livejournal.com]

I've written het, and I read it. I'm also mocking myself. I'm sorry if you find it offensive.

Again, I'm talk (and mocking) the bad face of het. The 'gender-roles re-enfoced stuff" which I've been running into a lot lately. Not that slash can be any better, but just that I've stopped reading outside my friends list so I've pretty much forgotten just how bad it can be.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

I can see why it might come across offensively, even if I don't think it was meant that way. Then again, I may be neither teenager nor house-wife, but definitely lack both maturity and sophistication *and* read the occasional (historical) Mills and Boon stuff :). Dirty secret, but true.

And I guess that's exactly why I don't much go for het in fanfic - because very often, especially if it's more focused on romance than on character exploration, it treads very traditional paths, and I find the HP characters and plots too interesting for that...

[florahart]

Those are the ones you hear most about? Interesting. I haven't experienced that.

Also, why yes, I do read those tacky romance shelf novels sometimes. They are a guilty pleasure, and some of them are horrible and some of them are smokin' hot. Like, you know, fic.

Either way, nothing about the way you made your comment looked to me like anything other than a suggestion that the only people who read het are either young (and foolish) or of a group you consider stupid: Mills and Bloon Housewives.

[adjudicated.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! I was a stay-at-home mom/housewife for eight years, until my children were in school full days. Now I work full-time (in a very challenging profession, as I did before my children were born) as well as carry the Mom duties - I am educated and a strong person. There's nothing wrong with choosing, for whatever reason, to be a housewife and/or sahm. I will never regret spending those years mothering full-time the children I myself brought into this world. Yeah, sue me -- clearly I'm intellectually impaired. And bad, bad me for reinforcing negative stereotypes -- God knows no one should ever admit to raising their own children in today's day and age! How heterosexually ignorant of me!

;)

< / sarcasm >

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

*claps* As a past career girl and current SAHM, I say damn right. :)

[adjudicated.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't trade either for the world! I love being a mom and I love my job. I'm glad I live in a day and age where the two can co-exist.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

I know. But 2 is meant seriously, and 10 is a calling-for-carp joke :). As in going from serious to silly and ending with something very silly.

I won't pass up on het if it's good, and I sure read bodice rippers though not as a teen or housewife. Perhaps that's why it doesn't interest me in fanfic that much - for me, fic is for other purposes. Well, unless it's interesting, like Bella/Neville would be.