Tag: fansplaining

[W]hy do people who are heavily invested in low prestige taste communities, WHICH I ALSO AM, so often feel a thing I used to feel and no longer feel… Maybe I’m crap if my taste is crap, how can I make a recommendation? What’s wrong with me that I love this low prestige work so much?…
“It’s not just fanfic and it’s not just boyband fan communities that have this. The sentimental novel had this. The novel itself in the early 18th century, just prose fiction about realistic people in general, had this. Several different kinds of music communities had this. I suspect that certain kinds of artmaking right now where the art is not in English, where it’s connected to an immigrant community, have this, although I don’t know because almost all my art consumption is Anglophone. And writing that we would now call porn, from the 60s and 70s, Samuel Delany’s good about this and he wrote some of this, had this a lot.
“The common thread here is that these were genres and kinds of writing or kinds of music that were sexually explicit, or addressed to a subordinated social group and that social group’s concern, or both. So identifying yourself and trying to make public your taste in any of these things including early 18th century novels or gay porn in the early 70s was saying, “I’m a member of this out-group and its concerns are my concerns and that’s why I care about this genre,” or it was saying “I really wanna talk about sexy things in public.” And so if explaining your taste and describing your aesthetic criteria requires you to do either of those things, then you’re gonna say “maybe I shouldn’t do this, maybe it reflects badly on me if I do this.”
“… the answer to that is if you really love something and it means a lot to you and you have the kind of personal security where you’re not gonna be fired or kicked off your insurance or kicked out of your house for explaining, or damage people you’re close to, by explaining why you like it, fucking go for it!
“… it’s important that someone do this. Because it’s important that works of art that people have labored over, that have given so much pleasure and emotional support to people, it’s important that those works of art be acknowledged as works of art and it’s important that somebody fucking do this.

Stephanie Burt in Fansplaining episode 67
(via queersintherain)

EVERYONE SHOULD GO LISTEN TO FANSPLAINING, and especially this episode, which is part one of their interview with Harvard poetry professor and comics fangirl Stephanie Burt. This is an abridged part of the last section that literally made me cry on my walk because it was the best explanation for why I have fandom/fic shame that I’ve ever heard. @fansplaining, thank you so much for for all you guys do. (And thanks to Stephanie Burt for her amazing words!)

[W]hy do people who are heavily invested in low prestige taste communities, WHICH I ALSO AM, so often feel a thing I used to feel and no longer feel… Maybe I’m crap if my taste is crap, how can I make a recommendation? What’s wrong with me that I love this low prestige work so much?…
“It’s not just fanfic and it’s not just boyband fan communities that have this. The sentimental novel had this. The novel itself in the early 18th century, just prose fiction about realistic people in general, had this. Several different kinds of music communities had this. I suspect that certain kinds of artmaking right now where the art is not in English, where it’s connected to an immigrant community, have this, although I don’t know because almost all my art consumption is Anglophone. And writing that we would now call porn, from the 60s and 70s, Samuel Delany’s good about this and he wrote some of this, had this a lot.
“The common thread here is that these were genres and kinds of writing or kinds of music that were sexually explicit, or addressed to a subordinated social group and that social group’s concern, or both. So identifying yourself and trying to make public your taste in any of these things including early 18th century novels or gay porn in the early 70s was saying, “I’m a member of this out-group and its concerns are my concerns and that’s why I care about this genre,” or it was saying “I really wanna talk about sexy things in public.” And so if explaining your taste and describing your aesthetic criteria requires you to do either of those things, then you’re gonna say “maybe I shouldn’t do this, maybe it reflects badly on me if I do this.”
“… the answer to that is if you really love something and it means a lot to you and you have the kind of personal security where you’re not gonna be fired or kicked off your insurance or kicked out of your house for explaining, or damage people you’re close to, by explaining why you like it, fucking go for it!
“… it’s important that someone do this. Because it’s important that works of art that people have labored over, that have given so much pleasure and emotional support to people, it’s important that those works of art be acknowledged as works of art and it’s important that somebody fucking do this.

Stephanie Burt in Fansplaining episode 67
(via queersintherain)

EVERYONE SHOULD GO LISTEN TO FANSPLAINING, and especially this episode, which is part one of their interview with Harvard poetry professor and comics fangirl Stephanie Burt. This is an abridged part of the last section that literally made me cry on my walk because it was the best explanation for why I have fandom/fic shame that I’ve ever heard. @fansplaining, thank you so much for for all you guys do. (And thanks to Stephanie Burt for her amazing words!)

[W]hy do people who are heavily invested in low prestige taste communities, WHICH I ALSO AM, so often feel a thing I used to feel and no longer feel… Maybe I’m crap if my taste is crap, how can I make a recommendation? What’s wrong with me that I love this low prestige work so much?…
“It’s not just fanfic and it’s not just boyband fan communities that have this. The sentimental novel had this. The novel itself in the early 18th century, just prose fiction about realistic people in general, had this. Several different kinds of music communities had this. I suspect that certain kinds of artmaking right now where the art is not in English, where it’s connected to an immigrant community, have this, although I don’t know because almost all my art consumption is Anglophone. And writing that we would now call porn, from the 60s and 70s, Samuel Delany’s good about this and he wrote some of this, had this a lot.
“The common thread here is that these were genres and kinds of writing or kinds of music that were sexually explicit, or addressed to a subordinated social group and that social group’s concern, or both. So identifying yourself and trying to make public your taste in any of these things including early 18th century novels or gay porn in the early 70s was saying, “I’m a member of this out-group and its concerns are my concerns and that’s why I care about this genre,” or it was saying “I really wanna talk about sexy things in public.” And so if explaining your taste and describing your aesthetic criteria requires you to do either of those things, then you’re gonna say “maybe I shouldn’t do this, maybe it reflects badly on me if I do this.”
“… the answer to that is if you really love something and it means a lot to you and you have the kind of personal security where you’re not gonna be fired or kicked off your insurance or kicked out of your house for explaining, or damage people you’re close to, by explaining why you like it, fucking go for it!
“… it’s important that someone do this. Because it’s important that works of art that people have labored over, that have given so much pleasure and emotional support to people, it’s important that those works of art be acknowledged as works of art and it’s important that somebody fucking do this.

Stephanie Burt in Fansplaining episode 67

I’ll own up to occasional doubts about fandom and its compatibility with adulthood. For me, it’s a mix: sometimes I wonder whether I’m enjoying the right stuff, and sometimes I wonder if I’m enjoying stuff the right way. It’s always easier to play it cool rather than expose your depth of feeling—and it takes a certain amount of confidence to go on loving the thing anyway. Fandom is full of inherently confident people, even if they don’t realize it.

I wrote about the ways fandom slips away from us—and how we can give ourselves permission to let it back in (via fansplaining)

Fic, interrupted – Fansplaining – Medium

fansplaining:

We’ve got a new article out – by Caroline Crampton, examining fanfictional works in progress!

What’s your favorite? What’s the one that hasn’t been updated since 2009 but you just CAN NOT GIVE IT UP?

A cool article about WIPs that is totally worth a read!

My favourite WIP, off-hand (that hasn’t been updated since 2013), is the fatal plunge series by maleficently. An absolutely incredible Swan Queen fic that mostly uses season 1 canon (the part I actually watched), that’s… really hard to describe. In the first fic, post initial curse breaking, Emma and Regina cast a second curse–to give everyone their happy ending. Naturally, things are angsty as heck and wonderful. It’s only the third (and final) installment that’s unfinished. Wherever maleficently is though, I hope she’s doing well and knows her work meant a lot to a lot of people! (Or at least to me!)

As a sidenote, this series also had an amazing playlist by the author at one point, and introduced me to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no 2 in C Minor, which… the best way to explain my feelings about this piece of music is that it’s my OTP of concertos and I love all versions of it the same way I love different fics of my OTPs. And the first movement at least is SO well-suited to these two characters.

Anyone else have fav WIPs?

Fic, interrupted – Fansplaining – Medium

TINY POLL PART THREE

fansplaining:

This tiny poll’s not multiple choice like the last ones… the question before us is

What does “being in a fandom” mean to you?

Are you in a fandom when you like the object of fandom? When you talk with other people about it? When you write fanworks? When you go to cons? None of the above, all of the above? Reblog this, tell us what you think, and let’s talk about it!

(Oh, and check out Tiny Poll 1 and Tiny Poll 2 as well!)

In the past I’ve considered myself to be in a fandom when that was what I was reading fic about/thinking about. Now that I’ve fallen harder into a new fandom than I have for at least five years, I’m amending that definition! Talking to people, consuming lots of other content on tumblr related to that fandom, writing fic that I actually plan to post–this is what “being in fandom” looks like to me at the moment at least. (No cons yet, but one day!)

TINY POLL PART 1

fansplaining:

elizabethminkel:

fansplaining:

Yesterday we put up a tiny poll and took it down after .02 seconds because we realized ONE POLL WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH. So: Take this super tiny, unscientific poll either by responding to this post OR by voting on Twitter, then watch this space for TINY POLL PART 2 coming in a day or two! We’ll post all the results here and on Twitter when they come in…

This has generated SO MANY discussions, it’s delightful. 

My initial thought was defining “in” for me was a distinction of *in* versus ~in. I still feel like I’m ~in Harry Potter fandom. But I am *in* Black Sails fandom rn—that is the thing I spend lots of time thinking about. Like…lots of time. Help.

Other people are finding that the tricky part is defining “fandom” on a personal level. One person said they wrote tons of fic for YOI but didn’t think they were in the fandom—but never read or wrote fic for something else but totally felt like they were in *that* fandom. 

Some people have tried to gauge by time spent or merchandise purchased or pure “participation,” which like, go with God, folks, this is about self-definition, but for the record, Flourish & I are not placing any sort of gatekeeping parameters around “fandom” or “in fandom”! Just sayin. 🙂  

Oh, and for the record, I can be ~in many fandoms at once—essentially the ones I was in in the past, specifically Harry Potter, since that was like 10+ years of my life. But I can only manage being *in* one fandom at a time! I am fandom-monogamous. It makes trying to reread old favorite fic from past fandoms hard—I really need to be *feeling it* actively to connect on an emotional level.

Keep telling us your thoughts (and voting in the poll)!

I appreciate the extra notes @elizabethminkel ! I am usually only *in* one fandom at a time (or none, which was the case for a few years) but am ~in TONS all the time.

In a different sense than how it works for you though I think–I’m obsessively in one fandom right now, in terms of being the most into it, thinking about it, creating content for it, but I still read a wide variety of fic. The impulse to READ ABOUT MY CURRENT OTP/FAV CHARACTER FOR THE FEELS is different than the impulse to read fic bc I want good writing (sometimes even regardless of whether I’ve ever been in a fandom) and just the experience of reading something of a certain length, or something that will make me smile–and I do have both impulses at around the same time.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/fansplaining/341171675-fansplaining-episode-56.mp3?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio
http://queersintherain.tumblr.com/post/165072445561/audio_player_iframe/queersintherain/tumblr_ovv6hnzHRw1ubsstx?audio_file=http%3A%2F%2Ftraffic.libsyn.com%2Ffansplaining%2F341171675-fansplaining-episode-56.mp3

elizabethminkel:

fansplaining:

Episode 56: Ships and Showrunners. Elizabeth and Flourish talk to Lilah Vandenburgh, a long-time fan who is now a writer, director, and showrunner for film and television. They discuss how shipping culture has evolved in recent years, the pressures on showrunners and other entertainment pros to interact, and the ways that structural inequality shapes fan behavior. Also Elizabeth reports back with her review of Sean Stewart’s narrative game, “Sherlock Holmes: The Last Breath.” (transcript | show notes)

Fans + creators + shipping + activism = cooooomplicated dynamics. I’m so glad we got to talk to Lilah about this stuff! 

This is a really awesome episode! And like, the art changed, from when I saw it the first time? Before it was just a headshot. This is WAY better.