i spent a lot of time today thinking about about bad behaviour in fandom. not because it’s new, per se, but the widespread disrespect for boundaries, both with the actors and with each other, is new in its sheer volume. entitlement to others and entitlement to your space without regard for its impact on others is a new thing and i have a need to pick at why it is and where it has come from.
at a macro level, there’s been a huge shift in what fandom is. until fairly recently fandom was a few things, but universally it was creatively focused and carried out in privacy. yes, people were fans of the actors more often than not, but that was distinctly separate from fandom, which above all else was about doing things with the material. it occurs to me that fandom may have been the wrong word for what we were, because the reason people found themselves entering fandom was as much as out of frustration as it was with adoration. we wanted to do something more with the material. it absolutely is not this way anymore. being in fandom now is about being a fan, the loudest and the more intense that you can be. it’s like cheering for a sports team, as if your encouragement will get your chosen team over the finish line first.
and also who can be the “best” fan. see also: ship polls, getting acknowledgement from people involved in the material, and your chosen ship becoming canon.
the goals have changed. it’s not about doing something yourself. it’s about getting other people, namely the material creators, to do something for you. and it is all very, very public.
and yet congruously there is this entitlement to treat your own space in fandom as if it were private. the belief that what you want to do is yours to be done regardless of consequence because it’s your space. most overtly i see this in things like not tagging nsfw content, in not rating fic, in not recognising that just because you choose to engage in fandom, a space that is at times highly sexual in nature, doesn’t mean those around you must be forced to participate with you. in shoving graphic fanart in actors faces. in making actors read fic about their characters.
a part of this, i’m starting to feel, is owed to the growing but fracturing spaces that fandom inhabits. disregarding twitter, which is a steaming pile of bad behaviour directed at anyone with a speck of name recognition, fandom is ironically in what feels like a very public/private split at the moment. yes, we’re all here on tumblr. but tumblr is horrible for conversation, and so most people have shifted to a secondary space for conversation. so much of the dialogue that makes fandom great is now taking place away from easy access to broader fandom. everybody’s got a group chat or five, and that’s where you’re a person and not just a faceless tumblr of other people’s content. with that split, a lot of institutional memory and general good behaviour modelling is fading away, especially as those who have been around for an age start to pull back from engaging in this new era of fandom because it’s not what we signed up for.
i don’t have any conclusions about all this, other than that it all makes me very uncomfortable. i don’t want to be associated with this public face of fandom, and i never have. but as fandom becomes more and more mainstream, i can only see this escalating. and as a fan of the power of language and the capacity it has to define what we are, a part of me wishes some great schism will come.
yet i can’t help but feel some responsibility for this place i’ve called home for nearly 20 years. i want us all to be better, even if we don’t all want the same things out of this space we all share.
Tag: interesting
i can’t stop thinking about the way kara walks into lena’s office as supergirl before confronting edge. she’s in FULL power stance, the most iconic and recognisable pose for a superhero. this is what supergirl looks like when they put her on lunchboxes. why then, if kara spends the episode saving hundreds and thousands of people, do we only see her strike this pose in a corporate office in front of a man who poses minimal physical threat?
it’s because with lena, they position kara as the classic, romantic, superman-like hero. we see this with the bridal carry, another iconic superman image. the way we see supergirl through lena’s eyes is the way that we see clark through lois’s – as a romantic lead. with mon-el and james kara never acted this gallantly, never struck this pose to instil confidence/safety in them or carried them or put her arm around them like a quarterback comforting his pregnant cheerleader girlfriend lmao (which i’ve already talked about in this way a lot!!).
in her relationship with lena, kara is allowed to fulfil the narrative duties that a male hero would, in doing so creating a whole system of romantic lesbian coding by signalling the viewer through iconic superhero imagery that lena is her lois. good morning everyone supercorp rise
I feel like this post symbolises one of the biggest problems with Supergirl as a show. I would adore Kara and Lena to become a thing but we know it won’t happen. The problem here is that Kara is only allowed to fulfil that typical ‘superhero’ roll around another female, because she’s female. Because the show still doesn’t put her on the same level as the males.
with all due respect i don’t think kara not being able to fulfil this romantic role around men somehow makes her lesser than male heroes. this coding between kara and lena shifts the heterosexual paradigm found in lois and clark in lots of important ways. although we’re visually signalled to a damsel/hero dynamic kara and lena offer mutual support to each other and their dynamic is one of equals.
my point is that kara’s heroic in her own way throughout the entire show but this visual language is borrowed from the legacy of superman’s heroism to position kara as lena’s romantic lead. whether or not that eventuates in canon/beyond subtext is beside the point.
Has anyone else noticed how, when you have a chronic condition of some kind, that there’s always the basic assumption from people around you that you’re not already doing everything you can?
It’s all about the illusion of control. People who are healthy like to believe they can always keep being healthy if they do the right things. They don’t want to think about how good people get struck with terrible circumstances for no reason.
So they keep assuming that if they got sick, they could do something to make it better.
And if you’re still sick, that must mean you’ve done something wrong or not done enough.Nail. Head. The same attitude can be seen in how a lot of people talk about poverty.
And sexual assault. All they have to do is not go there not drink that not wear that not date them and they’ll be fine, right?
The Just World theory – that as long as I do everything right, I’m safe, and everybody who isn’t safe is at fault for not doing everything right – is perhaps the most harmful and widespread mindset today
if you ever see a conservative and wonder just how in the world they have so little compassion? they are genuinely convinced that most – not all, but most – bad things that happen are the fault of the person affected, because then they don’t have to feel bad
somebody explaining this to me as a young adult was, quite literally, the start of me seeing the world in a new way and moving considerably to the left politically. by letting go of the just world mindset my conception of reality shifted considerably
Listen, I love our girls together and posts about how drastic they’re being on behalf of each other are funny, but it’s also important to remember the other important aspects of their characters and lives.
So just a reminder—
1. Lena bought Catco for more reasons than just making Kara feel better or to be with Kara.
She’s an intelligent business woman and knows that the positive press she’s been getting is instrumental in her end game of making L-Corp a positive force, and it would actively turn to negative press with Edge at it’s helm. It’d be really really bad for her.
Lena buying Catco has been described in Supergirl press as her doing something big for Kara, but she would not have actually ended up buying Catco if there were not massive benefits for doing so.
In fact, in an alternate universe in which she didn’t know Kara but was still getting good press from Catco and still was concerned about what Edge would do with Catco (a.k.a. the same situation but without Kara), she’d still buy it.
Others have already spoken more thoroughly about this idea but it bears repeating.
2. Kara was not singlehandedly brought out of her depression by Lena, and she wasn’t regularly lashing out at everyone except Lena.
The only times that Kara was seen to react defensively were when she was confronted with how closed off she’s being—which is something that we’re lead to believe has only just been happening this episode since they’ve been giving her space. She hasn’t been walking around saying mean things to people out of nowhere, she’s just been keeping herself from feeling.
And Lena does not get any of that because Lena does not confront Kara. When she implies that there are other reasons that Kara is avoiding her, it’s about Lena’s role in it all rather than what it actually is for Kara—cutting herself off from everyone. So Kara just reassures her because she isn’t being prodded about what it actually is. It being Lena’s fault is nonsense, and it’s really easy to say that.
And when Kara says she quit her job, Lena doesn’t say “Um, what the hell?? Why????” she just gives her a reason to come back.
Which brings me to my next point.
Helping people is Kara’s main concern a lot of the time, and currently the only thing she is letting herself care about.
And Lena plays a big role in bringing Kara a little bit back to herself for this reason. But she’s the final push (other than Kara’s pushing of herself, which is important to remember, too) out of many little pushes that have helped Kara move forward.
James confronts her first and it forces Kara to say what she’s been thinking the whole time—Kara Danvers doesn’t help people. And he says things that she isn’t ready to accept now—that Kara Danvers does help people, as a reporter—but that will help her later when she has more reasons to believe it’s true.
Alex’s confrontation is rather messy and unsuccessful at getting through to Kara, until the end. Those final words, “Kara Danvers is my favorite person. She saved me more times than Supergirl ever could. So just think about that while you’re trying to get rid of her.” are exactly the counter argument for what Kara is thinking, and Kara is forced to sit with it.
When Kara talks to J’onn, she voices her deeper fear (as an argument for what Alex said), “I can’t help people if I’m broken.”
She thinks Kara Danvers is broken. And if she lets herself be her, she’d be failing Earth. Her mother. Her birth family. Her Earth family. Because she can’t help people that way, and that’s her purpose.
But J’onn gives Kara a specific example of how Kara Danvers has helped him. And—importantly—because of her grief.
And when Lena asks Kara to go back to Catco, she’s proving that Kara Danvers can still help people, right now. This is a concrete thing example of something only Kara Danvers can do for someone. (Which is one example of why Kara really needs Lena to only see her as Kara Danvers, for the time being.)
It’s Kara’s entire support system that works together to help Kara.
1. James forces Kara to voice the idea Kara has—that she has to only be Supergirl because Kara Danvers can’t help people— so they can argue against it.
2. Alex gives a general counter argument that Kara has to consider, does consider—Kara Danvers helps her more than Supergirl.
3. J’onn gives a specific example for how Kara Danvers has helped him in the past—Kara Danvers’ grief helped him deal with his own.
4. Lena offers a specific example for how Kara Danvers can help her in the present—Kara Danvers is the only person who can help Lena learn to run Catco.
All of these are vital to Kara’s progression, vital to getting her to want to “wake up.” There is no one person who gets through to her.
It’s everyone who cares about her helping her to move forward, together, and that’s kind of why it’s great.
So forgetting that would be a massive pity.
Posts prioritizing supercorp stuff over their other character content may make us laugh or feel good about their connection, but they are also often inaccurate to the full picture, and we should remember that.
It’s just as important for us, the fans, not to lose the individual within the romantic relationship as it is for the writers.
I read your post regarding Cat’s storyline, & I think what you said about the position/how THIS is Cat diving really hits the nail on the head. However, it’s how Catco was sold that is bothering me… a blind trust fund, really?! As you said, ambitious people “place someone competent in charge of keeping it intact.” This is Cat’s legacy. Don’t you think it’s awfully OOC that Cat had zero involvement in who bought her company? That she (presumably) wasn’t even aware that Edge was trying to buy…
it? I find it hard to believe that after building Catco from scratch, Cat would sell the her shares with zero influence on the company’s future. If only because her legacy could end up in the hands of someone like Edge. Thoughts? I’m not saying they ruined Cat’s character or she’s no longer a role model, I just really disliked the way the writers handled the whole “Lena buys Catco” thing. It felt insulting to Cat’s character.
I wasn’t going to answer this, because I want this particular fandom divide to die… yesterday, but this ask isn’t hateful, or angry, or unreasonable. It was thoughtful and kind and I felt it deserved a response.This got long, but you did ask for my thoughts. And this is the last time I intend to speak about it. So here goes.I could try really hard to convince you to see it from my Point of View.
I could tell you how I’ve been reading a bit on blind trusts (I have) and that by virtue of the Ethics in Government Act, when Cat took a position as a high-ranking Government official she was required by law to place her shares in a Qualified Blind Trust to avoid conflict of interest. I could tell you that the person chosen to manage that trust had to be someone entirely unaffiliated with Cat or her business. And that she was forbidden, upon penalty of federal prison, to have any knowledge of, or handling in the sale of those shares. It happened, according to federal law, without her knowledge. Had Cat Grant sailed in to save her company and prevent the sale, she would have been in handcuffs by the end of the week and been given a semi-permanent cell in Club Fed by the end of the month.
You could argue that Cat would never take the job as WHPS if this were the consequence. That may be true. I happen to disagree, for reasons stated in the post you mentioned. I think her adventurous heart would do exactly this kind of thing and her legacy is still firmly intact.
But here’s the cool thing. It’s FINE if we disagree. This is fandom and everyone has an opinion and it is not my place to try and sway yours. I am neither eloquent enough, nor persuasive enough, nor influential enough to do so. So, this is not a campaign to change your mind. I’m fairly sure I cannot do that. It’s okay to feel angry or sad or frustrated or whatever you feel at this turn of events. I’m not going to get upset with people for that. I will miss Cat too. I’d give anything to have her in Kara’s orbit, but we don’t get that and, as I have spoken at length about before, I respect Calista’s decision in that case. So, WHPS, and whatever comes after, in my opinion, is a pretty cool consolation prize. But I’m a long-time West Wing and CJ Cregg fan, so take that for what it’s worth.
Now, I could give you a million headcanons about how Cat made Lucy Lane the executor of her blind trust, because, while acquainted, Lucy is not related to Cat, only worked for her for a brief time, is no longer employed by CatCo and is, by virtue of her military decoration and status with the Bar Association, probably above reproach. And when Morgan Edge sailed in to purchase Cat’s shares, Lucy’s spidey senses likely told her to stall for all she was worth and Lena Luthor presented herself as a somewhat better alternative. But that’s just a headcanon, and I’m perfectly aware of many people’s anger at the Lena angle specifically, so… grains of salt… everywhere.
The truth is, as evidenced by this post, I’ve always spoken better through my fic, so maybe I’ll let my fic speak for me in this case.
I wrote a story exactly a year ago this month, about almost this exact scenario. Some of us saw this coming the day it was announced that Lynda Carter was playing the President. It was also foreshadowed nicely in the show. Cat announced her departure in 2.02. President Wonder Woman turned up in 2.03. This… was not really a surprise. And several of us have been joking about requesting royalties for having the idea first.
If Monday’s writing was problematic, then so was mine. Cat has the chance, in my fic, to return to CatCo when it is made available to her, and she takes a different path. And, in the end, everyone ends up somewhere unexpected. So, as I said, I’ll let my fic speak for me. It’ll (hopefully) be more enjoyable than my endless tumblr rambles.
The Fall is Only the Beginning
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8153266/chapters/18685282
Cheers!
Bridge.
has anyone else noticed there’s a very specific way women interrupt each other in conversation that’s quite distinct from the way men interrupt women in conversation? like, women seem to interject a lot more– not as a silencing tactic, but to show their enthusiasm or agreement, cause they perceive a conversation as kind of collaborative, organic exercise. but i feel like men get really annoyed if you excitedly interject when they’re saying something (most specifically in a debate/discussion context) because they perceive conversation as something combative or competitive and see an interjection as a threat or a challenge. i’ve also noticed men dismiss women’s way of talking as being sort of incomprehensible and nonsensical because of this habit we have of seeming to butt in or finish each others sentences excitably.
this is exactly what research on gender and language in interaction confirms: women’s style tends to be more collaborative, the conversation being the goal, while men’s is competitive – the goal being establishing themselves as the ‘strongest’ or most dominant = powerful #dragged
Okay but I literally broke up with a dude over this. He kept getting annoyed with how excited I was and that when I “interrupted him” I was legit “ruining his comedic timing” in his stories. Like bruh
Okay so we can all agree that Wonder Woman (2017), Dir: Patty Jenkins was a goddamn masterclass in storytelling, especially with the inversion of male-coded language. The “No-Man’s Land” scene gave me chills and every time they played her theme song I wanted to get up and roar.
But I wish they’d taken it a step further. I wish Ares had been a woman. Maybe, like Diana, she was always the daughter of Zeus, an Amazon sent to free her people. Maybe she was Hippolyta’s firstborn. But she wasn’t satisfied just hiding away from the world, she wanted to make men pay for what they did to her people. It would explain why Hippolyta was so reticent to let Diana learn to fight, lest she go down her sister’s path.
And it would totally work as a Big Reveal because with people’s basic knowledge of Greek mythology (which was kind of Christianized in the movie anyway) and some clever writing, the audience would assume, like Diana, that Ares was a man.
It would also be so much cooler as a fight, because instead of Condescending Mustache Man smirking, “You have so much to learn,” Ares could have held her hand out to Diana like so many Amazons had before her and said, “Please. Let me teach you. We can rid this world of men and make it like Themyscira. We can go home.”
I just think it would be so much more compelling, and so much harder for Diana to refuse one of her sisters – her only true sister – who claims to be trying to make the world over into the paradise where Diana grew up, than some mustachioed asshole rying to rip the world apart.
It also totally shatters the second-wave feminist idea of “women good, men bad,” which is touched on when you see Diana’s rage and Steve’s gentleness, but never really driven home.
If you’re going to subvert male-dominated language, go all the way. Make Ares a woman.
despite the fact that women and nonwhite individuals are more likely to identify as LGBT, regular/recurring LGBT characters on broadcast and cable networks are are 72% and 71% white, respectively, and overwhelmingly male. It seems likely that onscreen representation reflects the demographics of television creators, not of the television audience.
– Autostraddle, GLAAD’s “Where We Are On TV” Shows Best Place To Be On TV Is Behind The Camera (via realtimelord)
This was posted back in October but I didn’t see it till now. Wow this is a post after my own heart. Statistics and references everywhere! Sure the conclusion is fairly frustrating but at the same time, I’m loving the research so much.
(via malindalo)
But remember, there are two ways to dehumanize someone: by dismissing them, and by idolizing them.
David Wong (via the-occipital)
Question of Smoke 