Last night I watched Supernatural 5×09, “The Real Ghostbusters.” You guys, I freaking love this episode. It’s the most accurate and flattering depiction of a fan convention that I’ve ever seen in the mainstream media.
( A long rave about why The Real Ghostbusters is a love letter to fandom )
Tags: conventions, fandom, meta, supernatural
I went to a meeting of the Supernatural NYC Meetup Group a couple weekends ago. We met at 11am in the childrens’ resource room of the Brooklyn Heights Public Library (srsly) and marathoned several Dean episodes via a laptop hooked up to a projector. It was a bit… surreal. (Also I’d slept only three hours and got up early on a Saturday, so I was barely functional, in addition to my usual pathological shyness in social situations.)
It was fun to watch the show with other real life people. The organizers obviously worked hard to run the event, and everyone was very welcoming to me. I’m not sure if it was the right place for me, though. I’ve been trying to put my finger on why and I think it ties into the posts I’ve been reading recently on ![[community profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
metafandom about two different approaches to fandom, affirmational vs transformational. I’m pretty firmly on the transformational side, especially when it comes to something like Supernatural, which I find incredibly problematic, and which I’m into for the fandom and fanwork and fan criticism at least as much as for the text itself.
The Meetup group was pretty firmly on the affirmational side, at least as far as I could tell (some of the others were shy, too). Only one person acknowledged being into fanfic and she did so like there was something embarrassing about it. There wasn’t much discussion and what there was wasn’t critical* or analytical–it was very positive and focused on the actors and on behind-the-scenes trivia.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with this–it just hit me that what I wanted wasn’t just real life people to watch the show with, it was real life people who share something closer to my approach to fandom. (Again, I mean no offense to the people there.)
ANYWAY. The point is that I’ve been absolutely fascinated by the discussions about the differences between affirmational and transformational approaches to fandom, because they put names on phenomena that I’ve been aware of for a long time but haven’t been able to articulate. If you’re interested, this post by obsession_inc is a great starting point. I’d also recommend this post by oliviacirce and this particular comment thread, and also this post by damned_colonial. Obviously, there’s overlap between the two approaches, and the definitions are still being hashed out, but there is definitely something really interesting to explore here.
Also, ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigou took this as a starting point for a post about the structural differences between the two approaches to fandom–how affirmational fandom places the author at the center and how transformational fandom is far more decentralized and chaotic, complete with these amazing diagrams. (It takes a while to figure out but they’re definitely worth looking at.) I’m not sure if I agree with her conclusion about anti-fanfic pro-writers feeling threatened by BNFs, but I love her illustrations of how fandoms evolve to center around fan-created ideas, and how far removed these fan-created zones can be from the canon’s creator or hir intent.
It really rings true with my experience of Supernatural, which is that I’m far more interested in learning what ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
soundingsea or netweight think about the show than about what Eric Kripke does, and I’m infinitely more interested in reading jolielaide’s fanfic recs than in reading tie-in novels (the Meetup group is also doing a tie-in novel book club, which I couldn’t be less interested in). I think it also explains why I’ve always felt so much happier at fan-run conventions, the ones focused on fanworks and the voices of fans themselves, rather than at those pro cons where you worship at the altar of your superiors and if you’re lucky they’ll validate your life by acknowledging your existence (often for an offensively large sum of money). (Sorry, some residual bitterness there.)
( a bit more about the meetup )
Tags: fandom, gender issues, linkspam, meta, supernatural
So, there’s this, which you’ve probably read by now, and if you haven’t you probably should, because it involves the fandom community and it’s important.
rm responded by saying pretty much everything I was thinking.
I’ll add one thing, which is that it is both the concom’s right and responsibility to ban someone who behaved so inappropriately. I applaud the Wincon organizers for doing so, for making a responsible choice to keep their con safe for their attendees.
I’ll also say that, when something like this happens, I feel that it’s my responsibility to follow the links and understand as much as I can about what happened before I speak out about it. It’s clearly not appropriate to respond to this by criticizing how the victims handled the situation. Here is post that gets to the heart of why victim-blaming is so fucked up and horrible: Saying No by fickle_goddess. (Thanks to a_white_rain for linking to this.)
Here is a post about how rape culture works and here is a post about misogyny in fandom, both of which have been sadly demonstrated in action in this debacle.
Also, here is one of my favorite links ever: Sexual Assault Prevention Tips, Guaranteed to Work! (Thanks to jolielaide for pointing me to it.)
I feel so sick and sad about this whole thing.
Tags: conventions, fandom, gender issues
I have just managed to amuse myself greatly, and I feel compelled to share the entertainment with others who will understand.
I found a chart I made of “Men Who Are Or Once Were CUTE” as of January 1994, when I was eleven years old. This is like the prototypical document of the obsessive fangirl.
It’s an attempt to compile a list of every attractive male actor, ever. In alphabetical order, with a color-coded key to identify the traits of each one.
( Notice anything odd about the list of traits? )
Current Mood: 
weird
I’m selling some fannish stuff on eBay:
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer Initiative Xander Action Figure (New York Comic Con 2007 Exclusive)
* Pirates of the Caribbean 2 Scruffy Norrington Action Figure
The Norrington one is really cute. Um, for an action figure. (Look at the close up of his face!)
I’m also selling a new, unopened 120GB Playstation 3 (with all accessories) if, uh, anyone wants one. (Long story–I decided to buy an HDTV on Black Friday but to make it worth the cost I had to buy it in combo with a Playstation and then sell the Playstation.)
I’m also selling some books and DVDs. Everything’s listed here. I’ll give free shipping to any of my fandom friends who buy any of these. (If your eBay name doesn’t match your fandom name, let me know who you are so I know to take the shipping cost off.)
Current Mood: weird & weird
I don’t normally talk about current events here–I try to keep this blog as my shiny escapism place. But the world seems extra insane right now, so here’s an attempt to exorcise some of the thoughts that have been disturbing my sleep lately.
( First, something good: is evolutionary psychology finally getting discredited? )
( I feel just a bit sorry for Mark Sanford )
( I’m really worried that effective health care legislation won’t get passed )
( Probably stupid, but my thoughts on yaoi (aka the latest iteration of the warnings debate) )
Current Mood: 
stressed & stressed
goldy_dollar wrote a nifty little fandom meme. It’s one of those how-well-do-you-know-me things, but I’m just doing it as a normal meme; feel free to gack.
This thread is not doing anything to change my mind about the significant percentage of GIGANTIC FUCKING ASSHOLES in Doctor Who fandom.
Seriously. Some guy rips off a bunch of fan reviews without permission, publishes them (as filler, without analysis) in a for-profit book, and has the gall to complain that his feelings are hurt when the people he stole from get upset? Because it was too much of a burden for him to ask permission from twelve people?!
I archived several hundred people on All About Spike and I asked for permission from every single one (and that site’s not even for profit). It’s not hard to show a bit of common courtesy. Some of the authors I most loved didn’t give me permission, so, you know what? I didn’t archive them. Because if you respect someone’s work enough to want to use it, you also owe them the respect of asking their permission and abiding by their wishes.
Oh, but posting in public is exactly like giving the world permission to use your work in any way it sees fit! *eyeroll*
And, of course, it comes down to the know-it-all men talking down to the “shrill and hysterical” women who for some silly reason don’t like having their words stolen and used for someone else’s gain.
*headdesk times infinity*
* Some of the more egregious bits are quoted here if you can’t access DWF. It’s also on Fandom Wank.
Current Mood: 
pessimistic
If you have any opportunity to see The Dark Knight in IMAX, go. It’s really just completely amazing; it feels like you’re in Gotham City.
( I liked it better the second time. )
I’ve been following the recent fannish wank with an increasing sense of WTF. I mean, first a crazy chick outs other fans in real life as an attention ploy, which, okay, at least she’s getting the shunning she deserves.
Then “cult of nice” vs “cult of mean,” round 4938394, which I can see both sides of, though I firmly believe fandom is a better place when we can talk openly about our reactions to a work, whether it’s created by a professional or a fan. IMO it’s more respectful to treat fanfiction as deserving of serious critical analysis (both positive and negative), and it’s disrespectful to assume that all fic writers are speshul snowflakes who can’t take anything but unreserved praise. And sometimes it’s not about the writer at all; it’s about the community being able to learn and grow and understand itself better through discussion and analysis of fanwork and fannish trends.
But now the SPN wank just has me boggled. Can someone in SPN please explain this to me? A bunch of fans of one of the actors started a campaign about him being retarded and illiterate? And they were surprised when his management sent them a C&D? And they’re wanking about their hurt feelings? But they’re his fans? And this is how they showed their fannishness? Why? I’m … confused. Just … incredibly confused.
Current Mood: 
confused
Wow.
So there is this woman in fandom for the sole purpose of making money by gathering information on us, tricking us into adding more details, selling our data to “media corporations,” and using this “business plan” as an excuse to get a tax write-off on her cell phone and computer.
In order to generate traffic for her website, this woman is purposely creating wank by publicly outing other fans who prefer to keep their RL identities private.
I’m not linking to her site because I don’t want to provide traffic for her. Her name is Laura Hale/Michaela Ecks/partly_bouncy/purplepopple and her site is FanHistory / the FanHistory Wiki. I’d advise not going there, since her whole goal here is to get traffic and attention.
I’m just posting this to help spread the word and make sure people know to watch out for her, because she’s gotten away with this for a long time by preying on fandom’s trust and expectation of basic decent behavior from other fans.
Current Mood: 
sick
* They found the lost scenes from Metropolis! I cannot wait to see this in the theater. The entire film! *squee*
* Biologist totally pwns creationist. Awesome.
* I’ve been listening non-stop to PJ Harvey, Portishead, Hole, Jack Off Jill, Tapping the Vein, Juliette and the Licks, Garbage… pretty much anything edgy with a female vocalist. PJ Harvey’s early stuff is so raw and amazing, and Portishead Live at Roseland is the best live CD I’ve ever heard. (I bought their new one but um, switched back to Live at Roseland after about two listens.)
* I just checked ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif){kind=small}
fandom_wank and, wow, I knew there was a reason I’d taken ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
doctorwho and ihasatardis off my flist. Sheesh. And this is just the lead-up; god only knows what wankstorm the finale will unleash.
* I’ve been so absurdly busy this week that I still haven’t had a chance to re-watch “The Stolen Earth.” I’ve seen it once, in two parts with ten hours in between, while exhausted and drunk off my ass, and with a friend screaming in my ear every two minutes. I think I might skip Coney Island tomorrow and stay home to watch Doctor Who again. Yes, I know, I’m weird. But I haven’t had a day to myself since last Friday, and I need to recharge before my Doctor Who finale party on Saturday. (I have friends coming after all! Woohoo!) And I need to make more cupcakes… I’m thinking Rum Raisin and another batch of Banana Split….
* This day in LJ history:
* 2007: I was listening to the new Velvet Revolver album and getting excited for the upcoming Velvet Revolver/Alice in Chains tour.
* 2006: I was (BIG SURPRISE!) bitching about an evil roommate who wouldn’t pay her rent and was mean to my cat. And I was excited to see Chemlab in DC the next day.
* 2005: I was in the grip of a horrible, horrible crush. This is about the time I developed my aversion to tequila. The less said, the better.
* 2004: I was going to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in IMAX over and over and over, squeeing about Remus and Sirius, re-reading the Harry Potter books, and looking forward to Writercon 2004.
* 2003: I was trapped on the cheap crappy crumbling CRUISE OF DOOM with my parents and brother, resolving never to vacation with my family ever again and desperately missing my Spike website. On the plus side, I was reading A Song of Ice and Fire for the very first time.
Current Mood: 
busy & 
tired
While I appreciate that fandom is banding together to elect a pro-fandom candidate in the LJ elections, I would encourage people to take the time to learn about the prospective candidates. I’ve seen a lot of people voting in alphabetical order or for most recognizable name, without realizing that, say, current lead legomymalfoy supported LiveJournal during Strikethrough, while rm made some of the most calm and articulate arguments against it.
You might want to consider reading their platforms and updating your vote.
(Yeah, I don’t actually think that this election will matter. But I like to live in hope, and if anyone can do something positive with the position, it’s rm.)
In happy fannish news, this Life on Mars vid, set to the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” is a thing of beauty. A pastiche of a pastiche! There’s got to be an essay about postmodernism in that. (Thanks to the person who linked it from lifein1973.)
Random thing that’s annoying me lately: people justifying their fannish opinions by claiming that the show isn’t “supposed” to go a certain way. Like, y’know, “It’s not that I hate Rose, it’s just that the Whoniverse isn’t supposed to be so focused on one companion.” Or “It’ll destroy the moral structure of the Buffyverse if Spike is good without a soul.”
Please. Own your own freaking opinion. You don’t like Rose or Spike? Fine. Say so. But quit trying to pretend you’re just some neutral party trying to defend the integrity of the show (against us destructive interlopers who like the characters you dislike). TV shows change directions all the time, and the ones that do change to pursue a more interesting story are generally better for it.
I don’t give a fuck about “preserving the integrity of the initial set up”–it’s just a TV show premise, not a religious doctrine. If something better comes along, good. I want a well-written story, and if that means adjusting the rules, I’m all for it.
Current Mood: 
bitchy
I’ve been going through my journal from the beginning and tagging old entries because I’m insane.
It’s kind of… enlightening and yet horrifying… to read that stuff. How the hell did I ever manage to take fandom so seriously? Do you ever want to go back in time and just, like, shake some sense into yourself?
The scary part is that I’m probably going to be reading this five years from now and cringing just as badly.
I guess it means I shouldn’t make so much fun of the people who are taking it too seriously now. We’ve all got to start somewhere.
Current Mood: 
cynical & 
distressed
The Organization for Transformative Works has announced a roadmap for the archive software it’s building.
OMG WANT NOW.
Seriously, um, it looks so freaking cool. LiveJournal and its clones have never been an ideal home for fandom–they require tons of workarounds to use as a fic archive, and fall completely flat areas like search. But this looks like it’ll merge LJ’s best social networking features with a proper fanfiction archive.
Particularly nifty:
* you’ll be able to subscribe to a user’s work and/or recs, and limit subscriptions by tag(s)
* communities! with built-in ficathon and challenge features!
* taggable bookmarks (for on- and off- site links)
* the ability to search for stories by multiple tags
* you’ll be able to change your pseudonym
* and make your work viewable to registered users only
* threaded comments!
I just so wish they were building a blogging platform to along with it. *sigh*
Current Mood: 
excited
friend_me has memes for Doctor Who and Life on Mars. (There’s also one for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, btw.)
selenak wrote a really nifty post about the appeal of “best enemy” relationships the other day. It has a lot of insight into the Doctor/Master ship, as well as interesting comparisons with similar ships from other fandoms.
People are doing an InsaneJournal meta posting party for the strike on Friday. Details here. I’ll, uh, have to think up something meta-ish to write!
Current Mood: 
hopeful
(Mirroring this on IJ even thought it’s written mostly for LJ.)
An interview in which the CEO of SUP (which owns LiveJournal) shows massive contempt for the users of LiveJournal. (There’s also an alternate translation in which he says the same offensive things in a slightly nicer way.)
LiveJournal is a company that profits from 1) selling ad spaces on the content we create and 2) taking our money directly. Their business model relies on us. Yet it never seems to sink in that maybe they should care about what we think, discuss changes in advance, or pay attention to our opinions, because we actually know the community and the experience of LJ far better than some corporate guy who’s barely used it. (And some acknowledgment that they wouldn’t have any ad spaces to sell if we weren’t creating the content would be nice too. And that maybe it’s not the best idea to insult us by implying that we’re all a bunch of depressed bisexual pornwriting sickos who deserve to be hidden. [Yes, I realize that the top interests have been restored, but those censored words didn't choose themselves, and they reveal a lot about LJ's attitude towards its users.])
I don’t think that the strike will cause LJ to change. I do hope it will raise awareness among LiveJournal users that LiveJournal does not want people like us using their site. (They’ve got some deluded obsession with becoming the new Facebook or MySpace, despite the fact that there’s already a Facebook and a MySpace, and the actual users of LJ are there because they don’t want to be on Facebook or MySpace). Personally, I think LJ is slowly dying and that fandom will have migrated to somewhere else in five years.
I’m taking spikewriter’s advice and just using this strike as another step in my process of moving to InsaneJournal. I will no longer be cross-posting all of my entries to LJ, so if you want the full rusty_halo experience (*g*), please friend me on InsaneJournal. If you don’t want to sign up for an account there, you can still comment via OpenID, although you won’t be able to read my friendslocked posts (unless you comment with your OpenID username and ask me to friend you). I’m still going to post some entries on LiveJournal because I want to keep up with friends here and I want to participate in certain fandoms, but a lot of my more personal or off-the-cuff entries will be InsaneJournal only. (I know, I’m terribly arrogant, no one’s going to switch journals just for me, etc, etc. I still have to do what is best for me.)
(Another reason you should read me on InsaneJournal? I’m really enjoying the 300 icon spaces I got with my permanent account over there. If you sign up for a free account, you’ll get 100, btw.)
Some resources for moving to InsaneJournal:
* A Beginner’s Guide to InsaneJournal.
* An excellent resource post which includes how to copy over your old entries, how to copy over all your icons, how to install a thread-unfolder, and how to block ads.
* Useful tools for backing up your LJ, copying your LJ and communities to IJ, and cross-posting.
* How to use OpenID for commenting on IJ or LJ.
* If you don’t like the look of InsaneJournal, go here to choose a different site scheme. I like Dramatic (Sidebar) and Worksafe (Sidebar). I understand that they are working on more.
* The InsaneJournal announcements community keeps users informed about what’s happening on the site (without LJ’s bullshit marketing speech). Downtime is fixed quickly and code is updated frequently (they’ve got notifications now, btw). If you have a concern about the site, you can comment there and the guy who runs it, squeaky, often responds directly. IJ is fandom friendly and squeaky has promised not to go after fannish content (see the intro text on IJ’s home page).
* A list of LJ’s greatest fuckups, in case you need more inspiration to go. Just a glance at that list shows a consistent history of making rash and offensive decisions, then back-pedaling, tossing out a half-assed apology, and repeating the exact same pattern again the next time. Frankly, I’m still offended that they think breastfeeding is obscene. :( They also have some creepy tracking issues with their advertising in addition to everything else.
I’m not trying to start arguments or tell other people what to do. I’m just explaining how I feel and linking to information that I’ve found useful, for the benefit of others who may feel the same as I do.
I won’t be visiting LiveJournal.com at all on Friday March 21, and I expect to scale back my useage of the site in the future. I will be posting and commenting more on InsaneJournal; I’d love to see you there.
Current Mood: 
sad
Whee, I’m a rape apologist who deserves to be flamed for not wanting to watch old black and white Doctor Who.
Also I sic my posse on anyone who dares to disagree with me.
Is it wrong that my response to this is to want to post lots and lots of meta about how bored I am by Old Who and about how Rose is made of awesome?
Also, if you guys are my posse, I order you to write Doctor/Master porn for me IMMEDIATELY.
*evil grin*
Current Mood: 
devious
I had the misfortune to spend time reading the Doctor Who Forum this morning.
So apparently the Tenth Doctor is this devious manipulative supervillain who uses his evil flirting powers to mind-control his helpless companions, especially Poor Tragic Martha, whom he emotionally abuses but then forces (using his Evil Manipulative Flirting Power) to continuously come crawling back to him? And Brave Heroic MADE OF AWESOME Martha (FTW!!11!) is entirely blameless because she was helpless against the power of Pure True Unrequited Love (that started about two days after she met the guy) and she couldn’t have just um… left? if she didn’t like the situation because she was in the thrall of the Doctor’s manipulative emotionally abusive flirting?
You know, the kind of manipulative where he tells her a dozen times that he’s not into her romantically, that she can leave any time, and that he thanks her and appreciates her assistance and friendship? HE’S SO AWFUL! SHE IS HELPLESS TO RESIST! (But this helplessness does nothing to take away from her AMAZING POWER OF AWESOME.)
Oh, and the Doctor’s not an oblivious alien–he’s purposely cruel! He compares Martha to Rose and uses unrequited love as a metaphor simply because HE WANTS TO WATCH MARTHA SUFFER. That sadist! Really the whole show is about him DESTROYING THE SELF-ESTEEM of everyone he encounters. All that stuff about him inspiring those he meets to help themselves and become better people? Total red herring! The real story is his EVIL SADISTIC ANNIHILATION OF POOR MARTHA’S FRAGILE PSYCHE.
I have to say, I am highly amused that after the obligatory MADE OF AWESOME Mary Sue introductory episode, Martha’s entire role on Torchwood consisted of random background medical exposition (and the most uncomfortably awkward kiss in the history of EVER). I expect more of the same on Doctor Who (minus the kiss), and look forward to watching the crazy people rant and gnash their teeth at how RTD is shattering their delicate psyches by not making every single episode consist entirely of the Doctor reciting a list of AWESOME things Martha has done while groveling and licking her AWESOME boots, while she smirks AWESOMELY and has um AWESOME lesbian sex with, apparently, Tosh. With Donna in the background slapping the Doctor at least three times an episode to remind the audience that he’s a bad, bad man.
PS: Apologies to the new people who’ve friended me recently. I had to write something wanky to make up for all the nauseatingly positive stuff I’ve been posting lately.
PPS: I don’t intend to imply that all Martha fans are crazy. Only the crazy ones.
[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]
Current Mood: 
indescribable
Welcome to rusty_halo's fandom journal. This journal is mirrored on Dreamwidth, InsaneJournal, Journalfen, and LiveJournal. Comments are awesome--you can comment here or on Dreamwidth.