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On Fandom Diehards
Aug. 24th, 2009 06:33 pmOver the weekend, I got a whiff of some kerfluffle involving you guessed it, Twilight fandom.
Let me unpack it for you. Someone who likes the Twilight books but clearly doesn't like the hordes of RPatz-lovin' fangirls the movies brought aboard the bus wrote a blog post on an upcoming convention put on by Creation in heavily sarcastic terms and declared that "Twilight continues to sell out." This annoyed the Twilight columnist for Examiner.com, who is darn sick and tired of the media ragging on her fandom. I don't think she realized it wasn't an "outsider" per se but a book fan who dislikes the movie fans, but it was a catalyst for her soap box on the media nonetheless. Other sites started weighing in.
I really do empathize with these fans who feel on the defensive. It's one thing for people to poke gentle fun at the source material and its fans, quite another for people outside to use "humor" as a disguise to trash something and the people who unjustifiably love it. There are bashers, if you will, who have referred to the fans as retarded, scary, and stupid, or even having psychosexual problems. They say these fans shouldn't be welcome at Comic Con, though at a con that size, you can pretty much avoid anybody you want. I've always said the post-TPM bashing almost killed any sense of humor I might have had about SW, though I guess it's coming back. After all, I thought both SW Robot Chicken specials were funny. Family Guy had its moments. It's also easy to divorce yourself emotionally from something goofy like cheesy merchandise or silly books, not so much when you can see someone has been unfairly maligned to the point livelihoods/careers are affected. These fans are, like it or not, emotionally invested in the fandom and I'm not going to judge them as "retards" because I may not share their enthusiasm. I'm still emotionally invested in SW. Why would I waste my money and time on it if I weren't?
Sometimes the fans who go over the line are not the ones overflowing with love for the source material. Bashers tend to expend a lot more energy and time going on about how much they hate something, something I know first hand. Some SW fan upset with Chewbacca's demise in the NJO sent the author a death threat. I'm also willing to bet Lucas and some of the folks associated with the PT got far more threats than the critics did.
Still, I would advise the Twihards on one thing…you're just going to have to accept that the virtues of your fandom aren't going to be self-evident to everybody. It is what it is. You have every right to stick up for your fandom--I do it all of the time--but emotional ketchup explosions with typos and all-capped run-ons don’t help your case. Keep 'em among yourselves ;).
Let me unpack it for you. Someone who likes the Twilight books but clearly doesn't like the hordes of RPatz-lovin' fangirls the movies brought aboard the bus wrote a blog post on an upcoming convention put on by Creation in heavily sarcastic terms and declared that "Twilight continues to sell out." This annoyed the Twilight columnist for Examiner.com, who is darn sick and tired of the media ragging on her fandom. I don't think she realized it wasn't an "outsider" per se but a book fan who dislikes the movie fans, but it was a catalyst for her soap box on the media nonetheless. Other sites started weighing in.
I really do empathize with these fans who feel on the defensive. It's one thing for people to poke gentle fun at the source material and its fans, quite another for people outside to use "humor" as a disguise to trash something and the people who unjustifiably love it. There are bashers, if you will, who have referred to the fans as retarded, scary, and stupid, or even having psychosexual problems. They say these fans shouldn't be welcome at Comic Con, though at a con that size, you can pretty much avoid anybody you want. I've always said the post-TPM bashing almost killed any sense of humor I might have had about SW, though I guess it's coming back. After all, I thought both SW Robot Chicken specials were funny. Family Guy had its moments. It's also easy to divorce yourself emotionally from something goofy like cheesy merchandise or silly books, not so much when you can see someone has been unfairly maligned to the point livelihoods/careers are affected. These fans are, like it or not, emotionally invested in the fandom and I'm not going to judge them as "retards" because I may not share their enthusiasm. I'm still emotionally invested in SW. Why would I waste my money and time on it if I weren't?
Sometimes the fans who go over the line are not the ones overflowing with love for the source material. Bashers tend to expend a lot more energy and time going on about how much they hate something, something I know first hand. Some SW fan upset with Chewbacca's demise in the NJO sent the author a death threat. I'm also willing to bet Lucas and some of the folks associated with the PT got far more threats than the critics did.
Still, I would advise the Twihards on one thing…you're just going to have to accept that the virtues of your fandom aren't going to be self-evident to everybody. It is what it is. You have every right to stick up for your fandom--I do it all of the time--but emotional ketchup explosions with typos and all-capped run-ons don’t help your case. Keep 'em among yourselves ;).
