my typical level of involvement in any fandom
Does reading fanfic contribute to helping you write?
Abso-freaking-lutely! Reading anything, imho, contributes to helping you write. You can’t write without being a good reader. That’s one of my pieces of advice to new writers: read, read, read. Reading will expose you to different sorts of writing styles and all sorts of information. Read fanfic, read newspaper articles, read biology texts, read published literature, read poetry, read novels. Read trash. Read smut. Enjoy yourself. Revel in the power of words; what they sound like when they’re conveying information. The somberness of an obituary. What sentences make your gut clench or your heart beat faster. The phrases that make you sigh. The combination of dirtiness and vulgarity that turns you on.
But I can’t tell you how many amazing fic authors have inspired me in my writing. There are fanfiction authors out there whose writing is so beautiful that I will read anything they write, regardless of the fandom. Authors who really know their craft. Fic authors exposed me to the different ways a story could be told. The beauty of fanfiction is the democratization of literature. That is: anybody can publish. Anybody can be an author. So you get a huge variety of voices. Think about those five times, five kisses, five things type stories. What an interesting format for fiction! Or I love those character-driven pieces that focus in on one character -especially side characters – and telling their POV, illuminating them in a way that we would never get in canon. Stories that explore villains and their motivations. Alternate Universes that take the characters we love and transport them to an entirely different setting and how the author translates that. Dirty smutfic written with real lust and desire (and I’ll read any fandom if a fic has my kinks in it).
Fanfiction teaches you that writing can be anything. There’s no limits. It’s so beautiful, man.
Harry Potter’s Tom Felton says some ‘look down’ on superfans
Harry Potter’s Tom Felton says some ‘look down’ on superfans
Tom Felton, or Draco Malfoy as he’s known in the films, tells Newsbeat some people “look down” on certain types of “fanatics”.He came up with the idea after showing friends a video he filmed at an event a few years ago.
“People were dressed up as Stormtroopers, Gandalf and Dumbledore and my mates thought it was fascinating but also really weird,” he says.
“Yet my friends were more than happy to dress up in a football kit and scream at the TV for Manchester United, even though they’ve never even been to Manchester.
"Why is kicking a ball into a net any less weird than liking a fictitious wizard?
"For things like sport or music, it’s considered cool to be a superfan but as soon as it goes into Star Trek or My Little Pony or something a little bit obscure, it becomes a bit weird and people are keen to look down on it.”
“I wanted to find out what separates the passionate from the obsessive…
Most fandoms have a queen, but I think HP has a king. Or at least a president
Large fandoms—things like Doctor Who, or Supernatural, or Star Trek, or any superhero comic—tend to have unique and separate sides to them: curative and transformative.
Curative fandom is all about knowledge. It’s about making sure that everything is lined up and in order, knowing how it works, and finding out which one is the best. What is the Doctor Who canon? Who is the best Doctor? How do Weeping Angels work? Etc etc. Curative fandom is p. much the norm on reddit, especially r/gallifrey.
Transformative fandom is about change. Let’s write fic! Let’s make art! Let’s make a fan vid! Let’s cosplay! Let’s somehow change the text. Why is Three easier to ship, while Seven is more difficult? What would happen if ______? Transformative fandom is more or less the norm on tumblr. (And livejournal, and dreamwidth, and fanfiction websites, and…)
Here’s the big thing: there’s a gender split. Find a random male fan, and they’ll probably be in curative fandom. Pick a random transformative fandom-er, and they’ll probably be female. Note that this is phrased in a very particular way—obviously there’s guys who cosplay and write fic, obviously there’s women who don’t. But men tend to be in the curative fandom, while transformative fandom is predominately women—and/or queer people, POC, etc. Why? Because the majority of professionally-made media is catered towards a straight white male demographic, leaving little room for ‘outsiders.’ Outsiders who, if they want to see themselves in media, have to attack it and change it—hence slash fic, hence long essays claiming that Hermione Granger is black, hence canons about trans characters or genderqueer characters.
And then curative/male fandom tends to view most things that transformative/female fandom does with disdain. Why? Because, in their eyes, it devalues canon. Who cares about knowing about Tony Stark’s lovers if somebody’s gonna write a fic where Toni Stark is flying about? Their power is lessened. Scream of the Shalka is unambiguously not canon—but it doesn’t have to be in order for me to read and enjoy a 30k fic where the robotic Master was secretly in the TARDIS during Nine and Ten’s time and they shagged behind the scenes. Canon? No, but who gives a shit?
Also, as transformative fandom tends to be an outsider looking in, they’re much more likely to analyze the work from a queer/PoC/neurodivergent/gender perspective. If I come to /r/gallifrey and start to talk about how ‘In the Forest of the Night’ had a questionable portrayal of mental health/autism, I get blank stare. If I go on tumblr, I get a conversation. This is also where the ‘overreacting, shrieking SJW’ trope plays in, either because of a redditor’s misunderstanding of terms and therefore assuming that a mild critique is a scathing one, or because the tumblr user in question is young/inexperienced and jumping the gun.
So, there you have it: /r/gallifrey’s bashing of tumblr is part of a larger split in how men and women tend to enjoy fandom, and a lashing against how fanfiction/related things addresses fandom because it’s not the right “kind” of fandom. And also because tumblr is popular with teenage girls, and there’s nothing reddit loves more than shitting on whatever teenage girls like.
reddit user lordbyonic on the difference between reddit and tumblr fandom
but it also explains WHY fanfic (and the population of people who read it) is largely written by women
(via iloveyouandilikeyou)
excellently said, thank you
(via littlemoongoddess)
This also goes back to the “Fake Geek Girl” idea. Because perhaps women in general aren’t as curative in their fandom, it ‘proves’ that they aren’t ‘real’ fans.
JOHNLOCK FANFIC CULTURE IN A NUTSHELL
Cases: NO TIME FOR REAL CASES. THERE’S PORN ON THE HORIZON. (Either story begins just after a case, or incorporates a few legit-sounding details.)
Anderson: Not usually in story but inevitably mentioned with appropriate scorn.
Mycroft: Usually either very for or very against Johnlock. Either way he’s kinkily watching the CCTV.
Tea: Everyone drinks at least half their body weight in tea during the course of a story. Even drabbles. You see that 800-word story? 400 of those words deal with making tea.
Milk: Getting the milk is a thing. It’s practically a euphemism at this point. If Sherlock gets the milk, he’s DTF. Or apologizing, and then offering his body as an extra form of apologetic-ness.
Mrs. Hudson: Ships Johnlock like a beast. Hell, she usually has some kind of Johnlockfucking-sense. She just KNOWS when they’re hooking up and is determined to facilitate this/make it kind of embarrassing for them in a cute way.
Mummy Holmes: For not actually being in the show, she’s surprisingly mentioned a lot. She’s everything from a horrid bitch to actually a really loving rich lady who somehow just has these two weirdo sons.
Moran: Ditto, kind of. Moran is sometimes a woman, sometimes a man, sometimes seduces Moriarty/John/Sherlock/all of the above. Also somehow capable of holding 7 laser pointers I mean snipers in TGG.
Jumpers: JOHN WEARS JUMPERS ALL THE DAYS AND SHERLOCK SECRETLY LIKES IT.
Boredom: The best way to cure Sherlock’s boredom to sex him vigorously. Or somehow get him hooked on James Bond and/or Doctor Who.
Sexytiems: This is the fun part. There is so much beautiful variation here. John is everything from secretly gay, to comfortably bisexual, to not even really wanting to fuck Sherlock but kind of wanting to anyway. Likewise, Sherlock is everything from purely virginal, to wholeheartedly asexual, to secretly shagging half of London for a case. Their sex ranges from WE ARE GODS OF LOVEMAKING to it goes where?
Common Situations: Being outed at crime scenes, very thorough medical investigations, post-case-compulsion-to-fuck, the Scotland Yard has a betting pool, heartfelt realizations during kidnapping, gratuitous casual high-functioning sociopath nudity.
Violin: Totally a euphemism. He took dat bow in his hand like some kind of musical god slut and handled it with sexual precision.
AUs: Dude, I don’t even understand this crazy shit. There’s wings and cats and Greek alphabet letters thrown all over the place.
Genderswap: Love it, but it’s really funny because we never know what to call Sherlock other than Sherlock. Sherlock…ina? Sherlockette? Dafuq.
Avengers: They show up a lot, somehow. I think it’s because we’re all from tumblr and Hiddles is love.
Conclusion: I fucking love this fandom never change.
It just kills me when writers create franchises where like 95% of the speaking roles are male, then get morally offended that all of the popular ships are gay. It’s like, what did they expect?
#friendly reminder that I once put my statistics degree to good use and did some calculations about ship ratios#and yes considering the gender ratios of characters#the prevalence of gay ships is completely predictable (via sarahtonin42)