[ SECRET POST #2697 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2697 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.
[Fringe]


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03.
[Tales of series]


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04.
[Revenge]


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05.
[Starsky & Hutch]


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06.
[Once Upon a Time]


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07.
[Rozen Maiden]


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08.
[Beyoncé]


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09.


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10.


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11. nf










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 012 secrets from Secret Submission Post #385.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

Basically your dumb armchair psych speculations on why fandom acts a certain way or leans towards certain demographics.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

I think fanfic writers are overwhelmingly female because it's one of the few things that pander solely to women.

Also I think MLP:FiM has such a large older male fanbase is partly because it shares a lot in common with seinen SOLs.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[kallanda_lee]

I think it might also have to do with the fact that women (when generalizing) shew more towards written erotica while men (when generalizing) skew more towards visual erotica.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[kallanda_lee]

I'm not sure I have any great speculations, but I find a few things fascinating.

like

- the overwhelming number of girls and women in online fandom communities
- the giant slash fanbase
- fanfic/fandom tropes that keep coming back in pretty much every fandom. Like how "angst" and "hurt/comfort" are genres in fanfic, while not so much in original fiction.

I'm not sure I have an explanation for that, but there seems to be a subset of women who really enjoy similar types of erotica and relationship dynamics, and I find that interesting.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

There aren't an overwhelming number of girls and women in online fandom communities qua online fandom communities. You're referring to a specific subset of all online fandom communities. You have a good reason for doing this - because we do use the term "fandom" to refer to this subset - but you are referring to a subset, because if you think about it, 4chan is part of online fandom communities. Every video game forum and D&D forum and den of iniquity on the net is part of online fandom. The subset that you're talking about is the subset of fandom that's constructed and constituted primarily by women and girls, and that's more or less why there's an overwhelming number of women and girls there. But you have an entire other half of fandom that's largely male. It tends to operate differently and interact with media differently than this half of fandom - much less likely to create fanworks, much more likely to eg get into arguments about the functioning of the internal rules of a work of media. This subset of fandom has its concerns and its internal modes of social interaction and modes of performing fandom, and so does the other subset.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

actually, i would say that angst is pretty much ALL OVER original fiction. like, everything has some angst in it - it's conflict, it's what makes stories interesting.

hurt/comfort though... hmm not so much, though i do think it may crop up in romance novels? like the hero gets hurt and needs to be nursed back to health by the heroine, that sorta thing.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

I quite honestly believe that this paper explains 90% of fandom: http://www2.edutech.nodak.edu/ndsta/beto.htm

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

The majority of internet users grew up to "Like this!" and "Follow" and RT buttons, and thus know no other way to express appreciation.

Most also can't distinguish fact from opinion, but I won't blame social media for that.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

And to add onto that, most of the original internet types who were pretty much against netspeak and one-line responses (so "I agree" in forum posts) don't even go online anymore, hence why the new "generation" has taken over. Or they've just converted to the new ways. I'm one of those pesky traditionalists who stayed behind and glares at the kids on my lawn.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

I also think the current generation is so used being told that their opinion is important that they feel need to add it to the conversation even when it's low quality stuff like "THIS!"

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

The reason Gunslinger Girl is such a popular managa is because it easily allows anime fans with emotionally distant families to self-insert into a clear range of emotionally stunted archtypes who get provided with the requisite mentor figures.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

That and it has a lot of fodder for lolicons.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

Imouto and lolicon stuff is more prevalent in LN/animangoes stuff because the fanbase tends to be emotionally stunted.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

The less life experience you have, the less able you are to write realistic characters, irrespective of your ability as an author.

So generally, teenagers can't write good romance relationships.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[kallanda_lee]

I tend to agree, though I have seen some exceptions. And of course some people get experience younger than others.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's more about how you perceive things, since adults write romance even when they've never been in a relationship (with varying results) and some teenagers have been in relationships but just can't write them. I tried writing characters similar to people I knew at that age, but I think because I was so very much in the moment, it fell apart. My "edgy bitchy with a good heart if you get close" character was no moodier than most teenage girls.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe, but I got better at writing relationships the same way I got better at writing everything. I practiced writing.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

Fanon really interests me. The way details emerge from our collective storytelling and solidify into fanon reminds me a lot of how, for completely random example, the Arthurian Legends formed and endured. The original canon (the various texts such as Le Morte d'Arthur and probably oral storytelling of the time), retold again and again, and now the story exists in the social conscience of many nations.

I love the connection. Even though we're all mostly writing and reading erotica, I love that we're engaging in collective storytelling. It's such a human thing to do.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

Slash fic is not popular because fandom hates women. It is popular because many women like the idea of two hot guys fucking. And with most writers (and somewhat fandom) are women.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with this. But I also think you can't deny a lot of the internalized misogyny that goes on in slash fandoms. (Female characters get treated so badly sometimes.)

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

I've always found it interesting how anime as a whole takes a pander to EVERYONE approach.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

Probably obvious, but I think fandom and especially tumblr has a lot gender and sexuality experimenting because of anonymous nature of the internet and the really prevalent attitude in fandom in everything.

I also think bullying gets really bad in fandom because it can be one of few places where nerds can get a power trip.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[forgottenjester]

I don't happen to think the sexism in the comics and video game community is so much over the top then regular, everyday stuff. I don't believe it's that much of an aberration. I mean, it's a bit more concentrated, but I don't think it's "omg super bad how can they exist side-by-side with real world men?!" But maybe I've just seen a lot of shit in my life.

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

For reasons that elude me, I've noticed that it's becoming increasingly difficult to find fans of interracial pairings. This goes doubly so for pairings where neither party is (part)white. What really gets me is that I don't remember it being this sparse 6-7 years ago even though there are more canon interracial ships (at least from what I'm seeing on TV Line's Ship Shape feature).

Re: Dumb fandom speculations

[(Anonymous)]

I'm fairly certain that a sizable subset (a SUBSET, mind you!) of obsessive slash fans exist because these are people who have never a) good friends AND b) a serious romantic relationship in their life.

Therefore, they cannot appreciate fictional friendships because their experience of friendships has been so crappy, and think that friendships are inherently non-valuable and unsatisfying. However, this whole mysterious "falling in love" thing, since it's mysterious and can only be explained by people who have fallen in love, is something they can make-up in their own minds as being some fantasy nirvana of earth-shattering transcendental intimacy, since they've never experienced the reality of a serious romantic relationship. So they parse all powerful feelings and intimacy between two men (or women, more rarely) as obviously slash.

There's also a het counterpart that behaves similarly -- these are people who may have perfectly good friendships, but who have a similarly arid experience of serious romantic relationships. They think that romantic relationships define their worth, so if their ship isn't "endgame" and character A doesn't get together with character B, it's because the writers believe character B is "unworthy", not because s/he just isn't a good romantic fit for character B.

(again, this is just a SUBSET mind you. Not generalizing to all hardcore slash or het fans, many of whom, I'm sure, just really, really, really like slash/shipping.)