[ SECRET POST #4097 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4097 ⌋

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

01.



__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.
[Steven Universe]


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06. [WARNING for possible discussion of non-con and gore/body mutilation]

















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #586.
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

[cbrachyrhynchos]

"I'm not a part of the fandom, but I've been a fan of this show since it came out."

Seems like a contradiction to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Sometimes people who just consume a canon but don't produce fanworks or generate fannish discussion don't consider themselves to be part of the fandom.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

Usually that happens because silly people try to gatekeep the idea of a "fandom" as something that only 1/20 fans actually do.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Not really, it's pretty obvious that they mean they are fan of the show but don't actually participate in the fannish activities on tumblr/twitter/etc.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

Yes, but if you're a fan of the show, you're in "fandom" by any reasonable definition of the term. Especially if you're submitting secrets about it here.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

But there is clearly a colloquial sense of the word "fandom" for which this is not true. IMO it is entirely reasonable and normal to use the word "fandom" to talk about something along the lines of "people who go out of their way to talk about and engage with the show and identify as part of a social group built around it". That's a way that - it seems to me - we use that word all the time. It seems pretty straightforward how I might talk about being a fan of X-Files if I watched it every week when it was on, and at the same time say that I was not in the X-Files fandom because I didn't post online about it or write fic, or engage with the show in any other way, except watching and enjoying that way.

That's obviously not the only sense of the word, but it seems pretty clear from context in this instance. And just being on f!s doesn't really change that - you can quite easily be in a fandom for one thing that you watch, and not in the fandom for another. I'm a little baffled by what you're driving towards.

[(Anonymous)]

Pedants gonna ped.

[(Anonymous)]

I think cbrachyrhynchos is generally reasonable / worth listening to, and probably wouldn't bother asking what they meant if i didn't.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe someone hacked their account.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

But there is clearly a colloquial sense of the word "fandom" for which this is not true.

Colloquial in what sense? Because as much as fanwork creators like to think the fandom universe revolves around their particular hobby, it really doesn't. And there are plenty of people who (to pick on an office favorite) obsessively follow each and every bit of Hamilton or Beyonce trivia to discuss it at the drop of a hat in the breakroom. It's pretty silly to say that the woman spent part of a morning networking with family to find a cousin with a citicard so that she could get concert tickets isn't part of a fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

It would be silly to tell her that she isn't part of a fandom, but I don't think she would be silly if she didn't self-identify as being part of the fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

(anon who made the post that cbar was replying to)

I would say she might be "in the fandom" in one sense, and not be in it in another sense, because it's not necessarily something that has one particular and precise definition. It's a word that can mean a lot of different things. Multiplicity and that kind of thing.

[(Anonymous)]

Colloquial enough to be comprehensible to people who are around or in that particular social milieu. Which those of us here pretty much all are.

I'm not saying that this particular way of engaging with media is universal, or better than any other way of engaging with media, or anything like that. I'm just saying that I think it is one distinctive mode of engaging with media, and it has a vague and amorphous but nevertheless existing social sphere around it, and we can talk reasonably about that as a thing without thinking that it's the only definition of fandom that it exists. And I think that this was a reasonable and understandable use of the term fandom given the context.

[(Anonymous)]

Nope. They mean they love the show but aren't involved -in the fandom-. They aren't involved in the social aspect of the media that we call fandom.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I consider fandom to be an online community that discusses and/or creates fan content of the show, while being a simple fan just means plain being a fan of the show. Kinda in the way that all squares are rectangles, not all rectangles are square.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for putting what I was trying to put together in my mind so succinctly. This is the way I think about being a fan versus being in a fandom.

Like, I have no idea what's going on in "Grey's Anatomy" fandom even though I watch the show religiously. But I've been and still am in "Inu Yasha" fandom since 2002, even though it's been off the air in all forms for at least five years now.

Re: OP

[cbrachyrhynchos]

This is the way I think about being a fan versus being in a fandom.

Which is a self-contradictory distinction. If you're a fan, you're in fandom. Period. Any other definition is just gatekeeping in favor of your preferred social networks at the expense of others.

Like, I have no idea what's going on in "Grey's Anatomy" fandom even though I watch the show religiously.

This is completely backward. The primary works are primary. Engagement in secondary work is, well, secondary and completely optional.

Otherwise, you're just privileging your favorite secondary texts. Am I not in SFF fandom because I read a half-dozen reviewers religiously, track the awards shortlists, but have not checked into Pinterest in weeks? What about the fact that I have a TFA pencil box in my desk (a gift from a fellow traveler) but don't follow Hamill's twitter?

EDIT: Before social media became broadly accessible, lunchroom discussions, viewing parties, pull lists, and print periodicals WERE fandom.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

I think you're going to have to accept that a very large majority of people use the word fandom differently than you. Not out of rudeness against your character or judgement, just that a ton of people think that 'fan' is a synonym for "casually engaged person who might enjoy a story on their own time". What's another word for a person who doesn't ascribe to the social convention of fandom, but just plain enjoys a show on it's own merits? When a movie reviewer or game reviewer does their perfunctory job that they are paid for and says that a movie/game is enjoyable, are they automatically enlisted into some sort of shadowy cabal of fandom against their own wishes?

Talking about a story positively in real life with your mates doesn't necessarily mean fandom. https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fandom states that the term was used "to refer to the organized society/culture they were forming" all the way back in the 1920s, as opposed to passively watching a story that people were doing beforehand. Fandom is inherently a get-together, not a solitary pursuit.

Re: OP

[cbrachyrhynchos]

Many reviewers are a part of larger genre or media fandoms. They not only see the movies and read the books, they also follow and participate in discussions of how those works are produced and who's doing what.

Obviously you're aware of what the discourse is about the show to express your opinion on it multiple times here, how is that not fandom?

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Roger Ebert: Biggest Twilight fan there is, just because he watched the movie and reviewed it. Journalists: biggest fans of the Alt-Right fandom. Allied soldiers during the WWII: big fan of nazis, wouldn't stop discussing them. Because apparently knowing that something exists = fandom to you. With that broad of a definition, isn't the whole world a part of a fandom?

Your definition of fandom and fan has many scenarios where it doesn't apply. People have been trying to tell you that modern day fandom is a Thing That Exists (a subculture), and has conventions and corners of the internet to discuss stuff, but apparently those are non-distinct social phenomena to you, contrary to what sociologists and researchers have determined.

Your definition doesn't always apply, and that's okay. Years after I make this post, people will continue using the definition of the word that you don't agree with to describe the unique social phenomena that apparently you don't recognize. The word definition has changed already in online discussion, and whether that's going to be acceptable to you actually doesn't matter.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Why does fandom have to be a binary thing where there's one thing that gets called fandom and you're either in it or out of it

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Because on the internet, fandom refers to a subculture, and you definitely know when you're not a part of it.

Re: OP

[cbrachyrhynchos]

It's not. But a lot of people make really bad generalizations like equating SU fandom to tumblr purity wankery. Tumblr isn't the only SU fandom space out there, and a lot of people follow the show religiously (including news about the show) and talk about it with friends without engaging in wank.

Or "fandom is all fanfic/shipping." Which is putting a single minority practice on a pedestal.

And I've encountered cases where "I'm not in fandom because..." is something of a political statement. Like the Western RPG fans who can talk your ear off about stat balances but cry that romance and NPC subplots are feminizing their space. Or comic book fans who can tell you who inked every single story arc in the history of their favorites but engage in performative disgust over shipping.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, can you just accept that not many people use the term fandom the way you do?

[(Anonymous)]

Came here to say the same thing. I guess it's a matter of definition, and I'm old-school in the way that "being in a fandom," to me, just means liking the thing. People are different in their fannish behavior. I hardly generate any fannish content these days, and I hardly take part in any discussions anymore. That doesn't mean I like the thing any less.