"Fangirl" here is a neutral term for someone who squees, squicks, and Was There. General fandom posts encouraged!
What's up this fine holiday season?
I'm just wondering if anyone has anything fannish either to "crank" or "fangirl" about as the year ends?
Anything particularly getting your goat or floating your boat? :-)
My "Crank of the Day" is something that I've recently posted about on a couple of other Imzy comms.
This being the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, I have been reading (and, in some cases, rereading) my way through relevant books. I got about a third of the way through this book and couldn't take any more: The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years
It's full of back-biting and axe-grinding, and reads like a tabloid gossip magazine. It certainly isn't doing anything to enlighten or inform me about what I like about Star Trek. Two thumbs down!
And that negative experience took me back to what currently is "floating my boat," as I reread instead the three most excellent volumes of These are the Voyages, by Marc Cushman. Which in turn has led me to begin a year-end project of rewatching TOS in production order (not broadcast order), as I reread the entry for each.
Anyone else?
ksl




The current fandom that is eating everything online is an anime one. I am really happy for the fans and all. Yuri On Ice is a solid show and awesome in many ways. But I've have to block it on tumblr and everywhere because I actually know Japanese. (Not fluent but I've done translation work and have three years of college language, cultural and geography studies.) I keep seeing fannish metas based on 'literal translations' and then I turn into that 'No, that's not how this works ... that's not how any of this works' lady. Compounding it is friends of mine who are writing it and asking on tumblr for language and cultural help and the answers they are getting are a weird mash of fannish fever dreams and those weird myths Americans have about Japan.
Again, I am no expert and am not Japanese myself ... but I haven't seen this kind of BS in like ten years and having is back makes me whole brain want to cry.
I'm just now watching Leverage and kicking mysel for waiting so long!
Leverage is SOOOOO good. Even better if you can get the commentaries.
Not on streaming Netflix, but I suspect I'll end up owning it eventually
I've been bitten in the past for the way commentaries break the fourth wall too much for me. I've heard, though, that the commentaries were particularly good for Leverage.
How would a commentary not break the fourth wall?
Yes, indeed. I loves me some commentary tracks!
Not all of which are good or suit my notions of what a commentary track should offer.
But Leverage commentaries are among the better ones I've encountered, and I love that they did one for each episode.
John Rogers blog did a "commentary post" for most of the episodes that also was truly fantastic. (Sadly, having gone on to other things after the series ended, he never finished out blogging through the end of the series.)
It is the best!
I booked it on my DVR from the first episode, because I already was a fan of Christian Kane and Timothy Hutton (and I also knew Gina Bellman from a previous Brit sitcom she did. Plus, I am a big fan of "heist" movies, and this looked like a "heist of the week" type of thing.
Which it turned out to be--but with a "Robin Hood" spin on it.
This show has complex, layered characters whom we get to see grow and change and watch as their relationships (friendships, romances) develop.
It has action and humor and warmth. And top-notch acting.
Also? It's like watching a team of superheroes. I love all the (as John Rogers calls it) "competence porn."
ksl
Like this. This makes me tired.
Oh, Jesus, that stupid argument again. "Oh noes, the straight women are getting their icky vagina-cooties all over our manly pure m/m stuff and writing what they like rather than what I like, I mean, appropriating queerness!!"
"Um, half of us are bi/lesbian/pan/non-cis? We like to read about gay pairing because we are gay?"
"Well, Bi/pan women are the same as straight ones and lesbians who read m/m aren't real lesbians! And women mustn't sexually objectify men! It's exactly like the worst kind of fetishistic 'lesbian' porn for straight dudes because what is misogyny? Lesbians and trans men totally have privilege over cis gay men because... uh, because cock! That's why! I have one so you should cater to me!"
It just feels like a little much to make someone justify what they think is hot based on identity politics. You can't help what you find hot. The people who get off on crushing bugs would probably rather not, if they had a choice.
Am I straight? Ace? Shit man, I don't really know. And I shouldn't have to sign everything to satisfy someone else.
And even if a straight woman enjoys m/m stuff, more power to her, she's doing absolutely nothing wrong. Those guys who wank all over about "appropriating queerness by enjoying or writing m/m" or saying that "women enjoying it are the same as straight guys being shitty to lesbians because of f/f porn" are so freaking sheltered that they can't even get the difference about a NICHE interest in fandom or romance novels vs. a very mainstream porn genre that every 12 year old boy can easily find at a streaming porn site.
Also, nobody says to guys who enjoy f/f that they hate themselves and their own bodies :P
/bi woman here, if it really matters
Also, nobody says to guys who enjoy f/f that they hate themselves and their own bodies :P
Of course not. It only natural for men to like f/f, whereas if women like something it's either problematic (like slash supposedly is) or it's of low quality and dangerous to our impressionable women-brains (see everything from Twilight to early 19th century novels). Men don't have to justify their hobbies or defend their reasons for liking something anywhere near as often as women do.
The first time this argument went around, I fell for it and thought that maybe they had a point about straight women and m/m, but then the "and this applies to same-sex-attracted women and FAB genderqueer/non binary people as well!" part came up and I realized that the real complaint wasn't then and isn't now "straight people writing about LGBT people" but that icky girl-cooties girls (and the occasional man or non-binary person who'll be misgendered as a girl because all slashers are straight women, amirite?) are writing about men. Worse, writing about men in a way that privileges their own desires instead of the complainer's desires.
(Sometimes the complaint stems from the "I'm a good feminist, unlike those dumb bitches over there" strain of fandom wankery and is less overtly dudes'-desires-should-come-first-ew-girl-cooties, but it's still motivated by the fact that mostly-women are writing what they enjoy instead of what the complainer enjoys/what the complainer thinks women should enjoy.)
Also, many of the complaints slinged at slash fandom, like reinforcing heteronormativity, bashing of female characters, etc? Those things often happen on the mainstream gay male community. See the disgust many "masc" guys feel for femme men, all the jokes about femme men with their blatant fanboying for pop divas and always bottoming on bed, some nasty comments about women (and vaginas, which adds transphobia in the mix). When I see a gay guy complaining by using those "arguments", the first impression I have is that the slash he found isn't masc4masc enough and has too many feelings for his manly self. I was always proven right since neoprodigy.
I'm late to the party here (real life and writing has kept me busy), but dear lord I've had enough of seeing stuff like that cropping up all over my tumblr dash - which I expect no less from some of the children on my dash.
And I'm so glad so many of you share my thoughts on this - why do they have to be so against women writing for pleasure? women writing for other women?
Shitting on the m/m genre (fanfiction or not) is just the same of people shitting on the romance genre in its entirety - all it boils down to is 'oh no, women are enjoying something, we must stop this'. Because 90% of the stuff I see, the stuff being produced is not born out of fetishism but a love of a genre and a lot of writers try their hardest to do justice to the genre.
What I find funny is the most graphic stuff I've read, the stuff that READS LIKE FETISHISM, is written by MALE AUTHORS.
It just boggles my mind how contradictory that hell site is. One minute they are screaming about equality and you being you and then the next they are lynching people for expressing themselves and enjoying this. It's ridiculous.
What reads like fetishism? I'm not even sure I know. I write what I like and read what I like, which usually involves hewing as close to the original characters as possible (which also usually means no one is particularly femme), but I have no idea what crossing into fetishism would look like.
When I say 'fetishism' I mostly mean the over the top sexual aspects that I've seen in a lot of original fiction m/m genre, which I personally don't find it as fetishism, but could see where if someone read it without understanding genre/author, it could be read as it (if that makes sense?)
Well. I'm sort of not looking forward to all the kids having a holiday over which to become monsters at each other on tumblr. Ship wars, ship shaming, children you make me so tired...
I'll still be working on my Star Wars novel as the year ends. A battle of perseverance for sure.
/black_sails will be coming back soon, so I've got to finish S3. I won't be willing to let them go...
There are things coming back on in Jan that will be nice, if I ever feel like I have the time.
There's currently a Maul Cosplay Witcher 3 calendar that I'm trying to convince myself is okay to buy for $30. Cause damn...
I'm experiencing that lovely disconnect between "yay, I posted my challenge fic" and "I still have at least 24 hours before my recipient will read it". Also the weird relief/vague disappointment that comes from reading fic in other holiday challenges - relief I didn't participate but vaguely disappointed that because I didn't, I can't claim any of the stories as exactly for me.
As far as shipping discourse goes, it feels like shipwars taken to the next level. Instead of "you're delusional if you think those two are in love," or "That ship sucks." It's now, If you ship X with Y and not Z this is why you are a terrible person.
I'll admit, I was a brat back in the day and got heavily involved in ship wars. (And spent way too much time and energy arguing over who Cloud Strife truly loved, Now I just ship Aerti.) And if I were a teen today I'd probably do this. But yeah, it's a little ridiculous.
I see it a lot in the Star Wars fandom. There was a post on the most popular pairing on AO3 being Kylux, and that Finnpoe and Finrey were not as popular. The argument came down to it being about the two white boys. I won't deny that there is racism in the fandom. I side eye anyone who suggests that Finn is going to be the real villain and that Kylo will just be the misunderstood hero. And who knows, maybe racism is the reason why Kylux is the more popular slash pairing. But in my experience, people like to ship the villains. And it's more believable that Kylo and Hux would have a kinky relationship than Finn and Poe.
I'm team Finnrey. I'll also read Rey/Jessika Pava fanfiction. I'd be happy with Finnpoe happening and if you ship Reylo, darkpilot, Finnlo, or whatever, than more power to you. I have seen people who ship Finnrey being accused of homophobia and the reverse of Finnpoe shippers being accused of racism, as well as lesbian Rey.. Basically, no matter who you ship you can't win :/.
Thing is, any combination of these ships have tons of fanfic for them. So it's not like any are lacking. And anything writing in fanfic will not change the actual canon.
I also believe, that along with loving/hating any ship, that should also go for individual characters. I've seen people who hate a certain character being accused of hating a certain type of person. Or someone liking a character (usually a villain) of being a toxic person.
I don't want to get too deep into it but this happens quite a bit in the Steven Universe fandom. (ships, characters, you name it. This even cause some trouble for the staff that worked on the show.)
Well just in my own experience, in Game of Thrones. Margery is a great character. She's nice, intelligent, and Natalie Dormer does a great job portraying her. However, she reminds me of some not so pleasant girls from my high school, (the kind who will be nice to your face but bitch about you behind your back.) and I just don't like her. Do I throw a fit every time she's on screen? No. However giving me a list of why I'm wrong and of reasons why she's the best character ever isn't going to change my mind.
Oh! I only just realized that this is the perfect place to mention the show I've started watching recently!
Because said show is Emergency!
For those not familiar, the exclamation point is part of the title. :D It aired 1972-1977, plus a bunch of TV movies.
I have found only two stories in the fandom that appeal to my personal taste, but I'm having a lot of fun watching the episodes on YouTube and counting how many lines Mike gets in any given episode. (Usually 1 or 0). LOL.
If I don't get the complete series for Christmas, I shall be ordering. Most of what I've seen has been Season 6, because that's what showed up on YouTube when I searched, and I'd like to watch from the beginning.
Emergency! I think my favorite episode is the one with the monkey-introduced fever epidemic, where you're just waiting the whole episode for the inevitable dramatic point where Johnny keels over. "The audience knows our cute young woobie will eventually get this fever. Let's have him climbing around building scaffolds and construction cranes just to up the 'when will he faint' suspense!"
I've heard about that episode. //grins// The more I watch, the more I realize just how much Johnny is pairing bait. It's kind of awesomely hilarious.
Ahh, one of the television series of my "young adulthood."
I periodically catch a re-run on television, and I own one season of the series on DVD--season three (because of a guest starring appearance of He-who-shall-always-be-my-heartthrob, Bobby Sherman).
:-)
I got a Roku for an early Christmas present and a subscription to Acorn, and I have been gorging myself on British TV classics. Midsummer Murder and Lovejoy! I haven't seen Lovejoy in decades! And two versions of Partners in Crime! Definitely not cranky now!