unpopular opinions no. 92:

[parthenia]

I feel I ought to have an opinion about OTW, just because of the sheer volume of posts about OTW crossing my screen, but I still don't really get it.

Also, the emphasis on 'female community' drives me fucking mental. Sorry. I have many female friends, I think many women are awesome, I can see that fanfic brings loads of women together in a wonderfully countercultural anti-capitalist way, and I think it's marvellous that female fans organise stuff in spite of their ladyparts...I even am a woman myself. But I just don't get it with claiming the femaleness of the fanfic writing community as some special condition in need of praise and attention.

I mean. It's mostly a product of the sodding subject matter, isn't it? The majority of open source code writers are probably male. Gamers are predominantly male. Do they spend their time warbling about what a quintessentially male community they've created, apart from the couple of female programmers and gamers who've wandered by who are a bit of an anomaly but are all right PROVIDING THEY PLAY BY OUR RULES???? DO THEY? Actually maybe they do.

GAH. GAAAAAH, I SAY.

OK. I know I'm out of line with many of you. I just think that our attempts to claim the moral high ground for our odd little hobbies are very strange indeed.

If I had more time, I would love to explore the world of machinima a bit more (films and videos made using gaming software, like World of Warcraft); my son watches simple Runescape videos on Youtube.

I love the fact that the Internet has helped all this amateur, underground culture flourish. I came across a site today with links to recent good machinima,like this rather nice music video. Beautiful texture. Note the quintessentially male comments on the video. *g*

ETA, post-metafandom linkage. Oh holy fuck. I did not intend a personal rant dashed off on a Friday to be listed by Metafandom (to the point where I nearly specifically said so). Still, this is the way of the interwebs. I will reply to comments, eventually. Please be nice.

ETA 2: Don't you lot have homes to go to? *clears glasses, wipes tables, starts to stack chairs*

Comments

Re: (Here from metafandom)

[mskatej.livejournal.com]

There is no doubt in my mind that feminist principles are often enacted in fandom, related directly to the fact that it is a predominantly female space.

But to call it a “feminist space” is inaccurate I think, because that implies that what we do here on a day to day basis is related to feminism and/or all/most of the women involved in fandom are feminists. Which doesn’t ring very true to me, I’m afraid.

It’s not that an argument can’t be made that writing, reading and enjoying slash (for instance) is progressive, maybe even political in an abstract sense: the whole challenging gender norms argument, which btw, usually makes me roll my eyes a lot. It’s that if you ask your average fan why she likes slash the answer will invariably be “because it’s hot”. Yknow? Also, does the widespread disinterest/loathing of het fic in slash fandom make anyone else raise an eyebrow? Does excluding women entirely from our stories and art really have anything to do with feminism?

I agree with all the points you make below though.

My personal experience of it has shown me a place that tears down traditional limitations of who is qualified to speak and analyze and allows more women to exercise their intellects and voices.

…

And when I go to metafandom and read essays and discussions about fandom in which women predominate, I do find that more than interesting--I find it refreshing and empowering.

Absolutely. Fandom has made me think about these issues far more than I ever did before which is certainly a positive thing. I just don’t think that feminism being a *part* of fandom means that fandom is feminist.

(Man I suck at explaining myself. I hope I’m making sense!)