Entry tags:
In response to Fansplaining #29
http://fansplaining.com/post/149470302878/show-notes-episode-29-shipping-and-activism
Thank you to Rukmini Pande and Lori Morimoto. I feel like it is always important to understand more about how fandom feels to other people, and to be reminded to pay attention to where my biases and blindspots are.
And I do agree that m/m slash is not a form of queer activism. But I’m not sure how much “slashtivism” has to do with fan studies. I feel like it has more to do with how Tumblr and Twitter work, and a way that all arguments seem to get reduced to progressive/problematic in very black and white terms. It seems to show up in almost any progressive issue that people are arguing about: bisexuality, trans identity, sex work, kink, sex positivity.
And the platforms allow and to some degree encourage the worst internet behavior, across all these issues.
Starting with things like spamming ship tags with hate, leaving vile comments on people’s fic, anon hate, or ad hominem attacks. Through harassment and bullying, call outs, and popular bloggers rallying their followers to attack people. Up to and including doxxing and death threats.
And if someone sees what they’re doing as activism, that just gives them that much more license to “name and shame” other people they disagree with.
Though I bristle when people talk about certain fans fetishizing homosexuality. I think, largely, because I haven’t heard a clear definition that would distinguish things that are fetishizing from the rest of m/m slash fandom. I would absolutely die of shame if I had to admit to any of my gay male friends what kind of fandom trash I read. Unilock with Sherlock as a sexy strung out waif and Lestrade as a cop with a heart of gold. Political Animals Captain America cross overs. Teenage Kirk undercover as the boyfriend of a Martian drug dealer. It is fetishizing, objectifying, reductive trash, and in no way related to the actual lives of gay men. But it seems like people mean something different when they say someone is fetishizing homosexuality?
Thank you to Rukmini Pande and Lori Morimoto. I feel like it is always important to understand more about how fandom feels to other people, and to be reminded to pay attention to where my biases and blindspots are.
And I do agree that m/m slash is not a form of queer activism. But I’m not sure how much “slashtivism” has to do with fan studies. I feel like it has more to do with how Tumblr and Twitter work, and a way that all arguments seem to get reduced to progressive/problematic in very black and white terms. It seems to show up in almost any progressive issue that people are arguing about: bisexuality, trans identity, sex work, kink, sex positivity.
And the platforms allow and to some degree encourage the worst internet behavior, across all these issues.
Starting with things like spamming ship tags with hate, leaving vile comments on people’s fic, anon hate, or ad hominem attacks. Through harassment and bullying, call outs, and popular bloggers rallying their followers to attack people. Up to and including doxxing and death threats.
And if someone sees what they’re doing as activism, that just gives them that much more license to “name and shame” other people they disagree with.
Though I bristle when people talk about certain fans fetishizing homosexuality. I think, largely, because I haven’t heard a clear definition that would distinguish things that are fetishizing from the rest of m/m slash fandom. I would absolutely die of shame if I had to admit to any of my gay male friends what kind of fandom trash I read. Unilock with Sherlock as a sexy strung out waif and Lestrade as a cop with a heart of gold. Political Animals Captain America cross overs. Teenage Kirk undercover as the boyfriend of a Martian drug dealer. It is fetishizing, objectifying, reductive trash, and in no way related to the actual lives of gay men. But it seems like people mean something different when they say someone is fetishizing homosexuality?