Acceptability/Assimilation Will not Keep Us Safe

April 7, 2009 in Convention, Fandom, Featured, GLBT, Headline by Eric

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series GLBT in SF and Fandom

Within fandom, as with the mainstream culture, assimilation into an ‘acceptable person’ is not a way to be safe.

For years I have participated in the panels and sundry other discussions about whether GLBT fans should blend into the background, or whether we should be more vocal, and make our presence known and felt. It was a struggle at first, but eventually we came to believe the price of silence too high for us to pay.

In other words, those who were naturally straight-acting, were encouraged not to change their persona at fan events, and those of us who were a bit more obvious in our sexual orientation and gender identity were encouraged to be ourselves. The only exception we stressed was for cosplay (dressing in costume and pretending you are what you are dressed as).

While we always used common sense, we found it was best to be open and upfront about our orientation and identity. The vast majority of negative experiences I have had at fan events were when someone found out I am gay, and felt like I had hidden it from them.

I am very inappropriate

: Image via Wikipedia

I am more inappropriate and direct with people then the average person, and will often introduce myself: “Hello, I am Eric, and I am a gay man, may I presume you are heterosexual.”

It usually gets a laugh, and will often open the door for people to understand the awkward position GLBT people are placed in by society. If we are not open about our identity or orientation, it is assumed we were hiding it.

You don’t have to be as upfront as I am, but be careful not to lead people into believing you are covering it up. This self-serving sense of betrayal is often used as a thin veil to excuse a person’s homophobia. “Well, I just don’t know who you are anymore.” Whoever you are, always be yourself, be open, and be honest.

Klingon Drag Queen

Last year, our first klingon drag queen attended Shore Leave. She was stunning and took the time to make each piece of the costume by hand to express her gender identity and passion for klingons. Unfortunately, she also experienced an inordinate amount of sneers and cat calls as she went through the convention.

Our group also features a number of male-to-female transgenders who often come in costume. They have not faced some of the same hurdles the rest of the community have. When I talked to one who asked to remain anonymous, she told me that her biggest problem at the conventions were that people assumed she merely wore a costume.

The Stigma of Fandom

February 24, 2009 in Fandom by Eric

This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series Fandom

Let’s face it, Speculative Fiction fandom has a stigma attached to it that no other fans base does. Music and sports fans are celebrated, while SF fans are often ridiculed for engaging in the same activities.

Rise of Anti-intellectualism

I blame the rise of the anti-intellectual movements which began to organize in 1972, and the culture of ignorant bliss they promulgated for the stigma. They pushed the image of a good American as a one more interested in might than dialogue. Following the leader and the trends those leaders established were seen as more valuable than free thought. Questions were not encouraged.

Civics classes were dropped from the curriculum in the 1970s, and science education suffered soon there after.

This new culture held instinct and feeling as a higher source of insight than rationalism and education.

Never left High School

The tension between nerds and jocks in American High Schools is a schism that has probably always been with us, but in the 1970’s and ’80’s this conflict was moved into the popular culture through movies, music, and television. These shows portrayed the jock as the hero and the nerd as the misfit who should be mocked and left out.

Dialogue and debate were stripped from our public dialogue, replaced by televised shouting matches. Pop culture’s development was stunted. Adherents never matured out of the the high school mindset because there was no need. Pop Culture lowered itself so it would remain accessible to this new class of permanent high schoolers.

The Consumer Culture

There is a financial reason to stunt the growth of Pop Culture. The less discerning your audience is, the less expensive content is to make, the more people are likely to buy it.

Despite the pleas for better content, the financial benefit of keeping people from maturing and developing opinions is just too high to dissuade them from their present course.

Revenge of the Nerds

In the 1980’s and ’90’s, the misfits started to fight back. Movies like Revenge of the Nerds, The Goonies, and Mallrats became touchstones for outcasts to rally behind, but the damage had already been done.

The culture had been damaged, and fans were charactured as annoyances. The misfits, now nothing more than the punchline of a poorly written joke, had to fend for themselves. We orginized into tighter groups.

The Heart’s Ache

Through it all, the fans persevered, because through it all, we knew something the pop culture never will. We know what it is to find meaning.

The music, books, series, and movies we love gave us meaning. It is different for every fan, but it is still there. In our hearts, we know why we are in the world and what we have to do.

: Image via Wikipedia

I found my meaning in the Klingons from Star Trek. While I wouldn’t say my life has been a hard on, I still had to fight for everything that I have. I had to fight for my identity, my life, and my very mind and soul. Through the Klingons, I learned that life is about the struggle. It is about the fight not the outcome.

I used to cosplay as a Klingon at the conventions (when I wasn’t a vampire). I took their idea of honor, and made it my own. It helped me to reign in my temper, and enjoy the struggles of my life. I am a better person for rejecting the popular culture and embracing fandom.

Unlike so many that I meet, my heart doesn’t ache from a lack of meaning.

Laugh if you want to

So laugh at me if you want to. Tell me that I am taking these silly books, songs, series, and movies too seriously. That’s ok, I am used to it. My only hope is that if my words can find their way to that one kid who is ashamed of who they are, how they see the world, and how they want to live, it is all worth it.

Fandom quite literally saved my life. Suicide is all too common among people who don’t feel like they belong. Fandom is the only culture and community that asks so little of its members.

Do you love something so much you want to keep it with you always? Has there ever been a song that you felt told your story so perfectly you had to love it? Have you ever seen a show that drew you in so deeply you saw yourself in it? Have you ever read a book that changed you, and made you better?

I feel sorry for the people who cannot answer yes to those questions, and I hope they will open their hearts and let something in.

Fandom as Culture

February 12, 2009 in Convention, Costumes, Fandom, Fanfilm, Games, Mythology by Eric

This entry is part 2 of 10 in the series Fandom

Back in December, I took on Meg Guroff in my post, Fandom is not Obsessive Weirdoism! for saying:

One distinctly modern form of obsessive weirdoism is fandom: becoming so devoted to a work of art that you want to augment or even inhabit it. Out of this impulse was born the Klingon Language Institute (www.kli.org), the phenomenon of “fan fiction” (unauthorized stories by civilians advancing new plotlines of beloved films and TV series) (The Urbanite Magazine),

She responded by saying:

Hey, thanks for the shout-out, but anyone who reads the essay—or even just the rest of the sentence you truncated—would know that your outrage is misplaced. This passage is not an attack on fandom, it’s a defense of it. I’d invite the curious to read the essay for themselves or visit my (built, obsessive, weird) site at powermobydick.com. Best wishes.

Originally posted as a comment by Meg Guroff on dashPunk using Disqus.

The rest of the sentence I truncated simply said: “and also, one might argue, my ever-growing Moby-Dick website, which now includes not only a full annotation but also links to artwork, poems, movies, and even cartoons based on the book (The Urbanite Magazine).” I am glad she enjoys working on a fan site, and I am sorry if I offended her by intimating she had attacked fandom, but the fact remains that characterization of fandom as obsessive and weird obfuscates the fact that what we are seeing is the birth of a new culture, not merely a niche cultural phenominon.

History of Fandom

: Image via Wikipedia

Hugo Gernsback forged the modern Science Fiction genre in 1926 when he founded Amazing Stories magazine. In the letters section, he published the addresses of the fans who wrote in. Readers began to organize themselves into local clubs. In 1934, Hugo founded the Science Fiction League, a correspondence club where local clubs could apply for membership.

Chicago’s Science Correspondence Club published the first known science fiction fanzine, The Comet, in 1930. The first convention was held nine years later when at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, when the World Science Fiction Society held the first WorldCon.

Fred Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth, members of a New York fan club called The Futurians, wrote the oldest known filks in the 1950’s by taking the music from folk protest songs and changing the lyrics.

It wasn’t until the 1970 that the conventions grew in popularity as a result of Speculative Fiction taking on the role of mythology. More people found Speculative Fiction gave them a set of values, goals, and practices. Through our conventions, filksings, fanfic, and fanfilm, we have developed a culture that is uniquely ours.

Pattern of Behavior

Fans don’t just watch the shows they love, or read the books, they devour them. We take in these stories, critique them, and rush to share and discus them with our friends. We often watch the shows or read the books multiple times to see if we missed something.

We flock to conventions to meet the stars, creators, and authors of the works we love, and to spend time reveling in the series we love. We roleplay, craft fan works, and some even engage in cosplay and LARPing (Live Action Role Playing).

Characteristic Features

It is not hard to spot a fan. The t-shirts we were, the calendars on our walls, the tchotchkes on our desks, and the phrases we like to use. Many of us use fanspeak around mundanes and not realizing it until we see that confused look on their face, and realize we need to translate into English.

Shared attitudes, values, and goals

The one thing I have always found most intriguing about fans is how a true fan is not hard on new fans, and wants to make sure everyone is having a good time.

Most of us grew up with Star Trek, and took to heart the idea of IDIC (Infinite Diverity in Infinite Combination) to heart. Where ever we are, we try to bring IDIC, foresight, and community with us. Life is to be enjoyed, and nothing cuts off the fun quicker than bigotry, ignorance, or that one guy who is looking to have a good time at the expense of everyone there if necessary.

Fan culture is always developing.

Dear Meg

I wish you the best of luck with your Moby Dick site, and I hope I didn’t upset you further. My complaint with your article was merely that you used the phrase “Obsessive Weirdoism.”

Any culture is “Obsessive Weirdoism” when viewed from the outside. You have a fannish heart, and I think it is time you stopped talking in a way that excuses your fannish tendencies to the mundanes. You are a fan. Be out and proud about it.

At any rate, I am a little jealous, I can see the merit in Moby Dick, and I can understand from where your passion derives, but I don’t think I will ever share it. You see something most of us don’t. That is a gift. Relish it.

P:SI #313 “We Will Watch The Watchmen”

January 16, 2009 in Project: Shadow Informant Show Notes by Brian Logee

Culture

Radium in Steampunk Jewelry (dashPunk)
Honor of a Klingon Keyboard (dashPunk)

Movie

Watchmen Movie is Back On (dashPunk)
Zack and Miri Make a Porno Out On DVD (dashPunk)

TV / Series

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – A Galaxy Divided Out on DVD (dashPunk)
Stan Lee ‘to create worlds first gay superhero’? (dashPunk)

Book

Nebula Awards Rules Changed (dashPunk)
Clarkesworld once again open to submissions (via SF Scope)

Game

Rumor: Battlefront 3 Video Leaked? (dashPunk)

Webcomic

Girl Genius

Subscribe

Subscribe to Project: Shadow Informant Subscribe in a reader

zunepodcastgf6 P:SI #313 “We Will Watch The Watchmen”

Netflix lets you rent, watch and return DVDs from home – Try free for 2 weeks

Don’t wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.

GameFly delivers the best video games to your door! Start for only $8.95 or Try for free

Honor of a Klingon Keyboard

January 16, 2009 in Art, Fandom by Eric

A computer keyboard featuring letters from the Klingon alphabet has gone on sale in the UK. Priced at £43.99, it comes from Cherry Electrical Products, and is a limited edition (SFX).

I really, really, really want this.

Fandom is not Obsessive Weirdoism!

December 18, 2008 in Convention, Costumes, Culture, Fandom, Fanfilm, Filk, Mythology by Eric

: Image via Wikipedia

Margaret Guroff is health editor of AARP The Magazine. In her first story for Urbanite, she takes out her inability to build an annotated Moby Dick website out on all fans who are not so swift to give up.

One distinctly modern form of obsessive weirdoism is fandom: becoming so devoted to a work of art that you want to augment or even inhabit it. Out of this impulse was born the Klingon Language Institute (www.kli.org), the phenomenon of “fan fiction” (unauthorized stories by civilians advancing new plotlines of beloved films and TV series) (The Urbanite Magazine),

Merriam-Webster defines Obsession as:

a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling ; broadly : compelling motivation (M-W)

What she fails to see is that fandom is a nascent culture:

a: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations b: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also: the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life} shared by people in a place or time <popular culture><southern culture> c: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization <a corporate culture focused on the bottom line> d: the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic (M-W)

Fandom began to form in 1960’s and 70’s, as Speculative Fiction began taking on the role of mythology. It gave a set of values, goals, and practices that have developed and grown over time.

Through our conventions, filksings, fanfic, and fanfilm, we have developed a culture that is uniquely ours. Like all subcultures, it is misunderstood and mocked by the dominate culture. The very idea that we are merely obsessing over favorite stories is an insult not only to us, but to every culture. These characters are our heroes, and these stories are our folktales.

The problem we are having is that all of the foundations of culture now ( not just those of fandom) are copyrighted and sold by corporations that neither understand nor care that they wield so much power. Just because our mythology is copyrighted does not change the power these stories have over our lives. In fact, it only increases our outrage when our stories are treated with the same disdain that corporate media has for the mythology of the Greeks, Romans, or even the beloved stories of the Christian Bible. The Corporation cares only for its own profits, not the effect it has on culture.

While our interest in these stories may seem obsessive to some, I wonder how they feel about those who share other folktales, or folk songs. I wonder if she shares this same disdain for others who do not subscribe to her culture. People mock what they don’t understand, and it is clear she just doesn’t understand.