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OTW, our fully furnished fannish city
Dec. 15th, 2007 07:53 amThere is nothing I have wanted more than a fannish home on the internet, with infrastructure and diplomacy and representation from all walks of fandom, privileged equally and in a safe space, from where we can stand as one to fight for the legitimacy of our practices AND have a home, where our sisters and lovers live, where we can come back at the end of the day and share our desires and our picspams and porn. I've always envisioned fandom as a kind of sprawling city -- certainly in number and in vocality we are as large and impressive as any subculture, with our own jargon, needs, values, and subcommunities. Just like in the days when het writers railed against slash writers, or slash writers railed against RPSers, at the end of the day, I hope/believe we continue to find more in what unites us than divides us -- hence the need for an umbrella'd home for us all to explore our potentiality as producers of fannish content and our community as it sails toward legitimacy and intellectual ownership.
The OTW site went live, to the expected range of responses from glee to wank, love to hate. And as there are as many kinds of fannish people as there are fish in the sea (or whatever) it's unsurprising -- except for the fact that this Organization is specifically set up to represent ALL OF US.
I know most of the board members of the OTW personally, along with the staff of the academic journal and the legion of fannish volunteers trying to get involved, and while I have tremendously high hopes for the project, there are some significant obstacles standing between the OTW as it is now and the ideal OTW that we can all get behind and feel part of.
( early concerns about the OTW, fannish migration, and the FUTURE )
ETA: Several comments have pointed out that I've been too heavy-handed on the female-space side while simultaneously trying to preach inclusivity -- whoops! Some irresponsible/flippant language use there on my part; sorry. By "female space" I'm actually lifting that from the OTW mission statement, and from the fact that, insofar as fandom is a gendered entity, this kind of textual poaching is considered "fangirl" behaviour (vs. action figures, comics, and video games, described as "fanboy" behavior -- see also the Jenkins debates on Gender and Fan Culture for more about these linguistic gendered activities, while remembering of course that just because a behavior is considered "fanboyish" or "fangirlish" it's still open to and participated in by men, women, transpeople, etc.) and in the OTW's political statement and much academic work that's written on participatory culture, our breed of ficwriting and production of works has been generally gendered female. FWIW.
On the otherhand, my offhanded "lesbians" comment was not at all meant to be a description of everyone around here, it just came as part of a list that included knitters and librarians -- and as neither a knitter nor a librarian, obviously I don't think that's all we are, I was just, you know, being rhetorical.
Anyway, thanks to the folks who pointed out my oversight -- and I am right there on board with making the OTW protective of ALL walks of fanlife and all methods of participation.
The OTW site went live, to the expected range of responses from glee to wank, love to hate. And as there are as many kinds of fannish people as there are fish in the sea (or whatever) it's unsurprising -- except for the fact that this Organization is specifically set up to represent ALL OF US.
I know most of the board members of the OTW personally, along with the staff of the academic journal and the legion of fannish volunteers trying to get involved, and while I have tremendously high hopes for the project, there are some significant obstacles standing between the OTW as it is now and the ideal OTW that we can all get behind and feel part of.
( early concerns about the OTW, fannish migration, and the FUTURE )
ETA: Several comments have pointed out that I've been too heavy-handed on the female-space side while simultaneously trying to preach inclusivity -- whoops! Some irresponsible/flippant language use there on my part; sorry. By "female space" I'm actually lifting that from the OTW mission statement, and from the fact that, insofar as fandom is a gendered entity, this kind of textual poaching is considered "fangirl" behaviour (vs. action figures, comics, and video games, described as "fanboy" behavior -- see also the Jenkins debates on Gender and Fan Culture for more about these linguistic gendered activities, while remembering of course that just because a behavior is considered "fanboyish" or "fangirlish" it's still open to and participated in by men, women, transpeople, etc.) and in the OTW's political statement and much academic work that's written on participatory culture, our breed of ficwriting and production of works has been generally gendered female. FWIW.
On the otherhand, my offhanded "lesbians" comment was not at all meant to be a description of everyone around here, it just came as part of a list that included knitters and librarians -- and as neither a knitter nor a librarian, obviously I don't think that's all we are, I was just, you know, being rhetorical.
Anyway, thanks to the folks who pointed out my oversight -- and I am right there on board with making the OTW protective of ALL walks of fanlife and all methods of participation.
