Fandom

[bagheera_san]

I've long considered fandom (and the internet) a playground where you can safely try out things. Maybe "safely" isn't quite the right word, but it's still a lot less likely to get you in trouble than other social contexts. It's also like this awesome self-documentating social experiment, where, potentially, fascinating and new forms of social interaction happen. It always had internal politics, so now might be the time to get foreign politics. How does an anarchy do that? Is fandom like an anarchy? I mean, we have BNFs, and people you might call "organizers", but its all completely informal. But for me, fandom is definitely a kind of subculture, and in a way, internet/LJ fandom is pretty organized.

Oh, and about fandom. Today in our "Cultural Studies Star Trek" class, talking about interracial (not interspecies) marriages/relationships on Star Trek led to this:

Me: What about Scotty and Uhura?
Prof: No, that's fan fiction.
Me: *blushes rather a lot* (It was the first time anyone mentioned fanfic, I promptly outed myself through body language)
Other guy: But in the sixth movie, there's this scene, where Scotty and Uhura...
Me: Ah! So at the very least there's subtext.
Prof: Yeah, well, but then we've also got to take Kirk/Spock subtext into account. And there's certainly a lot of that.
Me: *dies of glee*

It's always so nice to recognize other fans. I mean, fandom fans. Not just people who watch a show, but people who know what subtext and shipping and conventions and stuff are. And for me, that's "us". I don't think there's any other social group I identify quite as strongly with.

Comments

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ahh, that was the feeling I got the first time I went to an SF con. "Ah! My people!"

Knowing the trivia, the subtext, the vocabulary...on occasion I've mentioned my fanning to non-fannish people, and end up having to define words like "fandom" which I use without thinking, forgetting they're not part of the standard lingo...

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

I've only ever been to one convention, and that was a manga/anime one. It was rather a letdown. I'd love to go to a comics or SF convention, though.