oh fandom, NO!

[rm]

http://community.livejournal.com/jackxianto/3668643.html
in which someone says something that sounds an awful lot like "die-hard SF/F fans are an oppressed minority."

http://community.livejournal.com/jackxianto/3668643.html?view=12636067#t12636067
In which I yell.

thanks for the heads-up from starstealingirl

Subcutlures, because they are by definitions not the mainstream dominant culture, are technically minorities.

But here's the deal, I'm a minority because I'm queer, because I'm Jewish, because I am not as white as look.

Engaging with enterainment in a non-culturally dominant way may be responsible for affecting the tone of huge swathes of my life, but it doesn't define it. Being a member of an actual minority does.

I am not a minority because I like SF/F or because I cried and cried and cried for Ianto or even because I have an unpopular fannish opinion in the sense that I'm not all worked up about RTD and whether he respects fandom or not -- I don't care, I don't need his approval.

Believe me, I get what you are saying. For older fen in particular, there is this very real sense of being in this small, sort of looked down upon subculture and since many of us interact with the world differently than the mainstream (there are studies on the high incidence of the non-neurotypical in the fannish community), I do sort of get why you chose this angle to frame your point.

But with things like Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Comic Con, Dragon*Con, and, yes, the Children of Earth miniseries, fannishness is now a pretty nearly mainstream activity.

But more than that: no one ever threw beer bottles at me for being fannish. No one ever threatened to rape me for being fannish. No one fucking threatened to beat my face in with a brick for being fannish. They have (the first two) because I was gay and (the third) because I'm Jewish.

Considering one of the biggest plot points and now fandom controversies relates to the show's handling of Ianto's sexuality, you really might want to check yourself here.

I am a minority and it's not because I loved a man who never was, even though I did.

Comments

[thessalian.livejournal.com]

I think this individual is barking up the wrong tree anyway. I decided to take the bull by the horns and bring up some of my geekier interests with work colleagues when conversation got slow and this poster would be amazed at the number of Doctor Who computer wallpapers, cries of "You know where to buy manga in this city?!?" and "Hey, is this LARP stuff easy to get into, because it sounds like fun" I've received.

People get bullied in high school because they're different; geekdom is just an excuse bullies use. Apparently, some people take it as read that this means that all geekdom is unacceptable forever and ever. Truth is, feeling persecuted makes them feel special, and they need a reality check because ... really, no.

Yeah; baby crossed a line there and needs to get over it.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

I seriously doubt if any of the people who bullied me in grade school bothered to learn enough about me to know what I liked to read.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Well, I can actually remember specific books I was bullied for reading. I learned very quickly to choose carefully which books to read openly at school.

This is not in any way an enforcement of the geeks are bullied and oppressed minority as a adult thing, because that's not the case; it's merely pointing out that the bullying at my school was extremely specific and they'd still be on about a book i read in 5th grade when we were in 8th.

It's not remotely an excuse; it's an explanation.