I'm So Tired Of Being Tired

[redbrunja]

I swear, right now, I want to quit fandom.

No, there is nothing hugely dramatic prompting this. I am just so, so weary of the ingrained sexism and the fandom drama and the female character hate and the shipping wars.

I feel like declaring that after July, I'm going to go back to western tv and liveaction fandoms, because when two very different mangakas annoy me in exactly the same way in one fucking evening, and my own over-investment in a pairing + spoilers + the damn fandom itself is threatening to ruin the show that ruined me for anime....

Something is very wrong here.

(And then I remember that my previous happy skippy live action comedy show is killing my love, as is my current sci-fi drama, my last sci-fi drama betrayed me horribly, and my last girl-centric show was torturous near the end, and I realize I'm going to need to go back to reading books and give myself time to let the wounds heal.)

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, where do I start...

A) What mangakas did what where? I have a deep suspicion we share at least one.

B) This is why I try to avoid fandoms. And, frankly, fandoms shipping wars and the way it takes it out of female characters is a large part of WHY I have a lot of the opinions on fanon that I do. I'd rather sit in my corner and squee at the sane ones I grabbed as they wandered by than deal with the drama. When I do pay attention to fandoms, i just go to my ranty place.

C) What show ruined you for anime, and what's it doing to you?

D) Any chance on a rundown of the shows mentioned(I'm assuming BSG is the scifi drama that betrayed you horribly)?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Random rec: Badass Sakura fanart (http://doxnbox.deviantart.com/art/You-Took-Away-A-Part-of-Me-11708094), because the fans will rise up even when the mangaka is a sexist hack. (2004, if that matters)


I am going into books lately, and I'm nearing the run of Discworld. Only 5 books left! I don't know what I'll do when that series is over. It's like there will be no more literary happiness. It's like how I felt after I watched The Return of the King, and I walked out the theater doors, and I knew that this was it. After the DVD was released there would be no more. Next Christmas I wouldn't have any more hobbits and wizards and swordfights and warrior princesses and magic rings to give me that fan joy as a year-end present. It was over.



I'm kind of hunting for a new live action fandom to get into, since I've been putting off watching the new season of Doctor Who out of fear, and BSG is at this point mostly a soda-drinking game for me (I haven't seen its fourth season either), and I have no other tv shows I religiously love.

I need another Farscape, or X Files, or West Wing, or something. I can't wait until Dollhouse next year... I have hopes.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

re: sexism and female-character hate,

The only place where I expose myself to that in fandom is The Pit. Otherwise I stick to my flist and I am very proud of the people I have added there for being reasonable, intelligent, forward-minded folk who will rip a sexist paragraph seven ways to Wednesday.

I am part of over 100 communities but only keep a few on my flist, so I skip a lot of general fandom crap. I've learned to insulate myself for self-preservation.

I have found that once you're in fandom, fandom's in you. Even if you give up the internet side of it, you end up recreating those conversations and discussions with friends or family members, wanting to go into intense detail about why such and such is a symbol or a parallel in the film or in the book and what X means and why Y is against X and isn't it so FASCINATING? And they're like... "What? You're thinking too hard about this."

[nephthysmoon.livejournal.com]

But then there is Book!Fandom, which I blame my involvement for my involvement in fandom. Face it, if you're inclined towards fandoms, it will be difficult to find something to do that has no fandom - and do you really want to get into something (a book, TV show or whatever) that is so bad that you want nothing to do with its fandom because you don't like it enough?

Actually, in all seriousness, I know what you mean.

The only fandom I have that regularly pisses me off is the Avatar fandom, and I have to remind myself that being about 10 to 12 years older than the average fan has a lot to do with that. The best thing I can think of for avoiding fandoms is stick to the people you already know in it that aren't driving you nuts.

I don't belong to boards for most of my fandoms (dotmoon is multi-fandom, after all, and I can discuss nearly anything I want to there) because of that. I try to avoid most communities on LJ unless I know the maintainer or the primary focus is on fanfic/fanart. For me, that is the only way to keep myself sane in an increasingly annoying world of fandom.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Fandom can really suck sometimes.

But if it gets you into writing Fables fic, I fully support the decision. The fandom needs writers who have read more than three issues (#1, #10, and #27 by my guess, in a recent case . . .).