I wonder when exactly it was that Star Trek stopped being perceived as light, fluffy, not-really-legitimate sci fi that ~housewives~ liked and started being seen as serious nerd business that girls had to keep their gross cooties off.Â
Also when did the Beatles start to be remembered as rock legends rather than a silly boy band teenaged girls liked?
When men decided they liked them.
this is seriously exactly how it happened. Women were actually the first rock and roll âcriticsâ because they would write in to womenâs papers and magazines to share and discuss what their kids were listening to when men still thought it was trashy teeny bopper music. once it became a lucrative, mainstream genre men shoved women out of the space. Men also tend to be gatekeepers once they move into formerly female spaces – early trek fandom was incredibly open and inclusive; women would set up fan get togethers in their own houses to discuss the show or invite the actors to visit before conventions became a thing, and then were huge in organizing the first conventions – but now the stereotype of a trekkie is a nerdy white dude who scoffs derisively at casual fans and newbies with his encyclopedic and pedantic knowledge of trek
The most rad thing about Sherlock fandom is thereâs any sub genre that you could want.
Sherlock as an artist? Done.
Johnlock on a fucking merchant vessel in the 1800âs? Cha-ching.
John is a catcher (đ) and Sherlock as a pitcher (đ)? Giddy up.
Bookshop owner? Yeppp.
Sherlockâs a florist? Theyâre fish? They hike in the Pacific Northwest? Butler and gardner and balletlock and tunalock, greaserlock, vampirelock and fucking Odamaki and blueink3 and clones and ghosts and actors and Victor Trevor and text relationships and threesomes and so many safe words.
Thereâs tattoolock and that one coffee shop AU that just wonât quit, fireplace hearth sex, risking their lives in the Alps, being hermits in Canada.
Canât forget reality show chef and country and western recluse, Wimbledon, the surfing classsssic, omegaverse and parentlock.
There are careful and thoughtful takes on charactersâ identities. There are gentle interpretations on aging. There is illness and death and birth, deep explorations of humanity and love and hate.
Every reality you would like to see brought to life, any trope you could want, every scenario you could imagine given eagerly to you by a *range* of people from seasoned creators to first-time writers.
The breadth and sheer volume of fan fiction is amazing. The fact that we have so many insanely-talented creators giving us quality content is ridiculous.
Youâre all so fucking cool. Thank you for creating. Thank you for being brave and sharing your work and treating these characters so lovingly.
So for anyone new to fandom, hereâs whatâs going to happen: the new series will air, and a lot of really committed, vocal, prominent fans will hate it.Â
They will loudly and frequently express their disappointment and anger. They will feel betrayed by the writers, the actors, the directors, and by every fan who doesnât feel the same way. The words âout of characterâ will be batted around in relation to the new series. You will hear: âThey did it all wrong! Donât they know these characters at all?â
Disappointed fans will complain loudly for X amount of time, attempting to convince others that the new series had ruined everything that came before, after which they will flame out as hard and brilliantly as they can. It will feel like a big deal. It will feel like a big loss, like the fandom is bleeding out, like itâs shrinking. Like itâs not as good as it used to be.
Be not afraid. This happens every time thereâs new canon. Â Rest assured that it always happens, and it isnât a special feature of any one fandom. Some people cannot handle more story, no matter how good or well-constructed that story is. If it isnât what they were expecting, if the characters change and grow, some fans cannot and will not cope. And thatâs okay! Follow your bliss, friend!
But so many more people will flood into the fandom. Fandoms double, or triple, or more in size when thereâs new canon. There will be new artists, new writers, new meta thinkers. They will bring us new perspectives, and you will make new friends. Lots of them!Â
Looking forward to new canon is also looking forward to a whole new fannish culture. Are you ready?
No truer words. Â Best thing Iâve read this crazy weekend.Â
Most importantly, I forged an identity that reflected the arc of my lived experiences thus far; from being that pre-teen boy watching Star Wars for the first time to creating stories that would entertain current and future generations. I was Trollando; actor, writer, producer, troll, fan.
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It took me many, many years of having my life ruined by Shonda Rhimes to realize that the world wonât end if I stop watching a television show. Just because it once gave me sky high feelings doesnât mean I have to pull out all the stops to try and prolong the emotional roller coaster ride. When youâve fangirled for a few decades, you learn to cope with the reality that one day you will wake up, look at a photo of your favorite actress, and discover that the feeling is justâŚGONE. Or youâll watch your ship sink and shrug your shoulders, knowing that two more random idiots will soon enter your life and reign supreme. For every ship there is a season. A time to weep, and a time to read every smut fan fic you can possibly find, and a time to move on. The 30-year-old fangirl gets this.
There wasnât a word of this that I didnât nod my head at. Leaving a show behind, quitting a ship, staying out of petty fights, shrugging off haters, picking the friends that matter⌠fandom is much sweeter the more perspective on life you possess. You realize that the fandom itself doesnât really matter, but how it enhances your life does. So make your fandom life a happy place. Lord knows no one else will do it for you.
âWe begin to learn that our passions are not a virus, or parasites that
should have that hopped off the second we left adolescence. Theyâre the
weapons we carry into battle as we conquer in all arenas of life.
Theyâre the voices of our favorite characters who remind us what weâre
capable of.
Stands up on soapbox, holds up this article like itâs the opening of the Lion King.
Yâall should read this because it is FIRE, but also because a post from the Time Lady Project was linked in this!
Historically, whenever young women are interested in a form of media,
we like to tell them it is bad for them and that they are bad for
liking it â unless the media goes mainstream, in which case it becomes
no longer feminine and hence okay. Novels are dangerous and cause
insanity, until they become classics worthy of being studied in college. Beatlemania is the province of âthe dull, the idle, the failures,â until the Beatles become a band that everyone loves.
Young women are so attacked for loving the media they love that it is
a radical act for a young woman to love something unashamedly. And
transformative fandom is the most radical act of all, because it
reverses that âlady thing to respectable thingâ process.
Emphasis added. Itâs so good- go read the whole thing.
I would pay top dollar for a comprehensive, source-supported explanation of how Superwholock vanished.
LikeâŚâŚ..that was the core of tumblr in 2013. Its tainted life-blood. Its fetid royal palace. Destiel this and Johnlock that. Tardis-in-the-impala-at-221B URLS. Bendydoot Cucumberpatch and long analytical debates of which doctor is best doctor
What caused the end? What destroyed it? What series of events sunk this fortress? Iâm so. So curious. This was so much of what tumblr was. So unavoidable. Itâs cultural history. I want. to know.
So Iâm not completely sure but I think you can pinpoint the disappearance to the month following Dashcon. Like, the entire year prior, things were going fucking insane; The DW 50th anniversary, Sherlock returned after a hiatus, Dean became a demon or something I donât remember. Point is, the fans were worse than ever.Â
And then Dashcon happened: All those people got together for a nightmarish event in the ball pit (for anyone who doesnât know what Dashcon was, look it up and read any of the news articles about it. I promise, you will not be disappointed).Â
Now, I wasnât too active on tumblr at that point because of school reasons, but I remember finding out that the new season of Supernatural had aired on TV, and I saw NOTHING about it on tumblr. Not a single post on my dash. It was a miracle, but I was so confused. How had the whole fandom just vanished like that? I still donât know for sure, but it was very shortly after the Dashcon incident.Â
Then Doctor Who returned. New doctor and a new companion. Same scenario. Nobody said anything online. I was still big into DW so that was kind of a bummer but it was still astounding.
I went back online more readily and started realizing that fandoms, as I had known them, were essentially dead after that summer. It was like everybody simultaneously realized how toxic those communities were after they all got together in person and proved themselves to be a disgusting bunch.
It was the fastest and most unsettling jump in internet culture Iâd ever seen. Overnight it became an embarrassment to admit that you were in a popular fandom. All because of fucking
âSuperwholock died as a result of Dashconâ is the most fascinating theory Iâve heard in a while amazing
(And you know, seasonal rot and kids getting older and all that but s t i l l)
My personal theory is it was because of hiatuses and competition!
– Hiatuses: Sherlock especially, but the long Doctor Who mid-season
breaks didnât help. People wandered off. Some of them to very similar
shows, like Elementary, which fought initial fan scepticism to
become THE Sherlock alternative.
– Fans became more critical. All
three shows frequently come under fire for their treatment of women,
LGBTQIA people, etc., and without new content fans had no option but to
rewatch and reexamine the same episodes over and over again. Their flaws
became more obvious on repeat viewings, and the comparison to new arrivals like Elementary didnât help. I imagine there were other
competitors too, but one would need to do more research to see how
relevant they are here – cartoons like Steven Universe and Gravity
Falls, maybe? WtNV? OUAT and OITNB? All of them are much more obviously
diverse, so Superwholock starts looking bland in comparison. Thereâs also the quality-comparison argument (Doctor Who is not as good at plotting as a lot of other things), but I reckon that goes without saying.
– Fandom backlash! You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain. After events like the Mishapocalypse and the infamous FANDOMS GRAB YOUR WEAPONS post Superwholock became shorthand for the most obnoxious parts of Tumblr and fandom, so more people starting distancing themselves from it (see also: how Bronies killed the MLP fandom). And, yeah, it all came to a head with the Dashcon Clusterfuck 2k14.
– Fandom Backlash II: Your Fave is Problematic. Every popular figure from Joss Whedon to Taylor Swift is eventually the subject of text posts and screencaps dragging their name through the mud. Steven Moffat, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, and Jensen Ackles (I believe? It might have been Jared Padalecki. I donât really follow Supernatural) have all had plenty of this.
IN CONCLUSION: there wasnât enough new stuff being made. People found their own new stuff, which in many cases they found more appealling. People became less forgiving of the old stuff, its creators, and its fans. Eventually enough time passed that they gave up on the old stuff completely, so when it came back they werenât interested.
(granted this mostly comes under the seasonal rot and kids getting older points but I didnât notice that until Iâd typed this out, and it seems a waste to delete it now đ )
Itâs like Iâm reading the end-result of an assigned essay topic I handed out last night. Iâve forgotten so many things from the 2013 era you get an A+
See and this is fascinating to me because I joined tumblr in mid-late 2012 and didnât really become active until late December 2012/January 2013. So I was here for the mishapocalypse and a lot of stuff, but 2013 was more or less when I started in fandom. And I was 34. So I came to everything late.
With some convincing I sat down and watched new Doctor Who in early 2013, then started Supernatural around the summer. I watched Sherlock in July and started writing for that fandom August 1st.
So I really only caught the tail end of superwholock, only had a few months before Sherlock s3 (and that caused itâs own problems), was here for the Doctor Who 50th, and really never got that much into Supernatural, though I watched the first couple seasons.
