20 December 2009 @ 11:43 pm
Sunday, December 20, 2009
- ratcreature: random poll - if you've been in fandom a long(-ish) time, do you ever feel nostalgia for fandom how it used to be? ("Fandom" in this case intentionally vague as I just mean whatever form of fandom you were involved in the era you are nostalgic for.) And if so, for which time period? -
- katta: Some clues on how not to write deaf characters - The disability fanfic site has uploaded a bunch of stuff, so I've been reading quite a lot, and there are a couple of things that bother me. -
- box_in_the_box: WHY SUPERHERO COMIC BOOK CREATORS SHOULD NOT INTERACT WITH FANDOM: - It occurs to me that what we have here is a microcosm of the exact same sort of tension between entertainment media producers and consumers as exists in just about any other genre or medium now, in which the whole movement toward "the author is dead" has inspired a backlash from the authors themselves, who aren't content with telling stories so much as they want the power to dictate how their audiences should react to their works. -
- sailorptah: Sigh. - But other times? Other times the discussion, while it may have started in a fannish place, has left that context behind long ago. Which means that, unless you were involved with it from the beginning, it boils down to this: "People you have no connection to (except that you both use the same blogging service, and/or enjoy watching TV and writing about it) said something which sounds like it was ill-advised (although you can't say for certain, because until five minutes ago you were not even aware this conversation had taken place) and now you get to hear a deconstruction of why they were wrong." -
- cupidsbow: meta twitter? - Maybe all the huge discussions of the last two years have actually changed the face of meta, because we feel more comfortable in just using that language and making short comments, rather than having to scale up our meta thoughts into full-blown essays. -
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crabapplered: Metafandom needs to re-evaluate. - The point is, if someone wants to talk about the mechanics of chakra in Naruto, they don't really want people to pop up and go "pft! Chakra! Now there's some fine cultural appropriation in that series" -
- rubyfruit_pixie: Also I Am A Horrible, Horrible Person (And That's Okay). - And I can think and squee at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive, and I really wish people would stop thinking that they are. -
- renay: PSA to Emerging FFXIII Fans: Don't Do Racist Shit! - If these are the actions and behavior I have to look forward to from fans of Final Fantasy XIII, so help me, I am going to explode in rage on a near-daily basis. I mean, this is Racism 101 stuff. -
- renay: An Interesting and Heartbreaking Addition to the Debate At Hand: SEXISM! - My bottom line, to him and everyone else: the problem stopped being just the icons when people started defending their usage with extremely problematic words. Stop using the icons, yes, and then come back, because you defended them and you have to fix that mess you made, as well. -
- justira: Time to discuss racism and humour! aka how about them mildly infamous icons? - The relationship between humour and kyriarchy is... pretty complicated. It's quite easy to fall into a trap here: attempt, with the best intentions, to deride things worthy of derision, and yet in making the joke end up perpetuating those same ills. -
- vi: Bingo in FF fandom - It isn't this specific instance (Sazh and fried chicken jokes) itself, but that it is part of a larger trend of representing non-white characters in stereotyped ways, and the reaction of white-privileged fans being told that it's Not Cool. -
- heebee: Anyone else finding the "ironic" fried c - Anyone else finding the "ironic" fried chicken and/or watermelon-themed Sazh Katzroy icons in poor taste? -
19 December 2009 @ 09:35 pm
Saturday, December 19, 2009
- djin7: On Reviews, Concrit, feedback or flames, what not to do on the internet - However, if you do not want uninvited critical reviews mixed in with glowing, positive reviews? You must hand pick and select your audience to only people who will do your bidding, and instruct them to do so, whether it's to your best interest or worst. -
- solarcat: A Question about Default Icons (Or, It's Amateur Sociology Time! \0/ ) - What impact does a default icon have? Do we draw conclusions about users based on their default icon? -
- londonkds: The honeymoon between fandom and Dreamwidth faces its first test - It has been reported that Dreamwidth has received legal letters from Marvel related to the ever-controversial scans_daily community. -
- elf: [in scans_daily] Some Copyright Basics - The basic principles, from a non-lawyer perspective (i.e. do not quote me in court unless you are attempting a defense of "not guilty by reason of mental defect or insanity"): Copyright law is *psychotic.* -
- das_dingsi: Heads-up: You don't get to respect only the "good" trans people and still call yourself an ally. - When a person asks you to use a certain pronoun for them, you use it. When they say they are trans, you act accordingly and don't question their identity. The self-identity of the trans person overrides everything else. If you don't respect that, you propagate transphobia. -
18 December 2009 @ 11:21 pm
Friday, December 18,2009
- noracharles: International fandom, again. - When you are in a discussion about tensions between cultures and prejudices against certain nationalities, and how Westerners (hint: especially Canadians and U.S. Americans) are generally ignorant, dismissive and fearful of people from certain countries, don't reframe the discussion to be about your own nation and culture, erasing and dismissing the actual people from actual different countries than your own whom you are currently talking to. -
- branchandroot: untitled - Were 6A ever called capitalist pigs? Multiple times in every heated post? Were they referred to at every turn as Americans or San Franciscans as though that somehow explained why they were bad? -
- bell: one discussion leads to another - However, the main reason I wanted to make this exchange public was to ask anyone reading my journals, on DW or on LJ, to not stereotype Russians in a similar way in comments to my posts. I feel it is phobic language in its own right, and just as I am trying to do away with ableist, racist, homophobic, and cis-privileged language, I would like to do with terminology and references that does not respect the complexity of a given culture and nation. -
- cupidsbow: diigo vs delicious, and how to set up diigo - There are several reasons I have accounts on two social bookmarking sites. Mostly, I began by wanting a back-up site for my recs on delicious; but having now compared the functionality of diigo and delicious, diigo is the clear winner in nearly all respects. -
- facetofcathy: Historical AUs and race--my thoughts and questions and no real answers. - We seem to have some kind of unspoken fandom consensus on this with respect to women in historical AUs, where they get to achieve a level of awesome about equivalent to a Jane Austen heroine, but are never quite too unbelievably modern, but I can't really find the conversation about race in historical AUs. -
- amber: come and play in my sandbox. - This isn't a Beginner's Guide to Dreamwidth, nor is it a comprehensive list of all the cool stuff the site has to offer. It's intended to be useful for people who want to RP here, and assumes prior experience in using a similar website to do so. -
- noracharles: Call for contributor guidelines to metafandom, and for more dw meta - How would you as a reader like to be made aware of interesting meta posted to dreamwidth, including the sort not accepted by metafandom? -
- 51stcenturyfox: Let's talk about sex, baby - Sex means something, even PWP sex. -
- marina: untitled - Now, we all know (well, maybe you don't) that ever since LJ was bought up by a Russian company the wank in English speaking fandom over THE KREMLIN TAKING OVER has been utterly insane. I remember when it first happened, I remember the initial panic (yes, panic) and how many people talked about feeling like LJ was on the verge of being purged of all that was "non conforming", everything that was "problematic" content. -
17 December 2009 @ 07:25 pm
Thursday, December 17, 2009
If you are interested in becoming a link compiler, please send an e-mail to metafandom at gmail dot com.
- ladyoneill: sometimes it's like I'm thirty two all over again - So, please write what you want the way you want it! Don't change your stories because someone doesn't like it. Use constructive criticism if you must, but don't let it outweigh your own desires. -
- kaigou | contemplating the leap: fanfiction and original fiction - The reviewer goes on to suggest that fanfiction works on a basis of potential plausibility, that is, giving the reader a situation or behavior not seen in canon that, when argued/presented by a skillful fanfic writer, become plausible (believable) extrapolations of the original character. But this also means paying more attention to the character's actions, mindsets, mannerisms, whatever, both to reinforce the character's shared story-origins -- eg speaking patterns, or facial expressions -- and then to overlay the subtle changes introduced by the fanfic's author. -
- synecdochic: wow. just .... wow. - Gender will be a mandatory field at account creation...LiveJournal is removing the Unspecified option for the gender field. That's right: you get to be male or female. Period. That's it. -
- skuf: Where's all the meta? - What do you think has influenced the seeming decline in general fandom meta as indicated by the fewer links in metafandom issues as compared to a couple of years ago -
- flourish: Fans, cultists, and enthusiasts - But it does help me see that we need greater granularity in our discussions of fandom. And yet, as was made crystal clear in my last post, it's always most appropriate to call people what they want to be called - and that's probably why I have such a knee-jerk negative reaction to the idea of being called an 'enthusiast.' I'm not a Harry Potter enthusiast, dammit! I'm a fan! -
- thete1: "I know it's racist, Te, but the special effects look awesome!" - The simple fact of the matter is that every dollar you spend on these films (and TV shows, and books, and everything else) is a dollar telling Them -- yes, Them -- that it's just fine to piss all over me and other people of color for the sake of 'entertainment.' You're part of the problem. -
- sheafrotherdon: The Stories We Tell - Yesterday I read...an AU set in the American Midwest after the War of 1812, and follows the fortunes of Sheppard, McKay, Weir, and Lorne as they travel west to lands granted to them, or bought, in northern Illinois. There they meet Teyla and the Athosian people who are, in this story, Native American.
The story modifies the real historical record in several key ways, the most troubling of which was, to me, the erasure of the region's actual Native communities from the narrative....
The author has, however, given me permission to post my thoughts here, and to reference our email conversation, in the hopes of promoting a larger discussion about historical AUs and the challenges and responsibilities inherent in writing about diverse cultures.
13 December 2009 @ 08:47 pm
Sunday, December 13, 2009
08 December 2009 @ 01:53 pm
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
07 December 2009 @ 11:24 pm
Monday, November 7, 2009
- niqaeli: how (not) to write smut that doesn't leave me dashing for IM to torment my friends with - Describing just the physical actions is... well. Yeah. It's mechanical. Mechanical isn't generally sexy. And when you focus solely on describing the action, it is really, really easy to end up at terrible and unfortunate places. If you make a point of focusing on the people and their motivations and headspace(s), even if you stumble, it is probably going to be a lot, lot better. -
- verasteine: Thoughts: With a Side Order of Straight, Please (1.4, 2.1 & 3.5) - Here's another thing, though, and what the two above have talked about: it doesn't, at all, allow room for the myriad of female authors who copy the heteronormative power dynamic onto the template of (read) homosexual desire. -
06 December 2009 @ 08:47 pm
Sunday, December 6, 2009
- ratcreature: sort of a kink poll… - - I've been reading a slash story in which a heated argument between the couple [...] results in punch being thrown, and then the one punched actually finds the aggression a turn on and it goes on to sex. Somehow this combination of sex and violence doesn't work for me at all, not even in fiction, where I'm not averse to combinations of sex and violence. -
28 November 2009 @ 02:23 am
Friday, November 27, 2009
- recessional: Plagues in your Postapocalypse: - Disease is a huge part of any landscape except maybe our own. Disease in a landscape that used to look like our own should be even more shocking. -
- thelana: The Genius Wranglers: A Rant - Personally, I think the appeal of those relationships has very little to do with people yearning for an old fashioned woman supporting superior (genius!) man dynamic or people getting stuck on some Oedipal trope. I think it comes more from the side effects of the trope. The typical Wrangler personality, especially of this chiding mother sorts means that they are being cast with motivations other than just looking for hotness. -
24 November 2009 @ 12:53 am
Monday, November 23, 2009
- irana: On BDSM, Part II - Today we're going to look at some other terms - negotiation, limits, contracts - break those down, and hopefully provide those reading with a better understanding of what those terms mean. -
- irana: On BDSM, Part I - Consent is a vital element in all psychological play, and consent can be granted in many ways. -
- the_minx_17: Hi! My name is Minxie...¦ - [...] if a piece of fiction disregards the basic principles of safe, sane, and consensual they really are more trouble than they're worth. -
20 November 2009 @ 11:07 pm
Friday, November 20, 2009
19 November 2009 @ 01:15 am
Wednesday, November 19, 2009
- trobadora: All-Human AUs? - Someone explain this trope to me. You have characters who aren't human: aliens, vampires, demons, angels, gods. What they are is an important part of their character, and writing them as ordinary humans takes away something essential to that character, and I just don't get it. Why is this so popular? -
- just_katarin: But Katarin, you just posted! - I distinctly remember, when Heroes fandom started talking about the problematic aspects of the show, the racism, the sexism, how uneven storylines and deaths were, all of it, we all maintained it was unintentional....We thought they meant well but now I see that that was a lie. That was... they never intended good things for the People of Color on Heroes or the Women on Heroes. -
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hradzka: Donny Osmond RPF. By pros. - Mike Sterling has an interesting post that touches on on for-pay RPF from the 1970s. He points out that teen magazines included fictional stories about celebrities, mysteries and adventures and romances and -- yes, *exactly,* it was totally RPF. -
- melannen: Statistics! - But when I was going through all the Dear Writer posts being linked in the yuletide community over at lj, I kept noticing that there were actually quite a *lot* of people who were linking their letters from their DW accounts instead of their LJs, and I was wondering if there really were a lot, or if it was an illusion based around what I wanted, and was expecting, to see. And then it occurred to me that this might actually be a pretty good metric of how fandom actually *is* moving: yuletide participation is probably as close as we can get to a real cross-section of people who are active in the sort of fandom that is on journal sites, and it seems like the site people link in their letters would be the site they consider their primary home, regardless of whether they crosspost and how. -
17 November 2009 @ 03:27 am
Monday, November 16, 2009
14 November 2009 @ 07:40 pm
Saturday, November 14, 2009
08 November 2009 @ 10:17 pm
Sunday, November 8, 2009
05 November 2009 @ 12:19 pm
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
31 October 2009 @ 06:07 pm
Saturday, October 31, 2009
26 October 2009 @ 09:05 pm
Monday, October 26, 2009
- zahrawithaz: The White Mists of Avalon: Thoughts on Morgana's Race - And lot of the dynamics that play out around Morgana, both in the show and in fandom, are not only gendered but also racial. Whiteness is a presence, not an absence or a neutral zone, and the show often contrasts Morgana and Gwen in racial terms. -
- littlehollyleaf: Opinions on fanfic/fandom - I mean, I care if a piece of writing doesn't read well and if it has GLARING errors, but for fanfic it's the IDEAS that matter most to me and there is almost nothing I won't forgive. -
- the_willow: Twilight & Other Creepy Thoughts - It's startlingly to me to contemplate that Edward / Bella is the romantic story of the century [...] because the heroine is aware of, and is allowed to feel her own desire and have her own sexual wants outside of the social act of the new female/feminine performance of pretty and the hero gives a damn about it. -
24 October 2009 @ 12:11 am
Friday, October 23, 2009
- facetofcathy: Out of Patience - Fanfic is not all sexually explicit, it's not all shippy, but shit tonnes of it are. Those kinds of fics are about taking our source characters and fully exploring the totality of their humanity in all its possibilities. Sex is human, nothing else, and it's not naughty, or dirty, or wrong, or icky or nasty or any other fucking schoolyard word. -
18 October 2009 @ 07:49 am
Saturday, October 17, 2009
- xparrot: On character hate, villains, and literary tropes - A basher who casts a female character as the evil obstacle in a slash pairing isn't necessarily doing it because they want to make people hate the character, or even because that's actually how they view the character; it's because it's how they want to view the character, what is the most emotionally satisfying way to see them, properly fulfilling their role as villainness. -
- accioslash: Poll... - I was talking with several different people about recs and have noticed that there seems to be a change in the way people rec these days. -
- twistedchick: thoughts on a common language - I think that as writers we need to be aware of the jargons we're using, when we're using them, and whether they're appropriate to the character and the situation. And it wouldn't be a bad idea if, as participants in an online community, we could be a little more aware that not everyone is working with the same jargon within a given discussion, or the same connotations of words, or the same background in understanding a topic. -
- puella_nerdii: Saying Yes: I Want Your Opinions! - I want more stories and art where being the submissive partner during sex is FUN and not demeaning. I want more stories and art where characters shout "Yes!" instead of "No!" I want more stories and art where characters get up to all kinds of kinky crazy fun, and are never made to feel shamed for their desires. -
