Quick quick now!

[red_satin_doll]

1) The deadline is tomorrow, Friday the 20th at midnight for  both otherworldlyric challenge #166 , "Easy Way Out" by Gotye, and slayerstillness challenge 20 "Love Song for a Vampire. More entries are needed - and I'm sitting both of these out, so don't look at me. I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the pretties this time around.

And just in case you're easily confusable - a.k.a. "moi" - OWL is the multifandom icontest where you have to use at least two consecutive words from the lyrics of the challenge song. SS is strictly Buffyverse (btvs/ats) and icons can have text or not.  Also, SS is the one that opens the entry and voting threads after the winners have been announced. Which can be fun...or kinda awkward, depending. I actually kind of like it, but wait until an icon I'm sure is gonna win loses big time. Then we'll see what pennywhistle I'm tooting with.)

2) A little bird in fandom (thank you little bird!) informed me that my blog has been rec'd by "snowdropsandtigers" on tumblr.

"On a relevant—yet off-topic—note, it occurs to me that I want to recommend a blogger to follow, in case that might help and you don’t know of her. She’s on LJ and she’s very much a Buffy fan first and Spuffy shipper second, and gives love to the other characters too: http://red-satin-doll.livejournal.com/  I’m kind of terrible and lurk much more than talk, but I’ve been reading her meta—and the meta she links to—for a while and find it all really lovely."

And I'm just - what do I say except THANK YOU? I don't know who they - who you - are, but I'm really incredibly flattered by your kind words.  I would love to thank snowdropsandtigers (what a wonderful, evocative penname!) but I haven't a tumblr account so - THANK YOU SO MUCH, whoever you are.

And also, what they said about shipping is extremely relevant to my own thoughts of late:

"I’ve experienced that. Unfortunately, I’ve also experienced other fandoms being pretty much the same. The ones I’ve gotten into after getting into Buffy in 2005 do the same things frequently (ship wars; whitewashing characters, usually dudes; distorting characterization/valuing characters mainly for ships, especially with female characters; drama between the fans themselves.).....It burns one out."

That's pretty much the nutmeat of a meta I've been wanting to write on the subject so all I can say at the moment is - ME TOO. Or, WORD. (Is that even a "thing" anymore, that use of "word"? I don't know. You tell me.)

Comments

[kwritten.livejournal.com]

if we say shipper wars dismiss female characters, are we dismissing fans who identify with the males involved?
When those people participate in female character-bashing, slut shaming, and misogynist dialogue? Yes. I am okay with it.

The problem with the shipper-dialogue is that it is NOT female-character centric or even polite to females. Especially the shipper wars.

If you want to be a fan of Spike and debate with an Angel fan. Be my guest. (even though I think that discussion is pretty fucking pointless)

Don't drag Buffy through the mud and call it loving her.

(This is not directed towards you personally, Lex I LOVE YOU, but rather the shipper mentality as it has stood for some time now.)

if this is latent misogyny, that they identify with the male characters because society values male characters over female characters
I'd say probably a great deal of this. And also misogyny in the media industry, which gives us more varied male characters to id with.

But I mean... I only put up with this comment on media representations of females for so long. There ARE brilliant females in media culture that are not loved to the frenzied extent that male characters are. I think it's time to stop crying about how there "aren't any female characters!" and start acknowledging that we aren't caring about the ones that we have.

It took one week for there to be a Crane/Headless Horseman fic to pop up on ao3 - EVEN THO CRANE SHARES MORE SCREEN TIME WITH ABBIE. (cause fuck a woc - we only care about men)

Allison Argent just got fridged this week. I canNOT handle another conversation about how there "aren't" female characters to love. There are. There are many. Just because the PTB doesn't love them and gives them shitty storylines - doesn't mean that we should make them secondary in our "poaching" culture.

If fandom was really a culture where we 'poached' from the text and interrogated it and made it better and more thought-provoking, shouldn't the f/f fans at least match the m/m fans? OR HELL SHOULDN'T THE F/M FIC MATCH THE NUMBERS OF THE M/M? it doesn't.



Considering the vile hatred that I've seen coming from shippers of late - I'm not about to pat the community on the back and say "oh yes, you have every right to yell at people" because they don't. Shipper wars create a negative atmosphere in fandom and defending that behavior isn't going to change it or make it better.

Does it really matter at the end of the day whether you are a Bangel or a Spuffy? I have delightful friends in both camps, and while I don't always understand the Bangel siren call - I still love my friends.

And quite frankly, Spuffy isn't the end all be all ship. It's toxic and has heaps of problems.

I'd rather have a situation where shippers are able to understand and interrogate how their ships aren't perfect than hold their ship to their chest and scream at people who don't believe it is perfect sun-shiny.

They aren't.

There's no perfect relationship.

Not in the media, not in real life.

There are problems that need to be addressed at every level of media consumption and identity formation.

And a dialogue that refuses to acknowledge this or even contemplate questioning it - because HOW DARE YOU DISLIKE WHAT I LOVE - is toxic.

Disliking Spuffy or Spike doesn't mean that someone dislikes you. And probably if the conversation was more congenial, the opposing camps would be able to see that they have more in common with each other than they think.