A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness

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Vid
Title: A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness
Creator: Clucking Belles (Sandy Herrold and Rachael Sabotini)
Date: August 2005
Format:
Length: 4:29 minutes
Music: 'Hot Hot Hot' by Buster Poindexter
Genre:
Fandom: Multifandom
Footage: Various
URL: Internet Archive
BAM Video Vault (offline)
screen capture of the vid (using a clip from Queer As Folk (UK))

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A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness (also known as Hot! Hot! Hot!) is a multifandom metavid by the vidding group Clucking Belles (Sandy Herrold and Rachael Sabotini). It premiered at Vividcon 2005 during the Club Vivid show, and has often been featured in vid shows since.

The vid is a compilation of clips from various different films and television shows, set to the song 'Hot Hot Hot' by Buster Poindexter (David Johansen). It was made to display the fannish sexual appeal of different visual tropes in media, such as smoking, undressing, nudity, crossdressing, and bondage, among many other tropes.

The vid has been the subject of analysis by both fans and academics, often in the context of the female gaze. In June 2013, the vid was selected to be part of the vidding segment in the Museum of the Moving Image exhibition "Cut Up" which celebrated "the practice of re-editing popular media to create new work."[1] Other fannish works included in this exhibition were Both Sides Now, Temper of Revenge, Caren Parnes, Data's Dream, I Put You There, and Vogue.

Professional discussion

in addition to women as filmmakers, this is privileging a distinctly female way of seeing. What the Media Cannibals made "A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness" do, and what you're really wanting to do when you watch this vid: they are showing you how the desiring female fan watches television. And one of the things that they're doing is constructing patterns. It's essentially showing the tropes that the female fan community has fetishized and found sexy -- which is not how women are supposed to watch television.[2]

The last thing I wanted to emphasize about this is that it takes some history to get to this vid, because it's the work in community building that has come before it in other vids, and also in other aspects of fandom and fan fiction, that have created this taxonomy that's recognizable to people that they can then catalogue. In multifandom vids that use so many sources I'm always also tempted to read them as allegories for fans themselves. I think part of what it's saying in creating this largely joyous collection (there's a lot of dancing in this vid) is: "look how much fun we're having -- we're really hot!" [2] (August 22, 2008)

  • Francesca Coppa, "A Fannish Taxonomy Of Hotness." Cinema Journal (v. 48, no. 4, Summer 2009, pp. 107–113)
This vid invites its female spectator to a veritable orgy of scopophilia and stages, as its playfully scientific name suggests sufficient emotional and visual distance to qualify as fetishistic. "A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness" not only tells us about how some women watch television, but it also creates new conditions of possibility that recall other moments of successful female erotic spectatorship. Vid- ding, as an art form made through editing, also complicates the familiar symbolic characterization of women sewing and men cutting. Vidding women cut, slicing visual texts into pieces before putting them together again, fetishizing not only body parts and visual tropes, but the frame, the filmic moment, that they pull out of otherwise coherent wholes.[3]

Fannish Reactions/Reviews

The vid has over 12,000 views on the Internet Archive. Its reception on BAM video vault is unknown, because the link has since gone defunct.

Unknown date

"It's brilliant and excellently put together and always puts me in a squeeful mood :o)"[4]

"A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness aka hothothot by Clucking Belles. FUNNY and HOT, this is the most excellent multifandom vid EVER! More fandoms than you can shake a stick at, and all those metaphor- and metonymy-linked sequences BLOW ME AWAY. And make me squee with happy. If you watch just one of these vids, make it this one: I promise this will make your moment every time you watch :o) Favorite bits: Sword sequence! Hat-salute sequence! Jumping/swinging sequence! Who the hell is the HOT blonde winking at 02:55?! [ETA: Peta Wilson!] Bathtub sequence! Torture sequence! Red-K!Clark/"Hot!" at 3:41! Putting-on-sunglasses sequence! Ending: posse!walk sequence! So Damn Hot by Clucking Belles (Clark/Lex) Oh, yes, fantastic energy and fast editing! And, mmm, hot boys! Great vid. Favorite bits: First "You don't love me at all" and Clark smiling and nodding in response, phooar. Every clip of Clark/TW knowing he is so damn hot. Lex lip-synching "I coulda swore" and Clark "for sure", and a little later Clark "but, you're"! All the fast-cut sequences"[5]

2007

"Look! Shanghai Noon! And look! Methos shoving Duncan against the car is still one of the hottest things I have seen in my life - Peter Wingfield is so very, very pretty. And then - fencing and naked men and people in mental institutions and long black trenchcoats...! This vid reminds me of everything I love about fandom - and it's a lot to love! ♥"[6]

2008

"The vids I found most accessible at the DIY conference were videos like A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness, where you don’t have to be familiar with a particular show to understand them but you have to be familiar with TV and the clichés of the medium.[7]

"*glee* I first saw this when it premiered during Club Vivid at Vividcon 2005, when it won over the entire room, in spades. The title sums up the entire vid -- this really is a fannish taxonomy of hotness, organized by theme, with each them leading seamlessly into the next (which is just so brilliantly done I can't even tell you). It has girls, and boys, and girls and boys, and girls and girls, and boys and boys. Some of the "hot" themes are what you'd expect -- shirtlessnes, nakedness, kissing, dancing -- and some will make you go "hee! yes!" because man, do we find more hot than just nakedness. It's just wonderful -- fun and happy and sexy and managing to be a big meta statement about all of us at the same time. *loves*"[8]

2009

"This is a taxonomy of FANNISH kinks, but that includes plenty of kink-kinks as well. There's a whole section on whipping! And chains! And torture! Playfully takes those scenes out of their original context and makes an "ooooooh!" face at them."[9]

2011

"I'd like to watch this one another thousand times. It has SO MUCH HOT, and it makes me want to dance around. I was very surprised to see the immortal EJO swimsuit scene there in the middle. They managed to cram in just about everybody."[10]

"Even though this vid is about so much more than just dancing, I always remember it as a dancing vid. It's certainly very dynamic."[11]

References

  1. ^ Cut Up Exhibition (June 29-October 14, 2013)
  2. ^ a b "Partial transcript of the Media Fetish: The Vidshow!". Archived from the original on 2012-12-25. (August 22, 2008)
  3. ^ "A Fannish Taxonomy Of Hotness." Cinema Journal (v. 48, no. 4, Summer 2009, pp. 107–113)
  4. ^ "mecurtin: So, Your favorite *multi-fandom* vid". Retrieved 2009-02-19.
  5. ^ "Skuf's Vid Recs". Archived from the original on 2008-10-07.
  6. ^ "And more vid recs!". Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2007-10-18. (October 18, 2007)
  7. ^ "Remixing Television: Francesca Coppa on the vidding underground". Archived from the original on 2019-03-23. (August/September 2008)
  8. ^ "Arduinna's Vid Recs". Archived from the original on 2013-12-21. (September 5, 2008)
  9. ^ "Kinky Vids I Have Known". Archived from the original on 2010-01-26. (December 13, 2009)
  10. ^ "VVC Review - Remembering Sandy". Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2011-09-02. (September 2, 2011)
  11. ^ "Dancing Vids". Archived from the original on 2011-11-25. Retrieved 2011-06-28. [1] [2] (June 28, 2011)