Giving Back, Fandom-Style
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| Title: | Giving Back, Fandom-Style |
| Creator: | Merlin Missy |
| Date(s): | October 4, 2007 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Giving Back, Fandom-Style page 1; page 2 |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Giving Back, Fandom-Style is a 2007 essay by Merlin Missy.
Series
This essay is part of a series called Dr. Merlin's Soapbox.
Some Topics Discussed
- "When fandom gives, everyone wins."
- some people outside of fandom have the attitude that fans are fixated on minutia, are useless, and need to get a life
- fans have busy lives and have variety of interests
- fans have "an endless capacity for giving"
- fan networks mean they can spread information quickly and broadly
- fans do things out of love and generosity
- "fannish whip-rounds" - fans raising funds for other fans who are in distress
- some successful "whip-rounds", some that were terrible
- CharityWank and Xmas Gift for Cassie, Josh & Ruby by heidi8 (December 5, 2004) [1]
- information about Stuffy Guard Project (Stargate SG-1)
- Fandom Rocks (Supernatural)
- convention charities, example JemCon (an annual celebration of the Jem and the Holograms animated series and line of fashion dolls from Hasbro)
- blood drives at various conventions
- Wonder Woman Day, Can't Stop the Serenity
- Sweet Charity (fannish auction)
- a link to Fanfic 101
- Sekh's Party (Stargate SG-1 charity community)
- Forever Knight fan charity giving
- Fandom Challenges for Charity's Journal
From the Essay
It's a natural fit, logically-speaking. Fandom is an entirely volunteer-driven concept. Fanfiction, fanart, fanvids, websites, metatextual discussions and costuming (just to name a few pastimes) are labors of love, performed for the joy of the thing and the people who celebrate them with us. True, people make the jump from fan to professional; there's not a fanfic writer out there who wouldn't love to be Peter David or Naomi Novik, if just for a day. For every book published of professional critiques on Joss Whedon's work, there are at least two hundred fans sitting back from their keyboards shouting, "You missed the crustacean imagery, you moron!" and posting their own essays simply because they want to say something.
Fannish whip-rounds can have fallout, of course. In late 2004, Harry Potter BNF Cassandra Claire had her apartment broken into and her laptop stolen, some of her friends arranged a whip-round to replace it, as well as the stolen laptops of her roommates. Some fans protested the whip-round as capitalizing on Claire's popularity, but plenty of fans disagreed and together they raised over $2,000. Unfortunately, when the same friends were approached to publicize another fundraising drive for a cancer patient named Christina Hall, a misunderstanding led them to decline, and flamewars began regarding how it was "okay" to ask for money for a BNF's laptop but not for someone with cancer. The dust eventually settled, and the repercussions included an outpouring of generosity for Hall and her family from fans, but resentment over the incident still pops up in fannish circles such as Fandom Wank.
Among the items stolen in the original break-in at Claire's apartment included toys intended for donation to the children's ward at a local hospital where her roommate worked. After the laptops were replaced, the rest of the donated money was used to buy toys for the hospital
So the next time your pet mundane is laughing at your online habits and telling you to get a life, feel free to tell him or her that you and your fandom friends gave your time and energy to raise money for people in need, and that you had a great time doing it. If they're still laughing, hit 'em with the rubber crutch.
Fan Comments
[Ivy]: you didnt mention Jericho fans, who not only sent over 40,000 lbs (costing over $50,000) of nuts to get their show put back on the air (and succeeded) which in turn were donated to food kitchens, local zoos and sent to the troops in iraq, but they also raised over $20,000 for the small town of greensburg who suffered almost complete destruction after tornadoes ripped through their kansas town.
[Emmett]:That was a wonderful article. I loved the intro - we are people and we do have lives! How many times we've all had to deal with that reaction... it's impossible to quantify. Thank you for emphasising the power of fandom.
References
- ^ heidi8 on LiveJournal: Xmas Gift for Cassie, Josh & Ruby, posted 05 December 2004. (Accessed 23 April 2013, friendslocked as of January 2014. At that time, there were 186 comments.)