On Tim Burton, Fanfiction, and Little Sisters

Meta
Title:	On Tim Burton, Fanfiction, and Little Sisters
Creator:	Ash Parrish (a.k.a. Ash Davis)
Date(s):	September 30, 2016
Medium:	Online
Fandom:	Lord of the Rings, panfandom
Topic:	Black representation in media and fanfiction
External Links:	https://bullshit.ist/on-tim-burton-fanfiction-and-little-sisters-5ef3b61bf648 https://medium.com/the-establishment/i-write-fanfiction-for-the-people-tim-burton-says-are-not-called-for-7c1bb6d2390f
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On Tim Burton, Fanfiction, and Little Sisters is an essay by Ash Parrish posted to Bullshit.ist on September 30, 2016. The essay, which grew out of a thread she made on Twitter, was reprinted to Medium.com on October 4 of 2016 under the title "I Write Fanfiction For The People Tim Burton Says Are 'Not Called For'".

The essay was in response to Tim Burton's comments about "politically correct" casting in media.

The original essay got 30 claps and the Medium.com reprint got 68.

Excerpt

I can’t remember the occasion — birthday or Christmas — but I needed to get my sister a gift. I’m 13, I don’t have a job, but I wanted to do more than just add my name to whatever gift mom buys for her.

So I wrote her a story.

A story about a beautiful black elf (who bore a striking resemblance to a certain someone, go figure) and her dashing, arrow slinging, Oliphaunt slaying (only counts as one!) boyfriend, Legolas.

I didn’t know what fanfiction was at the time, and it would be about three years before I would discover it for myself. All I wanted to do was give my sister something that I knew would make her happy.

And it did. (I think. Story’s lost to time unfortunately.)

I turned my sister into a hero and a love interest, which were two things we just didn’t see in the kind of stuff we liked to watch together. Now remember, this is the early ’00s, black women definitely had representation (rare as it was) in TV and film, but in genre stuff like LotR, like Corpse Bride, Nightmare, Sweeney Todd, Batman, and Batman Returns?

Not so much.

And it sucks to know this “weird” guy who made these beautifully “weird” movies that spoke to my “weird” ass (because let me tell you, liking stuff like this when I was growing up got you labeled with a capital “O” not for “other” but for “oreo.” A story for another time.) thought I was too “weird” to include — uncalled for.

Well fuck that.

“Be the change you wish to see,” Gandhi said (sorta). So I wrote my change. I discovered fanfiction and wrote all the damn change. I went into the painfully white fandoms of the things I loved (Pirates of the Caribbean, Final Fantasy, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fantastic Four) and wrote black folk into every last one of them. If there were no black people, I made them. If they were tokens, I made them stars. Mary-sued the shit out of everything. It didn’t matter, you were gonna see me!

Because if white boys had dwarves and destinies, and white girls had princesses and prophecies, why couldn’t I?

And I’ve been doing it ever since.

I say all the time that writing fanfiction as an adult is what called me to write. I would (do) sit at my desk at my 9–5 and waste hours writing, so much so that I should just make the switch, make it my vocation. If the Myers and the Jameses of the world could to it, so could I.

Now I understand that yes, it is fanfiction that gave me that push, but it’s also more than that. That my calling came to me years ago, born of the simple desire to give my sister something she didn’t have.

To let her be the hero and the love interest — the smart, the pretty, the flawed, the weird, and the powerful. Because if people like me “aren’t called for” from people like Burton, then where else is she going to get that?

So I write. Once for her and now for you.