Some very well-meaning and good-hearted people have made a mistake.
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Some very well-meaning and good-hearted people have made a mistake. |
| Creator: | lanning |
| Date(s): | November 5, 2002 |
| Medium: | online journal post |
| Fandom: | Smallville |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | page one, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Some very well-meaning and good-hearted people have made a mistake. is a 2002 meta essay by lanning.
Some Topics Discussed
- slash fanworks and fandom
- Smallville
- fandom and visibility
- violating the fourth wall
- "You don't really think that Mrs. Consumer in Bugfuck, Mississippi wants to watch a show about a couple of "fags," do you? This is what I'm talking about. If Smallville starts being perceived that way by the general public, it will become a liability for the WB, rather than an asset. And this could have very unfortunate consequences for SV fandom."
The Essay
Some very well-meaning and good-hearted people have made a mistake. That mistake is to assume that because the producers of Smallville have jokingly referred to subtext, because an occasional writer has acknowledged the "romance," because the WB has thus far been willing to exploit fan websites for their own purposes, that fanfiction in general and slash in particular have been accepted by the industry and the culture at large.
This is a profound misconception.
I realize how terribly easy it is to fall into this trap. We all spend a great deal of our time reading and writing fanfic, and talking to others in fandom who share our passion for it. This can occasionally make us lose perspective. It can make us see through slash-colored glasses. The view through those glasses is not in accordance with reality.
Smallville fanfictionn, and especially slash, are not accepted. They are merely, for the time being, tolerated. There is a profound difference between those two attitudes. The moment the production company or the network perceives fanfiction and/or slash as a threat to its franchise, its copyrights, its image, or its bottom line -- however mistaken those perceptions may be -- they will shut it down without compunction.
These people are not our friends. They do not care about the fandom in general or the individuals within it. This is a business. Decisions will be made on that basis and that basis only. We should take that fact into consideration when making decisions about how much exposure we want our playground to have.
Fan Comments
[emrinalexander]: I've said this before, but here goes:
The slash horse has left the barn. They know. They all know. They all really know.
For like a year now they all know. There isn't a slash site around that can't be discovered by doing a simply web search. And if anybody thinks the WB lawyers don't have a lowly minion who's entire job is looking at the web, well, they do. Probably several for each series.
The forum for the add was TWoP. TWoP is not only slash tolerant, it is downright "Come on in and bring your ship with you." The official recap's well - Omar's recaps are slashier than some of the stories up at the Archive.
The SSA banner appeared as a very small banner, at the bottom of a page in the middle of, at least on my computer, a string of forum message pages in the SV forums. It would have been hard to find or notice, I just happened to be looking for it. This just isn't shouting it out in 10 foot high letters to anyone, let alone the WB. For if they are ignoring what is discussed on those TWoP recaps and forum boards (where fanfiction is discussed as well), then they are ignoring the ad.
[lanning]:
Oh, I agree with you that TPTB know, and have known for some time. That's not the issue. The issue is: at what point will TPTB decide that the level of exposure is sufficient to jeopardize their franchise? We're already pushing the slash envelope more than any other media fandom ever has. And while I understand that this is difficult to see with slash-colored glasses on -- SV slash fandom is not their target audience.
The WB's advertisers are not trying to sell cars and makeup and deodorant to slash fen. We are a tiny, tiny subset of their viewing audience. They are trying to sell this show to Mr. and Mrs. American Consumer. You don't really think that Mrs. Consumer in Bugfuck, Mississippi wants to watch a show about a couple of "fags," do you? This is what I'm talking about. If Smallville starts being perceived that way by the general public, it will become a liability for the WB, rather than an asset. And this could have very unfortunate consequences for SV fandom.
[emrinalexander]: I agree with you about the target demographic audience being straight, white, young and male.
I also know we're a tiny part of the demographic. Even I wouldn't advocate taking out a full page spread in Variety, for example. That would constitute rubbing noses in things.
I just think that the banner was placed in a fairly (for a virtual environment) unobtrusive, slasher friendly place. I read the recaps over at TWoP back when it was Might Big TV and never even glanced at the forums 'til recently. I just think the banner's duckable/ignorable for the big suits.
Anyway, I said my bit. I'm going back to working on my NanoWriMo project. Everybody has to do what is right for them, but I think least amount of dust kicked up,soonest forgotten.
[Kenzie]: The slash horse has left the barn. They know. They all know. They all really know.
You know what? No one is saying they don't know. We recognize that, in fact, they're aware of slash. That's not the point, and why it keeps being trotted out as though it were the point bedevils me.
The forum for the add was TWoP. TWoP is not only slash tolerant, it is downright "Come on in and bring your ship with you." The official recap's well - Omar's recaps are slashier than some of the stories up at the Archive.
That's nice. And since TWoP is a business, they can make their own business decisions about what they are willing to say, and do, and what risks they feel are acceptable at their website. Allowing their authors control over their own editorial content, they have no problem with. Allowing discussion of things like fannish vids -- they've shut down pretty damn fast due to the copyright issues. But a couple of things here. Editorial comments on an episode are not the same as using copyrighted characters in original fiction. And much more importantly -- it's not the reaction of TWoP that people are concerned about. Sure, the producers of TWoP are slash tolerant, as are many of its members. And many of it's members will never have heard of slash. And many of its members are indeed, television executives -- and please, don't take this moment to say "But they already know about slash!" Yes, they damn well do. And now they know that this particular fandom is advertising slash, promoting, as though it were also a business, original fiction using those copyrighted characters. And maybe they won't give a damn this time, but maybe it'll be one step closer to that line where we don't want to go. The thing that makes it impossible for them to turn that blind eye they've been turning. Because that ad is an affirmative action that's *selling* something that belongs to them. It's an ad, so please don't say that's not what's happening here. The promotion may not be to gain currency, but it does gain publicity.
The SSA banner appeared as a very small banner, at the bottom of a page in the middle of, at least on my computer, a string of forum message pages in the SV forums. It would have been hard to find or notice, I just happened to be looking for it. This just isn't shouting it out in 10 foot high letters to anyone, let alone the WB.
Actually, the ad is running at the top of every forum page. Every forum page. Smallville. West Wing. Trading Spaces. American Idol. All of them. It's going to be noticed.
[cereta]: Actually, what's frustrating me in all of this (and may prompt an entry of my own) is that it's not, actually, about slash. Or, rather, it is only about slash insofar as slash is more likely to outrage a Seventh Heaven viewer who sees the ad at the Seventh Heaven recap section into writing an indignant letter.
It's about fanfic in general. It's about copyright law requiring that copyright holders actively protect that copyright. It's about not forcing anyone to acknowledge that they know it exists. Other people may do this in the form of interviews and articles, but we don't, for crying out loud, have to help them.
[lanning]:
You're right, Lucy, it is -- and just as you say, slash is only an issue because it's so provocative. It draws attention to the issue, which is why it's such a very bad idea to slap it on the side of the Goodyear blimp and float it over the Superbowl. *g*
[musesfool]: slash is more likely to outrage a Seventh Heaven viewer who sees the ad at the Seventh Heaven recap section into writing an indignant letter.
Possibly, but the ad is only in the forums, so they'd have to be discussing the show in the Seventh Heaven forum, not just reading the recaps.
While I understand the 'danger' of non-fic reading people finding the SSA and being horrified enough to write letters, I don't see that the danger is at TWoP, which already links to the SSA and other archives in various threads on fanfic forums for many fandoms
[random star]: If they do not do this within a certain period of time, their copyright could pass into the public domain.
Actually, that's trademark, not copyright. Sort of like how people started saying "Kleenex" when they meant "tissue," and now everyone says "Kleenex" and Kleenex can't do anything about it. Actual copyright does not cease to exist if a huge company fails to squash fanfic writers at every turn. And in the case of the Star Trek/Wars C&Ds, as you said, those were for actual sounds and images from the shows/movies themselves; fanfic is a different matter. No fanfic author has ever successfully been sued for writing fanfic.
[Silverkyst]: There is practically nothing that WB can do to legally shut down fanfic websites. Even if an unlicensed slash fanfic novel were published, they probably couldn't do much. The arena of literary criticism is pretty broad, legally. The author of "The Wind Done Gone", a satire of Gone with the Wind, was dragged into court only because actual passages were used and not cited. At any rate, you can still buy it at Amazon.com. I've only ever seen a fanfic site closed down by an ISP for reasons of adult content and bandwidth issues. Actual video clips and such are blatant copyright violations and are treated as such by television networks.
Mind you, the WB and other networks could have hissy fits and give slash fandom a lot of bad press and say that we corrupt the nations youth or something equally Socratic, but as for legal recourse, I can't think of what they could sue for, unless it's publishing parts of dialogue. And that would be pretty shaky, given that most fanfic uses less than a few sentences of actual show dialogue.
Anyway. Never underestimate your allies. Gen fanfic supporters know that if anyone comes after slash, they're next. And that is a rather large community. Keep in mind that Gen fanfic actually gets *published* sometimes.
That said, I've avoided doing any independent study work on slash in my college years in order to pretty much keep it out of the limelight. Lately, I've been reconsidering if that's such a good idea. I've had quite a few Antropology professors mention they know about slash fiction, and fanfic in general. If we try to go more mainstream, we get more allies. But more enemies too.
(Oy. Spelling is good. Anthropology.)
Just to give some perspective, long fanfiction stories were appearing on the x-files official website about 6 years ago (possibly longer, but that's how long I've been into fanfic), and eventually the site turned the fan posting boards over to fox directly to regulate them (probably largely in response to lots, I mean lots, of adult postings). A veritable ton of fanfic links were also posted, and I don't think any of them were ever approached for copyright violation. Images and sound, yes, but actual fanfic, no. Something to think about.
We do have some issues in slash now that weren't as big an issue 6 years ago. Real person slash has taken off in the last few years, as has HP slash which contains a lot of underage stuff. I'm not saying this stuff is bad, or even really new, but a lot more widespread. I'm not condemning it or anything, just pointing out that I kind of winced when I first heard about it because of the bad press it could cause.