Talk:White Knight (glossary term)

I don't think this is fannish--the current usage seems to be general Internet culture/activist culture. It's mentioned on geekfeminism, tv tropes, and knowyourmeme. Know Your Meme says it's from Something Awful in 2007.--aethel (talk) 23:40, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

Agreed. This is not a fannish term. --Doro (talk) 13:57, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

On the other hand, I've only really met the term in fannish contexts. Not everyone is equally familiar with Internet/activist jargon; and there was a time—not that long ago—when I would have found a definition useful. Rephrase, perhaps, to make clear where it comes from? --Greer Watson (talk) 14:18, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

In fandom, it is sometimes taken out of the activist/social justice context and brought into the inter-personal (as in "She wrote a story that was not betaed or spellchecked and received a snarky review. her white knight friends showed up and started a flamewar"). So I'd document its roots and then show the many ways that fandom uses it."MeeDee (talk) 14:37, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

also, the fandom use in SH fanon predates most social justice activism. It has more of a "he was my white knight and prince and came to rescue meeee" connotation. I'll dig through some zines and see what I can find.MeeDee (talk) 14:41, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

That seems more positive than the usage that I've seen in fandom, where "whiteknighting" tends to be used as criticism of the activity—i.e., more along the lines of "unreasonably defending someone who doesn't deserve it." --Greer Watson (talk) 14:15, 16 April 2016 (UTC)