The Nature of Fandom
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Nature of Fandom |
| Creator: | Hathor |
| Date(s): | November 2002 or earlier |
| Medium: | Webpage |
| Fandom: | Panfandom |
| Topic: | Fandom in general |
| External Links: | Wayback archive |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Nature of Fandom is an essay by Hathor, which she posted on her site Hathor's Empire.
Excerpt
In a fandom, certain hierarchies begin to form quickly. These aren’t hierarchies of people, as such, but levels of favouritism- favourite ship, favourite slash, favourite character, etc. For readers who are new to fandom, ship is a heterosexual relationship between two characters. (For example, “Oh, yeah, I’m a Jim/Mary shipper”). A shipper will try and spot hidden moments between the two, or try and find hidden meanings, etc. Slash is similar, except for a homosexual relationship (“Yeah, I’m a Jim/Bob slasher”). Favourite character is pretty self-explanatory. The point is, if these were the two most popular ships and slashes, they’ll pop up more and more around the fandom. The same refers to favourite characters too. Obviously, there are people who ship and slash other couples, and prefer other characters, but the main ones will pop up the most.All this is natural. As a general rule, the most popular ships tend to occur between the two main characters. Sod impartiality. Lets take Stargate SG-1. Jack is the main male of the show- his name comes up first, and heck, his company sort of runs the show. Sam is the main, and for a short time, only main female. Voila! A ship is born! It’s a similar state within slash- Daniel is the second top male star. Again, voila!
Favourite character normally depends on who is the hottie of the group. A really good example of this is Lord of the Rings. In the book, Legolas had reasonable popularity. Then they cast the gorgeous Orlando Bloom to play Legolas, and voila! Legolas IS the fandom! (please note: I liked Leggy since day one when I first read the books). Obviously, I speak of the straight female contingent. Guys, wanna get back to me on this?
Most fandoms are quite peaceful lands. Obviously, there’s sniping and so on, but nothing major. People are supportive of each others works, and offer a hand, and run websites at no cost to the fans, and this is good. However, a fandom can get very ugly very quickly. This can normally happen if an unpopular character is introduced, or a popular character is written out. Again, stuff impartiality. A good example of this is the recent kafuffle over the death of popular character Daniel Jackson. Rumours began to fly over him being fired, or deeper reasons behind his leaving. Daniel fans started to get nasty to Jack fans. Jack fans would argue back. The major slash group was suddenly written out of the equation. A fandom is a dangerous place. It may all seem nice, and for the most part, fandoms are relatively harmless, a good way for fans to show devotion and appreciation of a show/film/book/whatever.. But if it turns the wrong way, a fandom can turn very ugly very quickly.
But no not fear! It’s not all doom and gloom. What attracts people to fandom anyway? Most fandoms contain people of every gender, nationality, race group, sexuality and age, so it’s nothing specific there. What unites these people is the love of the show/film/book/whatever in question.