Quick meta rec

[magnetic_pole]

There's an interesting discussion going on right now at happydork's journal, Why am I not writing the stories I say I want to read? I know, I know, we've discussed this a hundred times already: why does fandom decry the lack of women and characters of color in our fic* and then turn around and focus on the attractive young white men? But this is a thoughtful post, with some very interesting comments, particularly on the ways in which fandom reinforces the perception of white men as our common denominator. (Note to self: my own thoughts are here.) Thanks, Sophie, for pointing me in the direction of this discussion!

* I was about to type "fic and art and vids," but then it occurs to me--thinking purely anecdotally--that art might be less skewed toward the white dudes than fic or vids. Or not? Something to think about.

Comments

[glass_icarus]

Thanks for the link!

I am staying out of the discussion because I'm... already past the point of not writing (less-represented subsets of) the stories I want to read. I do have sympathy for people in that position (it wasn't that long ago when I was only writing white male slash pairings and couldn't get out of the mainstream-dominated headspace, and those pairings are still the vast majority of Things I Have Written Ever), but right now I'm in a place/have made a space where I can have just about everything I want, including the discussions. For me it's just a matter of prioritizing my output, and while I don't think I have any useful advice as to how to get here, I will say that it is an awesome place to be.

[magnetic_pole]

I've watched you get to that place, Y, and I'm impressed. I tend not to be multi-fannish, so I'm mostly left wishing HP were a bit more progressive than it is, but perhaps things will change over time. (I'm excited about the year-end exchange focused on the Hogwarts professors; that's a step in the right direction on some issues.) And I did love Avatar, which has got a lot of the same wonderful elements that drew me to HP--I can always experiment with that. M.

[glass_icarus]

Oh, multifannishness definitely lends itself to different avenues (solutions?)! And A:TLA fandom is so ginormous that I have barely scratched the surface of it (though the DW contingent I'm currently nesting in is quite amazeface), so you may want to spend some time exploring that.

But, moving back to the topic at hand, I do think that a large part of it, for me, was literally building the community/circle in which I could take these paths and learn and read and experiment, and a lot of that wasn't fandom-specific at all (those 'fails and rages were good for some things, heh!). I don't think I've ever written for fandom-at-large, but now instead of writing solely for me, I have a specific audience of friends who want to see the same kinds of stories I want to see, and that's helped me more than anything else. :)

[magnetic_pole]

a large part of it, for me, was literally building the community/circle in which I could take these paths and learn and read and experiment

Indeed! And that's one of the reasons I'm so glad you have you here. *smooch* M.