more on outing, fandoms of no-fic

[burntcopper]

so, after yesterdays query, it appears that the benighted colonialists are still living in a state of repression in media.

Found an interesting article on out.com on why so many actors/media figures are still in the closet - different perspective from the usual rant on mid-west america. It may, it turns out, be to do with paranoia on behalf of the agent/people surrounding them (like in most cases where actor gets reputation for diva/demanding weird things) rather than how people would actually react (also see complete underestimation by the networks of the intelligence of their audience). Shattered Glass Reminds me of when Michael Barrymore came out, tabloids made a big deal of it, and the best response was a letter from an old lady going 'So? He's gay, what's the fuss for?' - people simply didn't care. See them shut up rather shamefacedly. See the majority response to gay marriage was people nodding with approval because it *normalised* them. Only the media or people trying to be politically correct refer to it as 'civil partnership' or write it as "marriage" in articles (note the quote marks) - everyone else just refers to it as marriage.

:sigh: need to moisturise legs. attack of the cracked skin. automatically moisturise my arms every morning, but forget the legs due to not seeing them every two seconds like I do with arms and hands.

Hmm. You know those fandoms you love but feel absolutely no need for fic? (not including the stuff where you used to read the fic avidly but got burnt out because it was so repetitive, or old fandoms) Maybe you've read a couple, or read the occasional rec/crossover and they were good, but that's it, because canon and discussion satisfy you. You feel no need to search it out, and never have a hankering for it. Provide me with some - I'm curious and want to create a poll to get a bigger picture of this kind of thing.

I'll go first - the ones off the top of my head are BSG, Firefly, Dr Who (not Torchwood) Farscape. I collect pretty like a bloody magpie (icons, wallpapers, vids), I go to conventions for them, but fic I'm just not interested in reading for the most part.

Comments

[alyse]

You know those fandoms you love but feel absolutely no need for fic?

Yes. I have a lot of them, where I devour the source but feel no need to look to fandom for anything else. Currently, this includes, but is not limited to:

Bones
Babylon 5
Chuck
Dexter
Doctor Who
Firefly
Psych
Torchwood
Ugly Betty

Then there are the shows where I have occasionally sought out fiction, but have never, ever felt the need to write, like Supernatural or The X Files. Where I might join mailing lists or watch communities.

I came up, years ago, with my own little hierarchy of fannish needs. It ran like this:

- the show gives me everything I need or it holds the possibility of giving me everything I need. Not that it's perfect, but that it satisfies (or offers to satisfy) the things I crave. So I don't look to fandom. Classic examples would be the first shows I listed above.

- the show doesn't give it everything I need. Maybe it's a show that has been cancelled or maybe I'm interested in a pairing that's never going to be explored, like a rare pairing or slash, or maybe there are themes it picks up and drops, resulting in the need for post ep tags and the like. Or maybe, like Primeval, it gives me the stuff I love but it's a show with only a few eps a season and seasons are only once a year or it's just not giving me it fast enough, damn it! Then I turn to fandom.

- the show and the fandom aren't giving me what I need. Maybe there's no fic exploring what I want explored, or maybe there is fic but it's not to my taste, there isn't enough of it, the characters aren't presented in line with my view of them or it's basically badly written, full of punctuation errors and implausible plots or character bashing.

That's when I write.

Of course, this does explain why so much of my fic writing output is in small pairings, rare fandoms or takes place early on in the fandom's growth, when there isn't a lot else to read or what there is doesn't fulfil what I need. This is why I started writing Jack/Daniel in SG-1, for example. The fandom had been around a couple of years at that point, but it hadn't taken off and so much of the slash that was out there was just bad, like mpreg, woobie weepy Daniel bad.

And then the fandom grew and there was more to read and, more importantly, there was more good stuff to read, so I didn't feel as great a pressure to write Jack/Daniel as I did, say, to write Sam/Rodney.

Basically, I'm lazy and will only get off my arse to write something if I can't get it any other way ::g::

[pentapus.livejournal.com]

Totally off topic, but I had to show your icon to the few Coupling fans I knew due to its brilliance. :)

[dhaunea.livejournal.com]

Apropos of nothing, as I was linked to your icon by someone on your flist - this is merely drive-by icon appreciation.

I laughed very, very hard.

[andromakie.livejournal.com]

I've heard actresses say that their agents talked them out of coming out publically becasue no one would believe them as a romantic lead after that. But there are actors who constantly play male romantic leads, and everyone knows they're gay, but they still manage to portray straight. It's called acting. The fact that some have been hiding in the closet for so many years is proof that they can play straight convincingly, but no. i guess we wait another generation.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

We give thanks to octoberine

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

octoberine is evil and awesome. There may have been a giggle loop icon too in that post, but sadly, nothing about cushions.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Funny, no-one asks married actors if they have problems playing a lothario. or psycho killers whilst being one of the most mild-mannered people you'll meet.

[andromakie.livejournal.com]

No, but it's not the same *sigh*

[mrmrsmith.livejournal.com]

hm...I'm concerned about this interest in the closet...you planning on coming out any time soon?

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

I was ever in?