The Rec Center #22
Hello! I hope you’ve had a great week. Perhaps you’ve heard that fandom is broken? Gav and I—and many of you, most likely—have had a lot of ~feelings~ in the past few days, so we’ll share some of the fantastic reactions to the article I’m subtweeting in the final note. And if you don’t want to think about how broken fandom is (or isn’t), we’ve got plenty to distract you! Including one of my favorite fic tropes ever, Rose Granger-Weasley fanart (just FYI I watched the video for The Cursed Child photoshoot and I cried), Gillian Anderson as Jane Bond, and (mostly gen) Batman guest recs by Madison! — Elizabeth
new stuff
“Why we're terrified of fanfiction” by Constance Grady at Vox
“Fandom is the province of young women and, culturally, we find young women terrifying.”
“The ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Self-Loathing Index” by Sam Donsky at The Ringer
“The X-Men franchise has many claims to fame: the first modern superhero movie; the best modern superhero movie; Kelsey Grammer’s first audition in 20 years. But none of these compares to the series’ true calling card: How easy it is to measure who wants to be there.”
old(er) stuff
“Spock Among the Women” by Camille Bacon-Smith in The New York Times
h/t to Constance Grady’s Vox piece above for linking to this GLORIOUS piece about women’s writing and women’s fandom from thirty years ago.
tumblr and beyond
“Rose Granger-Weasley” by Jenna Bergstraesser
“Exclusive First Look at the Next Generation of Pokémon” at Deathbulge
Elizabeth is not ashamed to admit that she has read this fic trope a bazillion times.
“Steve and Peggy’s Modern Adventures” by beautifulwhensarcastic
“The Future is Female: Jane Bond 007” by SinginSoule
GILLIAN ANDERSON. JANE BOND. WATCH IMMEDIATELY.
fanfiction
Madison is a history PhD student in Seattle. Her introduction to Batman was via reruns of Batman: The Animated Series on Saturday morning cartoons back in the late nineties. She’s been doing a re-watch with her youngest brother and got sucked into the online fandom. Find her here on tumblr!
Batman, as you may already know, has a loooong history of homoeroticism that dates all the way back to 1940. That said, my own taste in batfamily fic runs toward platonic relationships and the “families of choice” trope rather than shipping and that is reflected in these recs (most of them, unless indicated, are gen). My entry point to Batman and the batfam was cartoons rather than comics, which made the whole thing a lot less intimidating because DC comics continuity is kind of a mess. — Madison
“exactly how this grace thing works” by irnan. 23K words words, rated Gen.
Let’s start with a fic that nearly made me cry. Takes place during the time when Dick is Batman but Bruce isn’t dead. A magic-user rampaging through Gotham de-ages Dick to 10 years old and no one deals with it well. Serves as a pretty good introduction to the batfam.
Headcanon and untitled fic by oh-mother-of-darkness. 1.5K words, rated Gen.
A short two-parter: the first is fluffy headcanon about Bruce marking everyone’s heights on the kitchen doorway, and the second is an angsty follow-up to that idea. Fluff and angst: two great tastes that taste great together!
“Bird by Bird” by laceymcbain. 18K words, rated Teen.
Jason is severely injured on patrol and his family is determined to use the opportunity taking care of him provides to reconcile their differences. (For a story along similar lines but driven by the near-death of Dick, see “All the Roofs of Uncertainty” by Kieron_ODuibhir.)
“ten drabbles” by drakefeathers. 2.4K words, rated Gen.
Ten stories about the batfam taking care of each other. Basically a bunch of hurt/comfort. The vigilante life is a rough one.
“The Different Hugs of Dick Grayson” by hawkstout. 2.4K words, rated Gen.
Dick Grayson is a tactile, loving guy. So here’s a fic about hugging.
“As I Want You To Be” by Narcissistic_Ninny. 7.7K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
For all you shippers out there, I thought I’d end with a romance fic. Tim and Jason are an odd pairing given that one literally tried to kill the other, but they’re actually quite close in the New-52 universe and the most popular pairing in the multimedia Batman universe on AO3.
FINAL THOUGHT: Responses to “Fandom is Broken”
OK so this guy wrote this article. Neither of us have the strength to summarize it again. If you’re unfamiliar with the “fandom is broken” thing or the ensuing ~discourse, start with Gav’s response, which summarizes the controversies nicely: “Geek culture isn't ‘broken,’ but it does have a harassment problem.”
Once you’re riled up, you may want to read more! Here are a few pieces we liked (or, er, wrote on our very own tumblrs.) Obviously it’s not an exhaustive list! The problems in “Fandom is Broken” were myriad, so it’s not surprising that people came at it from many different angles:
“From Hydra to Ghostbusters: The False Equivalences of Fan Culture” by Ceilidhann
“There Is A Difference” by Mark Stewart
“This Song Was Written By a Committee: What Devin Faraci Gets Wrong About Audience, Ownership and Power” by Megan Purdy
“Regarding the current discussions on ‘toxic fandom’” by Zoë Quinn
“Are Fans Getting Too Entitled? Nah.” by Claire Fallon
“The Schisms: on fandom and heresy” by therisingtithes
“Creative Control” by agentfreewill
“About our ‘broken’ fan culture” by Aja Romano
“Things I Missed Yesterday While Living My Life and Then Reading Fluff Fic” by EarlGreyTea68
“entitled” by Elizabeth (like this Elizabeth, the person co-writing this newsletter!)
There are probably a million more responses out there, and if there was one you loved, please send it over! Elizabeth is keeping a list. :-)
P.S. Gav hasn’t written her Person of Interest rec post yet, but It Will Happen. Thanx for ur patience, future POI fans.
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