The Rec Center #6
Thank you times a MILLION to everyone who got in touch about writing guest rec lists. We already have half a dozen in, with more on the way. And the first is in this week’s newsletter! Just in time for Femslash February, guest reccer Elisabeth brings us some of her favorite femslash sports AUs. (!) Our call for guest contributors is always open, so if you haven’t been in touch yet, please don’t hesitate! elizabeth and gav at gmail, tweet at us, or leave us an ask. (See the bottom for links.) — Elizabeth
new stuff
“Captain America: Civil War and the 2016 election” by Gav at The Daily Dot
Gav asked ALL the US presidential candidates the only question that matters—where they stand on the central conflict of Captain America: Civil War—and only one campaign answered. Try and guess whether Bernie (or maybe Bernie’s underlings) is #TeamCap or #TeamIronMan.
“Will the latest wave of revivals, with X-Files leading the way, serve or undermine loyal fans?” by Elizabeth at the New Statesman
On fandom’s relationship with the current crop of TV revivals, starting with new series of The X-Files. “If you could have these characters back, if this show could come back on the air, would you even want it to?”
“An Archive of Their Own: A Case Study of Feminist HCI and Values in Design” by Casey Fiesler
Information science professor (and fangirl) Casey Fiesler examines AO3 in the context of feminist HCI, or human-computer interaction. A rebloggable, giffed-up Tumblr version can be found here.
old(er) stuff
“Fan is A Tool-Using Animal” by Maciej Cegłowski
Until a few years ago, A TON of fandom people used the bookmarking site del.icio.us to keep track of fanfic. The tagging systems were ferociously in-depth and very useful, but when Yahoo sold del.icio.us to a new owner in 2011, they removed a bunch of functions that made it easy to use. So pretty much overnight, thousands of fandom users quit the site, and moved to Pinboard, a small indie site that charged a small entrance fee, but was very welcoming to fanfic bookmarkers.
For some reason, this post from Pinboard founder Maciej Ceglowski is doing the rounds again. It’s a great read, detailing all the ways in which the del.icio.us exodus introduced him to fanfic people, and how he tailored his site (with input from fans) to accept its new audience. — Gav
tumblr and beyond
Sailor Moon’s “cousin” lesbians
In one of the English dubs of Sailor Moon, the translators censored the relationship between Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, rewriting them as “cousins.” This vid is a hilarious supercut of all those times when those two gal pals were Totally Just Cousins. Very convincing.
“Fake Progressive Girls” by whovianfeminism
Not to bombard you with politics, but this is a great post about a certain pop-culture/political meme that’s been going around the past few weeks. Regardless of who you support, this might pinpoint why the punchline may have been bothering you.
The best thing to come out of the new Civil War trailer? The Bucky Barnes backpack fandom. Check out kayaczek’s incredibly adorable fanart.
international fanworks day
This is, like, preaching to the choir in the most literal sense, since you all signed up for this newsletter for *fanfic recs*, but this coming Monday is International Fanworks Day, a holiday so important you might have the day off from work (never mind whatever other holidays might fall on that day). Over the past few weeks, the Organization for Transformative Works, the parent organization of AO3, has been publishing guest posts about fanworks and the importance they’ve played in peoples’ lives, from fic writers Earlgreytea68 and Lisa Nicholas/roane72, to acafan Olivia Riley, to fan vidder Ash48. And, in a cruel twist of fate, they’ll publish MY guest post tomorrow, exactly one day too late to go in the newsletter. :-) (Seriously, go over the OTW tomorrow if you are desperate for details about my Sweet Valley High fanfic.) (You *are*, I can tell.)
We’re at a weird transitional moment with fanworks: compared to only a few years ago, they have a HUGE deal of mainstream exposure, and—FINALLY—it’s moved on from mostly mockery. As more people come to fanworks with an open mind, it’s a perfect opportunity to paint a full picture of them and the communities that surround them. A while back my podcast partner Flourish and I asked people to write in and talk about how fanfiction helped them through difficult times in their lives. The results were INCREDIBLE (we read some of them in this episode, which also might be worth a listen if you’re interested in historical fangirling). People used fic to fight addiction, work through illness, figure out sexual and gender identity, and to carve out a space for themselves in the world. (No joke, the responses made us cry.) So like, go celebrate fanworks please. And be super loud about it. Since more people than ever know about fanworks, we need to let them know exactly what makes them special. — Elizabeth
EMMA. 😍😍😍
fanfiction
This week’s guest reccer is Elisabeth, an active member of femslash fandom who recently adopted a dog and plans to dress her up as Supergirl.
“Work This Body” by kara-lesbihonest. 10K words, rated Explicit.
Supergirl: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant
Supergirl may have only started airing in October 2015, but it’s amassed at femslash following with a passion, and I have never been happier in a fandom. This fic is indicative of all the things I love: it’s fun, light-hearted, pokes fun at the superhero genre, and still pays tribute to the awesome female characters the show has given us. Also, Kara Danvers in a tennis skirt? Yes, please.
“Sato, #22, Shooting Guard” by MidoriAkiko. 50K words, rated Teen.
Avatar: Legend of Korra: Korra/Asami Sato
Everyone who has existed in the femslash circles of Tumblr has seen this gif at least once. Thank God the author of this fic saw it, and gave us an amazing Korrasami basketball AU. I honestly love this fic so much for the emphasis it puts on the Korra/Asami height difference, because we all know that Korra is Very Bitter about the fact that she is shorter than Asami.
“Breaking Out” by thedeadflag. 103K words, rated Teen.
The 100: Clarke/Lexa, Raven/Anya
Hockey AUs are a guilty pleasure of mine, and since The 100 is /the/ fastest rising femslash canon of 2015 it’s really no surprise that they catered to my needs. Read for amazing slowburn, beautiful friendships and Raven Reyes being...well...Raven. As always Clarke/Lexa fics are amazing, but the real hero of this fic is the Raven/Anya pairing that is my One True Rarepair in The 100.
“going up, going down, anything for the crown” by defcontwo. 2K words, rated Mature.
Young Avengers: Kate Bishop/America Chavez
Sometimes all you need in life is a short, fluffy little figure skating AU featuring Kate Bishop and America Chavez from last summer’s run in Young Avengers. I dare you not to have butterflies in your stomach when America drops her signature “princess” pick-up line.
“Hate the Player” by bruisespristine. 45K words, rated Explicit.
Person of Interest: Root/Sameen Shaw
Look, it’s not every fic writer who can take an amazing TV show with complex characters in a subtly dystopian SF verse and convert them to a soccer team and have it work, but one has to give credit where credit is due. bruisespristine took all the characters from CBS’s Person of Interest, one of the few network shows with a canon femslash ship, and put it into a soccer AU. It gives you all your favorite canon characters in unexpected roles—and also a fair amount of 10/10 smut.
“yeah, we run this” by girl0nfire. 5K words, rated Gen.
Marvel616/DCU: Carol Danvers/Jessica Drew, Sharon Carter/Natasha Romanova
This fic is the most fun and the least appreciated; in a weird niche fandom, focusing on only the ladies of the Marvel/DC comicverse superheros, this wonderful roller derby AU hits the nail exactly on the head. As a lesbian, roller derby AUs are already a particular weakness of mine, and this one just melts my heart. Tune in for fun friendship and even better gay banter from your favorite comic superheroes.
FINAL THOUGHT
We try to limit how much of our own stuff we include in here, but yesterday I got very frustrated with inaccurate ~geek culture~ stereotypes, and wound up writing this tumblr rant that I just had to share. Why? Because someone just greenlit a “fanboy-oriented” late-night talk show, hosted by Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg.
Yes, the face of geek culture is still two middle-aged white guys talking to their friends about comics, apparently.
In some ways this is a more negative note than I'd usually like to end with, but to me this situation is less depressing and more just... ridiculous. Like, can you BELIEVE that people are still clueless enough to restrict geek culture and fandom to a 1980s image of ~fanboys? Just think about the audience this show could attract if they had a panel of fans from different walks of life. Sheesh. — Gav
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