The Rec Center #68
OMG you guys we have A LOT of stuff for you this week! Elizabeth has put together a whole section of boyband fandom articles in honor of Harry Styles, and we’ve got a multifandom list of slash fanfic about people ~pining for each other. Plus much, much more including some delightful fanart of the new Doctor Who companion, Bill Potts! — Gav
new stuff
“How People are Using GIFs to Get Off” by Monica Torres at High Strung
“Welcome to the new frontier of anonymized intimacy.” On participatory porn fandoms and their gif exchanges.
“Doctor Who’s First Queer Companion Echoes My Own Gay Journey Through Space and Time” by Heather Davidson at Autostraddle
A wonderful essay about coming out and the queer characters of Doctor Who.
“What Should You Do When Your Favorite Celebrity Gets It Wrong?” by David M. Perry at Pacific Standard
On fan/creator interaction, learning from and responding to critique, and the Supernatural fandom.
“How Riverdale shipping wars and queerbaiting led a teen actress to come out as bisexual” by Gav at the Daily Dot
Riverdale fandom is experiencing some pretty intense ship wars, and this week they led a young actress (Shannon Purser, AKA Barb from Stranger Things) to come out. TBH this situation sucks, and should be a lesson in how fans can invade actors personal lives without necessarily meaning to do so.
older stuff: teen fangirls edition
This week Harry Styles had a really great comment about his fans in a Rolling Stone interview, and it was awesome and we all shared it, but I started to get a little dispirited by all the “FINALLY. NO ONE HAS EVER SAID THIS BEFORE!!!” comments I was seeing. First off, while I’m very pleased that he’s enlightened and supportive and seems like a genuinely good guy, Styles isn’t even the first male pop star to say this stuff about fans. But male pop stars aside, WOMEN HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS. So in the interest of celebrating women yelling about this...
We’ve included most of these in the letter before, but since new readers join every week, hopefully some of them will be new to you. — Elizabeth
“Bands who bemoan their ‘teenage girl’ fans are missing the point of music” by Alexandra Pollard at The Guardian
“As a reviews editor, I’ve lost count of the number of times writers have—while bemoaning a gig’s drawbacks—referred derisively to the amount of “teenage girls” in the crowd. It’s as if that phrase itself is a code that needs no further explanation, no elaboration as to why a young woman’s fully paid-up presence at the gig is, unquestionably, a bad thing.”
“The teens on Tumblr are all right” by Aja Romano at The Kernel
“The truth is that teen culture is not homogenous—and neither is fangirl culture.” This longish piece tackles a lot of bad ideas adults—particularly male journalists—have about teen girls.
“In Defense of Fangirls” by Sandra Song at Pitchfork
“It is a way of telling young girls that they should be embarrassed about what matters to them.” A response to the general dismissive commentary towards 1D fangirls post-Zayn.
“Why do we mock teenage girls who love One Direction when Top Gear fans are just the same?” by Elizabeth at the New Statesman
Of course I had to slip this one in. :-) (Many people tweeted at me at the time, “Can’t we mock them both?” ...no, get a new hobby, folks.)
tumblr & beyond
Our wonderful new Doctor Who companion Bill Potts by Joscribbles on Tumblr!
Griffin McElroy of “My Brother, My Brother, and Me” fame has written an official Star Wars story, and his tweets on the topic are... A Lot.
A useful thread of music videos starring the men of Rogue One.
A great thread about learning to write via fic
Rihanna + Lupita = a Tumblr dream post come to life
fanfiction
Pining! Always a popular trope. :-) These are culled from our bank of submissions, all stories with “pining” in the description or the tags. Thanks, as always, to people who have sent stories in! — Elizabeth
“Gravity” by Fahye. 16K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Yuri On Ice; Ship: Yuri/Otabek
Recced by: Kelly
Backstory: Sequel to “Stargazer.” A sci-fi and royalty au where Yuri and Otabek are dukes from different planets whose marriage is arranged for them.
Rec: Everything that's great about arranged marriage fics, this one has it. Years of pining via correspondence, falling in love despite themselves, Otabek occasionally actively in war zones. Plus some great background married Yuuri/Victor.
Content warnings: N/A
“Rowan and Red Oak” by ChuckleVoodoos. 22K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Daredevil (/Harry Potter AU); Ship: Matt Murdock/Franklin “Foggy” Nelson
Recced by: IrishMumbles
Backstory: Matt/Foggy is the dominant slash pairing in the Daredevil fandom due to their friendship, connection, and emotional intimacy in canon.
Rec: I would not ever have imagined such a perfect melding of the Daredevil universe and the HP universe, and yet here we are. Matt Murdock was struck blind by a Dark Curse as a child, Foggy Nelson has Wild magic that acts up a lot around Matt.
Content warnings: N/A
“How These Days Grow Long” by Never_Say_Die. 100K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: The Walking Dead; Ship: Glenn Rhee/Daryl Dixon
Recced by: lookslikeaquentinblakedrawing
Backstory: AU in which Glenn and Daryl have been in a relationship for a few years before the ZA, and were separated when Atlanta was overrun. Each think the other is dead, and Glenn ended up with a different group of survivors while Daryl ended up in the quarry camp. Story also assumes Merle would've turned his back on Daryl for getting involved with Glenn, so they parted ways long ago.
Rec: I actually rarely reread fic, because there’s always so much of it out there, but I’ve read this one many times and am just about to do so again. The characterisations are spot-on, and the slow-burn of their reunion is so incredibly well done that when it finally happens I always, always burst into tears. It’s oddly enough one of my comfort fics, zombie apocalypse be damned. And after the recent events on TWD, I especially need it.
Content warnings: Violence, zombie-related gore, in-character racial slurs
“tell all the truth (but let it slant)” by susiecarter. 33K words, rated Mature .
Fandoms: DC, Batman, Superman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; Ship: Batman/Superman aka Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent
Recced by: Maddie
Backstory: Batman/Superman (aka SuperBat) has a long and hallowed history. Two hunks with a common mission of justice and good deeds. The World's Finest!
Rec: One of the surprisingly few fanfics to come out of Batman v Superman (which I didn't see). But how could I resist a fake relationship fic about Batman and Superman? I particularly like that they don't start out in love but instead the affection grows throughout the course of the story, resulting in some epic pining.
Content warnings: N/A
“The Moon Represents My Heart” by afrai. 13K words, rated Teen. .
Fandom: Star Wars: Rogue One; Ship: Baze Malbus/Chirrut Imwe
Recced by: Gav
Backstory: Baze and Chirrut are the two warrior monks from Rogue One. This fic follows their lives growing up together in the Temple of the Whills on Jedha.
Rec: I think I’ve said this before, but I love how this pairing is really open to interpretation. We don’t know much about their backstory, so writers are free to experiment with a lot of different dynamics between Baze and Chirrut throughout their lives. This fic posits the idea that Chirrut had a SUPER, EXTRA, VERY OBVIOUS crush on Baze when they were kids, but it took Baze a long time to catch up. A really fun interpretation of their characterization and relationship, and a satisfying length.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
Every so often we ask for guest contributors! So...this is our semi-regular invitation. :-) One thing we haven’t had in ages is a guest explainer or a guest ship manifesto—if you have any interest in talking about a ship, show, book, movie, etc but don’t want to rec any fic, we’d love to hear about why you love it! Just email us or reply to this email through TinyLetter. And, as always, we continue to be so grateful that you send one-off recs through our submissions form. (And just a reminder: we’re open to vids, comics, and other kinds of fanworks!) We love being able to include as many voices as possible. — Elizabeth
If you liked this, please share it with your friends! https://thereccenter.substack.com/. And find us on social media: Gav (twitter/tumblr) & Elizabeth (twitter/tumblr)