A Criticism of Fandom

[unspeakablehorror]

I think one reason I don't participate in fandom as an activity as much, besides my extreme introversion, is that I feel like a lot of fandom culture has become (or was always?) predicated on a person's *usefulness* to other people and not on relating to people as another human being.  Like I kind of get the impression that a lot of current fandom culture is oriented around the idea that if a fan doesn't provide fanart, fanfic, reviews, or a personal publicist to other people in the fandom they're not worth being around.  Like those things are the only thing their worth as a person seems to be based on sometimes. It just seems to me to be a very dehumanizing and ableist mindset to view people only through that sort of lens.

Comments

[sl_walker]

Heh. I occasionally feel that way.

[hhunt]

Yes), I think so too.

[tobermoriansass]

I've definitely noticed this (i've been active in fandom online since around 2013 v just a lurker, for context) and I think its honestly started becoming more of a thing with the predominance of other social media platforms like instagram which really ratcheted up the whole "self as commodity"/"likes as currency" thing. So it definitely feels like a thing and especially a recent thing.

[unspeakablehorror]

I feel this way a lot. There's a lot I enjoy about fandom, and a lot of really interesting and thoughtful things the community has done, but this kind of de-personalization of fans by other fans always makes it hard for me because I end up second-guessing other people's expectations of me and likewise wondering if things I say or do are being mentally translated into this context rather than the intended social one.

[unspeakablehorror]

Glad we agree, though it's also unfortunate to have this feeling.

[unspeakablehorror]

Yes, modern social media mechanics probably play a part in this. I've been in various fandoms since I was quite young, but I've long felt my involvement was in many ways very peripheral until relatively recently. I mostly had too much social anxiety to interact with people when I was younger. I started posting fanfic in 2012 and joined Tumblr later that year, but I feel like it's only been in the last couple years that I've really taken notice of this particular aspect of fandom culture.

I have no idea what Instagram is like and no intention of finding out, but the way that many social media sites (Tumblr, Twitter, etc.) are organized around likes and sharing content posted by others does I think facilitate this attitude. I want to say it is especially Twitter's fault, but I have no articulated reason to believe it caused that problem specifically--I just hate Twitter.