astridv | (no subject)

I wonder how people would feel if they constantly got comments like "I had to grit my teeth to get past the McShep but otherwise great story" or "Obviously I skipped past the McShep parts because that pairing is just wrong, but great fic!" or "Rodney is such a terrible character because [list of reasons why Rodney McKay is a terrible character] and I hate him on the show but you almost made me like him here!"? Because people comment like that on fanwork that contains McKeller All. The. Time. All the fucking time.

(I just saw another one first thing this morning.)

Or how would they feel about fic requests at genrefinders phrased "since obviously Sheppard and McKay are both straight, the slash makes no sense and it's OOC so I'm looking for Rodney/Katie and John/Larrin."

You know what all this looks like to me? Like a discouraging tactic, to actively discourage people from including any hint of Keller or Rodney/Jennifer in their fanwork at all. Maybe that's not the intention, maybe it's just thoughtlessness, but that's how it's starting to come across to me.

Seriously, is it so terrible to have a bit of diversity in fandom? Is another pairing so threatening? I don't get it.

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Okay, that's the side of the fandom I don't see, and I understand your frustration. But it definitely isn't all John/Rodney fans, or even the majority.

A month or two ago there was a huge blow up over a fic in which Keller was apparently killed off just so that Rodney and John could be together (I don't know exactly how, because I couldn't bear to read the fic). Most of the people who were outraged were John/Rodney fans. And yes, they commented publicly, and yes, it created a (unspoken, but real) schism among John/Rodney fans.

I don't know if it affected the amount of public Keller-bashing or not. It's hard for me to tell because my flist is skewed towards people who oppose bashing. So perhaps it's wrong of me to hang out in my safe little corner of fandom, but fandom is my happy place, and that's how I cope.

ETA: The more I think about this, the more I realize I have no idea if I'm in the majority or the minority. Ack! I'm not trying to defend John/Rodney fans as a whole, or to say the bashing doesn't exist. Not at all! What I'm trying to say is that you're not alone, and that there are John/Rodney OTPers who are frustrated with exactly the same thing. *hugs*

Oh, yes. I saw the fic in question. Even read it (well, skimmed. It was too awful to read), and I read all the comments. Have the screencaps saved for the next time someone wants to tell me there's no misogyny in this fandom.

I don't know if it affected the amount of public Keller-bashing or not.

It helped some. The public bashing at places like the noticeboard more or less stopped, that might have something to do with that. But as to the little needling passive-aggressive bashing in the comments to Keller-centric fic though, that's been going on unchanged.

ETA: The more I think about this, the more I realize I have no idea if I'm in the majority or the minority.

I couldn't tell either. Would be interesting to have some actual numbers.