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merrilyChris Williams of Fanlib accepts Henry Jenkins' invitation to answer questions from the fan community.
His answers allay no-one's fears.
I particularly appreciate Aja & Mel's responses early in the posted comments.
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BTW, that discussion I posted about earlier, on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
paradox_dragon's entry the all-male BoD @ FanLib, & why it's relevant?
I decided it was time to stop banging my head against a wall, and therefore wasn't going to keep explaining to the anonymous poster (thread here) whyparadox_dragon was right.
And then I checked my email again, and he had responded to my last comment (not to what I was actually _saying_, mind you) by replying that he was a guy in fandom.
Therefore, it seemed his logic in dismissing the gender divide as a problem with Fanlib went like this (and I'm gonna editorialize):
1. I am a man.
2. I participate in fandom. Or he participates sort-of in fandom. He says he does admin work for an archive off lj; he didn't say he wrote fic or read fic or vidded or watched vids or created art or looked at art; he insisted on being anonymous, because he "hate[s] the idea of sock puppets and I'm not comfortable having my gender and pen-name associated outside of my flist yet"... and on that I call a big fat bullshit. Yeah. We fannish women are such man-eaters here that him having a penis would endanger his life or emotional well-being. Sorry. Suck it up. (I don't expect you to agree here, flist. My bugaboo with anonymity is my bugaboo and is separate from the FanLib issue.)
3. "Half my flist [are] guys." And are they fannish guys? And does "half [your] flist" mean "three"? I'm skeptical because I read a lot of fanfic, greedily, from all possible sources that I get sent to or stumble upon; I friend or bookmark all of the people whose work I like; and despite this madcap gluttony, there are three men in my flist -- two fanfic writers, and one whedonite whom I met in RL who's also a writer, but isn't a fanfic writer. (Shout out to you,human_loser!)
I think it's much more likely that if "half [his] flist" is a goodly number, they are there because a) they are non-fannish guys, or b) they are fannish guys who do the normal fanboy stuff and don't create/consume transformative fannish art, or that either a) or b) is true and they met outside of lj. I don't think he has a cadre of queer male fannish writers on his flist, because he's worried about his place in fandom enough to need anonymity, and there is a definite place for queer male writers in fandom. Or so I perceive, I who am not a queer male writer.
4. Since I am a man in fandom, and I know other men ... (he's implying "in fandom" at the ellipses by saying that half his flist are guys, but see above for me pointing out the evasiveness in that statement), there isn't a gender divide between FanLib's governing structure and fandom. In other words, as long as there's one penis-owner on the fannish folk side of the fence -- even one that doesn't create or consume fannish work, we can shut up about the gender stuff.
I was angry about this all day yesterday. I'm not replying over @paradox_dragon's, because every time I did, he continued to respond only to the perceived idea that we were saying there was a gender divide because there were no men in fandom. No one is saying there are no men in fandom. We are all saying, look, there are no women on the FanLib BoD. Why?
It bothers me a lot that someone could be present in fandom and still think that the conclusion above (4) is valid. Lord knows that fandom isn't entirely feminist or entirely interested in gender trouble or entirely made up of thoughtful individuals. But still. To conclude that there is no gender problem because there are a couple of guys in fandom, no matter what those guys do and whether they are fannish contributors, as long as they are there, is just ... well, I think I'm left with a whole lot of interrobanging.
Your penis's presence on this side of the fence does not make up for the vaginal absence on the other side of the FanLib mess, okay?
Also, I love that the FanLib people won't touch the gender discussion with a ten-foot pole. It "offends" them. It offends us that we have to point it out to you, okay?
His answers allay no-one's fears.
I particularly appreciate Aja & Mel's responses early in the posted comments.
----
BTW, that discussion I posted about earlier, on
paradox_dragon's entry the all-male BoD @ FanLib, & why it's relevant?I decided it was time to stop banging my head against a wall, and therefore wasn't going to keep explaining to the anonymous poster (thread here) why
paradox_dragon was right. And then I checked my email again, and he had responded to my last comment (not to what I was actually _saying_, mind you) by replying that he was a guy in fandom.
Therefore, it seemed his logic in dismissing the gender divide as a problem with Fanlib went like this (and I'm gonna editorialize):
1. I am a man.
2. I participate in fandom. Or he participates sort-of in fandom. He says he does admin work for an archive off lj; he didn't say he wrote fic or read fic or vidded or watched vids or created art or looked at art; he insisted on being anonymous, because he "hate[s] the idea of sock puppets and I'm not comfortable having my gender and pen-name associated outside of my flist yet"... and on that I call a big fat bullshit. Yeah. We fannish women are such man-eaters here that him having a penis would endanger his life or emotional well-being. Sorry. Suck it up. (I don't expect you to agree here, flist. My bugaboo with anonymity is my bugaboo and is separate from the FanLib issue.)
3. "Half my flist [are] guys." And are they fannish guys? And does "half [your] flist" mean "three"? I'm skeptical because I read a lot of fanfic, greedily, from all possible sources that I get sent to or stumble upon; I friend or bookmark all of the people whose work I like; and despite this madcap gluttony, there are three men in my flist -- two fanfic writers, and one whedonite whom I met in RL who's also a writer, but isn't a fanfic writer. (Shout out to you,
human_loser!) I think it's much more likely that if "half [his] flist" is a goodly number, they are there because a) they are non-fannish guys, or b) they are fannish guys who do the normal fanboy stuff and don't create/consume transformative fannish art, or that either a) or b) is true and they met outside of lj. I don't think he has a cadre of queer male fannish writers on his flist, because he's worried about his place in fandom enough to need anonymity, and there is a definite place for queer male writers in fandom. Or so I perceive, I who am not a queer male writer.
4. Since I am a man in fandom, and I know other men ... (he's implying "in fandom" at the ellipses by saying that half his flist are guys, but see above for me pointing out the evasiveness in that statement), there isn't a gender divide between FanLib's governing structure and fandom. In other words, as long as there's one penis-owner on the fannish folk side of the fence -- even one that doesn't create or consume fannish work, we can shut up about the gender stuff.
I was angry about this all day yesterday. I'm not replying over @
paradox_dragon's, because every time I did, he continued to respond only to the perceived idea that we were saying there was a gender divide because there were no men in fandom. No one is saying there are no men in fandom. We are all saying, look, there are no women on the FanLib BoD. Why?It bothers me a lot that someone could be present in fandom and still think that the conclusion above (4) is valid. Lord knows that fandom isn't entirely feminist or entirely interested in gender trouble or entirely made up of thoughtful individuals. But still. To conclude that there is no gender problem because there are a couple of guys in fandom, no matter what those guys do and whether they are fannish contributors, as long as they are there, is just ... well, I think I'm left with a whole lot of interrobanging.
Your penis's presence on this side of the fence does not make up for the vaginal absence on the other side of the FanLib mess, okay?
Also, I love that the FanLib people won't touch the gender discussion with a ten-foot pole. It "offends" them. It offends us that we have to point it out to you, okay?