Don’t judge fandom by the antics of a few
Posted By Kathleen David on July 3, 2010
Recently I had a friend who likes a certain TV show complain to me that they felt like they couldn’t admit being a fan of the show because of all the crazies that the fandom seem to be harboring. I pointed out that it was really just a few vocal people creating this image for the group. She said but those are the people that everyone assumes you are like if you like this fandom.
I have a friend who speaks Klingon fluently. He has a kicking Klingon costume that his boyfriend made him. He always dresses up for Halloween in the outfit and scares (in a good way) the kids that come to his door. He has occasionally worn the costume to conventions and won a couple of costuming awards for it. There is a lot he likes about being a Klingon. However he distances himself from certain Klingon groups who seem to be into it 24/7 which he finds extreme. He has had discussions with parents of kids that come to his door on Halloween explaining that he doesn’t think that he is a real Klingon. He also speaks 4 other languages besides English fluently because he picks up languages easily. When he and his boyfriend travel in Europe, he has been mistaken for a native speaker more than once. He has a life outside of fandom and distances himself from fandom because of “those people”.
I have another friend who reads science fiction and fantasy but has never gone to a convention. He has no inclination to even though he lives in Atlanta. I have been trying to convince him to go to DragonCon because he could meet some of the authors he has read for years and I thought that a number of the panels would be interesting to him about writing and wordsmithing. He passes on the chance every time. Why? Because of the impression he has of fans and DragonCon. No one bathes for the whole time. Everyone is drunk off their ášš or on something. You have to wear a costume to fit in. Women are harassed and felt up and generally made to feel uncomfortable. Then there are the pictures of the parade every year which makes it look like we all wear costumes and divide ourselves into tight knit groups. And I can see why he would get that impression.
Another pal loved anime a lot. She started with Kiki’s Delivery Service and has seen all the Miyazaki films. She also enjoys various anime shows on Adult Swim and on the SyFy channel. She reads manga that she gets in the library. She will not go to an anime convention. Her impressions of the fandom aren’t good. She is not Japanese and feels that pretending to be so is rather crass. She doesn’t want to dress up in costume although she admires those who can. The impression she has of the fandom again is predicated on the few rather than the majority.
I honestly believe that those who haven’t gone to a convention would have fun but the sterotypes of those who do attend makes them not want to even try. And the news media really hasn’t helped in this matter at all. If the news comes to a convention, they also show the costumes because that makes better visuals than the 1000s of other people who are dressed normally.
The smelly fan does exist but is becoming more of a rare thing that it was. The number of men vs. the number of women in fandom is becoming more even. People do step in and police those who harass women. I know a couple of guys who got their badges for DragonCon yanked for that. There are those who have an “us vs. them” attitude to the world but name me one group of sports fans that don’t have a few of those. I am asking that the many not be judged on the bad choices and attitudes of a few. Conventions, they are really fun.
I am grateful for all the conventions I have attended over the years.
Dearest Kathleen, I’ve been in fandom to one extent or another my whole life. My first con was in 1979; Just Imagicon was put on by two guys who wanted to recreate the Atlanta vibe, and pretty much failed. But I met Bob Asprin, Ted Sturgeon, and Jerry Page, got hammered and had a huge amount of fun. Made some good friends, and those friendships grew stronger over the next 25 years.
I met a girl. Fell in love. Or thought I did. Saw another girl I had the hots for do the unreal, get her drummer boyfriend’s punk band to play a gig in the hotel parking garage. The Sunday after, I met a short, blind guitarist named Jose, who had just played a club gig that weekend. We were in the elevator with his bodyguards, we laughed and joked, and when we got o the lobby he said he enjoyed meeting me. I told him to have a good flight,
and his guards said this way, Mr. Feliciano. I was in SCA gear at the time, which may be why they looked at me funny.
I met a number of writers. Fred Pohl, Bob Jordan, Bob Tucker, Tim Zahn, Joe Straczynski, Harry Stubbs, Mike Resnick, Rafe Lafferty. The list could go on forever. All good guys, some moreso than others.
Met some artists. Kelly Freas was the best of them. Kind, caring, with a lovely puckish sense of humor.
I’ve known good fen and bad fen. Met actors and game designers. Got drunk, got stoned, got snogged. Rubbed Chase Masterson’s feet. Watched “Small Soldiers” with a nice brunette named Lisa.
I ran video for MidSouthCon for ten years. Never put on a Klingon uniform or anything else Trekish, Babylonian, Browncoat, or whatever. If I was whiff, I’d run home real fast, or borrow a shower in a friend’s room.
Fandom has been like this since 1937. It attracts the weird and not so weird. If someone loves a genre of fiction, it’s gonna attract fans. Not always sf, either. Laura Resnick didn’t start off writing sf, she dabbled her feet in cheesy romances first. And turned out some good, funny stuff.
Sometimes, the women hassle the guys, which is more than fair. A few of us had it coming.
I miss fandom. With the collapse of Xanadu, the Nashville fan community has dwindled. Khen’s death didn’t bring us together, we splintered worse. I loved my time in fandom, and would go back if I could. But small cons like Xanadu and MidSouth are becoming rare, and huge mediacons like Dragon and SDCC are taking their place. And that’s no place for an old man like me. I can’t sit down in the con suite and drink whiskey with Mike Resnick, or sit in a corner with Pam Adams and talk about little nothings. I can’t even rub Chases’s feet. Big to-do’s like ComicCon don’t allow for it.
But it was fun while it lasted.