Thoughts on identify and fandom stuff
Jun. 2nd, 2004 06:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayI've been doing some work on identity on-line today and it's brought up some interesting thoughts. Yes, this is actual college work :-) There is a reason why I love college. We got encouraged to play MUDs and, unfortunately, I had to admit to my tutor group that I know nothing. I'm sure there is a MUDding LJ somewhere, but I'm not going to find it. How have I ended up with this many friends, communities and RSS feeds after only three weeks?
Back to the original thought :-)
They were relating a lot of it to MUD playing, but it has a lot of relevant to all of us in our email groups, LJs and message boards. Basically, it's the idea that we invent identities for all this stuff. Some of us (heh, not me - too confusing) have several identities for different communities or even several within a community. Much too confusing for me. A lot of us have one ID - nobody thought my RL name is Selenay, right?
Er.
Anyway. The bit that interests me is the relation between our on-line identities and our RL identities. I freely admit that Selenay is my RL personality with all the masks removed. It doesn't matter to me whether people don't want to associate with a lesbian slash writer with a small Teryl Rothry obsession - take me or leave me. In RL, to get along with everyone around us, there have to be certain compromises we make in the persona we show to the world. They're as much about protecting ourselves as anything else. On-line, that kind of thing doesn't matter. The kind of people I want to be friends with and having long, insane email conversations with aren't going to care about that kind of stuff. Actually, those long, insane email conversations are aided if we share interests and can be fairly tolerant of differing world views :-) That's my motivation behind having Selenay and my RL persona. Other people have other motivations. I'd be fascinated to hear about them :-) Selenay and RL are getting closer - I'm finding it easier to be open with people in RL and getting less afraid of being rejected. It probably helps that so many of my on-line friends are becoming people that I hang with in RL too.
There's been a lot of interesting discussions about fandom, fanfic, fanon vs. canon and many other interesting things on the LJs that I follow. Check out some of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
riverfox's entries and the comments for more interesting things about fandom segregation and inane fanfic headers. It has got me thinking. Never good. All fandoms seem have a problem with the OTP thing, whether they're slashers or shippers. I'll freely admit that in a lot of fandoms (Stargate, TPM, Due South) there are certain pairings that I prefer. In Stargate, I would say that my OTPs are Jack/Daniel and Sam/Janet. I'm not going to do down anyone else's choice because that goes against everything I believe in. I'm not going to yell that my pairings are the only ones and try to foist them on others. paranoidangel42 is a lovely person because she's a Sam/Jack-er who doesn't push her ship on me. Hopefully I don't push my stuff onto her, although I'm wincing here because, well, she's read Serpent and I'm sure she hadn't found Lex/Clarke until I sent her links. I try not to push my thing onto others.
I'm unlikely, though, to read fic with other pairings and I tend to be wary about a lot of gen fic because of the Sam/Jack-ness that should really be labeled het (that's a rant for another day). I guess that makes me an OTP-er, but that has lately become a label I'm not too proud of. Fandom can be a great community, but we also seem to be a very divided community a lot of the time and I just wish that we could all get along without any of the "My OTP is better than yours!" crap that I see.
[/rant]
I actually got the sister's present in the mail today (aren't I organised?) and even got college stuff done. Didn't write any fanfic, didn't read any fanfic and looked atriverfox's new fic with great longing because I know that it will be fab. But I did rent Return of the King from the library today because it's been over a month since I last saw it at the cinema. Have a feeling that I'll be curling up with that on Friday night *g*
I also noted that it's the FDAS York meet on Monday and I'll me traveling up with Eos anddmouse because great minds think alike when booking trains. I'll take Inner Voices 4 to work on in the train and probably not get anything done, but at least I'll be able to say that I tried to work on it. It's Tour de France build-up time so I'll also be taking my race guide to start memorising routes and teams because I am sad like that *g*
Back to the original thought :-)
They were relating a lot of it to MUD playing, but it has a lot of relevant to all of us in our email groups, LJs and message boards. Basically, it's the idea that we invent identities for all this stuff. Some of us (heh, not me - too confusing) have several identities for different communities or even several within a community. Much too confusing for me. A lot of us have one ID - nobody thought my RL name is Selenay, right?
Er.
Anyway. The bit that interests me is the relation between our on-line identities and our RL identities. I freely admit that Selenay is my RL personality with all the masks removed. It doesn't matter to me whether people don't want to associate with a lesbian slash writer with a small Teryl Rothry obsession - take me or leave me. In RL, to get along with everyone around us, there have to be certain compromises we make in the persona we show to the world. They're as much about protecting ourselves as anything else. On-line, that kind of thing doesn't matter. The kind of people I want to be friends with and having long, insane email conversations with aren't going to care about that kind of stuff. Actually, those long, insane email conversations are aided if we share interests and can be fairly tolerant of differing world views :-) That's my motivation behind having Selenay and my RL persona. Other people have other motivations. I'd be fascinated to hear about them :-) Selenay and RL are getting closer - I'm finding it easier to be open with people in RL and getting less afraid of being rejected. It probably helps that so many of my on-line friends are becoming people that I hang with in RL too.
There's been a lot of interesting discussions about fandom, fanfic, fanon vs. canon and many other interesting things on the LJs that I follow. Check out some of
riverfox's entries and the comments for more interesting things about fandom segregation and inane fanfic headers. It has got me thinking. Never good. All fandoms seem have a problem with the OTP thing, whether they're slashers or shippers. I'll freely admit that in a lot of fandoms (Stargate, TPM, Due South) there are certain pairings that I prefer. In Stargate, I would say that my OTPs are Jack/Daniel and Sam/Janet. I'm not going to do down anyone else's choice because that goes against everything I believe in. I'm not going to yell that my pairings are the only ones and try to foist them on others. paranoidangel42 is a lovely person because she's a Sam/Jack-er who doesn't push her ship on me. Hopefully I don't push my stuff onto her, although I'm wincing here because, well, she's read Serpent and I'm sure she hadn't found Lex/Clarke until I sent her links. I try not to push my thing onto others.I'm unlikely, though, to read fic with other pairings and I tend to be wary about a lot of gen fic because of the Sam/Jack-ness that should really be labeled het (that's a rant for another day). I guess that makes me an OTP-er, but that has lately become a label I'm not too proud of. Fandom can be a great community, but we also seem to be a very divided community a lot of the time and I just wish that we could all get along without any of the "My OTP is better than yours!" crap that I see.
[/rant]
I actually got the sister's present in the mail today (aren't I organised?) and even got college stuff done. Didn't write any fanfic, didn't read any fanfic and looked at
riverfox's new fic with great longing because I know that it will be fab. But I did rent Return of the King from the library today because it's been over a month since I last saw it at the cinema. Have a feeling that I'll be curling up with that on Friday night *g*I also noted that it's the FDAS York meet on Monday and I'll me traveling up with Eos and
dmouse because great minds think alike when booking trains. I'll take Inner Voices 4 to work on in the train and probably not get anything done, but at least I'll be able to say that I tried to work on it. It's Tour de France build-up time so I'll also be taking my race guide to start memorising routes and teams because I am sad like that *g*