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Over on the blue tumblr hell, I reblogged two posts discussing SW fandom:
The first is When Systemic Hatred of Women Online Goes Unnoticed, What Does it Say About Us? by Katie McCort (Data Analysist).
The second is Racism in the Star Wars fandom: The Tumblr Years by tumblr user diversehighfantasy.
The first article is an analysis of content pulled from social media - mainly tweets - attacking supporters of Reylo; what tactics are used to drum up the outrage and fling abuse at shippers. The second is a more general overview of the way Sequel Trilogy fandom developed on tumblr, especially the shipping fandom, and how ships involving Finn were sidelined in favour of outsopken Reylo majority.
It made me think of related issue: they way we (the collective, nebulous "we" of fandom at large) invest our energy into those big ship wars, these purity culture witch hunts, into the massive ongoing discussion of why is this happening... to the detriment of actual fannish activity.
Perhaps it's just my own impression, so let me tell you about what I was doing: I got into SW in 2015, a few months before TFA premiere. Despite the Sequel Trilogy just kicking off, I fell more with the Prequel crowd, because they're chill and fun people who don't take themselves too seriously. Not to mention The Clone Wars cartoon is probably much more my speed when it comes to media than the main movies. So off writing crack and shitposting I went.
I'm something of a fandom serial monogamist, so around the time of TLJ premiere my interest in SW was waning. The hype around the conclusion of MCU was strong, and I got sucked back into Avengers for a long bit. But the other contributing factor was that TLJ didn't manage to grab my attention and revitalize my interest; again, I was more into Prequels era, but also the fandom just wasn't that fun to participate in at that point.
Main thing for me was, I think, the atmosphere after TLJ was just different than the experience I had after TFA.
I went back chronologically through about third of my SW tumblr tag, a time period of roughly a year (from mid 2015 to mid 2016). And I legitimately forgot how much fun people had with TFA content. There was a lot of Finnpoe art! Cute Finnrey posts! Fun cracky ideas being thrown around, silly memes, wonderful gifsets, some great meta. At this point I was neither into Reylo or Kylux, but people were certainly having a blast with these too.
Sure, there was wank, there were angry posts, at that point outrage against the idea of Reylo was just starting to get some real traction. But you COULD find things to enjoy inbetween.
After TLJ? Well, there was still content, but the discourse around it was ever present, and discouraging to the extreme. I reblogged a few memes - exponentially less than I had during TFA. To me, it seemed fandom was more invested in arguing about the movie. Sure, my own disappointment was a big factor, but since I wasn't interested in going on and on about my grieviances, I felt like there was nothing else to do, and I moved on.
I wonder how many other fans did the same. It's the right choice to remove yourself from fandom space if it stops being fun, that's how you fandom responsibly. But the inevitable side effect of people uninterested in contributing to wank getting the hell out of dodge is the fact that suddenly there is a lot less buffer between the angry troll mob and their target (in this case - people shipping Reylo, who had a lot of content to enjoy and explore in TLJ).
I feel like I'm ready to get back into SW fandom at this point, but I'm still getting back mainly into Prequel content (wonder how much drama there will be with the new TCW episodes coming out...). I was actually largely ok with the TROS, mainly thanks to the fact that I took a step back after TLJ and wasn't overinvested in it.
Do I think the Sequel Trilogy could be better? Well, yeah, sure. Do I think the Prequels received about the same amount of vitrol back when they came out? Well, it's excellently documented they did. Do I wish there was less wank in the Sequels fandom so we could actually enjoy it despite the flaws?
Looking back... I suppose in another fifteeen years, after most of trolls get tired of the discourse, we'll be ready to write fun cracky AUs about Sequels too.
The first is When Systemic Hatred of Women Online Goes Unnoticed, What Does it Say About Us? by Katie McCort (Data Analysist).
The second is Racism in the Star Wars fandom: The Tumblr Years by tumblr user diversehighfantasy.
The first article is an analysis of content pulled from social media - mainly tweets - attacking supporters of Reylo; what tactics are used to drum up the outrage and fling abuse at shippers. The second is a more general overview of the way Sequel Trilogy fandom developed on tumblr, especially the shipping fandom, and how ships involving Finn were sidelined in favour of outsopken Reylo majority.
It made me think of related issue: they way we (the collective, nebulous "we" of fandom at large) invest our energy into those big ship wars, these purity culture witch hunts, into the massive ongoing discussion of why is this happening... to the detriment of actual fannish activity.
Perhaps it's just my own impression, so let me tell you about what I was doing: I got into SW in 2015, a few months before TFA premiere. Despite the Sequel Trilogy just kicking off, I fell more with the Prequel crowd, because they're chill and fun people who don't take themselves too seriously. Not to mention The Clone Wars cartoon is probably much more my speed when it comes to media than the main movies. So off writing crack and shitposting I went.
I'm something of a fandom serial monogamist, so around the time of TLJ premiere my interest in SW was waning. The hype around the conclusion of MCU was strong, and I got sucked back into Avengers for a long bit. But the other contributing factor was that TLJ didn't manage to grab my attention and revitalize my interest; again, I was more into Prequels era, but also the fandom just wasn't that fun to participate in at that point.
Main thing for me was, I think, the atmosphere after TLJ was just different than the experience I had after TFA.
I went back chronologically through about third of my SW tumblr tag, a time period of roughly a year (from mid 2015 to mid 2016). And I legitimately forgot how much fun people had with TFA content. There was a lot of Finnpoe art! Cute Finnrey posts! Fun cracky ideas being thrown around, silly memes, wonderful gifsets, some great meta. At this point I was neither into Reylo or Kylux, but people were certainly having a blast with these too.
Sure, there was wank, there were angry posts, at that point outrage against the idea of Reylo was just starting to get some real traction. But you COULD find things to enjoy inbetween.
After TLJ? Well, there was still content, but the discourse around it was ever present, and discouraging to the extreme. I reblogged a few memes - exponentially less than I had during TFA. To me, it seemed fandom was more invested in arguing about the movie. Sure, my own disappointment was a big factor, but since I wasn't interested in going on and on about my grieviances, I felt like there was nothing else to do, and I moved on.
I wonder how many other fans did the same. It's the right choice to remove yourself from fandom space if it stops being fun, that's how you fandom responsibly. But the inevitable side effect of people uninterested in contributing to wank getting the hell out of dodge is the fact that suddenly there is a lot less buffer between the angry troll mob and their target (in this case - people shipping Reylo, who had a lot of content to enjoy and explore in TLJ).
I feel like I'm ready to get back into SW fandom at this point, but I'm still getting back mainly into Prequel content (wonder how much drama there will be with the new TCW episodes coming out...). I was actually largely ok with the TROS, mainly thanks to the fact that I took a step back after TLJ and wasn't overinvested in it.
Do I think the Sequel Trilogy could be better? Well, yeah, sure. Do I think the Prequels received about the same amount of vitrol back when they came out? Well, it's excellently documented they did. Do I wish there was less wank in the Sequels fandom so we could actually enjoy it despite the flaws?
Looking back... I suppose in another fifteeen years, after most of trolls get tired of the discourse, we'll be ready to write fun cracky AUs about Sequels too.
