The loud, echoey, and not to mention, massive convention hall was a sea of brightly coloured costumes and autograph ques. For the first ten minutes of arriving at Comic-Con, a 13 year old blonde haired girl was in awe at the amount of people who were cosplaying just like her. She was dressed as Legolas Greenleaf from Lord of the Rings, and after another fifteen minutes of being squashed, she finally reached an open space and allowed herself to breathe. Soon enough, the young cosplayer spied a large group of girls dressed up as characters from The Hobbit, Doctor Who and The Avengers. Simply looking at complete strangers in funny costumes coming together and talking about their favorite movies, gave her a heart-warming feeling of belonging. No-one was judging, everyone was happy and she had never felt more at home.
These days fandoms have become one of the most dominant modes of engagement in our online community. A fandom is a group of people in which the fans of a particular person, book, movie, or tv show, are regarded collectively as a community or subculture. Whatever your interest or hobby is, you can find people that are interested in the same thing and share it through a similar topic. There are many many mediums of expression that fans use; art, writing, music, cosplaying, debating, etc.
Specific applications and websites have been created to satisfy the fan’s urge of expression; for example, ‘Fanfiction.net’, which is a free website for submitting fan-made stories. with over 689,000 Harry Potter fanfictions currently posted, and approximately 140,000 stories submitted per day. ‘Fanfiction.Net’ is currently the largest writing website on the internet.
In television, or media in general, companies lean towards their own brands, they don’t want people to think about their product in a way that doesn’t match their take on the product. Most fanfiction writers do not want to publish their stories commercially, they simply want to share their work with other fans.
209 million ‘Tumblr’ blogs have been made, by fans, to connect with other people that enjoy a specific topic of pop culture. These statistics may just be numbers to you, but if you think about it, that’s alot of people who are inspired by their favorite movies and books and are submitting original and creative content.
According to ‘WhatDoesTheInternetThink.com’, the topic of fangirls/fanboys came up with 91% negative votes. Fandoms had a 39% percent negative votes and the topic of conventions had 43% negative votes.
This reporter decided to interview a number of students in UWCSEA EAST (United World College of South East Asia), to find out what people’s opinions are on the topic…
“They’re kinda weird, fangirls and geeks, they’re always screaming and obsessing over the prettiest actor.” said a Grade 7 interviewee that has requested their name not to be used in this article.
“It’s something in our society that is generally mocked, but it should be embraced, because being a fan is looking up to people. For example, Katniss Everdeen, I like this character, I want to be like her because she has taught me so much, and I want to be in her world rather than live in this boring one.” says Sophia Paraskakis Narayan, a grade 8 student.
Apart from online blogs, conventions and celebrity meet-ups are extremely popular amongst the fangirls and fanboys of our society. “I went to ‘Leakycon’ a few years ago, and met Billie Piper, the whole experience was a bit overwhelming but you soon got used to it and it was so much fun being with other fans. When you’re at a convention you get really excited because this is something you love and it’s something that other people love.” Says Hannah Jones, a fangirl in UWCSEA.
“Being in a fandom is like having a second family, you feel like a part of a bigger community of people just like you. It can get a bit intense but you are having fun with friends without being judged.” says Sofia Anastacio, from 8RUP.
These are only a few experiences of fangirls, fanboys and geeks; the best way to understand these communities is to experience one yourself. Yes, attend Comic-Con and watch a few TV shows if you want, who knows, you might find something that you enjoy! You don’t have to watch all the tv shows in the world; but if you like something, even if it’s just one movie or if you are in one fandom, please don’t be ashamed of enjoying it. If you worry about what people think when you are enjoying your favorite comic-book or tv show, then you can’t really appreciate it fully.
Fan culture nurtures our creativity, shares our stories and our art with the entire world, encourages us to make friends and bond over a shared interest. It lets many more people have a voice and be part of a community; so why does society look down upon this kind of expression?
by Victoria
I really enjoyed reading through your article and I really like that you wrote about an issue that you genuinely care about and an issue that matters to a lot of people around the world. As you said "These days fandoms have become one of the most dominant modes of engagement in our online community". I feel like this is a problem a lot of people don't understand and probably won't understand unless they are part of the fandom so the fact that you are trying to open these people's eyes to this separate 'world', if thats the correct way to phrase it, I think is awesome :).
ReplyDeleteConsidering a lot of my friends are absolute fangirls I can definitely relate to some of the things you said. Its the exact same thing as liking a musical artist a lot. People are starting to realize how much certain fandoms can mean to a person and how much they could change a person and I think you writing this article is hopefully going to change some people perception on the word. People make so many friends through fandoms and some of those friends turn into friends that last a life time. Again its great that your spreading the word about this issue and eventually I think fangirls will be a lot more respected overtime. \
Great article :)
Dear Victoria,
ReplyDeleteI completely and utterly adore this article. As a fangirl myself I agree that “Being in a fandom is like having a second family, you feel like a part of a bigger community of people just like you. It can get a bit intense but you are having fun with friends without being judged.” I also think that it gives you a place to escape to when you are feeling stressed, sad, angry or simply bored. I for example when I am quite bored a let my mind go to this fictional place and I am very entertained. Why yes we fangirls/fanboys are weird but hasn't anyone heard ,normal is boring and overrated.
,Michelle Adams
ASFG Guadalajara ,Mexico
I really liked this article, I can relate to it well. I am also a fangirl, and spend a portion of my free time either geeking out in bookstores or libraries, writing fanfiction on a side called Wattpad.com, etc. Have you ever gone to the Comic Con, Victoria? I've never gone there but it is one of my dreams to go. This reminds me of an afternoon in the library, when my friends and I decided to go on a tour through the US. We would mainly focus on fangirl stuff (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, The Comic Con, some movie premiers, etc). If you have gone to the Comic Con, and continue to assist, then perhaps one day I'll see you there.
ReplyDeleteFernanda (Fer O) Oetling
ASFG Guadalajara ,Mexico