The problem with fandom

[alias_sqbr]

So, like everyone else in fandom, I am a queer disabled woman who loves video games. And like everyone else in fandom, I find great joy expressing myself through femslash fancomics about the robots in those video games. But something has been annoying me lately and I need to get it off my chest.

Where are the robot/human enemy ships?

(nb I've mainly talked about Portal but I think this applies equally to other fandoms)

All women are socialised to feel negative about their bodies, thanks to having lots of chest infections and confused feelings about Matilda from Doctor Snuggles as a girl in Western Australia in the 1980s. Robot/human relationships are the only way women can work through these feelings, and are a respected genre for exploring the nature of the self and the soul. Yet fandom insists on creating human/human enemy femslash fancomics, thus contributing to the marginalisation of those of us with body issues, as well as kink shaming robot sex as somehow freakish or gross (as if those of us who like such relationships in fiction are somehow actually having sex with robots. Which: no. Ew) Mainstream media is full of human/human relationships, why pollute fandom with them too? Obviously these people are just in it for the boring vanilla het porn and are incapable of appreciating the unique and beautiful relationship between a woman and her robot love. (I haven't mentioned robot/robot shipping because I don't know much about it. I guess some people like it but it seems a bit weird to me)

Some claim that robot/human enemy femslash ships are hard to come by in canon. Yet look at all the people who actively deny the canonical relationship between GlaDOS and Chell in Portal 2, some going so far as to claim that GlaDOS is Chell's mother (which is both biologically impossible and messed up. I don't mean to overgeneralise, but these people clearly all have Oedipus complexes) Then there are all the Wheatley/Chell fancomics even though Wheatley had no chemistry with Chell whatsoever. The robot/human enemy femslash ships are there fandom, you're just choosing to ignore them.

And then when I do find Chell/GlaDOS femslash fancomics? They have the two of them being FRIENDS. This is not only horribly OOC, but encourages abusive relationships, since it implies that the only way to love someone is to be totally happy all the time and never argue or criticise them (as we all know, what you like in fic is directly related to what you think is good in real life) Have these people forgotten that GlaDOS tried to KILL Chell? I guess they think murder is ok! It's pretty upsetting for those of us who have had abusive partners who expected us to be happy all the time. Clearly anyone who creates robot/human femslash fancomics about couples who aren't enemies is a naive twelve year old girl with no idea about relationships who likes Twilight. Or is a serial killer.

In short, the lack of robot/human enemy femslash fancomics is everything that's wrong with fandom, and just goes to show how selfish, ignorant, and lazy all fans other than me are. BUT I'M NOT SAYING THAT CREATING OTHER KINDS OF FANWORK IS BAD. I have created other kinds of fanwork myself (though I blame everyone else in fandom for pressuring me to do it)! I'm just saying, maybe we should try to stop being so terrible. Is that too much to ask?

nb I'm going to assume that anyone who disagrees with me simply lacks the basic education (eg a phd in computational mathematics) required to discuss the subject in any depth.

(In case it's not obvious: THIS IS SATIRE. Not of people criticising problematic fannish trends in principle, just of people overgeneralising their own experiences and needs onto everyone else and trying to shame fandom into making more of what they like in an entirely negative and unhelpful way. Inspired most recently by various posts about femslash, unhappy endings, enemy ships, and shipping in general all being "problematic".

That said, I really do wish there were more robot/human enemy femslash fancomics)

Comments

[lian]

Preach it, sister! All those Joker/EDI shippers make me SICK. Reaper!Shep/EDI enemy-slash is the only viable post-canon pairing, PERIOD.



(I am saddened by your "this is a satire" addendum, though. Although granted, I've seen incredibly amusing mass defollowings on tumblr over statements that were unambiguously satire, so....)

[alias_sqbr]

...ok I love Joker/EDI but now I really want some Reaper!Shep/EDI enemy-slash :D Though that's robot/robot, which, as I said above, is just weird. Maybe Reaper!Shep/Tali, what with her attitude to AIs...

I did ponder not adding the disclaimer but if nothing else it would be hypocritical, I'm not always fantastic at spotting satire myself.

[lea_hazel]

In case it's not obvious: THIS IS SATIRE.

My brain must be generating fuzz, because I was only about %75 percent sure of this.

All of these discussions are ones I didn't even want to bother engaging with. I think I actually Tumblr saviored some of my favorite fandoms over one of them, albeit temporarily. Especially the happy ending one. I can't even begin to process what went down there, it was all very "unpopular fandom opinion".

Now let's generalize this to a theory about how women are socialized.

[alias_sqbr]

That's why the disclaimer is there, I know brain fuzz well. And yeah, the happy ending one made me mentally bluescreen a bit with the sheer level of illogic.

Now let's generalize this to a theory about how women are socialized.

I knew my argument was missing something! *edits*

[tree]

*applause*

i totally dig robot/human 'ships. i think it must be all the star trek: the next generation i watched in my formative years. ;)

[alias_sqbr]

I legitimately think that one reason I like robot/human and other ships involving non human (but not animal, that's a whole other squick) bodied characters is that it helps me sidestep my Issues with Bodies, in the same way that some other women sidestep their issues with cis female bodies by writing about cis men.

Also Artificial Intelligence is just cool. I blame Isaac Asimov :D

[tree]

that's interesting. i'd never thought of it like that. in thinking about it, i realise that my Issues with Bodies do not extend into fictional universes. but AI is still really cool. :)

some other women sidestep their issues with cis female bodies by writing about cis men.

really? is that why so many women write slash?

[alias_sqbr]

Apparently it's the motivation for some of them, yes! I don't see the appeal myself, but I'm sure most of them don't see the appeal of robots either :D

[purrdence]

So how would skinjob Cylons come into this?

[alias_sqbr]

That is a VERY GOOD QUESTION. I think they count, though I never got into BSG myself.

[anghraine]

This is good and you should feel good. At first, I was like "wait, what?" and then laughed until I cried - yeah, there's definitely a point at which "eat your vegetables, fandom!" starts to sound like this.

Also: I feel I don't mean to overgeneralise, but these people clearly all have Oedipus complexes should be on an icon. And really, shouldn't post-grad degrees (especially in math and hard sciences!) be required for all substantive discussions?

[alias_sqbr]

shouldn't post-grad degrees (especially in math and hard sciences!) be required for all substantive discussions?

Exactly! Just imagine how much less fractious fandom would become!

[fred_mouse]

*sporfle*

I wasn't sure of the satire, but was still highly amused.

[alias_sqbr]

I'm increasingly glad I labelled it as satire, or you'd all have gone off with entirely the wrong impression of me :)

[fred_mouse]

I wouldn't so much have had the wrong impression, as been bemused and assumed that I was missing something (which I would have been).