Help me, Obi-Fan!

[rivkat]

Okay, so I am going to this conference, and Madhavi Sunder and Anupam Chander have a paper, The Right to Mary Sue (28 pages long, pdf), which will be published in a major law review.  They use Mary Sue as a shorthand for much fan fiction, and also they argue that self-insertion into copyrighted works is a good thing.  I am very sympathetic to their argument towards the rehabilitation of Mary Sue, though I have serious doubts about using her as the representative creation of fan fiction.  Part of this may well be the usual fear that fandom will be misrepresented or misunderstood by outsiders.  Chander & Sunder are very sympathetic – in fact, I think they overstate the liberatory potential of fan fiction – but there’s always that worry.

Anyway, I have an opportunity to offer comments, and I have plenty about Mary Sue as feminist heroine and slash as feminist liberation of the original text.  What I lack, shamefully, is a comparable ability to discuss race in fan fiction/media fandom.  Chander & Sunder argue that fan fiction allows marginalized groups to insert themselves in the text or reorganize the narrative around themselves, and couple that with discussion of the underrepresentation/misrepresentation of characters of color in TV/movies, but how often does that happen with race?  We have plenty of gender-swaps; does anyone know of a race-swap story?  Any good discussion of Teyla and Ronon as characters of color in SGA fanfic? 

Things I already know I want to show them: Mimisere’s Jesus Walks (found a copy on YouTube, by the way; that result came up before any LJ result).  Remember Us, the archive.  (No SGA section, interestingly.)  Coffeeandink from 2002.  Them Mean Ol’, Low-Down, Lando Calrissian Blues.  Blaise Zabini is black (oh darn, am I going to have to explain FandomWank to them?).

I have been reading cultural appropriation posts with interest, but I didn’t realize I’d need to try to do some outreach.  So if anyone has links to good discussions of race in fandom that could help explain us – the good and the bad – to some smart, capable people, I’d really appreciate it. 

Comments

[batdina.livejournal.com]

I can't tell whether you have her friended or not, but when I have questions viz race in fandom, my first port of call is ladyjax. I'll point her thissaway, but you might want to track her down yourself as well.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I am extremely hesitant to impose on someone I don't know on this topic, but if she is interested in pointing to places I could show the authors of this paper, I'd love to do so.

[batdina.livejournal.com]

no problem. I'll check with her. The main reason I thought of her in the context of your request is that she ran a panel at Escapade on this very topic, specifically about the use of people of colour in the Stargate Universe. I'll see if I can track down the lj posts on that panel, which spawned an entire fandom-wide discussion on cultural appropriation. IOW, tons of stuff that might be useful.

Hi there

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I'm ladyjax and I was pointed this way by a couple of folks. Here are some links that might be useful for background material. One place to start would be deadbrowalking: The People of Color Deathwatch.

Low traffic but well thoughtout discussion about POC and the roles they get on sci fi, fantasy and horror tv shows and movies. The memories section (
essential dbw (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=deadbrowalking&keyword=essential+dbw&filter=all)) has some of the source material we used for the Absence of Color in Black and White Fiction panel at Escapade this year.

It's not in the memories section yet but this post (http://community.livejournal.com/deadbrowalking/114227.html) details what happened at the BSG panel at ComicCon when a friend of mine asked Ron Moore why the Gemonese ended up all Black (at least to this point) and religious fundamentalists to boot. It's worth it to look at the YouTube footage simply because of Lucy Lawless' asshattery.

There's also Pam Noles' essay (http://www.infinitematrix.net/faq/essays/noles.html) about the sci-fi adaptation of Earthsea and another post (http://andweshallmarch.typepad.com/and_we_shall_march/2006/01/the_shame_of_ea.html) about how certain people lost their minds over what she had to say.

In all the recent discussion about race and fandom, one thing has become very clear and that's the fact that many folks feel like the discussions are bubbling up out of nowhere or because people are just being bitchy. And yet, I'm used to having discussions like this. It doesn't necessarily make me enjoy a show less to have a critical discussion about it. As a consumer of sci-fi media and seeing how things have changed over the years and how much has stayed the same I think it's vital that the discussions continue.

Oh, and another pairing that doesn't get much love? Kurdy and Jeremiah from the show Jeremiah.

Hi back

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'd thought about the Pam Noles essay because it's just so good. The reason I didn't include it on my initial list is that I am trying to point these authors to material on fan creations specifically because their argument is that fan fiction etc. can fill in or fix racial gaps/problems in the original texts, so DBW sounds like it's going to be really useful.

I couldn't get into Jeremiah -- I think it was the 90210 problem.

Re: Hi back

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I hesitated at first about including the Pam Noles essay because of your original stated intent of what you needed but then I thought about it some more: Noles is also a fan. So, at the very least it might make for some good background material.

I couldn't get into Jeremiah -- I think it was the 90210 problem.

LOL!

I know. In the beginning, I wasn't sure if I could get past flashes of 90210 but since I wasn't deep into it, I was willing to give Luke Perry a pass. ;)

There's one episode from the first season of Jeremiah that has some explicit discussions of race in this particular post-apocalyptic landscape which is worth seeing: Moon Over Gemini. Kurdy and one of the other characters, Elizabeth (played by Kandyse McClure who is on Battlestar Galactica as Dualla) encounter a Black separatist group that survived the plague.

Re: Hi back

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Side note -- I really like Dualla, and while I'm not thrilled with her as a person right now, I thought she was a realistic character: a very young girl dealing with the excitement of attention from at least two guys. McClure played a much more standard bitch in a guest role on Smallville. I think I saw an episode of Jeremiah with her in it before I gave up, but I should dig through the tapes a friend gave me to see if I have that episode.

Re: Hi back

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I like Dualla too. If it's still posted and I get some time to dig it up, you should have a listen to one of Ron Moore's podcasts from Season One in which he explains a lot more about Dualla and who she is to Lee. They've known each other longer than people realize; at one point they served on the same ship prior to the Galactica.

The relationship with Lee was so poorly handled and I think there's a lot more crap heaped on her head about it than on Lee's (who is not exactly the most mature guy around) because the way I look at it, he's the one who started messing with her in the first place in the gym. Yes, I'm a little protective. Not that that's a bad thing... ;)


Here's a link (http://community.livejournal.com/open_com/15783.html#cutid1) to some comments Jamie Bamber (Apollo) made about the Lee/Dee conundrum.

Re: Hi back

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Oh, Apollo has his own asshattery to answer for. He's older and should know better. Dee isn't all that attractive to me as a person because teenage girls are not generally my favorite people, but I like her professional development and I look forward to seeing what will happen with the character.

Re: Hi back

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

Late to the party here: Jeremiah is so small a fandom that I have a good handle on who's doing what, fic and vid-wise. Also I attended the Jeremiah panel at Escapade in 2005 and took notes. And I have S1 on DVD, if you need clips or to borrow.

Re: Hi back

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Re: Hi there

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

one thing has become very clear and that's the fact that many folks feel like the discussions are bubbling up out of nowhere or because people are just being bitchy.

or, you know, just our desire to eat white peepul in ravioli w/ a nice cream sauce...

And yet, I'm used to having discussions like this.

what, four years of deadbro and you think it's a trend?