Calling vidders and academics

[rivkat]

So, rather than finishing up my edits or preparing materials for Vividcon (by the way – any intellectual property-type questions vidders want answered? Let me know here and I’ll be sure to work your questions into my presentation) – I’ve been doing more reading, specifically at Henry Jenkins’ website. He has a bunch of interesting stuff up, from Lassie to Mortal Kombat. There’s a long dialogue between him and Matt Hills, who wrote Fan Cultures, that is just wonderful, with too much thoughtful stuff to summarize, though my favorite bits are about the change in cultural production over the past few decades to anticipate, incorporate and respond to fans. If you’re at all interested in theorizing fandom, read it.

What this exchange really got me thinking about was Jenkins’ account of the increasing respectability among academics of being a fan as well as of writing about fans. To a certain extent, this is clearly true; if anything, now one has to defend looking down on fans rather than identifying with them. But Jenkins’ and Hills’ experience is not mine, for a specific (perhaps gendered) reason: As far as I know, though both men are explicit in their academic work that they are fans, they do not produce fiction, art or vids. “Coming out” for them is therefore a lot less fraught. For me, the danger is far more related to my students than my colleagues, most of whom are likely to see my fannish endeavors as bizarre but not academically disqualifying. With students, though, wearing Spock ears really has nothing on the way I’m exposed. Sure, if you actually read Jenkins’ work, you’ll know he’s read a bunch of slash, but, flippantly, it seems to me that the only thing surprising about finding a man reading “porn” is that he’s reading it. My students can easily access what they might well assume are my sexual fantasies – or, at a minimum, what I think might be arousing to readers. Yes, I do feel vulnerable, and it isn’t something I’d ever bring up with students, though I haven’t taken heroic measures to separate my identities and I understand I’ve been outed to some of them.

Anyway, I’d be interested to hear what other fan writers/artists/vidders who are also academics have to say about what your academic colleagues know about your fannish commitments.

Comments

Re: A heartfelt (and long-winded) hello...

[jocelyncs.livejournal.com]

Oh, believe me, I'll be joining fandom_lawyers. I'm not a slasher by trade, but virgule sounds interesting too. I did not know such enlightened groups existed!

The fandom/football comparison is certainly true! My blood pressure went up quite a bit during the Goldberg debate--did you catch his line to me? I gave him a play-by-play of how starting as a fanwriter taught me how to write, and his only response was: "You've been fanwriting for thirteen years? That's just sad." Grrr.

I both hope and fear what will happen when Copyright Law finally gets put to the test in a full-blown fanwriter vs. author court case.

I wonder sometimes if I should do more to disconnect my fanwriting from my Real World persona, (at least until I get a job.) But then it's the same case: more likely to be discovered by sympathetic fans than unsympathetic nonfans. I did out myself to our Copyright professor yesterday when I told her about the Goldberg debate--my blushing when the subject comes up tends to be the biggest hazard.

Thanks for answering--and do come see the show in two weeks, it's going to be great. The only other fandom people I know at school are in G&S.