Fandom, like society, has lost its collective mind.
Where once it was understood that fandoms clashed, that fans would butt heads, and that there would always be a What I Like Is Better Than What You Like argument, it’s all gone far, far past what was once good-natured fun.
We can’t just LIKE things anymore, it’s almost like it isn’t allowed. Everything is challenged and even the mere mention of – “oh, this is a thing that is happening” will elicit virtual jeers and laughter.
As geeks, the big thing was that so many of us were bullied and ostracized for simply loving what we loved.
The fact that we didn’t fall into what school society and greater cultural society deemed the “norm” made many of us outcasts, just for loving what we loved.
As the culture shifted though and Hollywood embraced comics and genres (good grief, we saw a FANTASY FILM win a Best Picture Oscar!), it became cool to like superheroes and geekier pursuits.
Hooray!
Alas, it’s like we needed that feeling of being an outcast or being into something other people weren’t to make ourselves feel good. Once everyone liked it we needed a new enemy.
So we fight the mainstream, we fight Hollywood, and we fight ourselves.
OH, Hollywood NEVER gets their adaptations right.
OH, another SEQUEL!
OH, they’re changing the name/race/sex/whatever of a character I may or may not care about.
We’re gatekeepers now.
We know best.
Star Wars fans have become toxic to the point of parody.
A series that’s literally about rebellion has created fans that are sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynistic, among other things.
I am not quite sure what they want since if they only like the first three movies that were made…they still have them. You know the ones, where a princess is the smartest in the group? Yeah, that trilogy. You can get mad, if you want, about the movies – though you’re also mad that Lucas changed the originals so…at this point do you even LIKE Star Wars? Do you just like the action figures maybe?
Horror is great because every movie is the scariest and stupidest ever made. We want our movies to be respected but cringe at the idea of “elevated horror”. We love 1980s slasher movies but hate sequels. We hate remakes but can’t stop talking about movies made fifty years ago as we bemoan the lack of more movies like them.
Superhero films are both stupid AND great.
They are ruining movies and saving the box office.
They are predictable and do not take enough chances.
They are too woke and not adapting the stories we love.
The “woke” thing gets me the most since most legendary comics were started by men who were either exorcising demons or trying to show a world that was better than the one they lived in. The big named comic characters and franchises were about truth, honor, love, and fighting tyranny.
We act surprised when modern comic book movies “force” some perceived agenda when these comics were ALWAYS about agendas. Sure, the characters were beating people up and fighting aliens and all that but beneath it all they were saying something as well.
It’s like we love the body but hate the mind.
We love seeing tough people do tough stuff, we want the mindlessness of it but if there’s anything deeper to it we’re angry.
Angry that it doesn’t align with how we see the world.
Everything is political, they cry, while MAKING everything political.
OH, CAPTAIN MARVEL is too political and woke, as is the actress. Well, but, see, if you don’t like the actress…don’t follow her social accounts! People can say things we don’t like – to a point – and we can still like their work.
It can happen.
It does happen.
And we can also dislike or be indifferent to things and NOT force the world to know about them.
And there’s the rub, right?
That we don’t HAVE to be babies about everything.
We don’t have to mock people or things we are not into.
Sure, message boards have always been places to vent and complain, and that’s fine, but it’s become hateful.
It’s become personal.
I know I rarely poke my head up on one because I am not interested in getting into an argument or having someone/s talk mess about me because I am not of the same mind as they are on a thing.
It isn’t worth it, especially not over fandom.
Good grief.
This stuff used to be fun.
It used to be fun to talk about geeky stuff and to speculate and to examine. Now it’s all – ugh, they did this and this wrong, and they ruined that and blah, blah, blah.
There are a LOT of things I don’t like.
And it’s fine.
I still complain, but I don’t do it from a place where I have to feel like I am right and everyone else is wrong.
Judging from what I love…believe me, I have no place to talk.
It stinks that we’ve made fandom so toxic that it’s just not much fun anymore. Even the news blogs are snarky now. They don’t have to tow the company line, as it were, but jeepers, when you go to read some news and get three helpings of that writer’s grudges they are bearing, it gets tiresome.
It’s all tiresome.
It’s like we all came out of our virtual basements and then chased one another back down there by bullying one another. We’re forced to enjoy our loves and passion in private.
Heck, even collectors are becoming brats.
We treat one another like crap because we can do it online, virtually, bullying to our heart’s content, and never face consequences. Sure, someone may come bully us but we can just block them…or dox them if we’re nasty and smart enough.
We vanquished our bullies to only become them ourselves.
We lived long enough to become the villains.
Great job!
And none of this is to say Hollywood or the mainstream get it right, but darn it, even if we don’t like something someone out there might. Some kids may have just fallen in love with fandom and geekdom because of something we think is absolutely stupid.
And you know what?
Good for them.
Their love of that thing makes it good, at least to them.
We were all in the same space at different points in our lives and had we had people gatekeeping everything we’d never have become who we are.
Open the gates, for Pete’s sake.
Just shut up and get out of the way.
Grumble on your own time.
Let geedom ring.
…c…
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 