Rant: The Absence of Squee

[argentum_ls]

Sometimes this fandom makes me really sad.

I’ve been in a lot of fandoms over the years of every size. I’ve started fandoms, I’ve kept them limping along when few others were interested, I’ve helped end them. I’ve been a nobody and I’ve been a BNF. What I’ve never been is so excluded.

Fandom is an incredible social construct and there’s so much to marvel at within its workings: mailing lists, kink memes, fests, archives, twitter, bingos, tumblr, facebook, conventions. And the squee. Ultimately, it’s all about the squee. Fandom is the mechanism for individual fans to share their love of a media with other fans as loudly and in as many ways as possible. When one is the only person in one’s family, real-life-friend circle, or neighborhood who loves a particular media, the internet may be the only way to get one’s squee on.

The friendships that fandom can create are amazing. The hostilities are also amazing. Emotions run at their highest, exclamation marks abound, and whole vocabularies have been developed just to better express the squee.

It’s well documented that when people with a common viewpoint spend time together, they feed off each other. Their opinions intensify. They develop memes and short-hands to talk about the things they feel are important. They share backstories and explanations to help smooth over the holes in their arguments. In fandom, this manifests as fanon.

Right around the time first season was ending, a juggernaut ship developed in the TW fandom. This happens. Normally it would be no big deal, though I did personally find it concerning because the fandom was so new that it didn’t really have the traction to support itself with such a ship. It was acting like a fandom that was dying, not one that was being born.

In a larger fandom, developments and fanon in one ship would be mitigated by the activity in the other ships and there’d still be plenty of room for everyone in the middle. Or, the various factions could crawl off into their own fan-corners and play happily with like-minded friends. In the TW fandom, the memes and fanon from the main ship took over and became the assumed norm for how the show was viewed and how the fandom could be participated in.

Over the hiatus, this resulted in the non-like-minded fans dropping away. It’s hard to squee when what one wants to squee about isn't in line with what the majority is squeeing about. By the end of April, most of the former TW fans who weren’t into the main ship had left. They’d either been driven out or they’d quit. I heard from a few as they were leaving, and very nearly was one myself.

Here we are at the start of the second season, though. Squee is at its highest. The fandom is welcoming new members constantly (or should be), which means new voices and new perspectives. The stats on my stories are through the roof. I’ve never seen reading numbers so high. (The comments are good, too).

The problem now is that the Derek/Stiles fans have become so accustomed to everyone agreeing with their viewpoints that they’ve forgotten that they are viewpoints and not givens.

I’ve grown used to my kink meme prompts being ignored, my comment meme prompts being ignored, and my entries in other fests and challenges being ignored. I don’t like any of that one bit. It’s not the way fandom should be or behave. But that’s how it is. I don’t ship Derek/Stiles, and being ignored is apparently the cost. The rare, random fill has come through that lets me live in hope that more will happen, and it reminds me that I’m not completely alone out there.

But, overall in the fandom, there’s still no room for me.

I was going to participate in one of the live chats on LJ. I logged on to find that the majority of the comments already there were people decrying the BORINGNESS of one of the elements I most enjoy on the show. That alone wouldn’t be the problem, if it weren’t for the implication from the way the comments were being made that they expected everyone to agree with how BORING that element is. I left. I wanted to squee, not defend myself.

Tumblr. I can’t get started on tumblr. Everywhere I look, even when I follow tags for the things I’m interested in, I see hate and put downs casually being flung about as if they are the mere facts of the show.

Today I saw the post for the twitter friending meme. It was on a general fan site, not one dedicated to the main ship. Three items were listed in the invitation. One was a point I don’t agree with and one was, once again, a negative against something I particularly like. So much for finding friends that way.

Hardly before it got started, the fandom closed itself off. There’s no room for the new, the innovative, or the different. For me, for the other non-Derek/Stiles shippers, for the new fans who don’t yet have solid opinions, there’s no place to squee and no one to squee with. This all makes me sad.

Comments

[fountainxxpenny.livejournal.com]

Agree. Agree so hard and you know it.

I would love to see this cross posted in at least one of the general TW communities (heck, even in ffrants), but sadly, I don't even know if it's worth the risk. Participants don't seem particularly open minded about such things.

But if you did, I'll stand in the line of fandom fire with you.

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

I don't know where to cross post that it would be on topic. It's really not a fanfic rant. I think I'll let it sit here for awhile and see what happens.

[bdrixhaettc.livejournal.com]

I agree with this so, so much. It's come to the point that I ignore practically anything to do with Sterek unless it's by an author I care about and trust to treat the other non-Sterek characters well.

Could I post the above (with source credit ofcoures) on my tumblr? That's where I practically live these days and it would be good to make the non-Sterek voices heard so that like-minded will know THEY ARE NOT ALONE :D

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

By all means: post to your heart's content.

Also, I do have a (mostly useless) tumblr under my LJ name if you want to add me.

[heard_the_owl]

Aw! I'm so sorry!
I ship all the ships, even the canon ones - ESPECIALLY the canon ones - and LOVE Allison and Scott. I think they are adorable. I was just being silly but I see how that could be taken as a negative thing against the main pairing of the show and it's so hard to express intent without visual cues. I should have known better and I'm off to edit the post right now.
<3

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and I appreciate the changes. It's not just your post, though, by any stretch. That was just the latest in a long line of "you don't belong heres" that are endemic in this fandom, and I lost my ability to keep silent.

[mary-greenman.livejournal.com]

I ship Stiles with everybody (but especially Stiles/Derek), basically, and I've never really witnessed this kind of reaction. Sad that you have - and that you've been a victim of it. Fandom is supposed to be fun, opinion based, and a lot of the times, shippers aren't even based on show fact.

I mean, I started in the Buffy fandom which is known for the Spike vs Angel wars. And character bashing fics. I think posting opinions and metas are great but putting people down for having a different opinion? Thats just troll-like behavior saved for anime fandoms.

I'm sorry you've been so attacked. Maybe we should open a comm where all ships are accepted, not just the main ones? lol. Yes, thats my answer to everything. >.>

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

and I've never really witnessed this kind of reaction. Sad that you have - and that you've been a victim of it.

This really isn't just about me and what I've experienced. If it were, I would have left a long time ago and gone to do other things.

The thing is, there's a lot of behavior and attitudes that're difficult to see if you're on the inside. If for example (and, just an example; I don't know where or if you fall on this opinion), you feel that Stiles is the best friend a person could ever have and Scott doesn't deserve him, then it's easy to not see how repeating this viewpoint (putting it into prompts, shaping character interaction around it, tagging it) is really, really negative and is hurtful to people who are into the Scott+Stiles friendship. This is the kind of thing that is epidemic in this fandom, the casual disregard for what other fans might enjoy.

but putting people down for having a different opinion?

I'm not sure if you're saying I did this. I hope not. People can ship who they want to ship (or not ship, as the case may be). What I'm calling people out on is the exclusionary behavior of assuming that the fanon created in the ship is the correct and only way of viewing.

Maybe we should open a comm where all ships are accepted, not just the main ones?

:) Sadly, that wouldn't address the problem. There are plenty of comms for different ships. What there aren't is fans, and a large part of that is because fans who don't ship Derek/Stiles have received the message loud and clear that they're not welcome in the fandom.

[cbassluv.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. It's taken me months, but I've come to surround myself by similar minded folks on Tumblr. I've given up on LJ a little. We're few but it's enough to keep me sane. Also, pming you now.

[flwrpwr-vampyre.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is exactly how I feel in this fandom. I've been in so many fandoms and this is the worst one I've seen for having one ship and one ship alone. And the worst part is that it's fairly likely I would have at least liked the ship if I could have any content for the other ones.

I'm on Tumblr and have managed to find four or five good friends who don't ship it even a little, it's been nice. (Plus Tumblr savior is amazing.)

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

It's nice to meet you :) I used to be okay with Derek/Stiles until they took over everything and crushed the other voices out there. Then I got thoroughly burned out.

I'm not really on tumblr, but I'd be happy to be your friend. I don't ship D/S at all.

[bloodyxunicorns.livejournal.com]

Hi! I saw this earlier but didn't have time to reply but I reblogged it on my tumblr from bdrixhaettc (that's where I found this actually). I agree with everything you've said, and it gets pretty frustrating when Sterek overshadows a lot of the other characters and other ships :/

I’ve grown used to my kink meme prompts being ignored, my comment meme prompts being ignored, and my entries in other fests and challenges being ignored.

I'm sorry to hear this :/ I hardly get on the kink meme anymore now because of this. It takes forever to find a prompt to read/or fill of the ships I follow.

What is this LJ live chat? I've never heard of it.

I know you don't get on tumblr much but is it okay if I follow you? I don't know your tumblr though... I'm flawedxuni.

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

I hardly get on the kink meme anymore now because of this. It takes forever to find a prompt to read/or fill of the ships I follow.

I've stayed on the KM, hoping for that one rare fill to slip through that makes it worth it. Some of the prompts are worthwhile, too. No one fills them--I would try, but writing slash isn't a skill set I've yet developed--but sometimes they're still fun to think about. I also feed prompts to the meme hoping to spark anyone's interest.

What is this LJ live chat? I've never heard of it.

It wasn't a true live chat. It was more like live-blogging on LJ.

I know you don't get on tumblr much but is it okay if I follow you?

Feel free :) The more, the merrier. My tumblr is the same as my LJ user name. I don't use it much, though that may change.

[darth_begbie]

I agree with this so much it hurts.

I've been in several fandoms over the years and sometimes my OTP is the fandom favorite, sometimes its a rare pairing. But I've never felt so completely out of step with any fandom like I have with this one.

I've basically stopped following all of the general Teen Wolf comms. I only follow a couple of character and pairing specific comms here and on Tumblr. I'll squee with you about non-Sterek things. :)

(My Tumblr account is martianspyder - its fairly new,so there isn't much to it.)

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

I'll squee with you about non-Sterek things. :)

Awesome! The more squee the better.

My tumblr is the same as my LJ user name. I don't use it much, but feel free to follow/friend/whatever.

Read this on Tumblr and gotta agree

[hiidenuhma.livejournal.com]

Another voice adding to the small but insistent choir: Fucking word.

This is my experience in the Teen Wolf fandom exactly. Now, I'm used to shipping against the majority and enjoying series that aren't that mainstream, so this isn't about popularity. I was in the fandom doing my own thing during most of the quiet period, but it felt so exclusive to Derek/Stiles shippers that at times, it was really unbearable not to be one of them. Like you said, there's no room, no community for people like us in this fandom.

I admit, I've considered leaving the fandom behind (even though I love the series to pieces and it's been such a source of inspiration for me), but I guess I'm too stubborn to quit even if no one is agreeing with me (this isn't to say there aren't people in my shipper's corner or that I haven't made any friends in the fandom).

I'm really, really hoping that the new season will break down some of the divide between the Derek/Stiles shippers and the "others", so that we can really start this fandom business properly.

Re: Read this on Tumblr and gotta agree

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

I was in the fandom doing my own thing during most of the quiet period, but it felt so exclusive to Derek/Stiles shippers that at times, it was really unbearable not to be one of them.

Yes. This. Exactly.

I too have been doing my own thing and I have made some excellent friends, but it's been despite things, not because of them.

I'm really, really hoping that the new season will break down some of the divide between the Derek/Stiles shippers and the "others", so that we can really start this fandom business properly.

And this. This is what I want, all I've wanted: a Teen Wolf fandom, not a Derek/Stiles fandom. People will have their preferences and corners, but we need to remember, and work harder to respect, that our corner is our corner and not the whole thing.

[fotoshop-cutout.livejournal.com]

I also agree with you. While I might really enjoy Derek/Stiles, I'd definitely like to see more love for the other pairings and not have the fandom be so "my way is the only way". As sad as it is, a lot of the people (especially on Tumblr, I've noticed at any rate) are like that. The second you have a different opinion (even if you're not attacking theirs) they get up in arms. Then they tell their friends and it turns into a doggy pile (pun intended).

This is part of the reason why my big bang (which will be posted on the 20th!) is a Gen fic--I feel there needs to be more of this, more of other pairings and more open-mindedness.

I do hope that you start a sort of crusade with this because it's needed. I'll support you!

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, dear. Hearing from one of the "insiders" that there's a problem really helps to bring home how big the problem is. There should be room for interpretation and disagreement within sub-groups of fandom, as well.

This is part of the reason why my big bang (which will be posted on the 20th!) is a Gen fic--I feel there needs to be more of this, more of other pairings and more open-mindedness.

And this is exactly what's needed to make fandom work: for people to occasionally step outside their preferred zones and seek to fill a gap in the fandom, to reach out to the people who aren't otherwise accommodated. You give me hope that more people will follow suit.

I do hope that you start a sort of crusade with this because it's needed.

I was ranting, not trying to start a crusade. However, I think one has started. All I hope is that there will be enough change so the new people coming in this season and next will feel welcome.

I'll support you!

:)

[bringthefate.livejournal.com]

I just stumbled on this, while I was reading some of your fic. I can understand your sentiments. It always saddens me when one pairing seems to dominant the whole fandom, and I'm one of those people who usually likes the most non-fanon pairing. Example, my OTP is Jackson/Derek but that doesn't stop me from shipping Jackson with Scott or Derek with Lydia or any other pair.

I can't even explain why I don't like Derek/Stiles, it could be because everyone else does. For whatever reason, I don't see them as anything more than brothers or friends.

There are fic ideas I have, but because they aren't Derek/Stiles I'm a bit afraid to ever post them outside my writing journal because I know not many people would take interest in them.

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

It always saddens me when one pairing seems to dominant the whole fandom

The issue I have is not so much the one pairing dominating the fandom as it is the one pairing's *fanon* dominating how one is allowed to perceive the characters and participate in the fandom. So, yeah. It all kinda ends up in the same place.

Regardless, it's good to hear from you. :) I know there are a few Jackson/Derek pieces out there, though not anywhere near enough. I wrote one. Unfortunately, I've been so burned out on Derek as a character that I can't really tolerate writing him anymore.

You should share your ideas. Isn't there a Jackson/Derek comm? Post to the kink meme. It needs more voices. I didn't mean to start anything with my rant; yet, I've started something. The time is ripe for all of us to come out of hiding and silence and to work to make this fandom a bigger, more inclusive place.

[missrao.livejournal.com]

It has been really depressing to come looking for fanfiction and all I find is Sterek. I want to relive the joy of the show, not read non-canon porn.

I can't always re-imagine the characters in slightly different situations, or fill in the gaps of a missing scene, or slot in a delicious side-adventure. And I've never managed one of those amazing long AU fics. So I love it when others can and share it.

I've started favouriting gen fic I would normally read once and move on from just because there's so little that interests me (I usually read ff.net).

I love your fics, though. If you squee, I'll squee. :)

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

I want to relive the joy of the show, not read non-canon porn.

YES! I AGREE!

I love your fics, though.

Awww. Thank you. I'm so happy to hear that what I write helps you relive the joy of the show.

I'm hearing from so many people I didn't know were out there. This alone gives me so much squee. Let's squee more!

[bethskink.livejournal.com]

I just came across this. Your ability to articulate all the things about this fandom that make me wither inside, just blew me away. I'm so encouraged that you wrote this (very brave) and that it's gotten such great response.

I think it's really sad that a new fan (and I actually just saw this) who gets inspired by the show takes one look at this fandom and hops back out, because there is only one thing (that they may not like) to read and interact about. It's a sure way to lose new friends.

I faded away from fandom after the first rush of season one, as you know. Part of that was real life stuff, but another part was feeling like there wasn't enough in the fandom to stay for and ... Okay, I love writing and I love the cannon in this show so much that writing gen has been really fun if not always easy. Then I started to feel kind of pressured.

It was like I was trying to push back against this gigantic thing (the one ship fannon) in order to keep a fandom for a show I loved alive, and there were only a few other people trying. I felt outnumbered, and as you said, excluded. I'm not a disciplined writer, and I'm not fast. I can't churn stuff out like it's a job and I didn't want to feel responsible (even partially) for propping up a whole fandom. I just didn't have the energy for it.

I've missed having someone to squee with so much that I actually started emailing a friend my episode reactions, though she doesn't watch the show. Just so I could get it all out. She's very nice about it, but she doesn't have anything to say back.

Anyway, all that's to say I support you, I support a revolution of this fandom! Support, support, support.

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

The response to my rant has been incredible. I posted it feeling like I was speaking for myself and maybe one or two other people and immediately discovered otherwise.

It's a sure way to lose new friends.

Yes, which is a sure way to kill the fandom. We should be working to bring people in, to make the fandom bigger and more inclusive.

Then I started to feel kind of pressured.

I know what you mean, and I'm sorry if I contributed in any way to making you feel pressured.

There was so much on so few of us to prop up our end that, if it hadn't been the promise of a second season, we all would have burned out and quit. Yet, it's the efforts that those few of us put in that helped sustain any energy at all.

I support a revolution of this fandom!

I think one has started. I'm already noticing a change. Let's hope the wave continues.

Welcome back, dear.

[sablize.livejournal.com]

Hi again! I saw your post on tumblr (which I'm now following, because I need more rational teen wolf fans on my dash) so I went to your livejournal to read this, and omg I totally agree with you.

The Teen Wolf fandom is a lot like the Vampire Diaries fandom; like, I don't ship Damon/Elena or Stefan/Elena and my otp is Damon/Rose, so with all the crazy Delena/Stelena shippers I often feel left out. But I mean the TVD fandom is pretty large and it's stopped bothering me, as long as I stay in my little bubble I'm fine; there's plenty of fic and things for the shi

[sablize.livejournal.com]

Oops I didn't mean to post that already. Crap.

Anyways, so yeah. With the TW fandom it's different because Sterek is SO HUGE that it just obliterates everything else. I mean, I feel like I complain daily about the lack of Scott/Stiles or any other ship for that matter. And then there's all the Scott bashing and the ridiculous 'Stiles is pack mom' thing, and at the end of the day I just sit there and think, "Am I watching the same show as everyone else?"

I dunno, I just feel like I'm watching a whole different show, or that I'm just in a fandom all by myself. I feel like I do with Suits or Political Animals, sort of alone in my love for them, but that's because almost no one watches those shows. And yet nearly everyone I know watches Teen Wolf.

Basically what I'm saying is that I agree with you, and it makes me sad, too :/

[hart-and-sole.livejournal.com]

Hey you! Sorry to drop off the grid like I did. This post pretty much summarizes why, when I hit a road block in my last fic, I wound up putting it off and putting it off until I felt like an asshole for abandoning the fandom (well, that and some reoccurring anxiety issues). The fandom at that time just kind of sapped your energy.

Then ONTD started posting about Teen Wolf every other day, and...people were raving about it. Full on stanning for this show. In mass quantities. And to my surprise and pleasure, not just about Stiles and Derek. Everyone on the show has their own groups of supporters/stans, and, from what posts I've been reading recently at least, people there are as puzzled by the Scott hate as we always were. It was refreshing, and rejuvenating.

So I went and got myself back into the show. I'm caught up now, and I'm in love all over again. The writing's better, the acting's better, and, most importantly, there's been an injection of great new characters to play with, all of whom I like. I haven't read any new fics yet, but I'll be shocked if Sterek maintains that complete stranglehold it had on the fandom when all the new fanficcers get up and running.

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

Oh, God. I totally understand everything you're saying. You're one of the people who made it possible for me to stick with the fandom as long as I did, and despite that I still suffered some pretty major burnout. There are a couple fan-people bridges I haven't reopened yet because I just haven't had the energy, even tho the people involved didn't do anything and don't deserve the silence.

More recently, I wandered onto tumblr. That was a mistake. Now I'm working on recovering from that. I got in with a group of Scott fans who have somehow decided that turnabout is fair play, so they were loudly vocal about their hatred of Stiles, as if that's a useful way to fan. I've now divorced them.

Your timing is really good :) I could use more people in my fanlife who are excited about the show and all the characters, and who love Scott. Also, I'm glad you found your way back. The show is just so good.

If you're looking to get back into fanfic, may I offer two recs for you:

as the moon waned to crescent we started to kiss - Allison/Scott/Stiles - http://cassiehayes.livejournal.com/41387.html

and

Young Hearts Spark Fire - Allison/Scott/Danny - http://archiveofourown.org/works/473468


You say you're all caught up. Is the UK running eps concurrent with the US, or are you using alternate methods for viewing?