rhipowered, posts by tag: meta - LiveJournal

Hello! I am just here to publicly state (in a location visible to all, rather than users of a particular archive!) that I think Franzeska's apologia is:
- lacking coherence
- lacking in historical rigor
- most importantly, a trash fire that is full of shit.

All of which she dresses up a little bit in wink-wink-nudge-nudge and statements that seem to be going one way but actually are going the other.

So many people I know have been disgusted and hurt by this over the last day or two that I feel I gotta say something, that I am so fucking tired of this shit, because it's exactly what one sees in Western society and at present in certain other subcultures that will remain nameless. The people who have had structural power* freak the fuck out when they don't have 100% control of the narrative anymore.

Fandom is not a space apart from these kinds of actions and reactions. I will throw a copy of Dick Hebdige's book on subcultures at any acafan who disagrees.

And I'm certain this will all get dismissed by her and others as exactly the kind of thing that they mean, god those people are such bullies.

Seriously, fuck this noise. I have been in fandom for 15 years and just...fuck.

That is all. I highly recommend/appreciate the stuff folks have been saying on Twitter, by the way, especially Rukmini Pande and Nico.

* I don't mean power over the canon or over media. I mean power in fandom-the-subculture, which is a thing, even if that power isn't necessarily large in the scales of the greater world.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/…. Comments are welcome at either location.

Because I had it private until just now (good job, me), do check out the Indiana Jones vid I made for lilly_the_kid in this year's Festivids: Authority.

It's a fun one, which I hadn't really done before--I'm a srs bsns sort of person when it comes to fanworks, for the most part. Despite that, there's actually lots more commentary behind this one than I initially thought, which has been percolating for a month since I finished the damn thing.

Let me know if you're interested. Feedback is always welcome, too.

I also haven't gone through vids in fandoms I know yet, thanks to a raging anxiety flareup that I'm still trying to shake, so I will need to do that soon.

Next goal: do a Wiscon premiere...

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/…. Comments are welcome at either location.

I do not really have braining for RP tags as I've just got home from a sixteen hour day including dinner and a movie. Apologies.

But! Can we talk about The Muppets and how the film, aside from its fandom continuity, high-level moral, and teh lolz, has a lot to say about celebrity and collaborative performance group dynamic?

Along with doing amazing stuff with parody and pastiche, for that matter.

Yes, I am late to the party, it literally just came out here, okay? Screw you Disney.*


* If Brave--the only decent trailer tonight, by the way--is released ten weeks late in Scotland, where it is fucking SET, someone is going to hear from me.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/…. Comments are welcome at either location.

Since I cannot talk about Sherlock because I have not watched it, and frankly if I see anything more about it on Tumblr, I will end up in massive squee/love-harshing mode which is not nice...

COLUMBO. Can we talk about Columbo? And how fucking awesome early Columbo is when it comes to deconstructing class issues in the US? I mean, actually deconstructing, not A Certain Person's idea of what deconstructing class is (ahem). If you don't know who that is, don't ask--it isn't you.

Basically, nearly every episode, Columbo plays the stereotype of being a working-class schmuck, in some way/shape/form; this last one, he pretended he knew fuck-all about wine so he could set up the killer. And the conceit is such that the audience KNOWS Columbo is messing with the perp(s), because that's Columbo's MO--he's clever and their biases will lead to their downfall. He'll play off all sorts of different stereotypes.

And the working-class guy always wins and is smarter, with more applicable knowledge and skill, than the people who think money and a half-assed plan will save them. This is a big deal for a US show--I could write a whole paper on it had I the access to an academic library.

Also, Peter Falk.

I need a Columbo icon.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/…. Comments are welcome at either location.

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This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/…. Comments are welcome at either location.

I've been processing, trying to figure out why I'm so...disconcerted by the whole Doctor Who thing. I mean, I'm good with the big picture, and the episode was very good, but I'm also a bit sick at heart. Part of it is that there's always a bit of a let-down with knowing the answer to a big question, but I think it's mainly because with where things stand at the moment, the humans get a massively raw deal.

And so I am finding it hard to glee because I am just WIBBLE.

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Basically, it's all really painful and depressing if you take it apart.

As consolation, I would like a shitload of fun stories about ( Collapse )

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This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/…. Comments are welcome at either location.

As giandujakiss commented today, you get really thinky about stuff when you make a vid, and in the case of Festivids, you can't say anything until later. Sigh. Not sure if anyone cares, mind, but I do, so I'm writing it.

This may be a bit disjointed, me having been up until 3:45. Sorry. It turns far more into Star Trek meta than notes on a vid, so read if you're interested in that instead.

Notes on 'Resistance'
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This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/…. Comments are welcome at either location.

This ended up just coming out, because I am so fed up that I cannot stand back any longer and not say something. If it goes under the radar, I will be sad, but so be it. Also, when I start sitting down and writing stuff, it ends up being stuff other people have said well before, so this is chock full of links.

Disclaimer: Some places I come from a place of privilege and some places I don't, fyi (and as I said earlier, we all have some privilege if we're reading this). I also think the points here are applicable without much problem on a worldwide scale, but if anything is particularly US/UK-centric, I apologise.

------

It's hard to decide if there's a point of most importance, but I think this is it:
Privileged people must learn to be uncomfortable, or no one will get anywhere.
Being comfortable usually means you're riding on privilege. The dominant paradigm's made things easy for you, and you're milking that for all that it's worth, at the expense of other people. If you have to ask 'why should I make myself uncomfortable just to ease up on someone's pain', then GTFO.

Carrying on:

- As I touched on earlier today, fandom is not a unique and beautiful snowflake. It is subject to the same discussion and criticism as anything else. In fact, its transformative and commentary aspects make it actually MORE valid for criticism, not less. Just because it is often pretendy funtime does not make it exempt from analytical thought. (Even in academia; that ship sailed long ago and it is called pop culture studies.)
More on this: the BS 'silencing' narrative and fanfic's relevance (thoracopagus)

- I have seen this so many places, but it's worth saying again and again and again, in hopes that maybe it'll get through to people. No one is saying Do Not Write What You Are Not. Instead, as a writer or a participant in community discussion, you must be prepared. Educate yourself first, learn the salient issues, and consider possible problem points, before you speak.
More on this: why the J2 Racefail story was disenfranchising, and how to write about things: think first (reddwarfer)

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This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/…. Comments are welcome at either location.

If you don't read my Dreamwidth, I did indeed post on the topic of class yesterday:

part one (personal background for your reference)
part two (why race and other issues do matter w/r/t classism, how liberals fuck up too, a few points about the media and fandom)

Please note that this is meant to be a conversation starter, not full-out coverage of the topic. I unpack a little. I also get angry, and unless I have fucked up in terms of talking about race, I am not apologizing for that.

Please comment THERE if you have something to say. I have it set up with OpenID, and all you have to do is verify your LJ through there.

This is annoying because I think most of the people I talk WC with are on different timezones or otherwise occupied, not to mention me being a few weeks delayed. Anyway, I'm seriously losing my touch, because I didn't see much of that coming. I clearly live in Thickety Thick Town, Thickania.

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Righto, on to DW S5. I feel badly about skipping S4 but it's not going to happen anytime soon unless I get the DVDs to hand.