amypop:

Oh my god. This article annoyed me so much. Mostly the doctors that they spoke to, who have no real concept of what fandom is, aside from a great, deep love for something — particularly a television series. 

Vulture, you should know better. 

I will elaborate on this, but for now here’s a few choice quotes: 

“Dr. Keith Ablow, an author and infamous Fox News talking head, takes a characteristically hard line: Most fandom is distraction. People who are living their lives completely have very little time to be significant fans of anything, but people avoid struggling to find themselves because that journey is painful.” 

Yes. We fans fail to live our lives completely. We are shells of human beings who avoid anything painful because it might make us sad. No one ever watches a show, reads a book, loves a band or even a sports team because they either are inspired by or identify with the characters, the lyrics, the tale. 

“[Dr. Sudeepta Varma], who admits to watching the Real Housewives on a regular basis and finding reality television fascinating in general. “

OH! YOU FIND IT FASCINATING! Aren’t you so WONDERFUL with your ability to look down at us fans and REALLY RELATE with us because you have deemed your condescending self a moment to indulge to find television fascinating.

“Fandom is reasonably unsatisfying,” [Dr. Drew Ramsey] says. “It doesn’t return something specific to the individual.” 

My personal case in point: Come home from college. Have no friends around. Fall into deep depression. Start watching Buffy summer of 1998. Join Buffy posting board soon after. Meet people, find best friends. Learn how to become a better writer through fanfiction. Start a pop culture-commentary website with four of those Buffy posting board friends in 2001. Hone writing and interviewing skills. Get to interview some fantastic and fabulous people. Get a book contract to write Joss Whedon’s biography in 2011 due to those skills AND those connections I made on the board. 

Yep, I got NOTHING back from fandom. 

“Wait, but sometimes it does! Is it not exciting when your favorite team has a comeback?”

And you, Phoebe Reilly. You don’t get fandom either. Good day, Miss. I said GOOD DAY.

Oh god.  Writing about fans when you are not a fan is really hard y’all.  I might resurrect my long-forgotten post about why writing about fandom is HARD. However this quote makes me want to scream.

fandom is in the service of someone else’s creativity rather than one’s own.

I just.  You see my rage face from space, right?  And this:

one shouldn’t blame fandom for someone not achieving greatness; sometimes digging deep into entertainment provides a rewarding pastime for people who weren’t going to change the world to begin with. “People who are creators or leaders — I kind of feel like there is an innate quality to that,” says Varma, “and you may gravitate toward being a fan if you’re not that person to begin with.”

……. (Also their measurement metrics for Most Devoted Fans is off, although no imperfect.)

5:36 pm  •  16 October 2012  •  92 notes