Apropos of something that was a tangent to something else...

[quinara]

I get so sick of the idea that one group (shippers/Spuffies/random subset) has 'taken over fandom'. Usually, it seems to me, what people actually mean is that the shippers/Spuffies/randomers are producing lots of discussion and fanworks and making their part of fandom an active and fun place to be, when other places have gone a bit dead.

I mean, can you 'take over' a story by reacting to it? Maybe if you try really, really hard you can dominate the discourse (or not so hard if you're trying to dominate discussion from a position of societal privilege) - and, obviously, shipper sets have been pushed off big general boards in the past - but I don't think any fandom clique has the power to take 'control' of fandom, what with the internet always having another corner to talk in.

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

That sounds awfully similar to the, "Fandom is so cold! Everybody loves the BNFs and nobody loves meee!" sobs that show up on metafandom once in a while. To which: Well, grasshopper, that's because they've been contributing nice things to their communities, and likely going out of their way to strike up conversations about other people's nice things, for years.

[quinara]

Exactly! It's funny how some people assume fandom people can just roll up out of the blue and become magnificently popular overnight, with an entrenched set of bantery friendships...

[evilawyer]

I'm not sure that the tendency to cry "They've taken over" is limited only to when a subset of a fandom has gone dead. I think that is an accurate assessment, but I've also seen it being raised (in other fandoms, to be sure, but I seem to remember it a little bit in Buffy) when the group that's being used to holding the reins perceived that there is an attack on the status quo from another camp. And it's silly since, as you so rightly point out, there is always forum to move to if sensibilities and taste shift.

[quinara]

Good point - I suppose my 'a bit dead' should be qualified with 'in comparison'. Definitely a balance-shifting thing more than anything.