gee, my life's a funny thing

[reflectedeve]

So apparently it's asshole day. I'm experiencing some unpleasantness over on my dA account at the moment with a couple of them, and my friend Comet had one pop up in her gallery as well. (The latter asshole was not only insulting her fat-pride portrait of Rogue, but saying really horrible things about "big" people in general. Gah.)

While there's no use in getting too riled up, I feel like sharing. For, you know, catharsis. No need to read it, it's just some minor wank.

So first I got this comment on my most popular piece of Kim/Shego artwork:

i'm sorry i don't get this. isn't kim possible a kid's show?

Now, anyone who has been around slash fandom for long knows that this question is usually up to no good. I figured that this person was likely to just insult me. Still, I'm a nice person, so I figured I'd give her the benefit of the doubt and pretend I thought she really was clueless. (After all people have to see their first piece of fanart sometime, don't they? Kim/Shego art is all over dA, but maybe she had managed not to run into it before.) So I tried to cover all the bases:

Yes, Kim Possible is a kid's show, but it's also a show which many teenagers and adults enjoy. And if you're at all familiar with online fanart, we frequently like to portray pairings that do not actually occur in the show itself.

Not that whether or not it's a kid's show should have *anything* to do with people of the same gender kissing. (Though I'll admit I wouldn't expect such a kiss to be this . . . emphatic. It's a little artistic license.)

And yeah, maybe there was a little bit of attitude there, but hey, civil, right? However, I logged in today to this response:

i'm not a homophobe so you can stop right there. i understand, i just was wondering. and YES i'm familiar with "online fan art". i'm not stupid, i am a HUGE fan of cartoons. not a fan of most disney original cartoons but i am a fan. just chillax. i asked a simple question: not looking for some type of dogmatic response.
laters,

Um, okay, whatever. I probably should have let it go at this point, but wow, I just don't buy it. She was "just wondering?" And yet, she's familiar and "not stupid." And oh, the sarcastic quotation marks abound. So, nettled, I replied:

Chill out yourself, okay? There wasn't anything angry about my reply, and if it was dogmatic, well. I answered *the question you asked,* which certainly implied that you didn't know what you were talking about. At least, that's what I would prefer to assume, since it's the nicer possibility . . . usually when I get that kind of question, someone's looking for a fight. Always, in fact. Because you're right; it's unusual for someone on dA not to know about fanart. Nice quotation marks, by the way.

All of which kind of begs the question . . . if you knew all this, what was there to "understand" about my picture? (Look, I can use them too.) Good grief.

I figured, well, that's that. She might bite back, or she might not . . . I probably won't again. So I went and had a look at the other new comment, which as it turned out, said this:

what is WRONG with you?!?! this is a freaking kid's show lady!!! jeezus!!!

i have no prob at all with lesbians or anything but this is BIZZARE and gives me the creepin' wilies.

:eatshit:

Guess whose friend this guy turned out to be? Gee, I wonder. So he got this standard response:

Don't like it, don't look at it. Think you can handle that?

And I couldn't resist mentioning to her:

Also, I see that one of your friends has popped over to blatantly insult me. I doubt that's a coincidence. Kinda hurts your credibility as the injured party.

I've never actually had anyone sic hir friends on me before. I'm almost flattered.

I think I've let this distract me long enough; back to work now.

Comments

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

I know, they're idiots. It used to happen constantly at Elfwood, though the people would often sound even less intelligent. I loved the person who demanded to know why Kitty and Rachel "couldn't kiss their boyfriends instead of some girl."

I think some fans have developed a bad sense of entitlement, both from the creators of canon, and of fanwork. *tch*

[sindohrah.livejournal.com]

"demanded to know why Kitty and Rachel 'couldn't kiss their boyfriends instead of some girl.'"

Um, because the artist wanted to draw it that way, duh. ::rolls eyes::

And what do you mean "bad sense of entitlement?" I'm not sure I understand what you mean. :/

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

I mean . . . I think certain fans believe that creators owe them something. (They feel entitled.) I've been seeing it in Harry Potter fandom a lot lately, where fans will accuse the author of being a poor writer or even deliberately malicious for not appeasing them when it comes to certain aspects of the plot.

In my opinion, creators should follow their own creative vision, not pander to the demands of a fanbase. Mind you, that doesn't mean the creator's opinion is sacred. Fans and other readers are welcome to critique a creator's work; even to claim that their own ideas are better, because, well, sometimes they are. But fans who claim that a creator should have done things a certain way, not because it made better textual sense or for another critically grounded reason, but because the fans wanted it . . . are way out of line, in my opinion.

Fans don't have to be objective in their feelings, clearly, but when making more serious criticism objectivity is really important. You can say "I really wish x and y would be a couple," or "it would make more sense if the writer developed x and y's relationship in a romantic direction," but not so much "the writer must make x and y a couple to please me." (Certain fans have been known to claim the latter because they are part of the financial base of the creative media in question, as though being willing to buy that media gives them the right to dictate the content.)

It's the difference between responsible, reasonable, intelligent critique . . . and whining. Did that make any sense? I'm sorry for the rant, it really has become a pet peeve of mine. Hmmm. I may write an expanded post on this later when I have time.

[sindohrah.livejournal.com]

Okay, that makes sense. And I totally agree with you, on every point there.