Yeah, I haven't seen anyone who criticizes fandom who doesn't criticize media and entertainment as well. We can, indeed, walk and chew gum at the same time.
I would argue the false assumption goes even deeper, however. It's something anneapocalypse discussed in the meta On the Work We Do for Characters, and a point I saw made elsewhere as well: We find characters relatable/engrossing/etc. not only because of the canon material, but because of the material we made up for them.
Absolutely it's true that white men got and continue to get the lion's share of the good writing and central roles in Western media, which deserves a lot of criticism and analysis. However, the pattern of white men getting more fannish attention hasn't changed even while we started getting women leads, leads of color etc. Meanwhile even extremely one-note and flimsily written white male characters--Hux and Mitaka in the SW sequels, for instance--are frequently the subject of obsessive fannish speculation and creation.
Mitaka is an interesting case in point, actually. If you don't know, and I don't blame you for not knowing, he is a bit character who showed up in one scene of The Force Awakens to get strangled by Kylo Ren. His name never even comes up in the movie proper. Imagine the amazement and amusement when we learned that he has a fan creation week dedicated to him. And let's not even go into Hux, the space Hitler analogue who had 2-3 minutes of screentime in two movies and has a humongous, and to me disturbing, following.
That's the level of work fandom is willing to put toward white male characters, at least the young, skinny, able-bodied ones. The fact that these characters are a whole lot of nothing on screen doesn't deter them, which shows that it's the obsession that comes first, not the canon material. Where there is a will, fandom will find a way. If they "just don't see it" with a character, chances are it means they're not interested enough to put in the fannish work.
And that's fine, fans have a right to their disinterest as well as their interests. It's just disingenuous to pretend that fandom at the mercy of canon when the entire point of transformative fandom is that it is anything but a passive yes-person of canon. This argument also erases the existence of well-written female characters, characters of color etc.
Anne Rice is like the result when someone made a wish that the creator of their favorite franchise would be more involved in fandom and got exactly what they wished for. Be careful with those wishes indeed.
no subject
I would argue the false assumption goes even deeper, however. It's something
Absolutely it's true that white men got and continue to get the lion's share of the good writing and central roles in Western media, which deserves a lot of criticism and analysis. However, the pattern of white men getting more fannish attention hasn't changed even while we started getting women leads, leads of color etc. Meanwhile even extremely one-note and flimsily written white male characters--Hux and Mitaka in the SW sequels, for instance--are frequently the subject of obsessive fannish speculation and creation.
Mitaka is an interesting case in point, actually. If you don't know, and I don't blame you for not knowing, he is a bit character who showed up in one scene of The Force Awakens to get strangled by Kylo Ren. His name never even comes up in the movie proper. Imagine the amazement and amusement when we learned that he has a fan creation week dedicated to him. And let's not even go into Hux, the space Hitler analogue who had 2-3 minutes of screentime in two movies and has a humongous, and to me disturbing, following.
That's the level of work fandom is willing to put toward white male characters, at least the young, skinny, able-bodied ones. The fact that these characters are a whole lot of nothing on screen doesn't deter them, which shows that it's the obsession that comes first, not the canon material. Where there is a will, fandom will find a way. If they "just don't see it" with a character, chances are it means they're not interested enough to put in the fannish work.
And that's fine, fans have a right to their disinterest as well as their interests. It's just disingenuous to pretend that fandom at the mercy of canon when the entire point of transformative fandom is that it is anything but a passive yes-person of canon. This argument also erases the existence of well-written female characters, characters of color etc.
Anne Rice is like the result when someone made a wish that the creator of their favorite franchise would be more involved in fandom and got exactly what they wished for. Be careful with those wishes indeed.