General Fandom Meta

penknife - Why must this all be a package deal? - Sometimes I want to point out to slash fandom that topping/bottoming in sex is not necessarily related to any of the following things: // Masculine/feminine gender roles or gender presentation // Personality traits (pushiness, competitiveness, being an "alpha male," being gentle and shy, being a control freak, etc.) // Dominant/submissive roles in a BDSM relationship or scene

alchemia - [untitled] - Now, I'm not ashamed to say, I don't read fic. I've been in hp fandom since '02 and i've found like three fics in all those years that I didn't want to hit the back button on. Fandom for the most part doesn’t write what I’m interested in, yet a good chunk of fandom is, for some reason, interested in what I write.

phaballa - vaguely meta: romancing the stone - What I found most interesting about her talk was what she had to say about why people read romances, because to me, it sounded a lot like the reasons people give for reading fanfic, especially those among us who will absolutely NOT read death fic or unhappy endings.

mofic - Some Further Thoughts on Realism in Slash - I’m not interested – as a reader or a writer – in slash that is just the straight grrl's equivalent of pseudo-lesbian porn for straight men. I want to read something more in depth, more realistic, more true-to-life. Slash isn't a kink for me; it's not as simple as the sexual objectification of men's bodies.

zortified - Cliches, genres, plot devices - So, what are your favorite fanfiction cliches? What plot elements will get you to read (or start reading, at least) a story that otherwise looks like something you might not read? You can be fandom or character specific, or if certain things transcend fandom and people to every fandom you've ever read fic in. share those!

thelastgoodname - So I was browsing crossover_news - What makes a canon (or a fandom) crossover prone?

executrix - Fine Kisses, With No Romance - Some recent posts (flocked, unlocked, and metafandom'd) have made me triangulate thinking about what turns out to be (or at least can be crammed into the same locker) related ideas about realism in slash, romance in slash, and reader identification with stories and characters. // What it comes down to, for me, is that I don't have to identify with any of the characters* but I do have to be able to believe in the events of the story and the actions of the characters at least for as long as it takes me to read the story.

Fandom-Specific Meta

cupidsbow - John Sheppard: Blue Collar or Bastard? - While mainlining SGA (season one) over the weekend, I compared notes with a couple of friends on how we read John Sheppard. It was freaky and fascinating, because it turned out we had two wildly divergent versions of John--I'm talking quantum-mirror type differences here--and up until that point we had all thought we'd been talking about the same man.

Miscellany

glockgal - art art art art art art art - [Poll for fanartists]

skuf - Slash writers demographics (multi-fandom pimpage much appreciated) - I'm getting tired of seeing outside articles (i.e. written by people not in fandom) state that most slash is written by middle-aged, heterosexual, stay-at-home moms. I believe it is a myth perpetuated by the fact that most of those articles seem to build on other outside articles. // Not that there's anything wrong with being either or a combination of those things, or that a part of slash isn't written by writers of those demographics. And maybe I'm wrong. Hence, a poll:

giandujakiss in vidding - A Poll - So I'm wondering: How many other people have made legal music purchases as a result of something they've seen in a vid?