Yesterday I
posted about an interesting idea suggested on Twitter: that moe fans and Twilight fans might have more in common with one another than they might initially suspect. Some of you took the opportunity to make interesting points comparing the two items, and some of you...well, let's just say some of you were happy to reiterate your hatred for the vampire franchise.
Which brings me to today's semi-related topic. We'll pull back a bit from specific fandoms and talk about a more general phenomenon: why is it that every fandom seems to have at least one "whipping boy" fandom or sub-fandom?
A thoroughly unscientific analysis.
Remember this nickname?
For example: gamers often mock anime fans, either for being a bunch of young'uns, or for the seeming sex obsession-- but sexy Lara Croft has sold plenty of games and posters, and hey, game fans are
calling for more sex and romance in Dragon Age, too. Carrying on the chain, anime fans then stomp on Twilight fans...and then go back to reading manga like Trinity Blood or Record of a Fallen Vampire. Even
within the anime fandom we have groups that take on a "whipping boy" role at times, from the niche-within-a-niche (moe fans) to the popular kids (Naruto fans).
I don't think this phenomenon is unique to fandoms, but I think that our identities are incredibly wrapped up in what we are fans of. Hot Topic built an entire clothing chain on the concept: are you a "goth"? A "punk"? "Alternative"? Then there's clothing specially-designed for you. What do you say when people ask you to talk about yourself? "I'm an anime fan," "I'm a gamer," "I'm a movie buff."
As such, it's no surprise that fans sometimes feel the need to assert their own feelings of superiority over other groups...but is it really fair to blame girls for getting into something designed very specifically to appeal to them? There's a difference between knocking the material and knocking the entire group of fans, after all.
What do you think? Have you ever felt like anime fans were treated unfairly by other groups of geeks? Do you see anime fans treating other groups like that in response?
That said, I guess it makes people who are often made fun of feel better if they get to make fun of someone else. Who do the furries make fun of though?
Thank you for letting me get the steam off in the last thread won`t do it any more in this one :)
(btw that list isn`t very accurate where are the MMORPG`rs, the Movie Geeks and the Magic geeks? lots of people missing there)
Anyway, this is everywhere, and it seems to be inherent in human nature somehow. The few years I spent in the music department of my university, I was in the musical theatre program, and the music school basically treated us like second-class citizens. There was a lot of "musical theatre isn't real music." But we worked hard and changed their minds.
Obsessive fans vs. obsessive fans is rather amusing, and the irony there is pretty rich. But there's an unhealthy level there. I love anime and all that, but even I feel out of place at a convention. A lot of those people are out of control.
I'm 4 out of 14 on that chart. Dose that make me look bad.
The differents between Twilight fans and anime one's is that anime fans can like all kinds of shows in anime. Has for the Twilight fans they mostly only like Twilight vampires and nothing else vampire. Blade, True Blood, Hellsing and Vampire Hunter D has may better vampirse in itthan Twilight and Twilight fans won't even give it a chance.
@Kelleth: MMORPG fans are represented by WOW players by rounding up. Movie snobs have so much self respect they get tossed so far right, they aren't represented on the chart. As for Magic players...respect? Do you know how often you get asked if you're playing Yugioh playing Magic in public? I do. A lot.
Yes, my self respect is inexistent....
It's basically a lesser version of the old Brunching Shuttlecocks geek hierarchy chart: http://www.brunching.com/geekhierarchy.html
Glad to see you all talking about the chart, though, even though I mostly threw it together for lulz rather than aiming for particular accuracy ^^;
@Kris: It just always seems to me that Whedon's fans are seen as relatively cool/intellectual, compared to, say, Haruhi fans.
@JELEINEN: Yeah, I thought about just reusing that, but it doesn't specify out Twilight fans.
Haha! Alright, that's fair! Though my experience with Whedon fans has been the opposite; most of them are among the least intelligent people I know, though occasionally a smart one will slip through there and baffle me.
Whew.... All this geek hatin' is wearin' me OUT, y'all.
We're all geeks... A non-geek would make fun of all of us, so let's all be cool to each other.
I know, I know... I can dream, can't I?
Simply because they try to encompass "Internet humor" into their insubstantial repetoire aswell. If I go to a con or something, I don't want to see a bunch of kids pissing about with "FREE HUGS" and "FREE GLOMPS" signs, trying to do the Hare Hare and all shouting EPIC WIN EPIC EPIC.
I swear to God, BAD anime fans are the worst.
It was 1999.
Oh yeah for sure, I wasn't trying to imply that it had come from that kind of thing. I just mean the general consensus that seems to inexplicably link desperate attention seeking teen girls to cons. They dress as the most desperately moe-tan pandering character to gain some sort of attention for a day. It's been going on since cons I've been to since the 90's, I guess as it becomes more mainstream (Which it is already) it changes. Kids, I guess.
For fun I think we should come up with more list like this.