I like it when people anticipate my thoughts

[next_to_normal]

I saw a link posted for The Men's Ficathon, and I was all ready to post a rant (using one of my WTF icons naturally, lol) asking why on earth someone would think we needed a men-only ficathon. It's not like men aren't already the overwhelming focus of fic in just about every fandom or anything. :\ But then it turns out other people beat me to it. Good job, other people!

Comments

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Ha! I was gonna do the same thing! But I like it when other people let me be lazy. I can't wait to read it!

[next_to_normal]

We are so alike, lol.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

Lame, thumbs down, boo. Men are people too, E.

[next_to_normal]

Men are people with privilege. Boo yourself.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

Ah the ol' "privilege card." Ugh.

[next_to_normal]

Am I gonna have to give someone a spanking?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, I suppose it's okay for them to have a ficathon of whatever they want. On the other hand, statistically speaking, I would say that fanfic is male dominated already. I mean, take a look at the Supernatural fandom as an example. It's nearly exclusively male already. Having male-only fic is practically redundant.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

Come on though... the "Supernatural" show is a sausage-fest. Actually, that's part of what makes it not work so well, in my opinion.

Criticizing "Supernatural" fic for being too male oriented is like criticizing "The Man Show" for being too male oriented.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Is that the man show from several years ago with girls in bikinis on trampolines in slow motion or the man show currently on that asks such probing questions as which floats better, real boobs or fake?

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

I think it's the second one...

[next_to_normal]

So try any fandom ever, except maybe The L Word. (Do they have a fandom? I don't know.)

Slash and het are by far the most common types of fics, and both by definition include male characters. Gen is somewhat less common, and has a 50/50 chance of being about a male. Femslash, the only type that excludes men, is a miniscule section of fandom.

[rahirah]

Yes, they do.

[next_to_normal]

Yeah, I'm all for more fic, but this seems wildly unnecessary. Also, she seemed to have copied the idea from a Women's Ficathon, which was hosted specifically to counteract the gender imbalance in fic, which makes for an extra level of WTF.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

Aw c'mon... Male fic writers are about as common as butterflies in the arctic.

I know of what I speak.

[next_to_normal]

We're not talking about fic writers. We're talking about characters IN fic.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

My initial reaction was much like yours; WTF? From reading the creator's LJ, she didn't have any particular political motive, just "I like men, I want to read fic about men!" Which, fair enough, but like you say isn't there quite a lot of that already out there? Do writers need special encouragement to post it?

Especially since from what I can see of the prompts, they're mostly bog-standard ones with M/F and M/M pairings and single characters , like you'd find just about anywhere... I mean, they could at least have made a Men's Ficathon specifically about, I dunno, deconstructing masculinity or talking about what it's like to be male in a changing world, or something...

[next_to_normal]

Yeah, exactly. In the second post I linked, several people suggested turning it into a "men of color" ficathon, so at least there'd be SOME encouragement to write characters who don't get a lot of fic, but the OP seemed uninterested in that idea.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

All that conscientious thinking gets in the way of the FUN! :-/

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

Well, a "men of color" ficathon would immediately demand the question "What about women of color"?, so I don't think that would work too well either. Though I'm assuming here that fandom typically ignores black women as much as or more than it does black men, so there's not a sex-based imbalance that needs to be addressed before we look at the race-based one. Maybe i'm wrong. (Who gets more fic written about them , Kendra, Kennedy and the First Slayer, or Gunn, Gavin and Mr Trick, or is it about equal?)

Still, I'm pretty sure none of that was on the OP's mind. I feel kind of sorry for her, to be honest; she obviously wasn't expecting the reaction she got. (Which isn't to say I disagree - she definitely made a mistake.)

[rahirah]

I just don't get how someone could exist in fandom for the last five years and be so surprised that people found this problematic...

[next_to_normal]

Yeah... I am kind of boggling at that.

[quinara]

I saw that and was like o.O... I thought I had to be missing something!

(Love your icon!!!)

[next_to_normal]

Hee! Thanks. It's my newest one and I'm quite amused. :)

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that. I was just...boggling. Cause...dude.

Especially as it seems to be a reaction to the all women ficathon. "Well if the chicks get a ficathon, then the menz must feel left out! Oh noes!"

It's like making a White History Month in reaction to Black History Month. Kinda stupid.

[next_to_normal]

Well, the OP claimed it wasn't intended as a statement. More of a, "Hey, that women's ficathon was pretty cool. Someone should do that for guys, too!" Not realizing, apparently, why that's problematic because she's been living under a rock her entire time in fandom or something.