I think you have a good point about growing ship wars, and the fandom being mellower in the beginning. But I think that what you haven't seen, because you haven't been in the fandom as long as I have, is that there have been cycles of this sort of thing all along; it just hasn't gotten this bad.
There has always been character hate and ship-warring in the fandom. There was some pretty massive Elizabeth hate in seasons 1/2, and ship wars between the John/Rodney, John/Elizabeth and John/Teyla factions during the same time. This had mostly settled down when I got into fandom, but then there was a massive upswell of character hate (directed mostly towards Carter and Keller) towards the end of season three. I had almost forgotten how bad it really was until I went back and re-read a Carter fic from that era just recently -- I would consider the author's tone towards Carter ambiguous at best (I don't think she comes off very well), but the comments are all gushing praise at the author for not demonizing her and treating her fairly. That's how bad it was -- if you were a Carter fan, the best you could hope for was a story that didn't utterly ream your favorite character.
During the season 3/4 gap, I locked comments on a few posts much as I did towards the end of season five, because it was pretty much impossible to post anything about the show without an influx of OH NOES CARTER KELLER THE SHOW IS RUINED sky-is-falling comments. There were anecdotal stories about Tapping and Staite being booed at conventions. Just a whole lot of free-floating unpleasantness, like now.
But the initial firestorm of anger and misery ended pretty quickly (at least in my segments of fandom) because the disgruntled fans got fed up with the show and the fandom, and left. The Carson fans left; ditto for many of the Carter fans; the Elizabeth and John/Elizabeth fans either left, or retreated to a few ShepWeir-specific communities that denied season 4+ canon. I'm still friends with a few people who (with varying amounts of bitterness) jumped ship at that time.
There were also lesser firestorms. Katie Brown was widely loathed. So was Heightmeyer; so was Caldwell and, of course, everyone's whipping boy, Kavanagh. And that's not even to touch the rounds of race-related meta ...
So it's not new. I think one of the only reasons why it's so much bigger this time is because John/Rodney fandom is affected to a greater degree. Let's face it, the McShep fans have always been the bulk of the fandom, and earlier ship wars and fannish misery about the show were kind of like planetoids colliding around the giant body of McShep fandom -- it just couldn't get through to the bulk of fandom, which stayed in its happy place. This time, canon itself threw a monkey wrench in McKay/Sheppard fandom, and that meant that suddenly the John/Rodney fans were in the same place that the John/Elizabeth fans had been at the end of season 3, or the John/Teyla fans with Kanaan. And because they had so much more pull, their unhappiness took the whole tone of the fandom down like a lead balloon.
I'm not blaming McKay/Sheppard fandom or saying that the only disgruntled fans are McShep fans, or that all McShep fans are unhappy. But I think that's a very large factor in why it's become so overwhelming this time, when it didn't before -- because McKay/Sheppard fandom, due to its monolithic size, was a stabilizing element on the overall fandom (with some assistance from the equally stable and -- relative to the rest of gen fandom -- equally large John-Rodney segment of gen fans). No matter what was happening elsewhere in fandom or canon, the majority of fans were happy anyway. Now it's having the opposite effect -- its overwhelming size has made it a destabilizing element.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 09:51 pm (UTC)There has always been character hate and ship-warring in the fandom. There was some pretty massive Elizabeth hate in seasons 1/2, and ship wars between the John/Rodney, John/Elizabeth and John/Teyla factions during the same time. This had mostly settled down when I got into fandom, but then there was a massive upswell of character hate (directed mostly towards Carter and Keller) towards the end of season three. I had almost forgotten how bad it really was until I went back and re-read a Carter fic from that era just recently -- I would consider the author's tone towards Carter ambiguous at best (I don't think she comes off very well), but the comments are all gushing praise at the author for not demonizing her and treating her fairly. That's how bad it was -- if you were a Carter fan, the best you could hope for was a story that didn't utterly ream your favorite character.
During the season 3/4 gap, I locked comments on a few posts much as I did towards the end of season five, because it was pretty much impossible to post anything about the show without an influx of OH NOES CARTER KELLER THE SHOW IS RUINED sky-is-falling comments. There were anecdotal stories about Tapping and Staite being booed at conventions. Just a whole lot of free-floating unpleasantness, like now.
But the initial firestorm of anger and misery ended pretty quickly (at least in my segments of fandom) because the disgruntled fans got fed up with the show and the fandom, and left. The Carson fans left; ditto for many of the Carter fans; the Elizabeth and John/Elizabeth fans either left, or retreated to a few ShepWeir-specific communities that denied season 4+ canon. I'm still friends with a few people who (with varying amounts of bitterness) jumped ship at that time.
There were also lesser firestorms. Katie Brown was widely loathed. So was Heightmeyer; so was Caldwell and, of course, everyone's whipping boy, Kavanagh. And that's not even to touch the rounds of race-related meta ...
So it's not new. I think one of the only reasons why it's so much bigger this time is because John/Rodney fandom is affected to a greater degree. Let's face it, the McShep fans have always been the bulk of the fandom, and earlier ship wars and fannish misery about the show were kind of like planetoids colliding around the giant body of McShep fandom -- it just couldn't get through to the bulk of fandom, which stayed in its happy place. This time, canon itself threw a monkey wrench in McKay/Sheppard fandom, and that meant that suddenly the John/Rodney fans were in the same place that the John/Elizabeth fans had been at the end of season 3, or the John/Teyla fans with Kanaan. And because they had so much more pull, their unhappiness took the whole tone of the fandom down like a lead balloon.
I'm not blaming McKay/Sheppard fandom or saying that the only disgruntled fans are McShep fans, or that all McShep fans are unhappy. But I think that's a very large factor in why it's become so overwhelming this time, when it didn't before -- because McKay/Sheppard fandom, due to its monolithic size, was a stabilizing element on the overall fandom (with some assistance from the equally stable and -- relative to the rest of gen fandom -- equally large John-Rodney segment of gen fans). No matter what was happening elsewhere in fandom or canon, the majority of fans were happy anyway. Now it's having the opposite effect -- its overwhelming size has made it a destabilizing element.