I have recently been reflecting on my consistent days within that taboo word amongst non-members (i.e. non-fangirls) of the dreaded land known as 'Fandom'. Sounding like some forgotten village out of the Internet Religious Bible, Fandom is both a mystical, magic and moronic place to spend your time. It is friendly, ugly and frighteningly addictive. Many a young girl might just enter into it and find herself pulled, dragged, sicked, kicking and screaming into its very dark and murky depths. It is where hardcore fans gather and, more often than you'd think, it where genuine love for the very thing they are celebrating goes to die.
The picture I am painting sounds like a terrible, deadly waste land, doesn't it? Yes.
I am writing this article not just to explain the habitual habits of a fan within an internet fandom. This may not only warn early visitors (referred to as "lurkers" in the fandom) of what to expect if they decide to make their presence more known, but also aid the parents of the younger fans about what it is their children are getting into. Believe me, some of the things that come out in fandom posts and comments can be more damaging to a teenage girl that some idiot writing "COCK!" every five seconds on an internet chatroom. I say that not to underplay the danger of internet chat room, but instead to alliterate the fact that, in some cases, the wrong people within fandom torment a girl or boy almost as dangerously as someone within a chatroom environment.
It is the most positive same-sex relationship fanclub you will ever see, but also the must disgustingly racist sector you can come across. It promotes feminist ideals while at the same time beating them, spitting on them, downright pissing all over them as very often one female character will be idolised while another is vilified. It is one of the most positive and excitable places you can be, while being the most negative and tiring death-trap you will ever stumble into.
However, I need to say this first:
To clarify, a majority of the people within fandom (who, it must be said, are chiefly women aged from as young as 12 to as old as 60) are nice people who want to share a particularly keen to share their views and theories about a certain TV show, film series or novel they are reading. They are not bad people, they conduct themselves properly and they will usually not engage in so-called "ship-wars".
Now, some of the biggest fandoms out there, none of which (admittedly) I have ever been a part of, include Glee, The Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones and Smallville. I cannot speak for these particular fandoms, but I can speak for slightly smaller fandoms which I have interacted with since I was a shockingly young age right up until towards the end of last year when I finally started to tire of being a "professional fanatic". Some of the fandoms I have been a part of in the past included Doctor Who, Merlin and Being Human and also a very brief spat with the Torchwood fandom. It is from these personal examples I will draw on.
From my time in each and every one of these fandoms I have discovered one thing in particular, and that is that it is very clique orientated. That is to say, in true Mean Girls style, due to being a chiefly female-dominated dominion, many fandoms that run for as few as three episodes will quickly start to have preferences for certain characters and, with that, certain ships.
The way this develops depends on many things but it usually comes down to two factors: the type of show and the number of primary characters.
A fandom like Doctor Who usually only has a few ships at any one time, due to the low-level of primary characters. In the current show, for example, as the Doctor (Sometimes referred to as "Eleven" in the fandom or general DW fanbase), Amy Pond, Rory Williams and River Song. Due to the small size of the character pool, there are a very limited number of ships. Ones that are more common (For obvious reasons) are Amy/Rory, Amy/Eleven and Eleven/River, with the first and the third being more popular than the other. Moreover, it helps also that River herself is a recurring character, meaning she is not always part of the action, meaning that most fans watch the interactions between Eleven, Amy and Rory, and because Amy and Rory are married it is generally accepted with good grace that they are a leading ship, and generally there very few serious conflicts - known as ship-wars - in the Doctor Who fandom.
This goes in to a little theory I have called the 'Threeway Theory', which has probably been proposed by more qualified people who have studied the fandom in academic circumstances. It basically states that three is the magic number. It is usually proposed in linguistics and communication studies that people respond better to words that are delivered in three. It is the same principle with fictional characters. If a show has only two to three main characters, then logically the character pool is smaller and the number of ships people can make is more limited, which means less conflict and more room for preference either way.
Of course there can be situations where the reaction is all the more harsher because the act of having three people at the centre of the show can create more friction, especially in a male-female-male or female-male-female situation because this anticipates a very literal triangle. This can sometimes be the case but the manner in which a show can deal with this is by defining the characters by other things. For example, the lack of conflict in the Doctor Who fandom generally revolves around the fact that a good portion of the fandom accept the Doctor, being an alien, is not the same as Rory, who is a male human.
Moreover, Steven Moffat established very early on that Amy/Rory were going out, that they were going to get married and that Amy was in love with Rory, which left the fandom with no choice but to accept this. In comparison to Russell T. Davies, who dragged out the relationship between the Doctor, Rose and Mickey, ultimately created a fiction within his own fanbase, especially when Rose left. The reaction against Martha Jones's character was similar to when Henry VIII switched Queens. Imagine Rose Tyler as Catherine of Aragon and Martha Jones as Anne Boleyn. By adding another female character while giving the previous leading female a sad, but ultimately unsatisfying send off, it invited the fandom to hate the character who was replacing her.
This led to 'ship-wars' centred on characters, rather than specific couples. Some Rose-fans, who may or may not have shipped her with the Tenth Doctor, would witchhunt anyone who dared to say they preferred Martha. Yet when Donna Noble came along, the fandom's loyalty was spread three ways and there were fewer ship-wars.
However when there are more than three characters, this is when the wars become more tense. The simple reason for this is variety. Logically, if there are more regular characters, there are more interactions that can be twisted into romantic gestures. After merely a few episodes of the first series of Merlin, the chief (and only real) ship had emerged - Arthur/Gwen, and with that Gwen/Lancelot (Lancelot being a secondary character and therefore not really applicable). The set up of Merlin meant that, logically, with Arthur as a Prince and Guinevere as a Servant, they were going to fall in love 'across the class barrier'. However due to the shows failure to affectively suggest this in a realistic light until episode 10, the fans formed ship-ideals that were not only completely dead in the water but downright wrong.
The greatest oddity of all comes from the overwhelming number of women who openly ship (quite seriously) Arthur/Merlin, despite no suggestion whatsoever of a romantic relationship. It is very tempting to pad all this down to an expression of female sexuality, a reverse on the male fantasy of two women together. However, in my experience, some of the girls who support these types of ships (i.e. male characters together who are NOT homosexual within the show), they also seem to despise with every fibre of their being the female character who is really the object of the hero's affections. This is sometimes the case with Gwen. For me, it stems from several reasons. A minor section of them, in the particular situation, are simply racists (Had to be said, I'm afraid), while others appear to be self-hating women. This is the negative affect of fandom as basing their entire love of a show around a ship, one that can never be truly realised, is frustrating. This then leads to overall negativity and fighting with other sections of the fandom that they don't agree with.
Eventually, the fandom will realise that these fights are a problem and, so, in the case of somewhere like LiveJournal or on a general internet forum, certain "cliques" of the fandom retire to "communities" or threads specifically for that ship or character. More often than not, shipping communities are more active than general communities. At its height, the Arthur and Gwen community on LJ for Merlin could get over 4000 comments on an episode post, while a general community would be lucky to get more than 100 comments.
This is the cyber version of the Great War, an all around "stalemate". That isn't to say that shippers do not occasionally clash and fight, (usually the younger members aged between 12 to 14 who are unaware of the stalemate). It is a nuclear missile strike situation: neither fanbase wants to be targeted as having 'struck the first blow' against another. Neither group can make a move towards peace because, and this is a fact, a significant portion of fandom-dwellers, (I was one of them once), prefer the safety of their fellow shippers with whom they are more likely to agree. Bizarrely enough many of these people might have nothing whatsoever in common, in regards to their feelings and theories about the show or just in general, yet they still prefer each others company to someone who they know hates their preferred ship.
That is not to say that people do not ship more than one thing nor have friends who prefer different ships. After all, there are always exceptions. Nonetheless it is generally true that people who have an OTP (One True Pairing) will prefer communities about that couple to any other. Once the Group Think has sent in for someone in the fandom, that is when they get sucked in.
In the past, it has been easy to prevent cyberbullying and attacks of fans, particularly young ones, on communities as places like forums and LiveJournals often had moderators to ensure that no one was personally insulted by anyone within the fandom. However with mediums such as Twitter and Tumblr, two things I just can't get along with myself, becoming more popular, it is becoming harder to avoid cruel comments or upsetting statements.
Anyone outside the fandom would probably think it stupid for someone to be so invested in a character or couple on a TV show so personally, but they would equally be surprised how quickly one disagreement over something a petty as a fictional couple can turn bloody.
I am not saying that people should BAN fandoms. They are great places: centres of discussions, debates, networking, art, fiction, videos and all sorts of brilliant things. I just ask anyone who is just getting into it to be weary of how easy it is to get sucked in and carried away. Try not to use it everyday, and even if you do only for a short period of time, no more than an hour. It's great to make new friends but don't become obsessed. And for parents, be aware of your teenagers emotions. Fandoms are great places for them to boost their self-esteem with with fanwork and being able to communicate with people their age who might like the show too from the safety of their own home. Nonetheless, be aware of how quickly it can upset them too. Don't immediately block or ban it, just be understanding and talk it through with them. Be that other voice, outside the fandom, reminding them that its all fictional.
Most importantly be more aware of fandom itself. Look into it yourself. See what it's like. Overall, you will see its a good place and filled with remarkable things besides ship-dedications. Just try to understand its nature. Only then can any of us tame this beast.
The picture I am painting sounds like a terrible, deadly waste land, doesn't it? Yes.
I am writing this article not just to explain the habitual habits of a fan within an internet fandom. This may not only warn early visitors (referred to as "lurkers" in the fandom) of what to expect if they decide to make their presence more known, but also aid the parents of the younger fans about what it is their children are getting into. Believe me, some of the things that come out in fandom posts and comments can be more damaging to a teenage girl that some idiot writing "COCK!" every five seconds on an internet chatroom. I say that not to underplay the danger of internet chat room, but instead to alliterate the fact that, in some cases, the wrong people within fandom torment a girl or boy almost as dangerously as someone within a chatroom environment.
It is the most positive same-sex relationship fanclub you will ever see, but also the must disgustingly racist sector you can come across. It promotes feminist ideals while at the same time beating them, spitting on them, downright pissing all over them as very often one female character will be idolised while another is vilified. It is one of the most positive and excitable places you can be, while being the most negative and tiring death-trap you will ever stumble into.
However, I need to say this first:
To clarify, a majority of the people within fandom (who, it must be said, are chiefly women aged from as young as 12 to as old as 60) are nice people who want to share a particularly keen to share their views and theories about a certain TV show, film series or novel they are reading. They are not bad people, they conduct themselves properly and they will usually not engage in so-called "ship-wars".
Now, some of the biggest fandoms out there, none of which (admittedly) I have ever been a part of, include Glee, The Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones and Smallville. I cannot speak for these particular fandoms, but I can speak for slightly smaller fandoms which I have interacted with since I was a shockingly young age right up until towards the end of last year when I finally started to tire of being a "professional fanatic". Some of the fandoms I have been a part of in the past included Doctor Who, Merlin and Being Human and also a very brief spat with the Torchwood fandom. It is from these personal examples I will draw on.
From my time in each and every one of these fandoms I have discovered one thing in particular, and that is that it is very clique orientated. That is to say, in true Mean Girls style, due to being a chiefly female-dominated dominion, many fandoms that run for as few as three episodes will quickly start to have preferences for certain characters and, with that, certain ships.
The way this develops depends on many things but it usually comes down to two factors: the type of show and the number of primary characters.
A fandom like Doctor Who usually only has a few ships at any one time, due to the low-level of primary characters. In the current show, for example, as the Doctor (Sometimes referred to as "Eleven" in the fandom or general DW fanbase), Amy Pond, Rory Williams and River Song. Due to the small size of the character pool, there are a very limited number of ships. Ones that are more common (For obvious reasons) are Amy/Rory, Amy/Eleven and Eleven/River, with the first and the third being more popular than the other. Moreover, it helps also that River herself is a recurring character, meaning she is not always part of the action, meaning that most fans watch the interactions between Eleven, Amy and Rory, and because Amy and Rory are married it is generally accepted with good grace that they are a leading ship, and generally there very few serious conflicts - known as ship-wars - in the Doctor Who fandom.
This goes in to a little theory I have called the 'Threeway Theory', which has probably been proposed by more qualified people who have studied the fandom in academic circumstances. It basically states that three is the magic number. It is usually proposed in linguistics and communication studies that people respond better to words that are delivered in three. It is the same principle with fictional characters. If a show has only two to three main characters, then logically the character pool is smaller and the number of ships people can make is more limited, which means less conflict and more room for preference either way.
Of course there can be situations where the reaction is all the more harsher because the act of having three people at the centre of the show can create more friction, especially in a male-female-male or female-male-female situation because this anticipates a very literal triangle. This can sometimes be the case but the manner in which a show can deal with this is by defining the characters by other things. For example, the lack of conflict in the Doctor Who fandom generally revolves around the fact that a good portion of the fandom accept the Doctor, being an alien, is not the same as Rory, who is a male human.
Moreover, Steven Moffat established very early on that Amy/Rory were going out, that they were going to get married and that Amy was in love with Rory, which left the fandom with no choice but to accept this. In comparison to Russell T. Davies, who dragged out the relationship between the Doctor, Rose and Mickey, ultimately created a fiction within his own fanbase, especially when Rose left. The reaction against Martha Jones's character was similar to when Henry VIII switched Queens. Imagine Rose Tyler as Catherine of Aragon and Martha Jones as Anne Boleyn. By adding another female character while giving the previous leading female a sad, but ultimately unsatisfying send off, it invited the fandom to hate the character who was replacing her.
This led to 'ship-wars' centred on characters, rather than specific couples. Some Rose-fans, who may or may not have shipped her with the Tenth Doctor, would witchhunt anyone who dared to say they preferred Martha. Yet when Donna Noble came along, the fandom's loyalty was spread three ways and there were fewer ship-wars.
However when there are more than three characters, this is when the wars become more tense. The simple reason for this is variety. Logically, if there are more regular characters, there are more interactions that can be twisted into romantic gestures. After merely a few episodes of the first series of Merlin, the chief (and only real) ship had emerged - Arthur/Gwen, and with that Gwen/Lancelot (Lancelot being a secondary character and therefore not really applicable). The set up of Merlin meant that, logically, with Arthur as a Prince and Guinevere as a Servant, they were going to fall in love 'across the class barrier'. However due to the shows failure to affectively suggest this in a realistic light until episode 10, the fans formed ship-ideals that were not only completely dead in the water but downright wrong.
The greatest oddity of all comes from the overwhelming number of women who openly ship (quite seriously) Arthur/Merlin, despite no suggestion whatsoever of a romantic relationship. It is very tempting to pad all this down to an expression of female sexuality, a reverse on the male fantasy of two women together. However, in my experience, some of the girls who support these types of ships (i.e. male characters together who are NOT homosexual within the show), they also seem to despise with every fibre of their being the female character who is really the object of the hero's affections. This is sometimes the case with Gwen. For me, it stems from several reasons. A minor section of them, in the particular situation, are simply racists (Had to be said, I'm afraid), while others appear to be self-hating women. This is the negative affect of fandom as basing their entire love of a show around a ship, one that can never be truly realised, is frustrating. This then leads to overall negativity and fighting with other sections of the fandom that they don't agree with.
Eventually, the fandom will realise that these fights are a problem and, so, in the case of somewhere like LiveJournal or on a general internet forum, certain "cliques" of the fandom retire to "communities" or threads specifically for that ship or character. More often than not, shipping communities are more active than general communities. At its height, the Arthur and Gwen community on LJ for Merlin could get over 4000 comments on an episode post, while a general community would be lucky to get more than 100 comments.
This is the cyber version of the Great War, an all around "stalemate". That isn't to say that shippers do not occasionally clash and fight, (usually the younger members aged between 12 to 14 who are unaware of the stalemate). It is a nuclear missile strike situation: neither fanbase wants to be targeted as having 'struck the first blow' against another. Neither group can make a move towards peace because, and this is a fact, a significant portion of fandom-dwellers, (I was one of them once), prefer the safety of their fellow shippers with whom they are more likely to agree. Bizarrely enough many of these people might have nothing whatsoever in common, in regards to their feelings and theories about the show or just in general, yet they still prefer each others company to someone who they know hates their preferred ship.
That is not to say that people do not ship more than one thing nor have friends who prefer different ships. After all, there are always exceptions. Nonetheless it is generally true that people who have an OTP (One True Pairing) will prefer communities about that couple to any other. Once the Group Think has sent in for someone in the fandom, that is when they get sucked in.
In the past, it has been easy to prevent cyberbullying and attacks of fans, particularly young ones, on communities as places like forums and LiveJournals often had moderators to ensure that no one was personally insulted by anyone within the fandom. However with mediums such as Twitter and Tumblr, two things I just can't get along with myself, becoming more popular, it is becoming harder to avoid cruel comments or upsetting statements.
Anyone outside the fandom would probably think it stupid for someone to be so invested in a character or couple on a TV show so personally, but they would equally be surprised how quickly one disagreement over something a petty as a fictional couple can turn bloody.
I am not saying that people should BAN fandoms. They are great places: centres of discussions, debates, networking, art, fiction, videos and all sorts of brilliant things. I just ask anyone who is just getting into it to be weary of how easy it is to get sucked in and carried away. Try not to use it everyday, and even if you do only for a short period of time, no more than an hour. It's great to make new friends but don't become obsessed. And for parents, be aware of your teenagers emotions. Fandoms are great places for them to boost their self-esteem with with fanwork and being able to communicate with people their age who might like the show too from the safety of their own home. Nonetheless, be aware of how quickly it can upset them too. Don't immediately block or ban it, just be understanding and talk it through with them. Be that other voice, outside the fandom, reminding them that its all fictional.
Most importantly be more aware of fandom itself. Look into it yourself. See what it's like. Overall, you will see its a good place and filled with remarkable things besides ship-dedications. Just try to understand its nature. Only then can any of us tame this beast.
