Transformative vs Consumptive Fandom

[bloodwrites]

fogsrollingin directed me to this conversation on reddit which is a (generalised) definition of curative vs transformative fandom.

This subject has been an interest of mine for many years, and is informative and relevant on its own, but it reminds me of the changes that have come about in the last half-decade or so in fandom.

It has become evident that the influx of fandom goers resulting from the mainstreaming of fandom is changing the dynamic once again. Curative fandom seems much the same, cis-dude heavy and off over there somewhere.

But residing in the same spaces as transformative fandom there is also consumptive¹ fandom. Vast swathes of fans who consume fic and art voraciously but don't produce anything. And while the majority are no doubt innocuous and appreciative of the fanworks transformative fandom creates, there is a loud contingent who are entitled and offensive in their demands.

They demand fic updates, they tell creators that the fic would be better if it was a different ship, they harass other fans for shipping the wrong ship...

Yep, it seems the majority of antishippers are consumptive fans, who never produce anything but are toxic in their insistence that all of fandom produces and consumes fanworks in the right way and if they don't they'll be sorry.

Like curative fandom skewing cis-male, consumptive fandom has its own demographic, and it skews overwhelmingly young. This explains a lot in regards to the entitlement and insistence that everyone else should do fandom in a way that they deem right and correct and moral (kids and teens overwhelmingly seem to view the world with them at the center).

But as transformative fandom tends to be more grown-up and logical, it's difficult for us to share the same spaces as the consumptive kids. In the past, antishipper harassment had a chilling effect, forcing out and shutting up transformative voices, curbing creativity and slowing the production of new works (personal experience - previously prolific, my output slowed to a crawl circa 2016 onwards, and I avoided consumptive-heavy spaces for years).

But it's difficult to imagine how transformative and consumptive fans can exist entirely separate from each other like transformative and curative do, because the consumptive fans are consuming our works. They followed us from tumblr to twitter and to AO3 and are likely following artists from twitter back to tumblr as I write this.

Of course Dreamwidth exists in a separate (and oh so calming) bubble. My experience is that it's almost entirely transformative, and I'm not opposed to sharing space purely with those who, generally speaking, share my values.

Fandom spaces on Mastodon, too, are much the same. Though there's entire instances populated by yet another group, which I've started referring to as neo-proshippers, but that's another post entirely and I think I've already gone on too long 😁

1. Please don't take any of this as me looking down upon the many many fans who lurk or just read or just reblog. I've known many of these fans over the years and they're fantastic, they make the best rec lists and leave the best comments and generally are a part of transformative fandom. The 'consumptive' fans, as I've dubbed them, are a whole 'nother thing entirely, and they're new (last 5-10 years), and they come like locusts, devouring fandoms en masse before moving onto the next.

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Comments

[bluedreaming]

This is always a little mind-boggling, since consumptive fandom is just so different from how I personally view both fandom and creative works in general.

But it's difficult to imagine how transformative and consumptive fans can exist entirely separate from each other like transformative and curative do, because the consumptive fans are consuming our works.

Hypothetically, it could be possible by turning off comments, removing all contact info, and only talking with other transformative fans in other spaces like dw, closed discords, forums, etc., but that has its own problems.

(Also, seconding loving the lurkers!)

Thanks for sharing this thoughtful post.

[bloodwrites]

I'm actually finding that removing twitter from my daily habits fixed it entirely 🤣 For the same reason I'm unlikely to go back to using tumblr on the regular because I think they're more likely to go there than to, for example, Mastodon.

And I have less than zero interest in Hive.

My AO3 comments are open, but I ignore and/or delete any dickishness.

[gracerene]

So interesting!! I've often call this trend towards "captialist fandom" for lack of a better term, but you really capture so eloquently what I've noticed, and particularly how the newer social media platforms for fandom tend to kind of encourage this it seems--I absolutely see the benefit of places like twitter and tumblr for fans to engage in a way that requires less effort than, say, journal platforms, but I also think, in a way, that tends to make it easier and easier to become more consumptive, and particularly for fans who "grew up" entirely on those platforms (and, in a different socio-political landscape) it's not super surprising, even if it's a massive bummer. :/

[lookitmychicken]

Neo-proshippers?

Please tell me more, if/when you feel like it.

[bloodwrites]

TBH it's probably not a terribly good descriptor, but they're the ones in contrast to the original definition of proship (ship and let ship, no harassment etc), they define themselves by the definition the antis of today define proship - pro=problematic therefore proship always means you're into problematic ships, therefore these neo-proshippers are only reinforcing the antis definition of proship.

And because there are a lot of fans who still label themselves proship (by the ship and let ship definition) it means there's a lot of baby antis running around insisting that anyone with proship in their bio is a pedo :insert epic eyeroll here:

These 'neo-proshippers' can sometimes be as toxic as the antis, sadly. They tend to be younger and it honestly seems like they go out of their way to shove their problematicness in everyone's faces like it's oh so edgy cred or something.

Brain is mush today hope this makes sense 🤣 I just have a lot of thoughts on this subject.

[bloodwrites]

Capitalist fandom is also a very accurate descriptor 👍

[dreamersdare]

I think you're right that the two threads of fandom cannot exist independently. Or rather, consumptive fandom needs transformative fandom; it's skewed toward a one sided dependence, depending on your thoughts on the necessity of feedback for creators (which in turn raises up questions about the exercise of power and control and the extent to which consumptive fandom seeks to take control through these negative narratives). I'm spitballing there though, because while I am vaguely aware of this going on in the background, the only place I'm active/interactive is DW which, as you say, draws in the more transformative or passively consumptive.

I suppose consumptive fandom is by its nature parasitical, which I honestly say as an observation without any intended judgement. I am that one author who turned off comments on AO3 the second that option became available with great delight. Not because of any issues or problems I was having with comments from particular people, but because I'm genuinely much happier with a passive model of "I wrote a thing, I liked the thing (at least enough to admit it's mine), here fandom, have the thing" *fling fic into the internet abyss and immediately forget about it and move on to the next thing*. I guess because meaningful interaction with other fannish types is a thing I really enjoy, but AO3 is not the right platform for that. I think it's lovely that people do leave appreciative comments as a concept, and I know for a lot of people it makes their day to get one, but that doesn't hold true for me because I find them more of a chore to be completed than a reward/acknowledgement of my work. I'm much happier to leave people alone to consume whatever they want to from my works and I'll leave them alone to move onto the next one.

Slightly at a tangent there, but the point being that consumptive fandom works well for my mindset, and because I don't want/need the positive feedback, it's easy for me to duck the negative, mostly because I end up imposing that level of non-interactive passivity onto everyone which leaves no room for that vocal minority (and I suspect they are a minority) to exist in my sphere.

So, be antisocial creator and smother problem out of existence? I suspect it's not a philosophy that will catch on :)

[bloodwrites]

While I don't turn my ao3 comments off I absolutely get why someone would, in my case that new comment email notification can be quite stressful, like 'what if they hate it, what if they're mean' but also 'oh god this comment is so well thought out and detailed and my brain cannot possibly come up with a reply to that'.

[lookitmychicken]

Oh. Well, that's less good.

I've been wondering if it might actually become an issue that we define blorbo.social as 'pro-shipping'. It's not a term I've been much aware of before the last year or so. I've always been in the parts of fandom where shipping was the assumed default, and the idea of anyone being anti-shipping was ... weird.

I don't want that toxic association, obviously.

[bloodwrites]

A lot of fans have shifted from defining themselves as 'proship' to defining themselves in older terms like 'ship and let ship' or the three laws of fandom (ship and let ship, don't like don't read, kink tomato) and this would work equally well for servers I think.

Though the rules of the server should make it clear that certain content and behaviour isn't acceptable. Which is helpful only if people read the rules 😂

Now that my brain is less mushy I'm feeling that the biggest problem with anti-vs-proship discourse now is the strict binary both sides (both sides being the antis of today and these neo-proshippers) are enforcing. For example: If a server doesn't want lolisho on their timelines then obviously it's an anti server and needs to be called out 🙄

They don't know how antishipping started and they don't see how the oldies (I can't believe the oldies here are anyone in fandom prior to 2016 😂) see it - antis harassed people, that's the definition we hold and oppose. But for these kids all it is is a bloody battle between the puritan and the problematic.