Portfolio Assignment 8
This week’s guest lecture on critical perspectives on fandom and participatory culture was fascinating. I only had a brief understanding of what fan fiction is and so the various topics discussed in the lecture were basically all new to me. I found the issue of non-native English-speaking writers having a hard time in the fanfiction community to be eye-opening. It is crazy how some have to learn a new language just so they can share your work but in the end, are still not be able to fully express themselves. When I moved to the U.S I didn’t know a word of English and it took a long time for me to be comfortable enough to express simple sentences I can’t imagine how hard it must be for some to share their work in a language they are not entirely comfortable with. I feel that the fanfiction community in general whilst it advertises itself as a space for acceptance, it can also be hypocritical at times. The fact that English is basically accepted as the go-to language seems a bit like gatekeeping since there are plenty of great creators that shouldn’t be overlooked just because they do not create their content in English. Whilst, not fanfiction I personally watch some YouTube channels that are in Spanish or Portuguese, these channels do not cater to an English-speaking audience at all, but their content has still garnered plenty of English-speaking fans. Another interesting topic discussed in the lecture was the corporatization side of fanfiction. The way in which companies buy these fan-run sites only to destroy what makes them appealing towards people is odd and goes to show how corporations are not in touch with what makes digital media so special. I remember when Tumblr changed its stance on what material is allowed on their site it hurt a lot of users since the content, they spent hours upon hours to make was now deemed as inappropriate. It is sad to see how these digital spaces that people used to express themselves were corrupted by corporate greed. It is also rough to see how these changes had a huge impact on the Queer creators since a place like Tumblr was one of a few places where they could express themselves fully. Digital media is supposed to bring people together but unfortunately, society still feels that digital platforms should be completely “family-friendly”.
This week’s other topic on Trolling Anonymity and Online Abuse was equally as interesting. I personally have a fair amount of background on the topics discussed within readings especially the topics related to gaming. To start off with the article “What Happened When I confronted my Cruelest Troll” was really fascinating as it told a story that had a surprise ending. The start of the story in no offense was cliched in the sense that somehow online sexual harassment towards women has become an everyday occurrence in our society. The concept that somehow having an opinion that differs from other results in a mass wave of harassment is frankly sickening. Whilst I haven’t personally experienced any online trolling, I have seen it happen time and time again whilst just scrolling through Twitter or Reddit. The outcome of the story was a surprise, but it goes to show how the people who are doing the trolling are not the kind of people who one should pay attention too. A lot of the time people give trolls the attention they are looking for any that is what insights even more harassment to be spread. Harassment of any kind should not be allowed on these digital platforms, yet they continue to let it happen for the sake of not censoring speech which is not a valid excuse. The documentary GTFO in my mind gets a lot of things right but also at times felt a bit overzealous. The general issues of harassment and discrimination against women in the gaming scene are 100% real and I have personally been hearing about it ever since I started playing videogames but they are not something I have personally seen happen. From my own experience of playing games for almost 15 years, I have never come across a case of extreme harassment towards a female. The worst I heard was someone using the word “bitch” towards a woman but at the same time, the person also used the same words towards multiple people including myself. I feel the media at times portrays the harassment of women in gaming as a far too often occurrence and that could be pushing women away from the industry itself thus lowering the percentage of women who will work within the industry. The various examples of harassment at women in the gaming industry is something that I have seen happened and it is crazy to see how people are actively going back and using old material to harass people for the sake of using them as a scapegoat. One aspect of the film that feels a bit odd is the way they point out that the gaming industry is created by and for straight white men in their twenties but a majority of the world’s most popular games were created in places like Japan or Korea and countries like Brazil and Mexico have the largest population of video gamers. Overall the documentary does a decent job of noting the misogynistic issues within the gaming industry, but it feels a bit outdated given the number of events that have occurred since it released like that of the impact of gamergate in the gaming industry.
These weeks' topics do not relate that much to my case study on streaming sites but there are certainly some issues that overlap into what I am researching. The lecture on fandom and participatory culture talks about how fanfiction has allowed for a form of media where queer individuals can be properly represented and that sort of relates to how Netflix is creating its original content. Since streaming platforms are not supervised by a network, they are free to include whatever they want within their shows that includes having clear representations of LGBTQ+ individuals. Netflix has created a lot of content that includes LGBTQ+ characters and it has created a path that other streaming platforms are sure to follow. Another subject discussed in this week’s topics that somewhat relates to my case study is the way trolling relates to streaming platforms. Netflix and a lot of other streaming platforms have created content that has a tendency to go wild and more often than not it results in trolls. A recent example of this is on a Reddit thread talking about tiger king, the post seemed normal but in the comment were a lot of people trolling and harassing other users for their opinions. Just yesterday I people on twitter fighting over the show again. To me, it seemed that there were people actively seeking out posts related to the show only to start an online fight. Whilst other subjects discussed this week may relate my case study these were the two topics that I could somewhat clearly connect to the study.
