What is fandom?
A group of fans that follow a particular person, team, or fictional series. It’s a subculture of a community that revolves around common interests. A group of people that were once strangers that become bonded like family over their love of common interests.
You might be asking what the point of this is. Clearly if you’re reading this, then you’re in a fandom yourself. The reason for this post is not to antagonise. It’s not to hate. It’s simply to bring up the conversation of whether or not fandoms have reached a natural end point. Can they still be enjoyable and fun experiences? Certainly. However, they can also be a section of hate that appears to be increasing as the days, weeks, months move along. As the multiple fandoms have become more focused on their own interests, splits have occurred within the fandoms themselves. Dividing into groups following their own “ships”.
For a while now I’ve seen these groups within fandoms get worse. Fighting back and forth, name calling, insults, the list goes on.
This, for me at least, has hit an endpoint with the latest insults being flown around involving the cast of the CW show, Supergirl. During an interview with MTV the cast, being musical, did a recap of season 2 in song. As part of this recap song, Jeremy Jordan added the part:
“They’re only friends! They’re not gonna get together, and they’re only friends.”
This, if you’ve seen this video, refers to the friendship between Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor. They stressed fairly strongly that the two would never be together, and that seems to have gotten up the nose of the fans that ship the pair. To the point where they have since been barraging Jeremy Jordan and Melissa Benoit on twitter and Instagram with hate; with at least one comment even going as far to say Melissa didn’t deserve to be Supergirl.
This act of attack to the show is disgusting, and I’m horrified that the cast have had to put up with this. To the point of Jeremy Jordan having to post two\three long picture posts apologising, and asking forgiveness. To which he continued to get a barrage of hate, and choruses of “it’s too late now” all the way through his twitter feed.
And this is the type of thing that makes me think fandoms have gone too far. They have failed.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. For fans of The 100, a similar thing happened when the writers killed off Lexa, which effectively killed the Clarke\Lexa ship. The cast and crew of that show ended up with hate thrown at them for being “homophobic” etc, when the only reason it happened is for story points to put Clarke into the position she is at the end of the season. It’s basically character development 101.
Before you start attacking me for this blog being against gay ships, this also happened almost all the way through the TV Show, Castle. To the detriment of the show, fans became obsessed with Kate Beckett and Richard Castle becoming a item. Yes, that is where it went, and for all intents and purposes, was going. The point still stands. When the new showrunners took over, and ended up breaking up “Caskett” for a time. The fans went nuts. Insults were thrown about all over the place. Not to the same extent as The 100, and Supergirl, but this is what I mean by the escalating nature of fandoms. The years through Castle, and up to now have escalated too far.
The key thing to remember is, that “shipping” is a term created by fans, for the fans. There is no relation to the show that you’re watching and following. You’re ship might happen, it’s possible, but it’s not guaranteed. It should never be. No ship should be. The show is there for entertainment. It is created by the creators because they wanted to tell the stories they do. That’s what they were hired to do by the studios who give them money to produce the shows.
So, if you take anything from this post. I hope that it’s to stop the hate, particularly to the cast and crew of the show(s) that you claim to love. If you want to “ship” something, then ship it. That does not give you, or anyone the right to send hate to cast members. The video from the Supergirl cast, in particular, did not “diminish” the ship that you love. The ship lives with you, not the cast. The ship lives in your friendships that are made from the common ground of the ship. Nothing can take that away, despite what the show does.
So, continue your fandom. But continue it in the right way. Support your friends. Support others that love the show, even if they don’t ship the same thing you do. Bring back the family aspect of fandoms. The love and acceptance of it. Use fandoms for what they should be, a way to make the world a little less harsh, and horrible. Leave the hate behind.
So, write fanfiction. Make art. Write songs about it. Talk and laugh with your friends who ship the same, but be supportive of others who don’t.
And most of all, don’t include the cast, crew, or writers in hate attacks. Be kind. They are not responsible for your ships. Only you are.
In finale, is it any reason that celebrities are beginning to leave social media, or reduce the time they interact with fans? They are human too. They don’t deserve the hate.
Dreaming Screenwriter 