- Bustle‘s Emma Lord focused on the successful protest of a fanfiction ‘comedy’ act at WonderCon as part of discussing misconceptions about fanfic writers that she’s tired of. “WonderCon recently had to pull Chris Gore’s ‘Fan Fic Theater’ panel, in which he was going to read out loud actual fan fiction and make fun of it for sport. Like many fellow authors, I took to Twitter to question what the panel was for, and within thirty seconds of my incredibly civil tweet asking what was up, I’d been blocked by Chris Gore himself…It didn’t take long for the convention to cancel the whole thing, because duh, WonderCon, you can’t make fun of the very audience for your event and expect them to not get defensive about it.”
- The Age reported on fans’ reactions to the murder of a cosplayer in Australia with a display of numerous pieces of fan art. “[A] global group of cosplay fans…are expressing their grief through art. Masa Vukotic was a well-regarded member of the cosplay – or costume play – community…Many members of Melbourne’s cosplay community have paid tribute to the teen with sketches and paintings of Masa dressed in her signature ‘lolita’ style. Some admitted they had never met Masa, but felt compelled to draw images of her or post photos of themselves wearing pink in her honour, her favourite colour.”
- Comic Book Resources wrote about a discussion on The Nightly Show about fandom and diversity. Marvel’s director of content and character development, Phil Jimenez, said “It feels strange to me that we would partition race, gender and nerd as if they were distinct things…All human beings are this combination of experiences and ideologies. […] Everybody’s get some nerd in them. But the idea that, somehow, being a nerd is separate from one’s religious or moral or political beliefs is strange to me. We all bring everything to our decision-making on a daily basis.”
- Fusion.net reported on the success of various actor-led charity campaigns. “Padalecki’s campaign is the latest example of a burgeoning form of celebrity activism—one inextricably intertwined with social media and the nerdiest brand of superfandom. The new activism is kicked off by a star—in this case, the lead of a show that has a massive following on Tumblr—but powered by his admirers. (Incidentally, all examples involve male stars and their largely female fan bases.) The star, in turn, interacts with fans about the campaign, energizing the cause. Everyone feels good knowing they’re fighting for the same thing.”
What cases have you seen of fans coming together? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.
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