More random recollections from REVELcon
Mar. 30th, 2004 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amediaI was on three panels, plus attended a fourth.
My absolute favorite had to be the Sunday morning panel with Lorelei, Anita, Linda, and Glenda on "Coming out as a Slash Fan." Basically we all just swapped stories, some from the panelists, some from the audience, on our experiences - voluntary and involuntary - when people found out we're slashers. I shared the story of my son's recent introduction to slash (one of my friends told him about some Harry/Draco stories she was writing - instead of going, "eww" he began giving her story suggestions). One of our audience members told a great story about how her mom found out one day by walking in and catching a glimpse of what was on the computer monitor, but didn't seem altogether upset. Some time later, the audience member's *sister* spotted one of her zines and was horrified. She took the zine to their mom, slammed it down in front of her and said, "Do you know what your daughter is reading?!!!" The mom looked up calmly and said, "And your point is?"
Indeed, a common theme among the stories was that people are often not as shocked as we expect them to be.
I went with Lorelei to her panel on "New *Old* Fandoms" - that is, recently-developed fandoms centered on shows that have been around a while. Westerns seem to be developing young fandoms, apparently because the Hallmark Channel has their Rough and Ready Saturdays where they show many classic Westerns.
The panel was subtitled "Can you say Rat Patrol?" but we didn't actually spend too much time on RP, which was very restrained of us given that Lorelei and Linda were on the panel and Carol and I were in the audience (all of us Ratties to the max). I did bring up RP at the dead dog panel, which I caught about the last half of. Jan Meeks, who ran programming, was asking what panels we wanted to see next year. We talked about hot fandoms that were underrepresented this year because they were unexpected; I mentioned Master & Commander and Pirates of the Caribbean as present hot fandoms. So what will be the big hot fandom next year? Jan wondered. "Rat Patrol!" I said. "Get over yourself," she scolded, but in a fond way. I believe she's planning to leave some slots open for unpredicted hot fandoms/topics.
I also participated on a panel Friday afternoon called "The Great, the Bad, and The Ridiculous," which was about blogs. Anita, Kaytee, and Elf were on it as well. The subtitle was: "Live Journals: Why do people read and/or write them?" but we actually spent a good chunk of time simply explaining what they are and how they work; very few people at the convention were familiar with them.
Saturday I thoroughly enjoyed the "No Holes Barred" panel, in which Annie, Beth, Candy, Jan, and I tried to explain why we slash. Beth's explanation was my favorite: "Because it's fun!" Jan asked us what we thought of a new theory she'd read recently, that said women are taught to be ashamed of their own bodies and thus write slash because they can take pleasure in men's bodies but not their own, which rules out writing het. I said that I didn't disagree with the premise (i.e., our society does encourage women to be ashamed of their bodies), but I didn't like the way it was used to support the conclusion, which implied that if women did love their own bodies, they wouldn't write slash; in general I dislike the pathologizing approaches that start from the assumption that we write slash because there's something wrong with us. I much prefer Beth's explanation - that we do it because it's fun! - and we'd do it no matter how we felt about ourselves/women in general.
There's more to recall, but my glittery fingers are getting tired and I'll have to finish another time! (They're not sparkly bronze anymore, btw; I painted them black and them frosted them with silver glitter because I had a ninja belt test tonight and I thought perhaps having ninja nail polish would help me get in the mood. I got my new belt, so perhaps it helped!)
My absolute favorite had to be the Sunday morning panel with Lorelei, Anita, Linda, and Glenda on "Coming out as a Slash Fan." Basically we all just swapped stories, some from the panelists, some from the audience, on our experiences - voluntary and involuntary - when people found out we're slashers. I shared the story of my son's recent introduction to slash (one of my friends told him about some Harry/Draco stories she was writing - instead of going, "eww" he began giving her story suggestions). One of our audience members told a great story about how her mom found out one day by walking in and catching a glimpse of what was on the computer monitor, but didn't seem altogether upset. Some time later, the audience member's *sister* spotted one of her zines and was horrified. She took the zine to their mom, slammed it down in front of her and said, "Do you know what your daughter is reading?!!!" The mom looked up calmly and said, "And your point is?"
Indeed, a common theme among the stories was that people are often not as shocked as we expect them to be.
I went with Lorelei to her panel on "New *Old* Fandoms" - that is, recently-developed fandoms centered on shows that have been around a while. Westerns seem to be developing young fandoms, apparently because the Hallmark Channel has their Rough and Ready Saturdays where they show many classic Westerns.
The panel was subtitled "Can you say Rat Patrol?" but we didn't actually spend too much time on RP, which was very restrained of us given that Lorelei and Linda were on the panel and Carol and I were in the audience (all of us Ratties to the max). I did bring up RP at the dead dog panel, which I caught about the last half of. Jan Meeks, who ran programming, was asking what panels we wanted to see next year. We talked about hot fandoms that were underrepresented this year because they were unexpected; I mentioned Master & Commander and Pirates of the Caribbean as present hot fandoms. So what will be the big hot fandom next year? Jan wondered. "Rat Patrol!" I said. "Get over yourself," she scolded, but in a fond way. I believe she's planning to leave some slots open for unpredicted hot fandoms/topics.
I also participated on a panel Friday afternoon called "The Great, the Bad, and The Ridiculous," which was about blogs. Anita, Kaytee, and Elf were on it as well. The subtitle was: "Live Journals: Why do people read and/or write them?" but we actually spent a good chunk of time simply explaining what they are and how they work; very few people at the convention were familiar with them.
Saturday I thoroughly enjoyed the "No Holes Barred" panel, in which Annie, Beth, Candy, Jan, and I tried to explain why we slash. Beth's explanation was my favorite: "Because it's fun!" Jan asked us what we thought of a new theory she'd read recently, that said women are taught to be ashamed of their own bodies and thus write slash because they can take pleasure in men's bodies but not their own, which rules out writing het. I said that I didn't disagree with the premise (i.e., our society does encourage women to be ashamed of their bodies), but I didn't like the way it was used to support the conclusion, which implied that if women did love their own bodies, they wouldn't write slash; in general I dislike the pathologizing approaches that start from the assumption that we write slash because there's something wrong with us. I much prefer Beth's explanation - that we do it because it's fun! - and we'd do it no matter how we felt about ourselves/women in general.
There's more to recall, but my glittery fingers are getting tired and I'll have to finish another time! (They're not sparkly bronze anymore, btw; I painted them black and them frosted them with silver glitter because I had a ninja belt test tonight and I thought perhaps having ninja nail polish would help me get in the mood. I got my new belt, so perhaps it helped!)
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 10:23 pm (UTC)Overall, it sounds like the con was wicked fun. I'll have to start going to those one of these days.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 08:34 pm (UTC)Well, ConneXions is this weekend in Baltimore, if you have a little time to spare... :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 11:23 pm (UTC)Indeed. The old adage is that slash fans are heterosexual women, but of slashers who I know well enough to know their sexual orientations, I've found a majority of bisexuals-- I'm one of them, for a start. I imagine that a larger, more random sampling would return the predicted majority of heterosexual slashers, but bisexual and homosexual women would also be strongly represented. We certainly don't have a problem taking pleasure in female bodies!
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 08:35 pm (UTC)Awesome point! Thanks for bringing that up!
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 11:50 pm (UTC)(will I see you at ConneXions?)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 08:36 pm (UTC)Thank you, ma'am!
(will I see you at ConneXions?)
Indeedy! New belt and all - I'm planning to show up in uniform for the martial arts panel.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 01:07 pm (UTC)Who's yer icon?
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 08:39 pm (UTC)That's Jack Moffitt of the Rat Patrol [military TV show that takes place in the North African theatre during WWII], commando archaeologist (I kid thee not! Many years before Indiana Jones) going undercover to gather intelligence among the local inhabitants.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-03 08:51 am (UTC)