Who Actually Gets to “Escape” Into Fandom? [Fandom is Racist]

Teen Vogue ^ | January 28, 2012 | Stitch

[Angelino97]

In 2020, fandom thrived. We saw people return to their old fandom favorites like Twilight or Sherlock, play so much Animal Crossing and The Sims, and fall down the BTS rabbit hole (leading the group to their first no. 1 song in “Dynamite”). Escapism has literally kept people going despite all kinds of crises, and the use of fandom as a solace will likely only continue...

But all experiences of escapism are not created equally. Escapism isn’t actually possible for everyone because of the nature of both fandom and the world around us. The best-worst example of the limits of fandom escapism? Racism...

In 2019, Dr. Rukmini Pande did an interview with Henry Jenkins about her book Squee From The Margins: Fandom and Race. “I found that while it is certainly possible for fans of color to ‘pass’ within online fan spaces, their modes of escapism are mostly contingent – I can enjoy a source or fan text until it gets racist,” Pande said in the interview...

fans of color can’t reliably escape into fandom, because people don’t stop being racist just because they like the same things that people of color do. There’s always a racist person in fandom. There are always racist fanworks. There are always racist creators. There’s always racism in the source material that people will defend in your mentions for days...

Black fans and other fans of color can’t escape into fandom when fellow fans on social media complain because they’re being “forced” to think about what’s going on in the U.S. instead of their favorite idol or the Switch game they’re writing fic about. They can’t escape into fandom when international fans think of Black Lives Matter as an American issue, as if Black people aren’t dealing with systemic antiblackness worldwide.

[Angelino97]

I began attending horror/sci-fi/fantasy fan conventions in the 1980s. At least since the 1990s, they've been very left-leaning and gay-friendly. And while it's been mostly white, the conventions have always been extremely welcoming (and even patronizing?) to people of color, whether as guests or panelists.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Yesterday our daughter celebrated her 14th Birthday by successfully robbing a bank with a group of friends with 4 minutes to spare, in one of those Escape Room places. I told her you never know when that skill is useful.

[Berlin_Freeper]

And they didn’t need to ask for any hints.

[Retrofitted]

The closing line of the article: "Ultimately, fandom should be a place where everyone can escape the stress of their offline lives — except for bigots, of course."

After going through a litany of all fans of anything being racists instead of going after the very few bad actors, one wonders where the bigots lie.

[fieldmarshaldj]

“Teen Marxism.”

[Antihero101607]

I made it a couple paragraphs into this drivel, and I just couldn’t anymore. It feels that it is especially difficult for people of any given fandom to slip into some of their preferred escapism these days because because it has been invaded by assholes who cannot seem to divorce themselves from the current day. Also, I am deeply skeptical of something being called racist, because the word has little meaning anymore.

Kind of like Battletech. Around since the 1980s, rules are virtually the same after nearly 4 decades, you need very little to play it. Very deep lore, a universe that spawned video games, a cartoon show, toy lines, and a lot of books both for the game itself as well as novels. A man named Blaine Lee Pardoe was one of the writers since around the beginning, actually injected some conservative themes into his writing, and as of 2023, got canned by the current holder of the Battletech license, Catalyst Games Lab, because the because a few people decided he was guilty of wrongthink.

I would like to see who some of these people who are making the fandom “racist”, because I know Reddit nukes commentary the mods do not approve of. If anybody is destroying the fanbase I am going to speculate that it is people like the stunning and brave author of this who does not have a name attributed to the op ed.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

[ronnie raygun]

Forcing the public to accept someone elses mental illness never works and makes what ever it is fester even more behind closed doors. Maybe thats their plan

[Crusher138]

Or how about the racism John Boyega experienced while working on the Star Wars sequel trilogy and from the fandom, which he said contributed to him going to therapy to deal with the aftermath and what he called “horrible personality traits, [such as] anger”?

Except it didn't happen.

There were multiple calls for Boyega to share even one example of the racism and bigotry he experienced. Crickets. It was more of the "it happened because I said it did."

Boyega was really hacked off at Rian Johnson who ignored the Jar Jar Abrams set up in The Force Awakens - the one that had him a major character with nascent Force powers - and turned him into a buffoonish second rate don't blink or you'll miss him character. Note that Boyega didn't go public with his "Star Wars fans are racist" act until 2020, when it was fashionable to do so, and when it was clear his character wasn't going to be treated seriously in the Star Wars universe going forward.

[Lisbon1940]

Smile on you brother.