Why is SGA fandom so segregated?

[trinityofone]

lavvyan! I got your package! Thank you so much, it's gorgeous. (To curious parties: it's a piece of papyrus with the Ancient Egyptian calendar on it.) Actually, the tube it came in is gorgeous, too. But I really want to try to get it framed. And this Treed Murray poster, which I keep saying I should treat myself to. (Hey, I have a new apartment and a new office to decorate here!) There has to be a cheap frame shop in existence somewhere...right?

I am incredibly, incredibly tired today. I was exhausted yesterday, and couldn't even make it through The Daily Show before I crashed. This is bad. I thought I was adjusting to my new work schedule, but I guess I'm not. Is there any way to train yourself to need less sleep?

One thing that has almost kept me energized has been the response to the SGA Bulwer-Lytton Contest. There are so many awesome and hysterical entries, it's going to be killer to choose. So I think I'll pick my--15? Is that how many entries an LJ poll allows?--my 15 or so favorites and let people vote on the Grand Prize Winner. Unless anybody has wild objections, I'll put that up tomorrow.

Like I said, the response has been incredible, and I've seen some new names (by which I mean: people I don't know, even by association, not "people who don't usually comment here"), which is always cool. But--and please correct me if I'm wrong--I still seem to be attracting mostly McKay/Sheppard people, or at least mostly slash people. Which in general makes sense, because hey, I write McKay/Sheppard, I talk about McKay/Sheppard, most of my friends are into McKay/Sheppard. As far as I'm concerned, McKay/Sheppard is for yay.

BUT. I like other pairings, too (my other fandom interest could possibly be described as McKay/women), and I think at least a little cross-pairing pollination is to be encouraged. My last fandom was BtVS/AtS, and it was wild, man. I mean, I started out a Spuffy shipper (Shut up! Their love was pure snarky and hot! At least before it became canon, anyway) but I liked the slash a lot (Buffydom was where I really grew to be comfortable with slash) and I wrote and read some of pretty much everything. It was all mixed.

Why is SGA so much more segregated? I mean, I don't think this is entirely a bad thing--I don't want my flist flooded with Sheppard/Weir stories, and I doubt the Sheppard/Weir shippers want a gazillion McKay/Sheppard stories on their friends pages, either. But is it just me, or is it extremely hard to organize activities that include all sides of fandom? Take reel_sga. The response to that has been great...but as pairings go, not very diverse. In terms of my personal reading habits, that's fine, but I had kind of hoped that there'd be more pairings represented. And maybe there still will be. That would be cool.

(Speaking of one nice bit of pairing diversity, I really loved this reel_sga entry: McKay/Ford art by deani_bean. It's the tie thing. That's awesome, and that transcends OTP-loyalty [and I say this as someone who is mockably OTPish at times]. Which is cool, no?)

Anyway, the Bulwer-Lytton thing is different, because of course it is not pairing-centric: it's mostly about mocking style and usage, although certain tropes have been fun to mock, too. It's about bad writing, but it's also about amusing and clever writing, and seeing what you can do in the space of a sentence. That's something everybody can appreciate, right?

So I guess what I'm wondering is, where are the het shippers? (Again, please correct me if they're around and I've just been too dumb to notice.) And I just don't mean, why aren't they here, responding to this--what is here is awesome, and I'm not like, demanding more people participate, omg. I just mean, I've been in this fandom for almost a year now--how have we managed not to interact at all? Of course, part of this may be me--I'm certainly not trolling john_elizabeth, because why would I want to? So I'm also not saying, "Sheppard/Weir peeps! Why aren't you over at mckay_sheppard? We've got a hot tub, come hang out!" Because seriously, why would they want to? But the fact that there's little-to-no crossover is just astonishing to me.

Maybe it's just that we have a situation that's more like X-Files fandom than Buffydom. Back in the old days, I was rabid about MSR, and I just didn't go anywhere near the slash. (Or Scully/Skinner, or whatever else there was.) I can't remember very well, but I think I was actively afraid of those unfamiliar corners of the net, and that included any of the projects "those people" may have been involved in. Of course, I think this may have had MUCH more to do with the fact that I was 14 than with my shipping preferences, but could there possibly be some connection? What I'd like to know is, do most people on the het end of fandom see even a name associated with slash and immediately go, "Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!"? Which, I hasten to say, would be totally their right. But I realize, I don't even know anyone over there that I could ask.

I'm not saying that there needs to be some sort of cross-ship dialogue, because I think those things tend to end in angry glaring at best. Possibly, just ignoring each other is the best way to avoid conflict, and I'm all for avoiding conflict. I'm just surprised there isn't some sort of neutral zone, some shaded area at the center of the Giant Venn Diagram of Fandom Life. Why do you think that is?

Comments

[cetpar.livejournal.com]

Where does that come from? *baffled, but amused*

From zeplum. She started it, and more people are writing. I think it's funny because Lorne/Parrish gets enough disdain from people because of their minimal screen time together, but I don't think Lorne/Novak has had any screen time at all :)

I happily read almost any Lorne pairing (except Lorne/Kavanagh yuck!), and I've been charmed by zeplum's Lorne/Novak stories. The more Lorne the better I say. *g*

Interesting post regarding McKay/Sheppard vs everyone else. I don't have much to add that hasn't been said already, esp with the slash vs het comments.

But is it just me, or is it extremely hard to organize activities that include all sides of fandom? Take [info]reel_sga. The response to that has been great...but as pairings go, not very diverse.

I agree: At least the response is always overwhelmingly McKay/Sheppard. I don't have a problem with that because, despite my love of Lorne, McKay/Sheppard will always be my favorite characters and pairing. Maybe it's because McKay/Sheppard, together or alone, seem to be the predominant fan favorites in SGA? Or maybe because M/S authors may enjoy reading a bunch of non-McKay/Sheppard pairings (their secondary pairings so to speak) but still tend to write their main one?

With sga_newsletter and sga_noticeboard, I don't think it is because the word isn't getting out-- unless non-M/S fans are not using those communities, which I don't think is the case. I do think the newsletter may be a little skewed toward the slash side of fandom (because my impression is that most of the moderators are slashers), but I think they've been trying hard to include all sides and have been pretty good about announcing general fandom challenges--het or slash.

I would hate to think the some McKay/Sheppard fans are so fanatic about the pairing as to antagonize other pairing fans or be intimidating enough to prevent them from posting in fandom-wide challenges/activities. I have seen occasional grumblings from fans of other pairings about "rabid McKay/Sheppard fans". I also haven't checked comment counts on stories that are non-McKay/Sheppard; maybe authors feel it isn't worth the effort because people aren't reading or commenting?

As far as gen goes, my perception is that there aren't many purely gen writers on LJ in SGA. Or maybe I just haven't found them. I know about missporcupine and ltlj, and Sholio from ffnet has an LJ, but I find myself having to resort to ff.net for some of my favorite gen authors who are not on LJ--Tipper and NotTasha, for example. I'm not sure why SGA gen authors aren't well represented on LJ--if they are writing on mailing lists (which I don't read), or if they are intimidated by the major slash slant of the SGA LJ fandom.

Anyway, that was a long way of saying I don't know. :)

[cetpar.livejournal.com]

that's supposed to be miss_porcupine

pimps stargategenrec!

[shusu.livejournal.com]

Just opened and we're on a tear! stargategenrec :D

Re: pimps stargategenrec!

[cetpar.livejournal.com]

Actually, I recently found out about that comm, and I am very happy about it. I'm "watching" it already. I especially like that the recs aren't limited to just authors on LJ.

::waves hello::

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

As far as gen goes, my perception is that there aren't many purely gen writers on LJ in SGA. Or maybe I just haven't found them. I know about missporcupine and ltlj,

I hate to break it to you (OK, not really because the stories are fun), but ltlj has had implied and blatant slash in her last two stories set in the "Retrograde" AU. It was quite a surprise to me—though a pleasant one—as all the previous stories I'd read in that sequence seemed quite gen and not headed in a romantic direction of either sort.

[cetpar.livejournal.com]

I hate to break it to you (OK, not really because the stories are fun), but ltlj has had implied and blatant slash in her last two stories set in the "Retrograde" AU.

Yeah, I know. I enjoyed them. *g* Actually, I think I would have been happy no matter which way they went. The majority of my reading in SGA is McKay/Sheppard slash, so I really don't have a problem with that. But, I really enjoy good gen stories, too. It just seems like that there are not that many gen authors on LJ compared to other fandoms and that the gen stories are hard to find, but maybe that just is sampling bias on my part.

stargategenrec is new, so I'll be keeping an eye on that for pointers.