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

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Hello. I list you as a friend and I'm a proud multi-shipper.

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?

Let me know if you find one. This is my first fandom and I'm a little surprised by the tenacity with which people are slashers or not. I did avoid the slash at first, because I think I didn't get what it was, but now I read and write whatever takes my fancy.

You know though, even within slash, there's the whole McBeck vs McShep battles... or in het, there's the Sheyla vs 'Sparky' (I don't get the nicknames and name-smooshing thing... *confused look*).

Anyway, waves.

[veracity]

Name-smooshing seems like a lot of extra work to remember. It's easier for me to say McKay/Sheppard or Teyla/Ford cause then I'll know who I'm reading. I felt like that in all the fandoms I've been in (boyband slash wasn't that terrible compared to Buffy or HP, though). I still haven't figured out how Sparky is a name for a pairing, but then, I don't read the fic so I wouldn't. Much like the Pumpkin Pie and Good Ship over in HP. *shakes head*

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

The origins of the "Sparky" nickname are recounted here (http://community.livejournal.com/john_elizabeth/426395.html) by the person who inadvertently coined it.

[veracity]

Ooh, thank you! I've been so worried about what the heck that meant. Still a bit lost on how the word Sparky got from DS9 to SGA. Ooh, I get it. *lightbulb goes off* It was a joke turned name...right?

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

I don't think it had anything to do with DS9, but I wasn't involved in the conversation.

[veracity]

I think I figured out that it was basically a joke and then stuck. I think. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Pairing names confuse me crap of me. *grumbles about just putting characterx/charactery and making me life easier*

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Sorry, back again.
Actually I was just flipping through my friends list and realising how lucky I appear to be when it comes to fandom and the little corners people get into.

Of the people that have friended me since I joined LJ and found fandom, I have both het, gen, femme-slash and slash-only people, multishippers and people that hang around for the porn (which I do write on occasion, but lock due to the fact that I think my family has possibly discovered this journal *meep*)

Perhaps my journal is one of the few that sits in that shaded bit at the center of the venn diagram of LJ? ...Maybe my random writing/reading habits have paid off. Suddenly I feel very lucky!

Oh and check out atlantisfic (http://community.livejournal.com/atlantisfic/) for one of the few places everything is posted.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Have you actually seen McBeck vs McShep battles? I haven't -- but then, I see very little Beckett-centric fic, because the character & I have Issues with a capital Ish.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Have you actually seen McBeck vs McShep battles? Actually no. *Blushes* Just heard people talk of it and assumed. I don't read a lot of McBeck, so I just figured I avoided that. I do have Shep/Weir and Shep/Teyla shippers on my flist and they are very good at bashing each other.

I love Beckett. I just hate the accent people feel the need to write phonetically all. the. time. but that's an issue for another thread. :p

[iamtheenemy.livejournal.com]

Name smooshing makes me gag. Even the term McShep, which is way better than Sheyla or, god forbid, Sparky, annoys me to the point where I'll only read a story with that abbreviation in the header if I trust the author or if the summary looks really promising. It makes you look lazy if you can't type out the whole names. *grumble grumble* Sorry, it's a pet peeve.