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

[exegesis.livejournal.com]

The diversity is out there, but as per your comment on 'pigeonholes (people staying in their little corners)' it doesn't necessarily spread too far from home. Part of the problem is lj itself - not everyone uses it and communities can be hard to find. I often find mine through word of mouth rather than searching.

Personally, in SGA I am a fan of McShep, McWeir, McTeyla, McBeckett, McDex, McZelenka, (Rodney whore here!), as well as Sheppard/McKay with Dex, Weir, Beckett, Teyla, Cadman, Zelenka, Lorne, as well as Dex/Sheppard, Dex/Zelenka, Beckett/Zelenka, Teyla/Weir and Beckett/Cadman. I'll happily read all these fics, but I only write McShep. About the only thing I can't stomach is Shep/Weir (although that in canon wouldn't bother me).

For a 'neutral zone' I think it depends whether you mean on lj or off - fanfiction.net could be touted as such, but tends to be more gen due to their rating rules. Its also a hangout for many younger writers as a result. Wraithbait is primarily slash (and McShep). Area52 is entirely slash and Heliopolis is far more SG-1 than SGA (as it was set up for that in the first place). I suppose a better question to ask would be - do the majority of people want to merge? I think its less to do with the show (someone above mentioned the versatility of Joss Whedon led to the versatility of fandom, I disagree) and more to do with the personalities and interests of those who are in the fandom. Part of it comes from the intolerance of other fans - I'm sure you've seen the hostility that can pop up between people when they feel their OTP is threatened - hence Shep/Weir fans often disliking McShep and vice versa.

Like you, I wouldn't mind more merging and convergence, but I don't see the fandom as broken or segregated as you say. Its just different people with different interests - why should they all have to play together. If we want the divergence, we just might have to dig a little more. Alternatively, try setting up a neutral zone, but I doubt that would be successful. For the most part, people like their little corners.

Because everyone else is doing it - My fandoms include (gen and slash) - SG-1, SGA, Firefly, Buffy, Angel, the Professionals, Velvet Goldmine, the Sentinel, Due South, Highlander, Hard Core Logo, HP, the Mummy, Underworld, Star Wars, Hercules and Xena (is ashamed) and Battlestar Galactica. I may have missed a few...