We’re here, we’re academic, get over it

Okay, so it doesn’t rhyme nearly as well as the original, it still gets the point across.

The point being, I’m sick and tired of hearing how the big, bad academics are taking over fandom just because we’re suddenly, you know, clearly present.  We’re not lurking on the fringes for (obviously quite justified) fear of being rejected and marginalized in this, a self-proclaimed marginal culture.  Fans who are also academics are openly being academically fannish, instead, and doing so in some shared venues instead of just in our own little corners.  Oh horrors!

See, I’ve by now read a lot of people getting het up over how (to read the subtext, here) objectifying academic approaches to fanning are.  How we set things at a distance and look down on/dissect/take the fun out of/act superior to fandom and therefore aren’t Real Fans.  And I’m sorry (well, actually, no I’m not), but that’s bullshit.  I will make this simple in hopes that it gets through this time:

For academics, writing articles about things is how we fan.

Get it?  We do this because this is how we like to express our passion and interest and involvement. Academia is one of the oldest fandoms there is, right up there with religion.   So don’t give me that crap about how academic studies is solipsistic and objectifying. Yeah, sometimes it is.  But, guess what, I’m standing here, and I am an academic, and I am a fan, and I don’t do that shit, and some of you have just insulted the hell out of me, and I’m really fucking pissed off!

This rant is not to any individual’s address, though the latest round of such did, in general, set me off.  This rant is the culmination of months and months of being told repeatedly that I’m not allowed to be a fan unless I leave my favorite mode of fanning at the door.  And you know what?  Fuck all that!  If you can’t deal with me and all the ways I am fannish, too fucking bad!