cairistiona's place

*crickets cheeping*

It's been quiet around LJ the last couple of days. I've noticed over the years that LJ activity definitely ebbs and flows. Some weeks there are more posts on my friends page that I can keep up with while other weeks have me checking every few hours wishing someone, anyone, would post something. Funny how often everyone gets busy at the same time. Maybe it has to do with moon phases, who knows. With it being so quiet here, I've been over on tumblr a little more, but it's quiet even over there. Even my rampaging viral Viggo quote about McDonald's french fries has slowed down. (Of all the stupid things to go viral, jeez. I'm tumblr famous for a quote about french fries. What is life.)

You'd think, with all that quiet, I'd get some writing done, but not so much. It was a busy week filled with various appointments, so I was out and about on the days I usually reserve for writing or reading. The only thing I accomplished was to eke out a very rough draft... oh gosh, so rough... of an idea I've had for a fic for The Martian fandom. Who knows if it'll turn into anything, but it'd be nice if it did, because that's a tiny fandom and needs all the fanworks it can get. There's very little actual realistic fic out there, the kind that's based on actual NASA science and procedures and not... hand-wavey crap like movie!Commander Lewis suddenly shoving actual-EVA-specialist Beck aside and slapping on an EMU (extravehicular mobility unit) in two minutes (I don't care if it's 30 years from now that this takes place... it takes a freakin' long time to put on an EMU) and going out to retrieve Watney to assuage her guilt. I STILL SO MANY ISSUES WITH THAT SCENE. SO.MANY.ISSUES.

Ahem.

/rant because that's not what this post is about. This post is really about what it means to be a member of a fandom.

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This seems timely, given that I've declared Friday to be "Fangirl Friday" here on my LJ:

This was written specifically for an upcoming Sebastian Stan appearance this weekend, but it really is sound advice for how to behave at ANY celebrity appearance. I've seen pretty much all kinds of behavior, from good to bad, at the various celeb events I've been fortunate enough to attend (mostly baseball athletes, to be honest, since there's not a lot of celebrity appearances in my neck of the woods), and sometimes the behavior of fans is so outrageous that it really does make me very uneasy going to things like that, and when it's at its worse, can make me ashamed to call myself a fan at all.

Of course, there's a LOT of teens on tumblr... and they're all going mad for Seb Stan right now. It's... seriously berserk over there, which is both fun and, at times, a little scary, especially when these people forget that, hey, Sebastian is a real person and might not be comfortable with what you say you intend to do with his man-parts. I hope it's all just in fun, and I'm sure 99% isn't said with any intent toward carrying it out, but seriously... I can't help but think if roles were reversed and Seb Stan was making the kind of comments toward/about women that women make toward/about him, there'd be sweet-Jesus hell to pay. It's a double standard that really, really bothers me, that attitude some have that "we girls can say anything we want about men, but if a man even looks at me... IT'S THE PERPETUATION OF RAPE CULTURE." Misandry should have no place in our girl talk any more than misogyny should with the men. Respect humans, regardless of gender.

So, yes, fangirl away, but do so with dignity and respect.

Anyway, didn't mean to go on a rant but that's been bothering me for ages. I was very glad to see a voice of reason and maturity over there.

For those of you who may not have seen it, TORn is running a favorite Tolkien character competition.  The initial list to put together the brackets is rather odd (Ungoliant, for example, is on there, but Beorn isn't, which I find inexcusable, Edit: Beorn's on the list now, and Aragorn is on there twice, as Aragorn and Aragorn as Strider, which is also odd as he's the same man!)  But for what it's worth, it's fun to vote and watch the results.

Vote here.  (I'll leave you to guess who I'll be voting for...)