I didn't quite read her statement as being that fanfic itself is about fixing the gender representation in fiction so much as that fanfic presents an avenue for those who are excluded (such as women from active roles) to put ourselves into the story. As an example, if I can write a story from Jim Kirk's POV, I can imagine being a starship captain even though I'm a woman and there was a whole episode about how women can't be captains. (For a ten-year-old value of me who had only seen TOS.)
Yeah, you're right, that is what she's saying. And i think that's a lot of people's experience, but it's not really mine, so tell me more about how it works. You writing Kirk doesn't change the fact that Kirk is a dude.
But, okay, the point is: fanfic doesn't *fix* representation (and i'll get into that more on the later comment), but it takes the edge off of bad representation for particular individual authors, because writing a character is a way to see yourself in that character's shoes even if the showrunners didn't intend for you to be in that character's shoes.
(TOS had an episode about how women can't be captains? Things i missed out on by never watching Trek, i guess.)
Yeah, "Takes the edge off" is a way to describe the effect I was trying to convey. My writing Kirk doesn't change that he's a dude, and isn't meant to, but it lets me imagine myself as the hero captain the way only dudes get to, or at least got to, imagine themselves. ANd part of the fun of being in fanfic communities is sharing these different stories with each other.
("Turnabout Intruder" is the title, IIRC. A woman uses a bodyswap device to steal Kirk's body since women couldn't be captians. Fortunately that got retconned before TNG came about.)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2018-03-30 07:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-30 10:37 am (UTC)But, okay, the point is: fanfic doesn't *fix* representation (and i'll get into that more on the later comment), but it takes the edge off of bad representation for particular individual authors, because writing a character is a way to see yourself in that character's shoes even if the showrunners didn't intend for you to be in that character's shoes.
(TOS had an episode about how women can't be captains? Things i missed out on by never watching Trek, i guess.)
no subject
Date: 2018-03-31 07:09 am (UTC)Yeah, "Takes the edge off" is a way to describe the effect I was trying to convey. My writing Kirk doesn't change that he's a dude, and isn't meant to, but it lets me imagine myself as the hero captain the way only dudes get to, or at least got to, imagine themselves. ANd part of the fun of being in fanfic communities is sharing these different stories with each other.
("Turnabout Intruder" is the title, IIRC. A woman uses a bodyswap device to steal Kirk's body since women couldn't be captians. Fortunately that got retconned before TNG came about.)