• The Koalition discussed how sexism is hurting gaming. "Community is a very loaded word. While it lets us gamers come together under a shared passion, it also allows us to exclude those we do not feel meet our standards of membership...one group is conspicuously left out of the conversation: the female gamer. While a female gamer could be part of some or none of these schools of thought, they are both minimized and criticized when voicing opinions. Whatever a gamer may be, one thing most can agree on is that being a girl isn’t part of it."
• Comics writer Liz Argall suggests women should embrace being seen as a menace to fandom. "I don’t like it when incredible people I know are misrepresented, under represented, and sometimes you just have to celebrate your awesome-sauce. Cheryl Morgan was called a menace to fandom because she created the fanzine Emerald City (1995-2006), which existed in digital and well as print. How dare a science fiction fanzine use something as science fictional as the internet? It just wasn’t fair! Cheryl designed badge ribbons in emerald and gold that proudly proclaimed menace to fandom. Recent controversies have made quite a few of us want to wear a menace to fandom ribbon, given menace reflects people, issues and activism that make our communities of practice a better place to be."
• While celebrating fangirls at San Diego Comic Con, Fangirl the blog quoted a Grantland piece that recounted how patience could be short when it came to women's voices. "I confirmed with several people sitting in the immediate vicinity that it was a young man shouting 'Women who talk too much!' after the loudspeaker asked attendees to voice their appreciation for the participants in the 'Women Who Kick Ass' panel. It’s an ugly moment, an unfortunate capper to a great session, to be followed by many of the guys sitting around me offering up tired lines like 'I hope they feel empowered now!' and several recitations of the Twilight mantra about ruining the Con. To be sure, most people in the room were respectful. But at a certain point, there needs to be an accounting for the fact that there is an ugliness that burbles beneath the surface of too many Comic-Con events."
• By comparison, Julia Errens at The Mary Sue talked about her experience at a Harry Potter con to discuss how cons can indeed be empowering. "This vocal questioning of societal norms was endemic for LeakyCon. All discussions I partook in or witnessed across the weekend eventually touched upon gender roles within the patriarchy. Clearly there was a keen need to talk. This slice of HP fandom seems to have created a safe space to not only get creatively involved and build media criticism skills, but also explore important facets of their own personhood. Anybody who finds that chucklesome needs to sort out their priorities."

What stories about female fans and fandoms do you know of? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

• San Diego Comic-Con appeared to be yet another opportunity for some members of the media to notice that female fans exist in large numbers. The Mary Sue discussed a study showing that women dominated conversations about Comic-Con. "Proving once again that women can in fact be nerds, Networked Insights has analyzed the social media discussion of Comic-Con, and has determined that women are in the majority when it comes to discussing the event. Based on 3.5 million social media conversations, it appears that 54% of the people talking about SDCC related T.V. shows, actors, movies, comics, and other relevant topics were women."
• Forbes provided anecdotal evidence of the same. "Heading to Comic-Con, I expected the massive convention crowd to be heavily male. After all, we’re told again and again that young male teens are the main demographic for these movies. Hollywood puts almost no effort into attracting women or young girls to their biggest blockbusters so why should very many girls make the expensive pilgrimage to San Diego? Instead, the place was swarming with women. It almost seemed like there were more women then men." The conclusion? "There’s a huge untapped market out there for female superheroes."
• Of course when commercial works are targeted at women, it isn't always what one would hope. Starmometer posted about The K-Pop Star and I, which is described as "fan fiction from Lifebooks...a romantic novel that involves two different cultures" and appears to be a self-insert story for music fangirls.

What sorts of things do you think the media misunderstands about fans? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

• Longtime fans are fairly familiar with the variety of judgments they're subject to for their hobbies, but these don't only come from outside their fandoms. A recent post on Hypable discussed congoing and how it seems a step too far for some. "All this time, I thought the people who went to Harry Potter conventions were weirdos or nerds who didn’t have much else to occupy themselves with. After the trip to the TVD Con in Chicago though, I’m almost in mourning that I missed out on all the early HP conventions. I’ve learned that at these events, you can be a giant nerd if you want to...I’m jealous that I missed the opportunity to go to some of the first conventions, or that I didn’t go to the midnight book release parties, even if I would have been the oldest person there."
• Unleash the Fanboy hosted a post criticizing anger at casting choices. "Predictably, even the hint of casting against type has lead to the repetition of a depressingly familiar conversation, the conversation that happens any time there is a chance of changing a character’s race or gender or sexual orientation or whatever...The more I hear people make this criticism, the more difficult it becomes for me to pretend as if there is anything to it besides an open sewer of raw bigotry." This is because the "characters we love are not solid objects: they are constellations of ideas."
• Of course sometimes assumptions do come from outside fandoms. The UK's Daily Mail discussed another study on gamer demographics which came to the unsurprising conclusion that women spend as much time on games as men, and that gamers are generally older, married, have children, and are socially engaged with others when they game. "A spokesman for Pixwoo.com added: 'This snapshot into the lives of ordinary gamers disputes many myths about the pastime, showing how integrated gaming is into our daily routine.'"
• Writing for Den of Geek Laura Akers examines an episode of Castle to highlight the media's changing approach to geeky pastimes. "Ironically, it is the actors, those who have traditionally profited from but sometimes cruelly patronized geek fans, who are portrayed [in the episode] as dysfunctional (and morally ugly)." She concludes that the Castle writers recognize that "geeks are no longer a marginal group who can be used and then mocked or dismissed. While Fillion is a bonafide geek, he and those like him are simply smart. They recognize that we are now legion—there are enough of us to build a substantial career on."

What points of dispute have you come across in fandom? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

The following post was written by Heidi Tandy from our Legal Committee, who represented the OTW at Comic Con

Were you at Comic-Con this past weekend, or did you follow the online news, announcements, surprise appearances, news leaks, first reactions and photos that covered Twitter, tumblr, Instagram, blogs, Facebook and journaling sites -- and inspired nearly a dozen fics on An Archive Of Our Own?

The OTW was on site in San Diego, covering Comic-Con for the first time with a small team of reporters and bloggers; we couldn't be everywhere (although none of us slept much) so we'd love to hear your stories and see your photos! Please link to them in comments; if you'd like us to include your pics, please share only photos where the people visibly pictured are on a panel, are celebrities, or have given permission for you to share the photo with us at OTW to use on the site.

A Meetup Of Our Own

Team OTW met many of you at A Meetup Of Our Own on Wednesday night, where we chatted about fandom, panels we most wanted to see at Comic Con, strategies for coping with the lines for autographs and to get into Hall H and Ballroom 20, and whether we'd get to see sneak previews of shows and films, or advanced copies of books, comics, games and toys. Authors Scott Westerfeld and Sarah Kuhn joined the party, and it was a relaxing way to get ready for the excitement and frenzy of the next few days.

Day 1 - Getting Connected

On Thursday, some of the longest lines were for HASBRO exclusives, Marvel's "Coulson Lives!" t-shirts and Ballroom 20, where two shows - Intelligence and Star Crossed - were showing pilots before the Sherlock panel. Hall H was comparatively quiet. Before the doors opened for panels and presentations, we met fans in long and short lines, talked to costumed attendees about gender-swap cosplay, ran through a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity and looked over the schedule of events. This year, moreso than ever before, attendees with smartphones - or even just text messaging plans - were able to know what was going on at the other end of the con via Twitter or find out about last minute offsite event guests, like Tom Hiddleston on Sunday afternoon at Zachary Levi's NerdHQ. @HallHLine and @Ballroom20, as well as organizational Twitter accounts like OutsideComicCon and SD_Comic_Con and panelist accounts like Marvel's @AgentM and @GeekandSundry were continuous sources of information this year.

Day 2 -- Fanworks On Display

An audience of fanfiction lovers!

On Friday afternoon, an overflow crowd gathered at the "Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World" panel. Fanart has become commonplace at SDCC, as Marvel hosted a fanart gallery at the offsite Geek & Sundry location.

Video screen at the FOX booth

FOX's booth showcased Teen Wolf fanart and memes during the actors' signing while BBCAmerica did similarly at their offsite Doctor Who meetup. DeviantART sponsored Artists' Alley and some of their staff were featured on various panels. But while many of the authors at signings and on panels at SDCC have backgrounds in fanfic, only the general Fanfiction panel on Friday and a Twilight panel of fanfic writers spent full sessions on fanfiction. However, people in lines and in rooms between panels read stories on their smartphones, tablets and laptops, sharing recommendations with and occasionally reading aloud to those sitting near them.

"How It Should Have Ended" creators interview

Simply connecting with the people in line around you was a great way to learn more about fellow attendees' fannish pursuits during the other 51 weeks of the year. Presenters like the team behind the "How It Should Have Ended" videos talked to us about their unexpected transition from fanboys and fangirls to creators of a webseries that people - including Damon Lindelof - are now fans of.

Indie movies played almost around the clock at the Marriott, and Rob Benedict of Felicity and Supernatural premiered Sidekicks, a film impacted by his experiences interacting with fans of that show at cons over the years. Gingerhaze, who's well known for her original art as well as her fanart, created awesome, inspired drawings at the BOOM! booth just opposite Marvel's massive signing-and-selling-and-celebrating area. Felicia Day celebrated strong female characters, Neil Gaiman hugged MarkDoesStuff and praised his read-alongs, and John Barrowman fanboyed everything (except Stephen Moffat, it seems).

For many, Friday included a Veronica Mars experience, as the show-turned-movie took over Hall H in the middle of the day, as well as a Horton Plaza movie theater that night. The film is currently the largest Kickstarter-funded project, as it brought together thousands of fans and millions of dollars to partially fund the cost of this major motion picture. (See the cast panel entrance) Perhaps because of Kickstarter's impact on a range of fandoms, this year Comic Con included more panels than ever on crowd-funding, self-marketing and transitioning to professional writing, costuming and art.

Days 3 and 4 - From the Creator Side

Team OTW spent much of Saturday and Sunday talking to fans in lines, outside panel rooms, and amid all that, we were also in the press rooms, interviewing the creators and casts of Almost Human, Lost Girl, Adventure Time, The Originals (with a question to Julie Plec about The Tomorrow People, too), Supernatural, Teen Wolf and Black Sails. We asked casts and showrunners about how they're inspired by fan creativity, why they think their shows inspire fans, and how they look at fan reactions, legal issues and social media. We'll be bringing you excerpts from these conversations over the next week.

"Grrls Fall In Love" panel with Veronica Wolff (The Watchers), Ally Condie (Matched), Holly Black (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown), Veronica Roth (Divergent), Marissa Meyer (Scarlet) and Lissa Price (Starters) with Sherri Smith (Orleans) moderating

While we went to Comic-Con with a plan to focus our attention on fan creativity and legal issues, random bits of "entertainment news" fell into our laps, and we had to make spontaneous decisions about how to share such news, while keeping OTW's coverage itself focused on stories related to our mission, site and advocacy issues.

If you were at Comic-Con or the OTW Meetup, we'd love to hear from you, and include your words, images, and videos in our coverage and collections. Comment with links to your posts or videos, or to photos of yourself or panelists. If you're including people other than yourself and/or panelists in your links, please make sure you have the permission of anyone whose face can be seen in the photo.