• Buzzfeed looked at the umbrella of Disney fandom at its company fancon. "D23 serves as a giant hype machine for the company’s upcoming productions and consumer products, a big shopping center for the stuff they already have out, and a central meeting spot for fans and fan-vendors from around the world. It has two main constituencies: the hardcore Disney fans — D23 is also the name of the company’s official fan club, with 23 signifying the year Walt Disney moved to Hollywood and founded the studio — and members of the press who brave the traffic to Anaheim to write about the the studio’s movie presentations. The event is like Comic-Con, but with fewer snarky fanboys and more family-centric fare."
• A post at the Vancouver Sun looks at the evolution of gaming cons. "Over time there has been a definitive split between the two types of conventions, with consumer based ones feeding more into the actual fandom of games. PAX itself is built on the shoulders of this fandom, sponsored and created by Penny Arcade, an online comic that has long dealt with video game and various other nerd and geek culture. While most developers will hardly ever achieve a sort of fame (or notoriety) similar to film or television stars, these conventions give the public, and players a chance to directly interact with those who on the average day are hard to reach. Feedback from these conventions, where betas and alphas of games are available to play, not only help build hype and anticipation for upcoming games, but also allows the developers to gather much needed and necessary feedback from those who will eventually be buying their product."
• Meanwhile Tumblr plays host to a virtual book club that is part user reaction and part viral marketing. “I still think it can be tricky to create the feel of a book club with people in different time zones who never get to meet. I’m humbly suggesting that Tumblr might be the best way to do it. You can use text as short or longform as you want, art, gifs, videos, songs; you can include hundreds or thousands of contributors without getting confusing; and you can create original posts or share interesting things you find elsewhere on the Web.”
• These commercial efforts stand in contrast to a recent post on NextGov about an unexpected encounter with fandom, and its relevance to other social activists. "One key insight, though, came from...panelist Lauren Bird of the Harry Potter Alliance...[about]...how super-fandom can go hand in hand with intense criticism...Bird begins her defense acknowledging it may seem silly to protest labor practices in the chocolate industry by focusing on an entertainment company rather than, say, Nestle or Hershey’s. But it makes sense for the HPA...partly because a shift by Warner Brothers could put pressure on larger players in the chocolate industry." Reporter Joseph Marcks concluded "The idea that [a government] agency’s greatest fans could also be among its biggest online gadflies is rare in government. It’s tough to blame agencies for this. Many of them face so much online vitriol it’s tough to sift out any constructive criticism. But agencies are also sometimes so cynical about their own capacity for popularity that they might not recognize a fan movement even if it existed."

What merging of corporate interests and fan gatherings have you seen? Write about it on 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 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.

• 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.

• Gamespot reported that "Nintendo is now claiming advertising revenue from user-created YouTube videos that feature the company's games", something that some fans claim make little sense given the nature of game play. "'Video games aren't like movies or TV. Each play-through is a unique audiovisual experience,' Scott said. 'When I see a film that someone else is also watching, I don't need to see it again. When I see a game that someone else is playing, I want to play that game for myself! Sure, there may be some people who watch games rather than play them, but are those people even gamers?'"
• Discussing a case in the Federal Court of Australia, DC Comics v Cheqout Pty Ltd., an article in The Conversation said "Intellectual property and superheroes is complicated. Superman has spawned a host of imitations and emulations in comic books, graphic novels, and films – everything from Dr Manhattan in The Watchmen to Mr Incredible in Pixar’s The Incredibles. Over-protection of Superman under intellectual property could repress and suppress such creativity and innovation." Noting that the OTW was formed to combat intellectual property claims against fanworks, Professor Matthew Rimmer stated "There has been a concern that the excessive protection of intellectual property rights of superheroes could have an adverse impact upon creativity, remix culture, and fan fiction."
• Less common is discussion of merchandisers exploiting fans. A particularly egregious case involved cosplayers having their photos used on body pillows being sold at cons. After outraged fans complained to the merchandiser and con organizers, their sale was halted. "It's difficult to see how screening a cosplayer onto a $12 pillow could inspire anyone, or why models who went uncompensated for their work would be "flattered" to be exploited to turn a quick buck for the photographer. But while condemnation continued to be swift, several people did thank Pearce for his relatively quick action in removing the pillows."

What legal actions have caught your attention? 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.