Here's a roundup of perspectives on fans stories that might be of interest to fans:

• The CW has greenlit the pilot for Cult, a story focusing on fans of a cult show committing murders. The story was based on the writer's experience with Farscape. ""When I first conceived “Cult” it came out of that. I thought, what if the show wasn’t something like “Farscape,” a science fiction show that had a slight amount of edge but was essentially an entertainment? What if it was a show that was darker, had darker elements? What kind of fan base would grow up out of that, especially considering the anonymity of the internet? It would potentially yield a very interesting opportunity for some very strange people to connect with the show. So that’s where it all began.""
• The newspaper The Guardian recently ran two different negative pieces about genre fiction the first discussing how eReaders both hide and reveal reading tastes and the second bemoaning how mainstreaming sci-fi/fantasy stories has created boring TV and films. Fangirl Unleashed countered the latter and suggested sexism had a hand in these negative views. "In the same way that female-centric films are ghettoised as ‘chick flicks’, ‘syfy’ (as the new label has it) is dismissed as romanticised/infantilised nonsense." In addition "It doesn’t help that some writers refuse to accept the genre label, because their work is ‘serious’, fostering an insidious Catch 22 – serious work isn’t science fiction, so science fiction can’t be serious. Authors like Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro write about clones and worlds where women are sold as incubators, but it’s an allegory, not science fiction, so that’s alright, they’re still proper writers."
• The MarySue recently deconstructed how role-playing games represent women and limit the interactions actual female players can have onscreen. "The Hey Sweetheart Scenario is one that plays out with female protagonists, and it pops up all over the place. It’s usually very subtle, presenting itself as a bit of throw-away dialogue separate from the main plot." After examining how this occurs and who it might be targeted to, the author suggests that the main culprit is lazy writing. "Raise your hand if you’ve ever played a game/seen a movie/read a book wherein the heroine’s desire to fight stems from her anger towards men, particularly where a male abuser is concerned. It’s a trope as old as the hills, and it drips with lazy, one-dimensional storytelling. A real heroine doesn’t need to be goaded into action by ill-mannered men. Just let her save the day. That’s more than enough evidence that she’s a badass."

If you play RPGs, are a Farscape fan, are a fan of cult TV shows or read science fiction, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. 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.

Here's a roundup of stories on sports fandom that might be of interest to fans:

• Jane Dough cited a study on football viewership that revealed "Women, actually, love watching football. More than they like Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and American Idol. So pipe down, imaginary husbands and whiny beer commercials. Sunday Night Football is the third most popular primetime show among adult women." These current numbers demonstrate a continuity from the fandom's early days discussed in Football Girl. "Similar to the matinee girl, the football girl was a common subject of male journalistic curiosity. That someone of the "fairer sex" (gender stereotypes of women as emotional, overly-sensitive, and nurturing were alive and well in the 1900s) would be interested in watching a competitive match involving "brute" physical force was both titillating and confounding for many male writers."
• Sadly not much has changed in sports media depictions. Baseball Nation took the show MLB Fan Cave to task on its treatment of women. "In the last few years, many media outlets have reported that women now comprise 45-47 percent of all baseball fans, making it the most gender-balanced of the four main professional sports." Yet the women who do appear on the show are there primarily for gratuitous appeal to male viewers. "The 2011 version of the Fan Cave offered nothing for the score-keeping, numbers-crunching, roster-watching woman fan. Well, if you don't count insults to her baseball intelligence."
• The Baltimore Sports Report wrote about the personal connections in sports merchandise. "This holiday season, I am sure anyone reading this will probably wind up getting a sports-related gift of some kind, but I encourage you to consider it more than an overpriced logo or even a way to show off your team. It is a reflection of where you are in life, what you care about, and what you value. I was a UVa fan because of what I thought they represented (way in the past now, mind you), and my Dad went nuts for that jersey not just because he loved the Ravens but because he felt a meaningful and permanent connection with the city of Baltimore."
• Meanwhile, the Baltimore Sun reported on baseball fan get-togethers which included everything from conversation and trivia games to guest lecturers. "He and his fellow conversationalists are looking forward to the next "Talkin' Baseball" on Jan. 14, when Maryland author Bob Luke is scheduled to discuss his latest book, "The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues."" Manley is "the first (and still only) woman admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Her story is one of a million threads in the fabric of baseball, which people such as Paulson see as a game but always, in addition, something bigger. "You never run out of things to talk about," he says."

If you take part in a sports fandom, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. 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.

Here's a roundup of stories on freedom of expression through fanfic that might be of interest to fans:

• A presentation about stylometry discussed how the new tool Anonymouth could de-anonymize online users and serve as a challenge to "the balance of power between trolls and moderators, between dissidents and dictators, between employers and whistleblowers, between astroturfers and commenters, and between spammers and filters." However, something else was on the mind of some audience members: "a questioner asked whether Anonymouth's methods could be used by, say, fanfic authors to make their writing style match the author whose universe they're dabbling in" suggesting that the tool could be used to anonymize authors as well as reveal them.
• AfterEllen looked instead at femslash when asking "Does lesbian subtext still matter?". Citing the period between Xena and Rizzoli & Isles, the author noted, "Both dynamic duos have produced fervent fandoms committed to creating alternate narratives in fan fiction and fan videos, as well scrutinizing every touch and word exchanged between the characters." These fictional worlds are still of great importance to people whose own worlds deny the existence reflected in fan fiction. "Subtext matters because it creates a virtual playground for lesbian fans to interact with each other on fan forums and Twitter and Tumblr and in the comments sections of the greatest lesbian entertainment website in the world. It matters because lesbians can use that subtext, that chemistry between two female characters, to create their own versions of the story. And it matters because subtext is a gateway drug for main text."
• An article on the GayNewsNetwork had a similar take on the importance of slash. "Slash is about seeing the whole world through queer eyes. While most mainstream entertainment is still as straight as a lightsabre, slash allows anyone and everyone to be queer. For once, we can be the heroes." However, fan fiction is seen as welcoming more than queer desires. "There's a great tradition in fandom that admonishes kink shaming - that is to demean or label unacceptable something which another fan fetishizes. Dark desires from the crusty corners of your id are not only allowed a space but encouraged. In fandom, I have discovered kinks not only that I didn't know I had but that I didn't know even existed."

If you write or read fan fiction whether about Xena and Gabrielle, or Rizzoli & Isles, why not contribute your fandom experience to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. 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.

Here's a roundup of stories on use of the term "fanboy" that might be of interest to fans:

• A number of negative stories on fanboys have cropped up recently, some placing this point of view in their title, by creating a list of offensive groups, or making an attempt to parse the difference between fan and fanboy, which has led some to wonder when this term became an epithet. While the term has never had favorable connotations, to some it has been a term that expresses general fannishness if not, as in the case of fangirls, simply a gender orientation.
• While the hostility toward fanboys is nothing to envy, a more widespread use of this gendered term seems to be increasing the erasure of women as fans. An example is press reaction to the recent Samsung ad that mocked Apple users. There were numerous news stories surrounding it, beginning around November 23 and continuing for several days, extending to a variety of publications. The common factor was that all used the term "fanboy" in the title. Yet the ad itself features various women in speaking roles, using both Apple and the Samsung product, which is to be expected given that half of Apple users are women (whereas it is actually Android users that are overwhelmingly male). Even though most of the articles embedded the video in their coverage, none mentioned women's use of the product.
• When it comes to continued negative cultural stereotypes, neither sex comes out ahead, as this review of the new TV series Geek Love at The Mary Sue points out. "Geek Love, produced by Authentic Entertainment, the lovely folks who subjected us to Toddlers & Tiaras, is planned as two, half-hour specials which if successful, could warrant an entire series." This doesn't seem promising given the examples cited. Pantozzi of The Mary Sue concludes, "I understand how television works but I also know it doesn’t have to be made for the lowest common denominator. Awkward geeks are what people expect to see. Instead of making a spectacle out of them, how about changing the way people view geeks?" Certainly some media outlets put a more positive spin on geek romance.

If you have something to say about fanboys, fangirls, geeks, or other names in fandom, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. 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.