In the Clubhouse

In the Clubhouse

May 22

A couple of lines from Chris’ Ghostbusters post stood out to me, provoking further thought (and listen, fankids, Chris is The Source for real GB updates, so quit yer bitchin’):

Some have even gone so far as to say that I hate Ghostbusters and that I’m not a true fan.

Well, they’re right – if they’re the true fans, I don’t want in the club.

Because we geeks always need A Club, don’t we?

Before I begin my Ranty McRant, please understand: what I’m going to talk about doesn’t quite apply to the sitch Chris is describing — that seems to be more of a case of folks just willfully not listening to the facts (and a few Major News Outlets actually using WENN as a legit source — people, have you read WENN?! It’s on IMdB every day and it’s basically a tabloid. Entertaining, but…well, I wouldn’t take anything on there at face value. Ever). But those two sentences, those words, made me want to discuss how we geeks always need to be The One True Fans.

When I was writing extensively about Buffy, and I would, say, give a negative review for an episode, I would receive the inevitable Emails of Protest (especially if said negative review involved picking on Spike, jeez).

“You are not a true fan, because you don’t totally love EVERYTHING ABOUT EACH AND EVERY EPISODE. I am a true fan, because I do! Why are you even watching the show? You Don’t Get It.”

I’ve seen this argument put forth to other writers/critiquers/what have you, about other shows/comics/movie franchises, etc. The argument goes thusly: unless you mindlessly adore everything your beloved franchise spits out at you, you are not a true fan. You are not in the clubhouse.

It cuts the other way, too. Fans on the critiquey side will point out that, it is, in fact, those lovers-of-it-all who are not the true fans, because they don’t pick everything apart — they’re the ones who Don’t Get It. Boo! Hiss!

The whole thing is dumb, and I feel like it speaks to our geekish need to be oh-so-exclusive about the things that we love. We have to keep somebody out. What about, you know, just being OK with disagreeing with each other and allowing that everyone can be in the club if they so desire? What about having fun arguments about stuff? What about not being so quick to hit the “You Don’t Get It!” button (even though it’s one of our favorites)?

I’m just saying that I think fandom sometimes seems insular and uninviting because of stuff like this: everyone wants to be the #1 uberfan and no one will shut up and just listen to another point of view. And that’s a shame, because we could definitely use more nerds among our ranks.