I’ve recently become involved in another fandom. A new fandom which has sprung up around a television show which has just finished its second season. The fandom is in the early stages, where people are excitedly creating stories, artwork, music, and online communities to enthuse to each other aboutthis new thing they love.
A new thing which I love, too.
But I’ve been having to bite my tongue a lot lately, as I hear–again and again and again–how what’s so wonderful and unique about this fandom is how accepting it is. How it inspires so many people to create all this cool art, these cool videos, these awesome dolls, these incredible web comics, these wonderful stories. “Nothing else has ever done this!!” a 30-something engineer I met recently keeps saying again and again.
He (and the others) could not possibly be more wrong.
Every fandom that has ever existed does this. Every one.
I speak from personal experience. Buffy fandom was like this. Anthropomorphics was like this. ElfQuest fandom was like this. Star Wars fandom was like this. Comic fandom has gone through numerous waves of this. Many, many flavors of sci fi fandom has been like is.
Inspiring creative pursuits from people of diverse backgrounds? Check. Producing a seemingly inexhaustible output of art, stories, music, costumes, other handcrafted things? Check. Creating communities of people who lived far away who became fast friends online or through some other distance communication? Check. Creating gatherings and places where you always feel welcome and valued just because you all love the same thing? Check.
This fandom is still in the early stages. It hasn’t gotten to the point where divisions start to form. I don’t know where those divisions will be, but long experience tells me it will happen. And some people will feel betrayed. They will wail and gnash teeth, not understanding why we can’t all keep getting along because we all love the same thing, right?
Some of them will leave, claiming one person or group has ruined it for everyone else. Some will become entranced with a new show or series or what have you, and drift off as all their time is sucked into the new thing. And some of us will stay. We may become less active as other things take up our time, or as the particular project we were most attached to closes down.
That won’t be a bad thing. Almost every fandom I have been involved in is still going. You can find groups of people still being as creative and friendly and welcoming as the whole thing appeared in the early stages. The fact that some of those groupings within the fandom don’t interact often or at all any more for whatever reason which seems completey incomprehensible to the folks outside doesn’t negate any of the coolness that happened before, nor does it negate any of the creative things that then disparate groups are still doing.
Humans are, by nature, social. We are also, by nature, story tellers. Some of us tell stories with words, some with music, some with art, and some by organizing and facilitating venues for the others to strut their stuff. Humans are equally enthusiasts. Enthusiasm means passion, and passions can come into conflict.
It’s okay. There’s nothing more natural. But don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s new or unique. I’m quite certain that some of those ancient cave paintings scattered around the world were the neolithic equivalent of fan art. And I’m equally certain that those ancient humans sometimes clapped each other on the back, congratulating themselves for being more welcoming and creative than the silly wood carvers who were busy having flame wars with the ivory carvers.
It’s only natural.
Font Folly 
Sounds about right. The other thing that has always amused me is that it doesn’t matter the fandom (anthropomorphics, SF, comics, SCA – heck even stamp collecting and possibly even bears and leather), the face change, but the personalities stay the same. The truism holds: fen are fen are fen are fen. There’s probably a sociological or psychological explanation for this, but I’ve never really investigated it that deeply.
Sounds like church.
That, too!
Awww… this is what I’ve been trying to say. In my experience, fandom is one of the sweetest internet sub-cultures of them all for social inclusiveness and openness to people from diverse backgrounds, but maybe it’s all a matter of perspective (it’s not like members of a fandom are diverse in terms of whether or not they get giddy over the Original in question). But it certainly is something multiple fandoms have in common. I did not, however, know a lot about the history of fandom, so it’s interesting to learn that early fandoms also had these traits.
But what about non-fandom comparison groups? I’ve seen some D&D RPG hobby groups that seemed more wary of newcomers, and more aggressive amongst themselves. No need to even mention political common interest groups on the internet. I will say I’ve seen moderation break down on a fan site – not a proper fandom fan site focused on Original Stories and Original Characters, mind you, but a fan site for one of the hotties playing various characters in the movies. Makes me see fandom as a special sort of subculture where flaming and catfights with girlfriends not present to defend themselves and such is relatively rare.