If I Build It, Would They Come?

[amalnahurriyeh]

If I were to start a DW community* specifically for feminist** fans of BBC Sherlock:

1) Would you join?
2) Would you participate in, say, weekly discussion posts?
3) Would you be willing to occasionally lead discussion posts?
4) Do you think sherlocked_feminists is a decent name? (I tried to pick one that made clear that the central fannish object is the BBC iteration, not the others--the comm as I envision it wouldn't be hostile to fans of the broader canon, but would specifically be intended for BBC!verse fans.)
5) And should I actually title it Angry Feminists Having Accidental Feels About BBC Sherlock? (to solve the Whose Face Are We Having Feels About Today problem.)

* keep in mind that the experience of philedom suggests I am not the world's best community mod, though my intentions are always good.

** with all the caveats that it's not a term everyone identifies with, and that the comm rules would make it clear that it's a broad category, and also that the relevant feminism would be intersectional (e.g., anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-transphobic, anti-classist, etc).

Comments

[frayadjacent]

I'd do it! I don't really participate in Sherlock fandom...at all. But this would get me excited about doing so.

Either of those titles would be fine with me. I'm not too picky about such things, and also not really clever in the way required to suggest alternatives.

[azurelunatic]

I would show up! I might or might not discuss. I would probably be too terrified to lead.

Decent name! Decent title!

Also, somewhere on the profile it should say "My feminism will be intersectional or it will be WRONG WRONG _WRONG ^WRONG WRONG WRONG"

[amalnahurriyeh]

Basically, I want to participate but do not want to deal with the bigger fandom, so therefore I am forming my own club. :)

[amalnahurriyeh]

Doing these things is haaaaaard, Azz! COMPLICATED AND THINGS.

[kouredios]

I would join! And I would try to participate as much as possible!

re: #4...are we subverting the fact that Irene being "Sherlocked" was kind of offensive? I'm not sure that will go down 100% with everyone who might be interested, but I can see it as subversion if I squint. :D

[king_touchy]

Do you think sherlocked_feminists is a decent name?

To me "sherlocked" is a symbol of how the show screwed over Irene Adler, specifically as a woman.

I am terrible at naming things, so I can't offer up any alternatives. I feel bad about that. :-/

[memories_child]

That's how I read it though I can definitely see why it might not go down well with everyone.

[amalnahurriyeh]

I was intending the subversion a little bit, but I suppose I was also framing it as my discomfort with the extent to which this canon owns my brain--like, I don't necessarily want to be fannish like this about this text, but it's no less true. But that's hard to communicate. Hmph. Will process moar.

[amalnahurriyeh]

I think for me, some of the purpose of using/fiddling with/subverting the term 'sherlocked' is a symbol of my own discomfort with being fannish about this particular text. BUT, I'm also aiming for maximum legibility here, so. Will ponder more, see if I can come up with some other options. The trick is finding a reference that is specific to the BBC canon, not specific to any one character (I mean, team_molly is always an option, ha), and has some sort of wit to it.

angry_feminist_sherlock_feels is too long, sadface.

[cathexys]

I may be hanging out in the wrong corners of fandom, but wouldn't any fancom kind of be intersectional and feminist and all the good stuff? Like, do you need to spell that out? I feel like making a feminist Sherlock DW fan com is a bit like making an anti-geek free zone on fanfic on DW. It's kind of a given? (Which is not to say that there aren't incredibly misogynist corners of all fandoms but more that it might be sufficient to make a com and clarify that clearly this will be an intersectionality aware space and all the isms and phobias are not ok...)

FWIW, I like the play on sherlocking/sherlocked, bc it was such a groan worthy moment. But then I enjoy irony :)

[wendelah1]

Screwed her over and diminished her character.

[amalnahurriyeh]

I mean, merely locating it on DW probably establishes a certain tone, yanno? *g* That being said, this fandom as a whole can be scarily faily, and the canon certainly doesn't help in that department. I suppose I'm thinking of the potential comm as a place that's explicit about not having a divide between being critical and being celebratory--not feeling like if you say, "omg so faily," people will say "HOW CAN YOU HATE MY DELICATE SNOWFLAKE FEELINGS," and if you say "THIS THING I LOVE IT SO MUCH," people won't say "how can you be so thoughtless????" I honestly have been avoiding joining communities centered on Sherlock, because I don't want to end up talking about why it's not OK to hate Sally Donovan because she hurt your special snowflake TV boyfriend's feelings (even though she hurt my special snowflake TV boyfriend's feelings too), or dealing with the phenominon of "Cumberbitches." But I'd like a fannish community around the canon. Just not one I'm scared of.

Um, I guess I'm saying I want the anti-tumblr? By which I mean I have a few friends who participate in the Sherlock vs Elementary war that appears to always be being waged on tumblr, and it makes me want to put my head under a pillow and cry. Because my feels and my feminism disagree with each other!

[amalnahurriyeh]

I actually think there's a version of it that could be really interesting and not faily (OK, now I want to write a fic about why she picked it, because that could be fascinating), but the way it was framed? Ugh, ugh ugh ugh. NO.

(why do I have no Scully-with-a-gun icon on DW, this must be rectified)

[kouredios]

That works for me. I just wanted to raise the question. :)

I think that it might also work really well as a signal for what you want the comm to be: both feminist and squeeful at the same time. You're right it's hard to think of other playful alternatives.

[wendelah1]

I actually think there's a version of it that could be really interesting and not faily (OK, now I want to write a fic about why she picked it, because that could be fascinating), but the way it was framed? Ugh, ugh ugh ugh. NO.

A version of what? Who are we talking about here? The writer? This was Moffat's script, naturally.

[wendelah1]

Tumblr savior is your friend.

[cathexys]

Yeah, I get that. I jut...maybe I wan to give people the benefit of doubt or maybe I think it could be spelled out in the com guidelines?

trust me i'm as second wave a they come, but I feel weird privileging one trajectory over others, as if a homophobic or racist comment were any less offensive or upsetting...

I'm fascinated by the Elementary vs sherlock. I think what it boils down for me is that I love E. but I don't want the type of stories I want in S. (like I read a genderswapped Sherlock AU this morning which had F!John pregnant and it was a great story, except for one moment where sherlock totally derided John and made her his errand boy and...in a m/m relation it doesn't bother me all that much and yet with John being female I kinda recoiled...if that makes sense...I love the close friendship thing in m/f because we see it so much less in mainstream media)

[king_touchy]

I enjoy a good subversion. :-) I'm not sure how to twist that term, though, because legibility is a big issue, and a challenging one. Hm, many things are "___-locked." What could you put in front of that? ragelocked_feminists? femlocked_discussions? Hm, the first sounds so angry. Heh.

As for the community itself, sounds like a great idea. The show is so awesome on many levels, yet fails so hard on others, and it's always fun to discuss.

PS. I <3 Molly.

[frayadjacent]

If it helps, amal's explanation is pretty much exactly how I interpreted the "sherlocked" title. Well, after thinking, "hey, that was my least favorite scene in the show!" So it works for me, but I can see kouredios's point.

[amalnahurriyeh]

No, I was thinking from the Watsonian* perspective--leaving aside that she did it because the script told her to, why might Irene choose that as her password? In particular, timing could matter here--when in the course of the episode did she choose it? What did it mean to her when she did it? Etc.

*Incidentally, using the Watsonian/Doylist distinction when writing about actualfax Holmes-derived canons is a smidge more awkward.

[amalnahurriyeh]

Ha, probably--except that, first, I use tumblr on my phone almost exclusively, so I don't know if I can tumblr savior things on there, and, second, I don't actually know what I would block. It's based on tags, right? So I like seeing pretty pictures from Elementary and things like that when people on my feed post them, and I like pictures and squee from Sherlock too. There's not really a way to differentiate the canon wars elements from the happy fun elements via tags. Plus, it's actually only mostly one person (not you), so I don't have to deal with too much of it. There was just a spate of it that made me sadface a lot.

That icon is amazing.

[wendelah1]

Most days I forget I own a cell phone so using tumblr via phone wouldn't have occurred to me. roxicons has a post with numerous Pusheen kitty icons. I love the litter box one except it's missing the flurries of litter flying every which way.

[flourish]

I'd show up!