Status: Single
State: New York
Country: US
Signup Date: 3/1/2006
|
|
|
|
Thursday, November 05, 2009
|
WHAT'S BETTER THAN GIRLS?
FANGIRLS OF COURSE!
Here is a great set of articles about the changing gender composition of all things fandom! (by Vaneta Rodgers of Newsarama.com)
FANGIRL INVASION p1 - The Changing Face (and Sex) of Fandom By Vaneta Rogers
posted: 27 August 2009 03:32 pm ET
There was a time when the term "geek" was applied exclusively to men.
That time has passed.
"Every year, there's an even larger, incredibly noticeable legion of female fans, and not just girls into the 'Twilight' stuff, but girls wearing comic books stuff, wearing a lot of manga stuff, wearing anime stuff," said Jeff Katz, the former Fox movie executive who recently started the comics/film production house, American Original. "Women are clearly part of the genre audience. Anyone who's been doing their homework in Hollywood in the last five years has certainly been aware of this."
According to statistics from last year's Comic-Con, about 40 percent of the people attending the show are women, something that didn't escape the recent attention of Jeff Smith, publisher of the popular "Bone" comic book series.
"There's women! I don't mean to sound lecherous. I'm just really pleased!" Smith said with a laugh. "It really was just us guys for a long time."
While any kind of growth in the industry would seem like good news, it hasn't come without its share of backlash. Blogs since this year's convention have taken male/female sides on everything from the potential sexism of the convention's "booth babes" to complaints about the influx of female "Twilight" fans.
But if there's one thing most fans and creators can agree upon, it's that more women are around, and they appear to be staying.
In the first of a series looking at the effect of the "Fangirl Invasion", Newsarama looks as the causes and asks: Why the change? And why now?
Katz, who has written superhero comics and produced films like the recent "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", said he believes it comes down to society being more accepting of fan culture and genre characters in general. As the culture at large is exposed to fandom, it becomes more acceptable to be part of it.
"You have a generation of girls who have grown up with this stuff and view it as a natural part of culture," he said. "You've had three 'Spider-Man' movies and 'X-Men' movies since they've been growing up. You've had 'Harry Potter' books and movies. And this generation has gotten it in a more concentrated level than I had as a kid. I might have had a 'Superman' movie every few years. But it was still a bit of a learning process."
Although Katz thinks comics publishers still haven't figured out how to tap into the potential of this female audience, Hollywood has started to catch on – with Katz naming "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon as someone who greatly influenced the change.
"He's one of the leading forces behind the growth," Katz said, pointing toward the large number of enthusiastic female fans the creator's projects have attracted. "I think his impact's actually been underrated."
Whedon himself told Newsarama he thinks the recent surge in female fans has come about mainly because it took Hollywood this long to figure out that comics and genre movies appeal to a wider audience than just geeky men. "I think a lot more people are more comfortable with being fans of this genre because the studios and the networks have become more comfortable with them," he said.
"After 'Lost' and 'Heroes', they get it, 'Oh, this is a formula for money! We love money!'" Whedon said. "So people who would never have watched what used to pass for science fiction – which was all, 'turn on the purple lights and let's look like crap and be sort of marginalized' – people who would never watch that stuff even if it was good, and don't love B-movies the way I do, can now find themselves into genre." Paul Levitz, publisher at DC Comics, attributes much of the growth in the female audience to the fact that, as women have become part of the workplace and therefore the creative marketplace, more writers and artists are female.
"I think if you look at the history pattern – Joss' work aside, which is wonderful but unusual – the success of things capable of attracting women in pop culture had women in a more significant creative role. Gene Roddenberry, although male, was very heavily influenced by Majel Barrett, his wife, during the creation process of 'Star Trek'," Levitz said, pointing out the female fans of that franchise.
"With the whole emergence of Vertigo, which became the first modern comics line to have serious women readers very actively involved, it's not a coincidence that the editorial staff was led by a woman and included many women. Yes, the same story can reach both, but the odds are a little bit better to tell a story that interests a group if it's by a person who's in it."
Louise Krasniewicz, anthropologist and lecturer for the University of Pennsylvania, said her studies of fan culture have led her to believe that women's recent attraction to fandom is just a natural reaction to the human need for the stories of mythology – something they were previously discouraged from fulfilling.
"I study mythology and cultures around the world and back into ancient worlds. And it's exactly the same thing," Krasniewicz explained. "There is no difference between the myths that people in ancient times used to explain the world to themselves and 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight' and comic book characters. They are our contemporary myths. I think girls have been looking for something like this."
Krasniewicz, a life-long comics reader who has also become a fan of 'Potter' and 'Twilight', attended Comic-Con this year to immerse herself in the fan culture she studies, and even stood in line with thousands of other people to see the panel for 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon'.
"They needed something like this," the anthropologist said as she waved her hand across the mass of mostly female fans waiting in the line. "'Harry Potter' partly had that. Comic books have it, but comic books have always had a reputation of being for boys. Twilight' was perfect. It was the perfect way for them to step into what fan culture provides you."
Among the things fan culture provides, Krasniewicz said, is a community, as fans enjoy sharing their enthusiasm with other people. "People like having that connection, and people have done it for years over comic books. Some people used to do it over 'Harry Potter' and still do. People used to do it more over television shows, but we don't watch the same television shows as much as we used to. But 'Twilight' just hit it on the button," she said.
Because of the attraction to community, one of the reasons for the growth in women fans may be the increase in female Internet users, as the web gives women the ability to share their fandom with others. Females now outnumber males on the 'net, with social networking serving as the key attraction. And along with that social activity has come an increase in communication among female fans.
"When we first started, we ran off a standard $100 a year web hosting, which progressed to various types of shared servers, until we finally got so large that we had to get our own dedicated server," said Lori Joffs, co-owner of The Twilight Lexicon website for fans of the movie and book series, which draws mostly women ages 18 to 35. "We currently have over 50,000 unique visitors a day, which still stuns me considering that I threw a little party when we got our 500th visitor."
According to Krasniewicz, that growth in online communities of female fans is something that comic book fans should understand, since they've been doing it for years. "There's definitely this sense of the 'comic book community.' We hear that term all the time as comic readers," she said. "And now women are discovering they can be part of that. They can have that same sense of community through fan culture."
Check back with Newsarama for future installments on the Fangirl Invasion, including a look at why Hollywood in particular is taking note and whether there's a difference between how men and women approach fandom.
FANGIRL INVASION: Hollywood Takes Notice By Vaneta Rogers
posted: 02 September 2009 05:43 pm ET
Geeks may rule at the box office, but fandom isn't an exclusively male club anymore. And Hollywood is taking note.
"There's no doubt that Hollywood has been courting the genre fan -- the 'fanboys' who go to Comic-Con every year -- because they want to tap into that power of fandom," said Jeff Katz, the former Fox movie executive who recently started the comics/film production house, American Original. "What I think has surprised a lot of people is that girls are fans too. The female acceptance of fandom, be it comics, be it genre fiction, be it movies, be it, frankly, football, there's a larger appreciation, understanding and willingness now to embrace it." Because of the success of geek-appealing film franchises like "X-Men", "The Lord of the Rings", and "Transformers", the media has been reporting for the last few years that Hollywood's core audience for blockbusters was nerdy 13- to 24-year-old male -- and the nerdier, the better. As the Washington Post put it in 2007, "not just teen boys, but teen boys at their pimpliest, stutteringest and downright geekiest." But now Hollywood has noticed that among those geeks is a growing audience of fangirls. With the success of last year's vampire romance/thriller "Twilight", which exit polls showed had an audience of about 75 percent females, Hollywood is suddenly noticing that fans of comics and sci-fi-genre television, movies and books aren't always guys.
"Hollywood is finally waking up to the fact that girls like a wide variety of things beyond Barbie and Sex and the City," said actor Mike McMillian, who plays the Rev. Steve Newlin on the HBO television series "True Blood", a sexed-up vampire show that has proven itself popular with both male and female fans. "The universal success and appeal of 'Harry Potter' probably kicked this off in some ways. There are obviously concepts out there that are more appealing to boys than girls, and vice versa, but things don’t always have to be organized into 'pink' and 'blue' categories."
McMillian counts himself among the fanboy culture and is writing next year's comic book series "Lucid" from publisher Archaia. But the actor said he thinks there have always been fangirls -- Hollywood just never courted to them before now. "There are legions of women out there who love this stuff, but I think they’ve been largely disregarded up to this point," he said.
According to Katz, the female audience -- and young girls in particular -- have been recognized as an important segment of the film audience for the last five years, particularly in the horror genre, where scary movies stick to a PG-13 model specifically designed for teen girls. But now that fandom is being recognized as including women, genre movies may start to cater more to girls than boys because they're a little easier to attract to the theater.
"There are a lot of studies on this, and you'll see conflicting numbers, but there are a lot of studies that say teenage boys' entertainment time and entertainment dollar are being lost to video games and entertainment via the Internet more so than teenage girls," Katz said. "Teenage boys go to the movies, but a lot of the movies they would have gone to a few years ago, they're going to in less numbers. They're going to go to 'Wolverine', they're going to go to 'Spider-Man', they're going to go to 'Batman', but that more generic action movie? They may not go to anymore. They're more likely, if they're even interested, to, say, wait three months and own it on DVD."
That loyalty and freely spending enthusiasm from female fans is something the publishing business is feeling in a major way, as the mostly female fans of Stephenie Meyer's vampire-filled "Twilight" series are not only driving sales of that and other "paranormal romances," but fangirls are even reading classic literature mentioned in Meyer's stories, like "Wuthering Heights", which has suddenly topped classics charts since its "Twilight" mention.
Comic book publishers haven't tapped into the audience as much as books, but when they do, the females find their way into the stores, evidenced by the success of Marvel's "Anita Blake" comics and Dark Horse's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". And publisher Th3rd World Studios is hoping that loyalty follows their comic book adaptation of "The Mortal Instruments," a book series endorsed by Meyer and read by many female genre fiction fans.
"This series adaptation has the potential to bring a whole new crowd of readers to our titles and possibly comics in general," said Th3rd World publisher Michael DeVito. "I think unlike a lot of what is available in the comic format, it appeals to both male and female readers pretty equally."
The power of female fandom is something that excites Lori Joffs, co-owner of The Twilight Lexicon website for fans of the movie and book series, which draws mostly women ages 18 to 35. But she said Hollywood hasn't really taken notice of a female-centric story having the power to become a blockbuster, despite the fact that several have.
"When you think of the top-grossing films of all time, you've got 'Titanic' at the top of the list," Joffs said. "Now, I know some guys who went to that film for the effects, but it was the plot and the romance that brought females back to see the film over and over again. It's the same thing with "Twilight". The plot and the romance drives us all to run out and get that next book, to be the first in line to see the film at midnight, to check the web for the newest trailer.
"Great characters and a sweeping plot are really something that Hollywood has been turning away from, instead focusing on effects and production and big named stars. And keep in mind that Rob Pattinson wasn't a big star when he was cast in 'Twilight'," she said. "So I think that maybe, just maybe films like "Twilight" will help Hollywood take notice that the women are very willing to spend money over and over again at the theatre if the film is done with the right mix of romance and drama and suspense."
But the fervor among female fans could also be a problem for the audience, McMillian pointed out. After all, if Hollywood really does think they're more willing to spend money on movies than male fans, they may not try as hard to appease them with quality filmmaking.
"'Twilight' is huge and can only lead to more genre movies aimed towards women, and may shake up those statistics, which is exciting for everyone, because that means a wider variety of product," he said. "But you know what? I’m not sure they are taking note of their voice, and women should be prepared to feel ripped-off.
"The trend that I see coming is studios spending as little on 'female' movies as possible to take advantage of the huge profit. I guess it’s within Hollywood’s right to do so, but I think it reveals a condescending attitude towards female viewers," McMillian said. "Meanwhile Hollywood is tripping over itself at Comic-Con to make sure the tiniest details meet male-fan approval. 'Is this Iron-Man suit okay? You like?? Please don’t trash us online!!' So Iron Man’s suit is going to look amazing, but I don’t think the studio behind "Twilight" is working as hard to make the werewolves look cool in "New Moon". And I think it’s because they believe girls only care about how Taylor Lautner looks without his shirt on. Decent CGI is 'guy stuff.' Maybe I’m wrong though. I hope I am. We’ll see." FANGIRL INVASION - The War of the Sexes Hits Geekdom By Vaneta Rogers
posted: 17 September 2009 05:18 pm ETAs female fans stake their claim as a growing part of the "geek" audience, the previously male-dominated world of fan culture is struggling to get used to the idea. While the differences between the sexes have been argued for years in barrooms and kitchens the world over, now it's fandom that is dealing with the issue. As women are becoming more interested (part 1) in sci-fi and fantasy media, the idea that there might -- or might not -- be differences between how men and women approach fandom is a concept that everyone from Hollywood filmmakers (part 2) to comic book fans are trying to understand. The growing pains that come from women embracing a once men-filled realm were evident at this summer's massive Comic-Con International: San Diego, where more than 40 percent of the attendees were female, their percentages growing over time.  This Indiana Jones fan at Comic-Con isn't afraid of snakes, he's afraid of fangirls During the convention, internet fans argued male-female issues like the potential sexism of the event's "booth babes" and claims that the show was "ruined" by the influx of female "Twilight" fans. In one panel, filmmaker/comic shop owner Kevin Smith mentioned "Twilight," and his throngs of fans responded with such loud boos and jeers that Smith chastised them. "That's the next generation of fans!" Smith said. "That's what I love about a comic book convention. People will come to a convention, stand there in a Spock costume, look at someone in a Chewie costume, and say, 'Look at that f__in' geek. How dare you pass judgment on those 12-year-old girls who like vampires!"
Behind the backlashBut behind the backlash seems to be this idea that not only might female fans be attracted to different stories than men, but male and female reactions to fandom are sometimes at odds. Joss Whedon, the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," has ushered in a surprisingly large female audience for Buffy and other sci-fi projects like "Firefly," "Serenity" and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." Yet despite his stories appealing to women, he sees no difference between his male and female fans. "There's not a difference. I do not think there's a difference," Whedon said. "What? Female fans are more nurturing? People are crazy, and fans are the best kind of crazy. And I speak as one of them. And I've never seen a difference in the way the men and women respond to things." Actor/writer Michael McMillian has seen more than one side of fandom, both in his role on the HBO vampire series "True Blood" and as part of the comics' community while writing the upcoming magic-based comic "Lucid" for publisher Archaia. McMillian pointed out that while female readers were the target of the Sookie Stackhouse book series on which "True Blood" is based, the television show has appealed to both sexes -- something he tends to think is possible for any good story. But he recognizes that while men and women may like the same stories, their attraction and response may be a little different. "When someone’s passionate about something, it tends to transcend gender lines. I loved Sean McKeever’s run on 'Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane,'" the actor said of the teen-centered comic book, "but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t written with me in mind. I do think, however, from watching my niece and nephew play 'Star Wars' together, guys still tend to be a bit more violent in their role-play, while girls seem to be drawn into interpersonal relations between characters." That focus on relationships is something unique about the way women approach fandom, said Louise Krasniewicz, an anthropologist and lecturer for the University of Pennsylvania who studies fan culture. "Men may have the same type of emotional investment in the characters, but their focus in social settings will be more about what they know," she said. "I think girl fans talk a lot about the emotional investment they have. They love the characters, and when they become part of fan culture, they feel connected with the other women because of the emotions, so that's what they concentrate on."  These guys seem cool with having to share space at Comic-Con with fangirls The anthropologist, who is a long-time comic book fan but recently got involved in "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" fandom, made the comparison of a boy who studies the back of a football player's rookie card while his sister couldn't care less about those statistics, instead focusing on how seeing a touchdown made her feel. She said the same can be said about how most men and women communicate about properties like Pokemon or the X-Men. "I've discovered at different comic book conventions that it's more about 'can you top this?' The men know what superhero did this and in what issue he did it. It's almost a competition game," Krasniewicz said. "With women, there doesn't tend be as much of a competition where they want to prove they know more. Their discussions are more likely to be about their emotional response to the characters. They want to talk about how the stories make them feel." Emotional enthusiasmThat emotional part of fandom is something that seems to drive many female fans toward becoming enthusiastic about actors who play their favorite characters. For example, a group of almost exclusively female fans followed "Star Trek" franchise star Zachary Quinto when he walked through the halls of San Diego Comic-Con, despite the fact the "Star Trek" franchise attracts male fans as well. "Men tend to get more wrapped up in the technical aspects of the films where the females get wrapped up in the emotion," said Lori Joffs, co-owner of Twilight Lexicon, one of the leading websites for fans of the "Twilight" book series. "And when you think about what the female fans have done to meet the actors -- sleeping in the streets for several days, waiting for filming to wrap to get a glimpse of the stars -- I can't think of any male fan of something like 'Watchmen' going to those extremes for their favorite film." But that excited reaction by female fans to genre actors like Robert Pattinson or Nathan Fillion is also something that leads male fans to roll their eyes when talking about the women they encounter at comic conventions. "When the hell have you heard a thousand guys screaming in high-pitched banshee yells for 'Green Lantern?'" said one male fan on the comics' message boards at Newsarama.com. "I'm sorry. I have no problem with the current trend. But I just want to blow my brains out when I hear that ear-shattering crap." "Well, they certainly are more vocal!" Joffs acknowledged. "'Twilight' has sort of become like the Beatles when it comes to screaming. I think the obsessive tendencies of the fans, myself included, have really driven the franchise to what it is today." But Krasniewicz said that obsessive "screaming" phenomenon is probably less inherent to women -- who have been among comic book and genre fans for years without being noticed for screaming -- and more about the emotional aspect of the "Twilight" franchise. "If we are experiencing these fan activities as alternative universes (which is what I believe), then we end up following the rules and expectations of that world," she said. "[Twilight] is a world built on emotion, on thinking and feeling passionately about something or someone and acting on it, and to hell with being appropriate or calm. "So I don't think women are inherently over-emotional or silly when they meet celebrities, those living reminders of the mythical/magical alternative universes that we love," Krasniewicz said. "Instead, I think certain of these worlds encourage and require emotional reactions, and others have sort of built-in rules about not showing such reactions. The rules are different for men and women within these universes just like they are in our world, and this is truly cultural: we learn how to act like this; it is not built into us." Sex and sillinessYet sexual attraction to characters isn't exclusive to female fans, McMillian said, and may in fact play a role in the escapism of genre movies, comics and video games. "One characteristic both audiences seem to share is sexuality," he said. "In either case, whether it's Laura Croft or Edward Cullen, there are obvious sexual projections onto the characters of these fictional worlds. Genre seems to play a large role in sexual and emotional escape." Besides, Krasniewicz said, even male fans become "silly" about their heroes, even when it's not related to sexual attraction. Sometimes, it's just about being a huge fan. "I have been in several Comic-Con sessions where male fans got giddy and breathless asking Joss Whedon or Seth MacFarlane or some comic book artist a question," she said. "It's a good thing there are so many different types of fan communities to accommodate all our expectations." And as Whedon pointed out, a fan is still a fan, even if they aren't exactly the same in other ways. "There are differences between men and women, I am aware," he said, "but a lot of them are artificial. And when it comes to the fans, I've never seen the difference." What's your opinion on the developing strife between fanboys and fangirls? Let us know in our latest reader poll...
8:17 PM
Powered by  | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|
|
|