Anna Butler here with my monthly rambling blog post, and on a touchy topic because this month has been a terrible one for the m/m romance community. March came in like a lion, and no mistake. It’s going out leaving a lot of chaotic hurt feelings in its wake.
I’m not going to rehash it all here. Besides, the tale of deception and catfishing by a major author followed within days by the harassment claims made against the senior editor of said author’s publisher… all very unedifying, shall we say. Deeply unedifying.
You know, though, I couldn’t greet it with any real surprise. For many years I was active in various online fandoms. Deception and catfishing? It must be 13 or 14 years since the Harry Potter fandom was riven with the drama that was Msscribe. The most recent example is just so much vieux chapeau, because it’s all the same symptoms: fake identities that go beyond a mere pen-name (they were called sockpuppets, back in my day), begging for money (usually for medical costs), stalking online, stalking offline after doxing, on-line bullying, serious hatchet jobs done online to ruin the reputations of those calling out the bullshit, claims of physical threats, defenders rushing in to support the sockpuppets and so on and so on. Really, there is nothing new here.
And then Riptide Press. Author and friend P R Fancier took one look at the debacle over the sexual harassment of an author by a senior editor there and said to me: “It’s really like fandom decided to run a business and all the worse traits that are characteristic of fandom were brought into the “business” model. I put that in quotes because, really, it was run like a fannish story fest, but with royalties.” A perfect summation, it seems to me, because let’s not say it quietly here—this isn’t Riptide’s first brush with ethics-lite. Slavefic, anyone? Horrible racist language? The reluctance to put PoCs onto covers? The inner circle of favoured authors fencing others out? That’s almost every major fandom mishap playing out under the umbrella of ‘professional publishing house’ and ‘professional author’—every worst thing about fandom, encapsulated.
And then we had an example of the very best of fandom. The community coming together to support its members.
One of the worst aspects, you see, was the number of people who rushed in to blame authors who didn’t immediately announce they were going to leave Riptide. Then, over on Facebook, a movement grew. Author K J Charles pointed out that many of those authors slow to say they were leaving Riptide were quite possibly financially unable to take the inevitable hit that asking to break their contracts would involve, and to cast shade on them was unfair. I think she stopped short of saying it was sanctimonious bullying, because she’s polite. I’m not, and it was. Her post struck several chords. Author Amelia Faulkner caught the ball and ran with it, hosting a ‘giving’ post. Within minutes, there were dozens of offers being made. “I’ll spring for the cost of a new cover.” and “I’ll do a development edit for free.” and “I’ll edit and proof-read three authors.” and “I’ll do hand-holds through the self-publishing process.” Offers repeated over and over. Within the hour, the list was too long to manage on Facebook.
THIS, my friends, is what a true community does when its members get hurt. It cares. It cares, it thinks about what it can do to help, and it steps up to that bloody plate and takes on some of the emotional costs, relieves some of that pressure, provides the moral and, yes, financial support that its members need to stand upright again. While I might shake my head over the catfisher and have unpleasant reminders of the heyday of FandomWank when it comes to bullying and harassment, everything that had happened post the big-scandals filled my pinched little heart with warmth and glee.
Because that was the best thing about fandom. And the thing I’ve been missing for so long.
April can’t be nearly as bad as March. Nor, in its ironic way, as wonderful.
About Anna
Anna was a communications specialist for many years, working in various UK government departments on everything from marketing employment schemes to organizing conferences for 10,000 civil servants to running an internal TV service. These days, though, she is writing full time. She recently moved out of the ethnic and cultural melting pot of East London to the rather slower environs of a quiet village tucked deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside where she lives with her husband. She’s supported there by the Deputy Editor, aka Molly the cockerpoo, who is assisted by the lovely Mavis, a Yorkie-Bichon cross with a bark several sizes larger than she is but no opinion whatsoever on the placement of semi-colons.
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Thanks for you thoughts, Anna. We need to keep talking about these issues like you have. Off topic – Coincidentally, I’m in the last half of Gyrfalcon and loving what you did in creating that world. As to the RW issues, I too was not surprised. As an organizational psychologist who studies culture, I could see where the community was and still is rife for these things to happen. I like to say for any culture that “no one is blame, but everyone is to blame,” bc that’s how a culture is created, and changed as well. I hope real change will happen, but I’m dubious about that bc of the nature of this culture. But you also point out the wonderful resilience and caring nature of the culture after the fact, and that has been refreshing.
It is an odd, enclosed community, isn’t it? Very like fandom with its cliques and dramas.There is a sense of the community, being about and peopled by groups that have always felt marginalised, being in a slight siege mentality, turning inwards away from a society that is increasingly hostile to difference. That closing of ranks is not always beneficial, but I truly found the response to Amelia’s FB ‘giving’ post to be very heartwarming. People are, at heart, generous and loving.
I’m delighted you’re enjoying Gyrfalcon! Thank you for letting me know.