Fandom Secrets

[paraka]

Over at LJ's fandomsecrets someone made a podfic secret (thanks to brimtoast for the link).

I'm really curious as to what others in the podfic community think of it, it's had some very mixed reactions in the thread I linked to above.

Comments

[paraka]

I guess, for me, the difference between someone being aroused enough by something to want to act on it and someone actually acting on it is kind of moot, you still got to someone on that level. And even if someone doesn’t act on the arousal as they’re consuming your fanwork (or right after they consume) chances are they’re going to act on it at some point (if they masturbate). Because no one masturbates in a vacuum and if something you did worked for them at that basic level, your work is likely to get incorporated into their fantasies next time they masturbate.

I’m not really in the habit of leaving the kind of comment I mentioned (for some reason I’m ok with talking about, and even celebrating, other’s sexuality but I have a lot of issues talking about my own :-/) but I would assume that those who do are using it because they did find the fanwork in question arousing in some way. So, even though there is a ritual behind the phrases, they are representing a similar reaction (with likely, eventual, if not immediate, follow through).

I think a lot of the immediate reactions to this secret, especially the reactions of creepiness and the like, are brought on by the way it’s presented rather than the notion that people get off on fanworks (although that’s what a lot of people are focusing on). The fact that the secret writer didn’t use a euphemism when describing her activities, the fact that she named names, the fact that this information was presented as a secret (which are often designed to be provoking but also imply that there’s a sense of shame attached to them) catches a lot of people off guard.

I made a post a few weeks ago about the sexiness of podfics and while acting on that sexiness was brought up, there certainly wasn’t this kind of reaction. But people couched what they said and how they said it. It was meta, not a secret.

And surely some people who record podfic have personal boundaries which are such that they would NOT like to know this as precisely from their audiences.
And, I can get someone being more comfortable not being told about it. However, I think it’s a bit much for someone to be surprised, to have never considered that someone might feel this way about your (NC-17) fanwork (all bets are off for fluffy gen fanworks).

I mean, I’m someone who is definitely not in fandom for the porn. Most fics I don’t actually find sexy in this way; the enjoyment I get out of reading them has nothing to do with finding them arousing. That said, I’ve been in fandom long enough (read: more than a month), seen enough people talk about how hot they find certain fanworks, to realize that that’s not the case for everyone. I get very little, personally, out of PWPs but they’re still a very popular form of fic, people enjoy them. I’ve read more than a few author’s notes attributing inspiration for their fic/a scene from their fic to watching porn (sometimes with links!). I’ve had people on my flist give or ask for porn recommendations. And, in the end, so much of fandom is NC-17 rated.

Can you really spend any time in fandom, consuming and recording NC-17 fic and still be surprised that some people get sexual gratification out of fandom?

But I do think we could stand to have a wider conversation about fanworks and masturbatory habits of fans in general - well, the people who want to have it, anyway - because I for one wouldn't mind feedback with that level of detail, for example, and because I think there's ways to build up community expectations regarding explicit comments (when to give them, how to express one's boundaries, etc).
I would so be there for that discussion! (despite my person issues in discussing such things as applied to me.) Hell, I’m even tempted to initiate it....

[torachan]

I think some people (maybe even most) mean they literally found it arousing, but I do think it has become such a stock response that it doesn't necessarily mean arousal at all, but just "this was really good". Like, when people say LOL they usually aren't literally laughing out loud. Just amused.

idk. I don't say things like "I'll be in my bunk" but I do say things like "that was hot" without meaning I found it arousing.

[paraka]

idk. I don't say things like "I'll be in my bunk" but I do say things like "that was hot" without meaning I found it arousing.
Hmm, that's interesting to me. Because, for me, I would have to find something arousing on some level before I would call something hot.

Like, yeah, you might not literally be laughing when you type LOL, but you are conveying that you found it amusing, even if it's not so extreme as to cause you to laugh out loud. But you wouldn't say LOL in response to something that wasn't humourous at all, would you?

I don't know, maybe I'm just too literal of a person.

[torachan]

Well, I don't tend to get phsycially aroused from reading, but I like the word hot to describe well-written, interesting sex that I find appealing. So I don't really see it as any different to me saying I found a fic funny, but I never laughed or smiled. Just because it didn't provoke a physical response doesn't mean I didn't appreciate it.

Anyway, I also meant to add before that I actually was in fandom for many years before I realised people actually jerked off reading fanfic, so!

[anatsuno]

"I think a lot of the immediate reactions to this secret, especially the reactions of creepiness and the like, are brought on by the way it’s presented rather than the notion that people get off on fanworks "

Well yes, that's kind of what I meant with the ritual thing; most fen don't ignore that fanworks (explicit ones at least) have a sexually arousing / erotic impact on their audience. They just are content to ignore *precisely* what that entails. Hence how repeated use makes it okay to have rote answers to express the hotness of a work, versus how not okay it is (or at least, it doesn't meet the consensus) to give precise details of your sex life in reaction to a work to your audience or to the creator of the work.

There's a personal boundary there at play which means both are different things; they themselves have different impacts, in that a writer or podficcer can very well be vaguely pleased to think their work was hot to the audience, and yet feel very uncomfortable knowing that Suzie rubbed off yesterday evening to that same fanwork.

Anyway, I'm just reiterating things we both know. *g*

I have an LJ friend to masturbates a LOT and talks about it super frankly, which I think is great; she is the only person I've met in my fandom experience who does/will be honest and say, in her reaction to a fanwork, that she wanked to it / it lead her to orgasm, or say how *many* orgasms it was worth. *g* (with the people who she knows are okay with that - so, her friends; there are still boundaries there). I think it's great. :)