That word might not mean what we think it means.

[logovo]

Reading some stuff today I saw several people talking about aca-fans (acafans? AcaFans?) and I'm starting to wonder if they mean the same thing I'm thinking when I hear acafans, as in actual people in academia, writing, publishing, teaching or fanlore's entry. Are people now using that word interchangeably with fans who are just into meta? Anyone else getting that impression?

Also, I still haven't watched SPN and I'm trying not to read spoilers but I'M FAILING SO BAD. Because I'm weak and impatient.

Comments

[robin_arede]

HEre from metafandom, that hive mind of evil aca-fen intent on ruining everybody's fun.

Or something like that.

I've actually posted about this, polling people on my LJ: the common usage is very generalized, often coming down to "you use big words and I don't like it, therefore you are an aca-fan."

Aca-fan (in my usage, and other aca-fen's usage) means people trained in academia (post baccalaureate usually), doing academic scholarship on fandom of which we are a part of (and in many cases have been a part of BEFORE we got our degrees).

I was a member of a Star Trek group in 1977 during my bachelor's program. I remained active in Trek, apa-zines, and cons until the early 1990s, with short periods of gafiating.

When I got sucked back into fandom in 2003, I didn't even intend to write fanfic.

Let alone scholarship on fanfic.

There are fan scholars (see: cereta). People with academic training who do the sort of fan scholarship that has always been done (the earliest histories of fandom were done by fans--some of whom were also professional writers of sf but still), writing for fans. THey do it for love.

There are people who just like meta (some of them are aca-fan, some have academic training, some just like meta--you can write good meta without a Ph.D.), and write some of it, along with everything else.

There are all sorts of fans who have academic degrees, from bachelor's to doctor of law, whatever that's called--who are just fans, who just love fandom, and don't do fan scholarship. They might not even write meta! (I think the group that most piss off the anti-aca-fen are the women fans trained in humanities scholarship, especially some of the queer, gender, critical race theories; *and pliz note that not everybody posting about sexism or racism in fandom is an aca-fan--there's a huge activist tradition in both feminist and civil rights movements that do not require ph.ds to lead thank you very much*. I don't see much complaining about the evil trained tech people ruining fandom, or the legal scholars ruining fandom. Just those nasty girls talkin' about gender and race, stomp snort, grumble).

And yet somehow at times of wank, all those get conflated into one big messy group who are blamed for ruining fandom's fun. (And dang, I think I was the one who started the fanlore entry when I was back doing beta -- I haven't checked it out in a while because I've been too busy trying to do wikis for my classes).

I often say: I am learning cool stuff in fandom that i drag into academia. So I guess that means I am ruining everybody's fun in fandom and academia (and yes, from the tone here, I'm sure people are seeing that I've interpreted the word much of the time, in multiple conflicts since 2003, as an insult).

I left fandom I thought for good in the early 1990s because of the fan antipathy toward academics. I'm damn depressed to keep running into it nowadays, especially because fandom does all sorts of things that are similar to academia: wikis, check; glossaries, check; meta, check; awards for fanfic (pro writing culture but still). And still can have squee.

[logovo]

Is this a recent poll that you did?

"you use big words and I don't like it, therefore you are an aca-fan."

Someone above mentioned also the distinction (that also I've only begun to see) between Watsonian vs. Doylian meta, so I want to believe that while some people are very much against any kind of analysis, they're mostly in the minority (too optimistic of me?) and it's only this looking at fandom from the outside that really pisses on fans cheerios. I'm seeing a tiny bit of this already on the Spanish side of SPN and HP fandoms, where character motivations are cool subjects, while more encompassing race and gender conversations are still newish and considered squee killers. Although - hmmm - IIRC the word aca-fan or an equivalent has yet to be used in a Spanish post.

I left fandom I thought for good in the early 1990s because of the fan antipathy toward academics. I'm damn depressed to keep running into it nowadays,

I'm only now realizing that this antipathy is greater than I had thought. LJ friends have made subtle comments about not wanting to engage in meta discussions, but until now I always had interpreted that at face value and not as antipathy. So, readjusting my perception.

[robin_arede]

It was a while ago (luckily it is one I tagged! my tagging is variable to say the least).

http://ithiliana.livejournal.com/814114.html

January 2008!

But there are usually one or two rounds of "aca-fen are ruining fandom" running through LJ that I'm aware of most years!

It's not as if I run around assigning people to write meta (although I admit a large percentage of my friends list were friended due to writing awesome meta!)--not does anybody I know!