I seem to be having difficulties taking advice
So. The majority of you seemed most interested in my Brokeback Mountain/Supernatural/Slashiness paper. But! I emailed my Film Theory prof for advice also and he pointed out that there were a lot of papers about BBM there last year and so it would probably be best to pick a different topic. And while he *did* say that he LOVED the paper I wrote for his class--the movie theater one--(can I have a moment of YAY), he thought it might be harder to "package."

So I wrote a proposal for the Fanboy Paper. I might also write one for the Movie Theater paper and send him both to look over, but.

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In the field of academic fan studies, much attention has been paid to social pathologization of fans, particularly in relation to gendered associations of mass culture with femininity and passivity. In particular, the often ethnographic work of scholars such as Henry Jenkins seeks to recuperate the figure of the fan via examination of female fan communities, holding up the amateur creative work of science fiction fans as a sign of active relationship with mass media texts. However, in popular fictional texts such as the films of Kevin Smith or the television shows DAWSON’S CREEK and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, genre fans–the geek consumers of science fiction, horror, comic books, or video games–are predominantly represented as young, white, presumably straight men. These “positive” media representations also hinge on “activity” as a key rhetorical element. The strategic significance of this is made clear by the continued currency of the stereotype of the infantilized fanboy as embodied by the titular character in the wildly popular 2005 film THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, a boyish man who can only “grow up” by the narrative logic of the film by abandoning his passionate fandom in favor of heterosexual union and professional success; the perception that genre fandom and adult masculinity are unreconcilable persists. This stereotype is acknowledged and countered by the “fanboy heroes” depicted in Smith's oeuvre as well as characters on BUFFY and DAWSON'S CREEK. I argue that the discursive power of these rebuttals is based not only in their placement of fanboy characters in coming of age narratives but also in extratextual knowledges circulated about of the associated “authors” of these texts–Smith, Joss Whedon, and Kevin Williamson–cultural producers valorized as “fanboys made good,” who, notably, all include autobiographical themes or elements of self-insertion in the fan protagonists in their work. As I will show, the star texts of these male authorial voices find resonance with the argument put forth by Andreas Huyssen in MASS CULTURE AS WOMAN: MODERNISM'S OTHER that the figure of the autonomous artist has been defined as male in opposition to mass culture's association with passive, and denigrated, femininity. The contradiction here between embracing mass cultural forms on the one hand and recourse to the authority of the elite, modernist “artist” is exemplary of the way in which gender and power are twined and complicated in our current cultural climate.

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Earlier today I was FINALLY watching some of the new Vivid Con vids. Whee! I think maybe next year I will consider going to VC as a super-duper vidding groupie since it's held in my city and the last two years I've been sitting here thinking, HEY, I LIKE VIDS AND VIDDERS. I mean, lots of people who don't write go to writercon. But I don't know. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'll be lazy and link you to [a recs post] that brandil made earlier today that includes a bunch of vids. I know for a fact that the 300 vid set to Madonna's "Vogue" is deeply kick ass and the multifandom "Filthy Mind" is superfun also.

*psst to tkp and stultiloquentia* In continued Potter-mania, I found this really excellent [Rose/Scorpius] fic last night by sandrine. It's really a great "character study" of Rose and pretty much EXACTLY what I imagined after I read the Deathly Hallows epilogue.

Also, two more (essentially gen) DH codas I haven't recced yet but that are really highly recommended even if you don't read HP fic.

+++Seven Photographs by casirafics - Featuring pretty much Everybody.

+++Summer Holidays by penknife - Hermione-centric.

Those recs really are for if you aren't in HP fandom actually, as it seems like everyone in HP fandom HAS read them, jesus.

Now I need some food. Which means I need to go buy some. Argh. And then there is the question: to write another proposal or to call it quits and finish reading my old advisor's book. Or, alternatively, to go over to eyesofmyeyes's house and get drunk. Maybe all of the above?

I think I might need a really nerdy/studious Hermione icon for situations such as ALWAYS.

ETA: Happy Birthday truelovepooh!!!!! And Nan too! (Even though I already told you on your on LJ.)