stuff while I wait...

[ash48]

Thankfully I'm not on Little Aths duty today. It's around 38 and humid and just plain YUK!

Instead...some blogging and vidding time whilst I wait for new ep.

The New York Times has published an article on Supernatural. It's kinda weird reading about the show from a perspective that isn't one of us. I suspect it's pretty impressive that the Show has made it into the spot light in this way though.

This opening line had me scratching my head...

If you are neither 15 years old nor the sort of person for whom the term fan fiction has an ounce of resonance, then chances are that ”Supernatural” is not in your DVR queue or even in your frame of reference.

Fifteen? I have sometimes mentioned that I feel that I am "too old to be a fangirl" (in fact that might even be on my antiquated profile)... but really? SPN fans are mostly around 15?? - that's ridiculous. Isn't it? Or maybe it's just that LJ attracts older people and therefore I'm not aware of how young most SPN fans are.

Since being on LJ and attending a convention I no longer feel "too old" to be a fangirl as I have discovered there are a lot of die hard fans around my age.

Also though, I generally don't see SPN appealing to that age group. Some sure... but to make the statement "To say that the series’s young fan base is active is grossly to understate the matter" is, idk.. condescending? To label the fan base as young fifteen year olds seems to somehow dismiss it. Idk. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive - and old../o\.

I know as a devoted fan I watch the show differently to the way passers by might. At work we were chatting about different TV shows and a colleague said "I can't watch Supernatural - sure, the guys are hot but I have no idea what's going on". It's weird hearing the show talked about like that. (I almost said...um..it's not actually a TV show. It's a religion..*g*). I did say I could fill her in on details if she wanted. :)

I also watch it differently to any other show. I love and enjoy many shows but I seem to go into a different head space when I watch SPN. Crazy really...


Anyway. A complete change of topic. The dubbed version of the Supernatural animation has been released. (linked to
agt_spooky's post). SO cool watching it and knowing exactly what is going on. Jared voices Sam (which is AWESOME!! I love it...) and someone else voices Dean. Initially it's distracting listening to a Brock Kelly kind of Dean but after a while I got used to it.

But this....this incredible picture appears at the end. My god. It looks like Sam's set up a tarp for Dean to relax under (or the other way around maybe?). I wonder where the chair came from? I just. So weird and yet so perfect. And the art work is nothing like the animation that precedes it. So wonderful.

Comments

[davincis-girl.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of spn fangirls who are mature adults. Not sure where the 15 year old reference came from. Although, I work with teens and some of the older ones do watch the show. You are right in feeling that the take on the fanbase is off.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Yeah - not sure where they got the 15 from either. I just feel like it's lazy reporting. I'm sure it wouldn't have taken much effort to find the correct demographic. Which, I think is 18-45.... but I'm not entirely sure.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

It says the fans are 15 *or* they've heard of fanfiction. I don't actually find that statement all that off as the only adults that I know who have heard of it are right here on LJ. Even my sci-fi/genre loving coworkers never heard of the show. I'm talking the kind of people who come up to me today and say, "did you hear that Nathan Fillion wants to make a 2nd season of Firefly?" And yet, they never heard of Supernatural. (I try and I try to convince them, but they just don't follow up on it. *g*)

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Yes - I suppose if it's "or". I get the fan fiction bit - that indeed could cover anybody and any age group. But 15 just seems wrong, or at worse a generalisation about "fanning" that I don't think fits this show.

Hee! And I know what you mean about convincing them. I've only just started being vocal about my SPN obsession at work and yep... I mostly get polite nods or "they are not as hot as the guys in Twilight"... of course that's my cue to die basically.. :)

[maichan.livejournal.com]

I noticed the drawings over the credits of the anime too. They were lovely, weren't they?

[callme-k.livejournal.com]

Fanfic is the by-product of the show, so to state that it and being 15 are the boundaries of the viewership....that's a bit narrowminded and, yes, condescending as well I think.
Lazy writing, too. There's much more of story to be had in unearthing the full spectrum of the demographic.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

They were. The first time around I didn't watch the credits because the copy was pretty rough. But this time I really noticed. Such a lovely touch - and well observed.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The tone of the piece didn't feel right at all. I get that fans can be a bit crazy sometimes but to narrow them down to 15 year olds and fanfic readers is extremely narrow minded.

I am fascinated by the sentiment that if you fan a show to this degree you have to either be very young or a reader of fan fic (and to be honest I don't even know what that implies...)

Oh and RJ said she is coming to the con, so I will be getting tix for both of us so we can sit together. Which I really must get on to....

:)

[callme-k.livejournal.com]

\o/ I'm a little bummed that we couldn't link up as a group (still mightn't hurt to ask) but we should definitely gather together how many of us there are and do lunch and/or something afterwards :)

[azziria.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the 'too old to be a fangirl' thing, I've been thinking about it quite a lot recently (because, let's face it, my eldest child just turned teen so I'm not kidding anyone any longer!). I've always been fannish about certain things ever since I was 14 or so, and I'm obviously not going to grow out of it, so I've got to find a way to fit that behaviour into my concept of what a grown-up is. My counsellor pointed out to me that no-one thinks it's odd for a grown man to be obsessed with a football team, so why should it be odd for me to be like that about a TV show? Which kind of works except I suspect that most male soccer fans don't spend much time reading gay porn slash fanfiction about their heroes!

I can't get away from the fact that for me to be truly fannish about a show there has to be a sexual attraction element about it. There are shows I love and go out of my way to not miss (NCIS springs to mind, I adore it and love the characters) but am not what I would define as fannish about. The shows that really get to me are the ones where I find myself thinking with my hormones as much as with my head (so yes, the reason the new Hawaii Five-0 has hooked me is that to me Steve McGarrett is hot like fire, so many buttons pushed...). And this is where my difficulty with admitting to being a fangirl lies, I think - surely I'm too old to admit to having crushes on TV characters? How ridiculous is that? How odd is that - do most grown up women of my age feel like that, or am I deficient in some way? Did I miss out on a crucial bit of maturing and becoming an adult?

At least LiveJournal has made me realise that I'm not alone! I just wish I could come up with a view of being adult that includes being a fangirl and being able to be comfortable, confident and open about it in RL...

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Most definitely!!

xx

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Good points. And interesting. When I first discovered such a thing as fandom I thought I might be in the minority at my age. But being here and around the place I've noticed fanning a show isn't exclusive to teenagers.

I don't think that makes us weird at all. (hee... maybe it is weird but I don't see it like that..). As you say, men can be obsessed over football and other things and it's ok. And men most definitely get away with watching porn and talking about it. So I don't see why we can't.

I have become more open in RL about being fannish about this Show. I've admitted it to a few colleagues and we have a smile about it. Though I rarely admit to having over 60 fanvids on You Tube. *g* I usually find out that they swoon over certain shows also (True Blood being one that came up).

That's why I was disappointed with the article lumping "fanning" as a teenage thing. It would have been much more interesting had the wider demographic been recognised.

Also... I kinda love being an adult and being a fangirl. Keeps me feeling young. :D

[davincis-girl.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the heads up about the anime show. Watched the first part and really liked it.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :)

I just love it! I can't wait for future episodes. \o/

[el1ie.livejournal.com]

Ah look, I'm 15 again! YIPEEEEE!!

[yourlibrarian]

I wish someone would ask her to produce statistics on that, because I've always been curious about the Nielsen breakdown but I don't for a moment believe that either the fandom or the general viewing audience is made up primarily of teens. In fact, given that the show is now six years old, even if they had been when it started, they wouldn't be now. I mean, even Twilight, which really is primarily teen driven, has a pretty noticeable older component.

What's most interesting about the comment to me is that she doesn't specify sex -- not girls over boys, for example, which I'd also bet is true.

But I agree it's a confusing take on the show -- not entirely wrong but a bit of a funhouse perspective. I imagine that's what the show looks like to someone who has skimmed 6 seasons of it.

I also loved that drawing. There was a second one that came at the end which I really liked but I forget what it was now. Especially in certain climates, sleeping outside the car had to be more comfortable for them than sleeping in it. And being off the ground would also be safer.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

I knew fanning this show kept me young... I just didn't know how young!

[ash48.livejournal.com]

I suspect she hasn't seen any stats. She made a wild assumption that because this show has a large and active fan base it must be because we are all 15. I think that's what irks me the most. She hasn't even looked into it.

I think "outsiders" most definitely look at the show differently. I can't imagine what it would look like to someone who watches it in passing. "funhouse" might indeed be how they see it.

The other drawing was of Dean playing air guitar on his leg with Sam watching from the other window. I love that picture also. It means the artists are familiar with what goes on behind the scenes. There was another one-it looks like the boys facing the sun with the impala in the foreground. All wonderful drawings.