Vids by men....

[ash48]

Hi guys.

Um... I'm doing some research and I'm needing a little assistance.

Can anyone rec me some vids made by guys? I've seen the Buffy V Twilight one, but I'm needing to broaden my viewing experience. Any fandom is fine. Though SPN would be great as that's the one I'm most familiar with.

Thanks so much if you can assist.

PS: Quality is not the issue here necessarily .... just I don't personally know any male fandom vidders (other than the one that doesn't want me to give him honest congrit..) so anything is fine, whether you think it's great or not...

xx

Comments

[vidderkidder.livejournal.com]

I run a community for vidders of a particular fandom. It has about 90+ members and other than myself there are 3 other dudes. One is a son of the other members, One I thought was a dude actually is a woman, and 1 other actual dude. Wake up and smell the estrogen.

It's stuff like this that makes me question my sexuality. Vidding is like Secret. It's strong enough for a man but it's made for a woman. We are some of the few who use Secret for our antiperspirant.

I say silly things. My name is my disclaimer.

[aj2k.livejournal.com]

You're on a roll tonight lol.

I think the reason I didn't notice the male/female vidder ratio was because I don't get into TV shows all that much and a lot of vids were coming from TV shows like Buffy, Angel, etc. When I was on the vidding community page I would usually skim over those videos looking for movie videos to watch. It didn't dawn on me that there were so many more TV videos than movie videos. I was just blind. And then I discovered the vidders who made some of those movie videos I love so much were female. I still can't fathom how this can be. I can accept a 60/40 ratio but a 90/10 ratio in favor of the girls is crazy.

[vidderkidder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, anecdotal info says when you get to Marvel and DC universe the ratio starts to shift. Also with Machinima and Anime. I only really discovered it myself from running a community and noticing how skewed the membership was. Running a community is almost like a mini-research project itself.

I started noticing young teens and moms with kids also as a demographic.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Butts in..... :)

I'm actually really interested in this as well (ratio of men to women vidders). Re my reseach I'm investigating whether men edit or make different styles and types of vids to women. This is not for any ulterior motive but just because this question has been asked of me and quite frankly I don't know the answer. So I wanted to take a look in order to give an informed answer. I then realised I didn't know many male vidders.

I have also been asked (in my opinion) why 90% of vidders are women. I can only think it's because more women are actively involved in fandom then men. (?) Though I am only really familiar with SPN fandom so can't speak on behalf of other fandoms. It's interesting to know that the ratio shifts with other fandoms - (though I suppose it isn't surprising - if more men are involved in said fandom).

I would like to imagine that the actual "nature" of vidding is some how responsible for this percentage but I wouldn't know how to investigate or prove that.

Cheers and thanks for your insights here. :)

[mresundance.livejournal.com]

Hm. You might also consider that some fandoms which are heavily male oriented/dominated can be very unfriendly to women, which means the women migrate or remain more active in fandoms where they feel welcome and safe.

Gaming, for instance. I hear about women gamers getting a lot of crap from the majority of male gamers.

I have a vidder friend in Star Wars fandom and she was mocked and ridiculed for her feminism by male fans on some Star Wars boards, so she split lickety-quick from those spaces.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh. Didn't know that. That's sad to hear. It's awful to think anyone is ostracized because of their gender ....

[suckmyglock.livejournal.com]

That really depends on what you define as fandom and active in fandom. Men definitely have their own style of fandom- they do write fanfic but for different media properties and in a different way. From what I've seen they tend to mess with the canon less, and write more gen, and less romance (though they def. do porn). However they can get invested in pairings as in HP fandom there were quite a few guys who got way overinvested in the Harry/Hermione vs Harry/Ginny & Ron/Hermione shipwars. This is a limited observation and I don't claim to be the expert on men in fandom, but ime they tend to do completely different activities to us in different spaces so we don't see them. Men are far more likely to go from fan to pro than women are, especially in comics.

The reason why I think less men vid is related to this. Women write the kind of fanfic we do because we aren't satisfied with the texts as is. Vidding involves criticism or at the very least envisioning things differently to how the creators meant them. I think this is because men are overall more satisfied with the media they get- it is all aimed at them, and gives them what they want. Media does not cater to us, in fact it frequently ignores, misrepresents and insults us, so we need to literally reshape it. It's also kind of an obscure art form and we established a niche that men didn't do first so they can't say we're doing it wrong. It's also not original filmmaking, because we get told we can't do that.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Thank you so very much. I have been tossing with this very idea about why women vid more then men. When I was researching this aspect I came across a similar answer (posted via the OTW) - that women like to reshape the media they receive. Initially I wasn't sure about this, but I am becoming more interested in this as one of the reasons. I've tried to look at the reason why I vid and other than "because it's not an option not to as I find it so addictive" - maybe I am reshaping my program in some way. Though I also like to use it "meta" on the show and highlight certain story aspects.

I also like the idea that "they can't say we're doing it wrong". Something that has never crossed my mind. I've only been vidding for a couple of years and am only now beginning to understand the history of it.

Thank you so much for your insightful and thought provoking comment. I appreciate it.
Ash.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

And then I discovered the vidders who made some of those movie videos I love so much were female. I still can't fathom how this can be. I can accept a 60/40 ratio but a 90/10 ratio in favor of the girls is crazy.

I wonder if the ratio changes according to whether the videos are movie vids or TV vids? Sorry to butt in here but this is another aspect that I'm interested in - why there are so many more female vidders then males. I've put it purely down to the amount of women active in fandom compared to men (but I only have my fandom to base this on - so I'm not sure about other fandoms).

This thread has revealed to me that there certainly are a lot of male vidders out there (and that's really only taking into account LJers and people who have responded), but I'm pretty sure this would pale in comparison if I wanted links to female vidders....

Though the movie vid v TV vid has me interested.

Thanks for your comments here. They have been interesting.
:)

[balistik94.livejournal.com]

I think the ratio changes when it comes to movie vids because it seems movies are watched by more men than women and tv shows are mostly watched by women. There are a lot of comic book movies or graphic novel adaptations or sci-fi/action movies out there that will attract a predominantly male audience so most of the vids based on those movies will be made by men IMO.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

I think the ratio changes when it comes to movie vids because it seems movies are watched by more men than women and tv shows are mostly watched by women.

Yes. Curious. I wonder though if there's something about the nature of movies that men are more likely to vid to then women? I love my action and sci-fi films and graphic novel adaptation films more than any other type of film and as yet, I have no desire to vid them.

I wonder if it might just boil down to "passion" - I certainly vid SPN because of my passion for the show. I can only surmise that men who vid equally feel a "passion" for their material - and in most cases (it would seem) it's movies. Or maybe it's the act of vidding itself and the content (as in footage) is not as important as the act of editing. (?)

Ooooh - I'm making some wild assumptions here. I may know more about this once I start watching... :)

[bananainpyjamas.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of comic book movies or graphic novel adaptations or sci-fi/action movies out there that will attract a predominantly male audience so most of the vids based on those movies will be made by men IMO.

Soooooooooo many people assume I'm a guy. Even though my (admittedly action and superhero-skewed) vids are posted under dragonCHIC. *shakes head*

[balistik94.livejournal.com]

They're probably the same people who don't read vid descriptions and keep asking for song names so I'm not surprised. I gotta say if I watched your vids without knowing your nickname I would assume you're a guy too which is bad I know.

[aj2k.livejournal.com]

I wish there were more female vidders like you. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of great talent out there because I'm not really involved in the TV shows that most females vid to.

[mresundance.livejournal.com]

why there are so many more female vidders then males. I've put it purely down to the amount of women active in fandom compared to men (but I only have my fandom to base this on - so I'm not sure about other fandoms).

This is a question to ask someone like sockkpuppett and/or morgandawn; they both know a lot about vidding history and the like and may be able to give a perspective there.

Personally think men are given a lot of legtimacy in creative work (ie, people take them seriously) and creative space, ergo, some parts of fandom and creative work in fandom may evolve out of a need for women to find ways to express their creative life but bypass some of the (often male-centered) control/sexism. I can't tell you how many times I sat in a creative writing workshop which was half women and half men and had the men run right over the women in discussion as if they weren't even there. :/

Fandom is definitely a place I've found where men cannot drown women out (well, they could try, but it would be futile). This is a women's space, I feel, and I don't mean it in a "men are never welcome" kind of way, but more or less as "women predominate and take lead roles in the community and the creative life of the community". Which is nice, I think for a lot of women to have a place where they are allowed freedom of expression and creative leeway, without having to necessarily grapple with some of the sexist rules which exist in other creative areas.

You might consider further what kind of men are part of fandom. We're not a monolith, even by our gender. Just as women in fandom are fairly diverse, I would suppose the men would be to an extent. I am gay and transgender which means I probably see things differently than a straight dude.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

I thought about posting this as a separate question (and I just might yet..) because I would be interested to hear from peps who know the ins and outs of vidding and its history.

You make some really good points here.... especially about women having the freedom to be creative and be accepted for that. That may just be another contributing factor.

We're not a monolith, Ah yes. And that's why at any point I will be hesitatant to make any sort of generalisations about male v female vidders. Because of couse into that mix comes a whole heap of other factors and whether they hold baring might be needed to be taken into consideration.

I'm a happily married mum in my 40's ..... and apparently there are lot of vidders that fall into that category as well. I wonder if "we" *koff* (I hate categorising!) make vids any differently from 18 years olds? From what I've seen so far (and I've watched A LOT of vids) .... no.

And I suspect the same may end up being true for men/women.

Thanks so much for your insights here. It's really helped me gain some more understanding. (oh and given me a chance to rant on about vidding - the next best thing to vidding itself!)
:D
xx