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apocalypsosI'm supposed to be WRITING, damn it.
A comment I posted elsewhere in regards to whether the majority-male congoers was intentional:
I definitely think the change from fangirl to fanboy was intentional. The writers know who their audience is -- considering the in-jokes they throw around in-show, the Wincest references and just how many cons so many of the people involved with the show have attended, they'd have to be a new and blisteringly impressive level of stupid NOT to notice that their audience -- at least the loyal internet folks who hit the cons regularly -- is predominantly female. How many years do you get your picture taken with fans before you figure out how many of them have boobs?
The thing is, if the congoers in the episode had been majorly female, we'd just be having the same wank from a different angle. The problem with presenting the current SPN fandom as is in the internal canon is that too much of the real-life behaviors of fans at cons would slip in, and if people think their embarrassment squick is getting pinged NOW, just think how much fun it would have been the instant somebody tried to get Becky kicked out because they thought she was Chuck's uppity girlfriend or if there was an entire con FULL of Beckys. (I love Becky, I do, but one is more than enough.)
Among other things, making the congoers in the episode mostly male makes it easier for Sam and Dean to blend in the way they did. I was at the first Wincon and the one or two guys I can remember being there stuck out like sore thumbs. It was hard NOT to notice them and they were normal-looking guys, not absolute hotasses like those two. They would have been a distraction rather than just two more congoers at one like that. It was also a small LARPing con for a book series featuring two men in the lead and few women in supporting roles. That's how you end up with a majority male con with a few women either crossdressing (like the Bobby LARPer) or there in a hired capacity (like the actress). I imagine they may have snuck in women LARPing Ruby and Bela and whatnot as well, but I can't recall them at the moment.
They do make some sort of impression that there must be some sort of significant female presence in the book fandom anyway just from Becky being a slash writer and the mentions of Sam girls and Dean girls in "The Monster At The End Of This Book". If they had presented that as a regular con, yeah, I imagine there would have been more women present. Instead, they set it up as a role-playing con -- probably intentionally, so that this way there would more likely be a larger male contingent and thus allowing them to wink-wink-nudge-nudge the audience without elbowing them in the eye in the process. (At least, as far as they're concerned. As far as a significant chunk of the fandom seems to feel, simply acknowledging our existence is an insult. Urgh.)
EDIT: I should add right here that I think the majority-male con is another example of the writers trying to execute good intentions ("We can make sly references to our fans without getting close enough to insulting them!"), turning around, tripping over a rock, and falling flat on their face ("We'll make the fans guys instead of girls!"). They seem to do that a lot, where they've got seemingly good intentions -- I don't believe they hate women or hate writing them so much as I get the impression they start writing stuff thinking it'll be cool and don't really imagine the consequences -- aaaaand then they fuck up. It's like they're Dick van Dyke in the beginning of his show, happily saying hi to his family only to trip and tumble over the footrest in the process.
I made a crack earlier today that I'd rather hang with a flist full of Beckys than a flist full of Fritzs. That still hasn't changed.
Is she awkward around guys? Does she just ramble on and on until she sticks her foot in her mouth? Does she have an unnerving attention to detail when it comes to fandom? Does she write slash and have the occasional dreamy ditz moment?
Fuck, you guys, the more I think about it, the more I start to realize that I *am* Becky.
*headdesk*
(... hee.)
A comment I posted elsewhere in regards to whether the majority-male congoers was intentional:
I definitely think the change from fangirl to fanboy was intentional. The writers know who their audience is -- considering the in-jokes they throw around in-show, the Wincest references and just how many cons so many of the people involved with the show have attended, they'd have to be a new and blisteringly impressive level of stupid NOT to notice that their audience -- at least the loyal internet folks who hit the cons regularly -- is predominantly female. How many years do you get your picture taken with fans before you figure out how many of them have boobs?
The thing is, if the congoers in the episode had been majorly female, we'd just be having the same wank from a different angle. The problem with presenting the current SPN fandom as is in the internal canon is that too much of the real-life behaviors of fans at cons would slip in, and if people think their embarrassment squick is getting pinged NOW, just think how much fun it would have been the instant somebody tried to get Becky kicked out because they thought she was Chuck's uppity girlfriend or if there was an entire con FULL of Beckys. (I love Becky, I do, but one is more than enough.)
Among other things, making the congoers in the episode mostly male makes it easier for Sam and Dean to blend in the way they did. I was at the first Wincon and the one or two guys I can remember being there stuck out like sore thumbs. It was hard NOT to notice them and they were normal-looking guys, not absolute hotasses like those two. They would have been a distraction rather than just two more congoers at one like that. It was also a small LARPing con for a book series featuring two men in the lead and few women in supporting roles. That's how you end up with a majority male con with a few women either crossdressing (like the Bobby LARPer) or there in a hired capacity (like the actress). I imagine they may have snuck in women LARPing Ruby and Bela and whatnot as well, but I can't recall them at the moment.
They do make some sort of impression that there must be some sort of significant female presence in the book fandom anyway just from Becky being a slash writer and the mentions of Sam girls and Dean girls in "The Monster At The End Of This Book". If they had presented that as a regular con, yeah, I imagine there would have been more women present. Instead, they set it up as a role-playing con -- probably intentionally, so that this way there would more likely be a larger male contingent and thus allowing them to wink-wink-nudge-nudge the audience without elbowing them in the eye in the process. (At least, as far as they're concerned. As far as a significant chunk of the fandom seems to feel, simply acknowledging our existence is an insult. Urgh.)
EDIT: I should add right here that I think the majority-male con is another example of the writers trying to execute good intentions ("We can make sly references to our fans without getting close enough to insulting them!"), turning around, tripping over a rock, and falling flat on their face ("We'll make the fans guys instead of girls!"). They seem to do that a lot, where they've got seemingly good intentions -- I don't believe they hate women or hate writing them so much as I get the impression they start writing stuff thinking it'll be cool and don't really imagine the consequences -- aaaaand then they fuck up. It's like they're Dick van Dyke in the beginning of his show, happily saying hi to his family only to trip and tumble over the footrest in the process.
I made a crack earlier today that I'd rather hang with a flist full of Beckys than a flist full of Fritzs. That still hasn't changed.
Is she awkward around guys? Does she just ramble on and on until she sticks her foot in her mouth? Does she have an unnerving attention to detail when it comes to fandom? Does she write slash and have the occasional dreamy ditz moment?
Fuck, you guys, the more I think about it, the more I start to realize that I *am* Becky.
*headdesk*
(... hee.)
