random thought of the day

[wildestranger]

I was wondering, as you do, about People Outside Fandom (whom I know exist, but try to avoid), and their perception of fannish devotion. Or actually, I noticed my old Gary Oldman poster of "Have you seen this wizard?", and started thinking about whether, for people outside fannish circles, that would be more embarrassing than the poster of Gerard Way which I currently have on my wall. Note that I personally have no shame about either of them.

But considering that Harry Potter is a children's book, and that My Chem is seen as an emo band for silly teenage girls, which would be more embarrassing to find on the wall of a 29-year-old woman? How would our culture read the fact that I've had such posters - what would it say about me to those who are outside the fannish subculture?

Yes, I'm trying to avoid doing my thesis, how did you guess? ;)

[Poll #1206019]

Comments

[rufus.livejournal.com]

I, um, hmm.

I have to agree with ignipes, HP is enough of a global force that being fannish about it (for certain values of fannish, anyway) is sort of generally socially acceptable.

As for Gerard, I think it would probably depend heavily on whether or not they even recognized him. Five months ago, I wouldn't have, and had I seen a poster of him on the wall of a new acquaintence, I wouldn't have thought much beyond, "who's that dude, anyway?"

I would, frankly, be far more likely to notice a, for example, Justin Timberlake poster, in which case I may have gone so far as to privately arch an eyebrow (I just don't *get* boy bands) but, you know, I kind of don't have much room to talk.

I kept my Bon Jovi/Gn'R and Metallica posters up on my wall (the '80s ones, from when they had The Hair) until I graduated from college, when I had an attack of I Have to Be A Grown-Up Now and took them all down. And so I put up posters for the Hobbit and mythical creatures instead. er.

(i may not be making any sense either?)