laceblade

Recently, sasha_feather started a good post about accessibility at WorldCon. In her own words, the purpose of the post is "not to pick on WorldCon or to cause drama, but rather to say, here is a problem, at this convention and at others. What can we do to work on addressing this problem?"

Most of the comments are on-topic.

I would like to frame this thread. It starts with someone mentioning that sometimes in fandom, people use "insider knowledge" (in this case, an entire track of fake programming that had some people wandering all over an inaccessible convention hotel looking for non-existent rooms). sasha_feather notes that insider knowledge is A Thing in fandom, and "what is needed are ways to welcome people into that."

Someone anonymously responds with, "There's insider knowledge in fandom, but there isn't a lot of it, and it's not secret. Everyone who knows it, learned it on their own. If the process had been difficult or unpleasant, fandom would be a much smaller place.
If you don't find that satisfactory, consider joining the N3F."

To which sasha_feather eloquently responds, "My response to this entire comment can be summed up by, "citation needed.""

Then, Teresa Nielsen Hayden shows up to give sasha_feather a citation (I think?!).
The entire comment is so bizarre that even though sasha_feather hilariously responded with, "Cool story, bro" and froze the thread, I MUST BLOG ABOUT IT.

Firstly, TNH's comment seems to assume that sasha_feather is not already "in" or a "part of" fandom, despite the post making it clear that she organizes Access at WisCon.
Her pompous introduction is also useless. I do not understand its purpose; she could have simply said, "I have imposter syndrome, too." Regardless of the back story, can we not just make fandom more accessible? Must Big Name Fans always trot out their personal Horatio Alger stories to prove how they EARNED their way into fandom, as if to say, "And damn it, if it worked for little ol' me, it will for you, too!"

I tried to pick apart TNH's entire comment, but she seems not to have read the post on which she's commenting. None of it is relevant or meaningful to the ongoing conversation.

I'd really just like to draw attention to this quote: "If you want fandom enough to not care that you're a neo, enough to get you to wade straight in, you'll discover that there are practically no barriers."

It is actually hilarious to me that, IN A POST ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY, she would say, "If you want fandom enough....you'll discover that there are practically no barriers."
IN A POST ABOUT THE LACK OF ACCESSIBILITY AT CONVENTIONS.

I CANNOT.


For those looking for amusement, we did start a fannishCV hash-tag mocking TNH's ludicrous "fan credentials" with our own.