Everyone and their brother sister sibling has been posting/commenting about Survey!fail, it seems. linkspam has gone a bit mad with all the post roundups - I really love that community.

I don't have much to add to all the discourse, at least in part because I feel kinda of detached from it all. I spent the three years of my degree arguing with determined morons like the "researchers" who sparked off Survey!fail, and I'm just tired of it. They won't change their minds because they have too much incentive not to - behaving like a decent human being with a reasonable set of morals just doesn't weigh against the incentives of privilege, money, and the desire not to take an honest look at their own behaviour.

However, the response from people in fandom has reminded me of just how intelligent, articulate and insightful so many of the people who participate in fandom, however you define "fandom", truly are. Ignoring everything else, a good part of fandom once again shines with the intellects and passions of the people within it.

Unfortunately, that shine has been somewhat tarnished by those who believe the correct response to the behaviour of Ogi and Sai is some quite frankly abusive RPF and photo manips. Please, just ... don't. Those of you who think it's funny should go talk to people who have images of them being sexual abused circulating on the internet. Saying "it's just a story" or "it's just a photoshop" is missing the point, because the effects are the same: a feeling of violation, exposure and degradation. Yes, I know those are feelings Ogi and Sai have caused in many people. Why does that make it okay to do it back?

It's funny how often I'm both proud of and ashamed by fandom in the same breath...

Edit made approx. 2 mins after posting: By "fandom", I mean the collective body of people who read, write, draw, comment, lurk, and so on and so forth in any community setting (in this case internet-based) regarding something that they are a fan of. Argh, bad grammar, but you get the point - I'm trying to be as inclusive as possible. And yeah, that covers a hell of a lot of ground, so it's not really surprising that I should be both proud of and ashamed by fandom as I have defined it. Doesn't change the fact that I would prefer to be one and not the other. Wishful thinking? Probably. Worth thinking? Definitely.