io9
We used to have geek chic, which made emo kids hip and Web 2.0 dweebs rich. But fashions have moved on and now fans are the newly-discovered authentic underdogs in pop culture. Their obscure desires are being converted into ironic commodities, their tastes transformed into sellable goo, and their dark, secret haunts opened up to the light of media frenzy. Here are the seven signs that fans have become glam, and that the world of fandom will never be the same safe place to hide with your action figures again.
Ideas and stories that used to get passed around in dank basements among dudes with thick glasses have become mainstream Hollywood movies. We list the seven signs that fandom is synonymous with glam, and try to discover if there are any shreds of authentic fannishness left in pop culture.
Kristin Bell
This blond bombshell was the star of geek sleuth show Veronica Mars, where her character made Star Wars references, hung out with hackers, and used the word "frak" a lot. Now she plays electricity-wielding Elle on fan glam show Heroes, and will appear in the forthcoming flick Fanboys (pictured above). She's said in interviews that she loves nerd culture and Star Trek. But she's also a cover girl for fashion magazines. The fan world has always had its pinups, but fashion mag cover girls? This is a sure sign of fan glam.
Any authentic geek pinups left? Veronica Belmont, host of many an online geek TV show (currently Tekzilla). She's cute but not glam, wears Star Trek uniforms for fun, and can talk for hours about the latest gadget specs.
J J Abrams
This dashingly dorkish director/producer has got the fan glam look with his nerd glasses and mop of uncombed curly hair. Plus, he's the auteur behind fannish-but-mainstream hit shows Alias and Lost. He reinvigorated the giant monster genre by producing Cloverfield, and now he's single-handedly attempting to reboot the most fannish franchise of all: Star Trek. Everything he's created repackages fantasies ripped from the dark heart of fandom for audiences who would never consider themselves scifi fans. In many ways, Abrams is a shaper of the whole fan glam craze.
Any authentic geek directors left? Joss Whedon, creator of cult hits Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, has always been a little too fannish to be glam. Hired to write the new Wonder Woman script, he eventually left the project because what he wrote wasn't commercial enough. Now he's making another scifi TV show, Dollhouse, whose premise sounds brilliantly quirky but may again be too strange for audiences seeking glam rather than fandom.
Sweding - Movies about fans paying homage to their favorite stories are all the rage. Be Kind Rewind coined the word "sweding" to describe what happens when fans remake their favorite creations in a funny, low-budget way. Now everybody is sweding everything, but of course fandom has been doing this stuff for years in fanfic (fan-written fiction based on popular franchises) and fan films. A new movie, Son of Rambow, also celebrates fan reenactments and will be shown in sneak previews across the U.S. in the ultimate fan glam locations: Apple stores.
Any authentic fan fiction left? Harry Potter fanfic, stories written by fans about the characters in J.K. Rowling's popular series about pubescent magic users, is still going strong in the underground. Rowling has said that she will tolerate fan fiction about her books (though she claims not to read it), but none of these stories will ever be published by mainstream publishers or made into Hollywood movies. Many of these Harry Potter fanfic tales are as good as or even better than the originals, so at least the fans get something special that can't be commodified — yet.
Comic-Con explosion
Comic-Con, the annual comic book and science fiction fan convention in San Diego, used to be a quiet little nook full of dorks. Now it's grown to a 100,000-person event that takes over the whole city. It's become the hot place for giant media conglomerates to showcase their latest special effects blockbusters, and for Hollywood stars to put in an appearance (like Halle Berry, signing autographs at Comic-Con, below). It's basically a Sundance Film Festival — except it's full of fan glam instead of indie geek chic.
Any authentic international cons left? WorldCon, which focuses more on books and writers than it does on mainstream media, is still as authentic as it gets when it comes to large gatherings of scifi fans.
Threadless T-Shirts
It used to be that t-shirts with obscure slogans or rebus-like jokes on them marked their wearers as socially marginal and perhaps unhealthily obsessed with cultural arcana. Now internet company Threadless has turned such t-shirts into fan glam (see one of their glammy shirts below). Each shirt the company makes features a design submitted by a member of the site, which other members vote to have printed. Basically, it's Digg for t-shirts, which translates into mass-produced dorkery, with an emphasis on "mass" rather than "dork."
Any authentic nerdy t-shirts left? Any Dragon*Con shirt was and will always remain authentic.
Comic book film industry
Until recently, comic books were the purview of editors who lived in their mothers' basements. Sure there were TV shows and movies devoted to Batman and Superman, two of the industry's biggest franchises. But any comic book more obscure than Spider-Man could never hope to reach eyes that weren't already focused myopically on their local comic book store's new releases rack every Wednesday. These days, comic book writers get movie deals almost before their books hit the stands, and even irascible creators like Alan Moore are getting the splashy Hollywood treatment with From Hell, V for Vendetta and Watchmen. Smaller books like 30 Days of Night and Wanted (starring Angelina Jolie, looking glammy in previews for the film below) have gone celluloid too. Comic books are seriously glam.
Any authentic comic books left? No.
Action figure art
An action figure should be something like a Gray Hulk, lovingly painted and put on display behind a "do not touch" sign. Having a collection of them should be a badge of pure dorkdom, like the 40-year-old virgin in the movie of the same name. But these days, high-end boutiques like Kid Robot have turned the grubby action figure genre into high art with manga-influenced action figures more like sculpture than fannish fetish objects. Having a Frank Kozik bunny (left), or an Attaboy original, is seriously fan glam.
Any authentic action figures left? Limited edition obscure action figures for cancelled science fiction TV shows are still authentic.
Halle Berry photo by Tostie14. Nerd tee from Threadless.
Comments
So wait? Are geeks mad now that their shit is mainstream they are accepted by the public and will have to start taking showers or something now that they might be *gasp* normal?>!
The game cons are still pretty authentic. PAX, Origins, Salute.
My question though, is Kid Robot to pretentious for it's own good? I mean real nerds buy Bullmark Godzilla stuff.
@Log1c: Showers?
@Annalee Newitz: Apparently people who go out in public wash daily...
No authentic comic books left?
OH, COME ON.
(goes off to buy more Dunnys)
@Log1c: I just use a dull knife to scrape the smell of blog off my skin every afternoon. Should I be doing something more?
Those guys are such posers. Like, I was staying in my Mom's basement four years ago.
Yeah, and check out that Spiderman shirt..That's sooo New Universe. Went out style yarns ago.
thank god for kid robot. I always loved buying action figures, but displaying my collection of star wars vehicles looks a lot cooler when surrounded by a by-default storm trooper army of Dunnys.
I also have a huge obsession with the small Hasbro "super hero squad" figures (as well as their transformers and star wars counterparts). so cheap, so cool looking. If you can't get behind a figure of Apocalypse with a huge smile on his face, what's left for you?
@Annalee Newitz:
Have you tried book dust from the public library? I hear it gets rid of blog smell pretty well.
@Annalee Newitz:Thats probably fine, blogging does constitute leaving the basement/dark room. Unless you are trailing one of those fan glam people ;)
@Stafford: I live right down the street from a Kid Robot outlet, and will admit to gazing longingly at the Junko Mizuno action figures. And hoodies. But I cannot brook a $200 hoodie! No I cannot!
@Miranda Kali: Hahaha -- I should do a corollary post on fan poseurs. "OMG I am such a fan that I dressed as Elle at Comic-Con!"
There's a lot of truth to this post. Still, every time I show off my stack of 12 comic books long boxes, I am immediately branded a geek.
Maybe the difference is quantity.
Question: Is the movie Juno also fan glam?
just wondering, do you really need to define fanfic on a sci-fi blog? just seems redundant.
@Annalee Newitz: Yes, fan glam for music (moldy peaches)
any authentic music left? some say no.
Geek is the new indie rock.
it's almost as if lables are just arbitrary ways to organize information in tv guides and bookstores and a profit seeking orgainzation will exploit them to try and sell more of thier shit...
the rise of vinyl toys pisses me off to no end. i would never have a dunny next to my endless collection of justice league unlimited figures, marvel legends x-men, mcquarrie concept star wars, or doctor who toys. i hate that now people can say "i love toys" but yet they wouldnt be caught dead trolling a TRU on a saturday morning looking for G.I. Joes. Eff them.
then again geek chic bothers me too because it has become "a look." co-opted by hipsters who think it's cool. look buddy jarvis cocker looked like a nerd for all those years because it was all he could afford not because it was a fashion statement.
yeah i'm a little fired up today.
All this glam aint' gonna get your average WOW/Cosplay/Comic nerd laid any more. As for Vinyl Toys... That had nothing to do with nerddom when I got into it. If it wasn't for UNKLE and several grafitti/modern artists I would never have known about it. @modernboy: I've got plenty of both, and I'm sure a lot of people on here do. I dont' keep them next to each other though because aesthetically they just don't match.
@Garrison Dean: what are you talking about? Just the other day a girl told me she wouldn't normally have sex with bme, but since geekiness is in... she even charged me the same price as the jock across the street!
@modernboy: hmmm... I'd say after different class he COULD afford more then that geeky look. What a fantastic album... Pulp, please reform and tour the states!
@modernboy:
I stopped doing that because TRU doesn't carry shit anymore.
And GD is right- they DON'T look good together.
(anyone wanna buy a ton of MacFarlane figures? Cheap?)
Hey, I can turn the glam on if I have to! ;)
@dirtybacon: I stand corrected... The free market works!!!! @Plague: Nah, but if anyone here wants unopened Wetworks figures.. I'm your man. They're worth a lot right? (face palm) "Oh dear... I've wasted my life"
@Garrison Dean: good god you made me laugh a lot just now.
DO they at least look cool?
@Veronica: We've heard that about you.
I would argue that David Tennant's Doctor Who, in his skinny suit, hi-tops and chunky specs, is just about the dictionary definition of Fan Glam.
Plus, let me just say I'd give a kidney for a boyfriend like Jay Baruchel in that picture above. Though a disdain for the Prequels is a must.
I still can't get over my mom throwing away my Shogun Warriors Set from the 70's. I would be getting laid left and right if I still had them.
You forgot the whole section of fans who have geek tattoos!
[www.theforceintheflesh.com]
@bonniegrrl: I have two geek tattoos, thus cementing my fate as a part of the fan glam conspiracy.
@dirtybacon: Cool?! Well in the Bowie, Gainsbourg, Clooney sense... none of it is cool. But, if you mean it looks awesome towering over R2D2 and is faithful to Portacio's artwork and designs.. Then Fuck yeah!!!
@SeeingI: So true! I have a pair of high tops that I wear with a suit, and a girl in a frakkin Body Shop store once came up to me and squeaked, "OMG you look like Doctor Who!!!" And she was like bouncy and happy, not freaking out and running away.
@Annalee Newitz: I have only one geek tattoo, but it is so obscure and unrecognizable that I think it almost exempts me.
@tetracycloide: I know, crazy, right?
@Veronica: No doubt you could kick Kristen's ass in a glam-off, but that's not your main mode. Which is good! Which is why we love you!
@Annalee Newitz and braak: so what are the tattoos? A DOS prompt? Voltron's Sword? The cover art to "Lightyears" ('In a thousand years, Ganhadar will be destroyed. A thousand years ago, Ganhadar will be saved and what can't be avoided will be) What! I must know!
@zenpoet: Friend of mine in college got NES's Link's sword on her calf.
@dirtybacon: Ah but Jarv did start dressing in suits and ties once Different Class came out. At least for videos and such. You're kinda right though.
@Plague: it's true TRU doesn't carry anything. there isn't even a TRU in San Francisco anymore. You have to go down the peninsula.
@SeeingI: The Doctor is the most stylin' alien ever.
No tattoos. No lightsabers. A few computer-related geek shirts ("No, I will not fix your computer"). A signed, numbered copy of The Rocketeer. Space:1999 and Robotech on DVD. Nichelle Nichols autographed videotape.
There is no glamour in geekdom. These pretenders are sellouts, cashing in on being nerds. Geeks do not seek the limelight.
@Plague: It's true, it's one way or another. Though I may have claimed it to be so, my Dunny's and other figures never occupy the same space. It could by a law physics and/or biology that those two cannot coexist.
That being said, if anyone wants some opened Wetworks, Youngblood and Spawn figures, lemme know. I've never been a very good collector, i can't leave things unopened.
@braak:
Widely recognizable geek tattoo (Yoda, triforce, anything new-BSG-related): glam fan.
Extremely obscure geek tattoo (Marain lettering, Ur-Quan Dreadnought, minor detail from original BSG): authentic fan.
Here's my glamour geek shot with Chewie. Which in fact shows that some of us enjoy the limelight just dandy.
[farm1.static.flickr.com]
@BullfightsOnAcid: OMG, did you have the one's that were about 3 feet tall? I had 3 of them and my mom did the same thing! I was so fracking pissed about that...
@bonniegrrl: Nice wookie!
@NefariousNewt: I think the bigger point in this all isn't that geeks are seeking the limelight, but that a lot of well-loved "mainstream" people have always been and will always be geeky to some degree.
James Franco, Kristen Bell, Olivia Munn
It's like a mantra to the 12 year old ostracized geeks in the basement: "Geeks can be glamorous too."
And what's the point of calling an actor/actress a "poser"? They're actors, that's what they do. Talking about any geek tendencies at all should show that they at least don't care if people know.
@rikchik: I'm still waiting to see a full scale arm tattoo like the Anders Starbuck share. It won't be on me because I can't commit enough to tattoos, but there's gotta be someone out there.
I call Bullshit on Kristin Bell too, she's just playing the audience.
@aspiringexpatriate and Epaminondas:
...and I'm not sure just being in a show about freaks and geeks, actually qualifies one as either/or...