![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The America-centric nature of fandom on the Internet is really pissing me off lately. It sucks that most good fandom comes from the States, and anything not from the States is from England, and Australia mostly just makes shit right now, but every fan all over the world loves good fandom. I just find it really frustrating and patronising the way America treats non-Americans in general, but one would think that, on the internet, people would be more open-minded. My best buddies on my flist come from all over the globe. It's our international community, where we can talk to people from EVERYWHERE about the things we love. Why is that hard for people to understand?
I was laughed at on Jake Smollett's Facebook for not knowing what grits were (not by him.) I just saw this rather patonising comment on Whedonesque:
"I've been seeing the Aussie's tweet about the show though :) - they like their Mr Whedon!"
Discussion questions all over different communities are unnecessarily America-centric. And then we have the added insult of not being able to stream TV shows online, of not getting to see Dr. Horrible at the same time as the States, of not contributing towards ratings even though we contribute towards the profit margins. Is it not bad enough that we're at a disadvantage just by distance? That half the time, the shows we love don't air in our countries? I mean, is it even the MAJORITY of fandom that's American?! Plus nearly every single one of our favourite shows has an Australian invader working on it...think about it.
Okay, I need to cut out the late-night rants. I developed a theory on James Marsden: he keeps being directed by men who are threatened by his all-around AWESOMENESS and therefore relegate him to being the almost-ran behind far less awesome guys.
ETA: Go vote for Misha as Mr. Twitter Universe or whatever. Does anyone know if "Jared" and "Jensen"'s Twitters are legit? Or why any of those twits beat Muhney?
Green Queen
I was laughed at on Jake Smollett's Facebook for not knowing what grits were (not by him.) I just saw this rather patonising comment on Whedonesque:
"I've been seeing the Aussie's tweet about the show though :) - they like their Mr Whedon!"
Discussion questions all over different communities are unnecessarily America-centric. And then we have the added insult of not being able to stream TV shows online, of not getting to see Dr. Horrible at the same time as the States, of not contributing towards ratings even though we contribute towards the profit margins. Is it not bad enough that we're at a disadvantage just by distance? That half the time, the shows we love don't air in our countries? I mean, is it even the MAJORITY of fandom that's American?! Plus nearly every single one of our favourite shows has an Australian invader working on it...think about it.
Okay, I need to cut out the late-night rants. I developed a theory on James Marsden: he keeps being directed by men who are threatened by his all-around AWESOMENESS and therefore relegate him to being the almost-ran behind far less awesome guys.
ETA: Go vote for Misha as Mr. Twitter Universe or whatever. Does anyone know if "Jared" and "Jensen"'s Twitters are legit? Or why any of those twits beat Muhney?
Green Queen
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Well. ANY Gene Kelley roll for that matter.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
This is probably for legal reasons, same as why most LJ contests (and most non-LJ contests, probably) with actual prizes are never open to international audiences. I don't think, in those specific instances, they're purposely being U.S.A.-centric.
From:
no subject
Just kidding.
Honestly, don't let it get to you (except for some ass making fun of you for not knowing what grits are. I bet a good amount of the US don't know what grits are.) I feel this way about most of the BBC television. I love Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures, etc. But I have to wait for SciFi (I refuse to write SyFy!) to run the episodes because our cable provider doesn't offer BBCAmerica (which still has a long waiting period for shows).
Don't let it get to you. You're too awesome. :)
(I didn't know you didn't get Dr. Horrible the same time we did. What's up with that?!)
From:
no subject
It's not just wait time that I'm whining about, it's the fact that fandom - our happy wonderful community - is America-centric and tends to belittle non-Americans.
From:
no subject
I'm also a little bitter about the 'us only' contests on every website. I mean, if it's a huge price, I can understand, but if it's just a DVD, why 'US Only', why is it legally a problem? I really don't get it :(
And I remember reading a post in an online sharing community the other day and there was this one comment that pissed me off. Mostly people upload shows/movies in English though nowhere in the rules does it say that other languages are forbidden. Someone was so nice to upload something (though it was in Russian) and some dude only said 'I thought I was in the US. What's with this Russian language shit' which really made me angry. It's an INTERNATIONAL forum. =/
And I remember that some people were pissed when Germany aired the last two episodes of Pushing Daisies as a world premiere. You know 'How dare they, it's an American show, we should get to see it first' =/
I also stumbled across a whole bunch of comments on YouTube where people say 'It annoys me that people listen to band/singer XXX just now. They have been around for years' which makes me think 'Well, but they only just NOW released their songs in [insert country here]. I'm sure you don't know all the bands that are around for years in my country so stfu'
Oh, I wrote a lot. I obviously like ranting, lol.
From:
no subject
Frankly, now that I am in a froth, one of the things I have enjoyed the most about being online is that it made me feel like I could be friends with people who didn't live in my country.... and so it does then I can take it to the next step and forget that I am a Yank or they are from Oz or Brits or German or Martian.
Now I'll just sit here and twirl.
From:
no subject
What I was talking about wasn't the networks and the suits...well, I touched on that, but mostly I was referring to fandom itself. Our community of people who come together because we love something and want to talk about it with other people who love it. I've found that, in a million little ways, fans themselves don't acknowledge fans outside of America, when there's so damn many of us.
I also find it weird the way Americans seem to find Australia so terribly exotic.
From:
no subject
As for the rest, us yanks are sometimes as limited as you are. I've been a fan of various British and Australian actors over the years. You have no idea how much money I paid to get a US version of a very old Heath Ledger film no one has heard of in the US to this day, and that was ten years before he died. Hell, Billy Boyd is considered washed up and gone, a one hit wonder for playing Pippin in LOTR by the US entertainment media. They can't be bothered to look up that he went home and pumped out another several British films no one can get a hold outside of Europe.
In short, you aren't the only ones who want stuff we can't have. It's not the American fan's fault, it's the suits on high who count the money.
From:
no subject
By the way, which Heath movie did you get?
From:
no subject
We're fed this BS all through school about how America is huge and powerful and awesome, all shall love us and despair, and a large number of people probably just get "institutionalized" to it. Ask a room full of us to draw a map of the world with no reference and I guarantee most will probably make America bigger than anything else. They don't even think of the fact that the internet is global. I'd hazard a guess that net suffixes like .uk or .ru or .fr may have even pushed that idea. If it's in English, and is a .com, then surely it MUST be American, and it's not just fandom that's affected, it's everything. It's stupid and naive, but true.
The movie was Two Hands, and it ended up being quite the ebay ordeal getting it, and being sure it was the right region so I could watch it. It was... weird. But hey, Heath and Rose Byrne, way before they were really known, and with added Bryan Brown.
From:
no subject
Yeah, but you'd think people who seek out fandom on the internet and come to LiveJournal and SEE that it's an international community would make the effort.
From:
no subject
True but you can buy region free dvd players everywhere and it's not like they are hiding it.
As for the rest, I never really thought about the distributing companies thing. Makes sense but I am still bitter, lol. I mean, it's understandable I think especially when one is on Twitter and everyone is like 're-tweet to win...' and you just can't :(
And I never said it's their fault.
From:
no subject
I'm a Brit and 99% of my fandoms are American. I agree with the above. No wonder it "forces" some people into piracy/illegal downloads. Give us a chance! I wanted to Watch Nurse Jackie & Legend Of The Seeker yet each website forbid me because of my IP. The same with anything on MTV.com. MTV is all ovet the bloody world, what harm would it do?
I'm expecting a long wait for the UK to pick up of Dom's new show also :S It took us almost 2 years to get LOST, I think Australia had a similar problem? I had to have them shipped over from a friend.
From:
no subject
The US has a rather archaic system of paying the actors, performers, singers, writers, etc. per viewing of their work.
Each airing costs the company showing it money. (It can be as little as 1/100 of one penny) but the expense is still there. These are called residuals.
According the many union agreements that deal with the different artists (singers, dancers, actors, producers etc etc etc) they are paid different amounts in every country.
The financial logistics of figuring out how many people from what country saw what show/video/movie online would be a nightmare in an industry that is way behind on paying residuals for shows airing in the US alone.
It's a financial issue. And it plain sucks. Licensing fees, residuals, all those things.
BBCA plays Doctor Who, but I can't view the BBC content in England online because of licensing. 5 of my 6 major fandoms are from the BBC or ITV.
From:
no subject
Thanks for your input :)
From:
no subject
I'm pretty sure there's nothing patronising in there...
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
it's so frustrating to always feel left out (and I imagine even more for you because your country doesn't have the "excuse" to be a non-English-speaking country)
I was actually surprised when I won a HIMYM Barney bobblehead from CBS because I was not sure I was eligible! (contest was advertised on Twitter)
if I were to watch TV on... TV I would still be waiting for season 4.5 of BSG (4.0 aired only a few months ago), Dollhouse... I would have to watch Chuck on Sunday afternoon in French one year after the US aired the episodes. These are only a couple of examples. Oh and we don't even have the Firefly DVDs here, had to buy them from the UK (but we do have Serenity, go figure)
and everytime we try to contribute, we can't, because of geographical restrictions (like when I tried to buy the songs from Glee on iTunes... can't!)
ok that was not exactly the same topic, I got distracted lol
From:
no subject
I can only say to you that it sucks to be isolated from the things that you love. I cannot imagine what people down under have to go through to get the things they love, honestly. I don't know why things are designed that way, other than for certain people to make the most money off of others. Really, I bet that's what it boils down to, with regulating when and where things are seen.
We go through the same thing in America with a LOT of Brit fandom content. We can't see anything the BBC puts out through its iPlayer or number of other means. We have BBC America, but it's sort of a wishy-washy version. And it's on digital cable, which I am downright LUCKY to have, because it costs extra. But everyone here downloads, because BBC America sanitizes everything to make it fit American broadcast standards. Oh, and don't forget the commercials. Every show has commercials. >__< I'd frigging PAY a license fee, if I had the opporunity, just to get rid of commercials. But we don't have a say about that issue in this country.
I'm just saying that I empathize with you saying that it's NOT fair. You're right, and it's understandable feeling that way. A lot of people go through this. :\
From:
no subject
Welcome to Canada.American media is Just That Powerful.From:
no subject
I... don't actually know if this all went along with your rant, but I thought you would like to know that this American would like a wider variety of shows to get into.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I completely agree by the way, it's really stupid. Le monde anglo saxon is a broad church. At least we're English speakers. I feel for the people for whom English is not a first language thrust into the American cultural hegemony that is the interwebs. Although maybe it's different for them, and they have a quite different non-Americanised culture by virtue of having a different language. I have no idea, I'm also really tired.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
And yeah, the ratings systems and streaming needs to expand. I think it's unfair I live in the US and can see something that Canadians, Aussies and Brits, etc, don't.
I like grits! :P