She Said/She Said is a (sporadically) daily video featuring HitFix Harpy Donna Dickens and HitFix Weekend Editor Jill Pantozzi discussing current events in geek news.
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Fandom can be a great and terrible thing. It helps people find like-minded individuals to nerd out with. It gives us the never-ending gift that is fan fiction. But it can also be a gauntlet of gatekeepers constantly making you pass Monty Python and the Holy Grail-style questions to prove your worthiness. Is your favorite color blue or yellow? Choose wisely or risk the disdain of of those who feel there is only one true way to be a fan.
To the surprise of no one, women are often on the receiving end of this insidious insidery nonsense. Wear a Batman shirt? You better know precisely what year Batman last used a gun in the main continuity and be able to recite Martha Wayne”s favorite charities. Declare your love Doctor Who? Name the third cousin”s spouse for each of the companions to prove it.
It should be pretty obvious that you don”t have to take a test to like Wonder Woman. There is no entrance exam to become a Trekkie/Trekker. But the worst kind of fandom snobbery? When the gatekeepers aren”t only being exclusionary, but they”re just flat out WRONG. It”s in these moments that schadenfreude kicks in and makes you want to say “If you don”t know your s-t, maybe don”t throw it.” A few examples:
UGH, Fake Geek Guys pic.twitter.com/7hZK9nGtzD
– Jill Pantozzi (@JillPantozzi) August 30, 2016
In the video above, HitFix”s Donna Dickens and Jill Pantozzi discuss this weird phenomenon and how it needs to stop, like, yesterday.