Geek Feminism interviews the OTW’s Francesca Coppa
A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to give us your questions for an interview with Dr. Francesca Coppa, one of the founders of the Organization for Transformative Works. Thanks to those of you who suggested questions, and here are her responses…
The OTW is mostly by/for women, and most of the participants in its projects seem to be women. Do you have any interest in reaching out to primarily-male parts of fandom? How might that work, if you did?
The OTW’s mission is to provide a nonprofit space, and organized advocacy, for the kinds of transformative fanworks (fanfic, fan art, vids, podfic) that are a) potential targets for commercial exploitation (as in the case of FanLib), B) being squeezed out as Web 2.0 “business models” expand (as in the case of vids on Imeem or erotic fan art on LJ), or c) subject to takedowns or other legal challenges. Many, if not most, of those fanworks were and are made by women, but gender isn’t a central criterion; we protect these sorts of fanworks when men make them, too!
That being said, there are some secondary ways in which gender seems to be influencing the populations we serve and the work we do. First, male fans are somewhat more likely than female fans to be making fanworks that have commercial implications or aspirations (e.g. some machinima, some fan films, some video game design, the commercial version of the Harry Potter Lexicon, etc). Second, not all fanworks are subject to the kinds of economic or legal challenges I’ve just described: for instance, nobody’s doing takedowns of forums or wikis or fan films; male-made movie “parodies” are more clearly understood to be fair use than female-made shipper vids; video game designers mostly approve of and even help out machinima makers, etc. Moreover, in terms of financial support, many male or mixed gender areas of fandom are more economically stable than female-dominated areas, either because more guys are willing to turn their fan-ac into a fan-run business rather than depending on external companies or services, or because they’re willing to support their sites with ads. Women making transformative works have tended, rightly or wrongly, to be wary of ads or other forms of commercial support, fearing that it would give ammunition to copyright holders who already don’t like them or their works.
So the OTW’s goal is really to focus on 1) noncommercial works that are 2) currently subject to marketplace or legal pressures. It may be socially significant that most of those works are made by women, but we want to advocate for them no matter who makes them!
Women’s work (childcare, housework, nursing, etc) is usually undervalued and under- or un-paid and if you suggest women should be compensated for it, there’s often a strong backlash. Meanwhile, female fan culture usually hates it when creators seek remuneration for their work (fic, vids, *cough*wikis*cough*, etc). Do you think there’s a connection/parallel there? Do you think we’re going to see changes in the future?
*grins and points you to answer above* We’re now having a more sophisticated conversation about this, partly because female fans are realizing that–as in so many areas of life–the undervaluing of our work and consequently our economic status makes us more vulnerable in the rapidly changing internet economy. Vidders get their work TOSed off YouTube; fan filmmakers get movie deals!
That being said, the question of profit is a complex one, legally, culturally, and aesthetically. Legally: the question of profit does figure somewhat into fair use determinations (though it is not the only factor, and for-profit works can certainly be fair use!) Culturally: female fan culture isn’t simply “anti-profit”; many people also actively value fandom’s “gift culture”. Aesthetically: things made for pleasure can be very different than things made for the marketplace.
I do think that one thing we’re seeing is the strengthening of the “Old Girl Network” of female fandom, where skills learned or demonstrated in fandom are recognized as valid in the marketplace, and female fans are helping other female fans capitalize on them. There’s always been some of this, particularly in creative areas–fan writers going pro, for instance–but now I think we’re seeing fans bringing their fannish expertise into video editing, graphic design and photoshop work, software coding, webdesign and webmastering, systems administration, etc.
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