When Defective Geeks was created it was so that there would be a voice for geek girls. All of us here are life long lady geeks and we wanted to discuss the geek world from a perspective that is often underrepresented: a girl’s perspective. We want to be a safe place for girls everywhere to come and voice their opinions and never feel alienated, belittled, or mocked. Ever.
I am writing this right now because of the controversy over the Fanfic Theatre panel at WonderCon. It pains me so much that people think we were trying to alienate and make fun of a group of people that are so important to us and that we like to consider ourselves proud members of. We are so sorry, so incredibly sorry to everyone out there who was offended. We never want to hurt you and for those of you whose feelings we have hurt we cannot apologize enough. You are the people we care about the most and one of the main reasons why we created this site.
I will no longer be participating in this panel at WonderCon and after seeing people’s concerns over the nature of the panel there are some things I wanted to clarify. Yes, we had author’s consent for every story we were going to present, absolutely. The point of the panel itself was never to mock the institution of fan fiction and especially not the people who write fan fiction. We wanted to present stories about our favorite fictional characters written in situations that were not canon, but something that we thought other fans would appreciate and hopefully enjoy. I had in fact written some of the stories myself. We wanted to create an atmosphere that was fun for fans, not cruel. We even hoped that maybe it would spur people on to seek out reading and even write their own fan fiction. We never ever want to bully people who write fan fiction.
I have been reading fan fiction for years and I also have a fanfiction.net account for stories I have written. It is an incredible outlet for creativity and I love seeing what other people have created with some of my favorite characters. Fan fiction is so much fun! We love that it exists and it is one of the most marvelous aspects of fandom. Fan fiction, fan art, and cosplay are all incredible and beautiful sources of passion that we appreciate and part of what makes being in a fandom so marvelous.
When Chris Gore approached me about this panel it was with the intention of being a celebration of fan fiction, not a mockery and especially not mean spirited. We did not want to make fun of fan fiction itself and especially not the people who create fan fiction. On our site we have always tried to show that geek girls come in all shapes in sizes and from all walks of life and Chris has always helped us celebrate this.
Once again we want to apologize to those who have been offended and whose feelings we have hurt. I remember being a young girl attached to her computer and escaping to the world of Lord of the Rings fan fiction (Aragorn and OC pairings were my favorite) and finding it to be a sanctuary. As an adult I still do this and am so grateful for its existence.
I would like to apologize again. The damage has been done and cannot be undone, but we hope that you can forgive us. The last thing we would ever want to do is belittle fangirls, something we try to do constantly on our site is support the geek girl community and give fangirls legitimacy. We love and care about all of you and we will fight for you until our last breath.
Yes, we love all of you.
To that young girl out there who wants to be an author and is writing fan fiction to practice her craft, we love you.
To the girl who feels that fandom is the only place where she feels at home and understood, we love you.
Please keep writing and never EVER let anyone bring you down. We love you and hope you can forgive us.
UPDATE: I have just been informed that the panel has been canceled at WonderCon which I agree is for the best. Apologies again.
