Mibba in the Philly news. - Comments

@jayess
I tore her down because I feel the way she commented on twitter about the story and the way she stirred the pit by giving Claude the article was tearing down the people who write hockey fic. Other people on here have called her the c-word but I can't call her a puck bunny. There are a great many female sports reporters who I have respect for, this one isn't one of them. Neither is Alyonka Larinov because she does dumb things like call the Sedin twins "sisters" to fit in with that big boys. I feel like this Baicker shows him the article because she was putting fanfic writers down in a way.
Anyway sorry if I offended all of you.

Well, that's why I get so damned frustrated at mommy wars and the people/media/social structures/laws/norms/etc. that perpetuate them. I'm a mom. Many other women are moms, too. I'm no better and they're no worse because we parent differently, work at home or work outside the home, etc. etc. Why can't we moms just support one another in our common endeavor? No one wins when people are so busy trying to tear one another down instead of trying to make things better for all moms. Or all female fans. Or all female geeks. Or whatever. It's so damned aggravating. And it doesn't lend credence to the actual issues and problems that we females face if we're in-fighting.

@ Jayess
So spot-on and so accurate. I'm lucky enough to work within a sports department of the newspaper where they not only respect me, but don't talk to me like I'm an idiot. I'm the go-to hockey person in the office; if there's a game that needs to be covered, my editor doesn't dictate it to the first available guy. That's MY game; field and ice hockey are MY beat. I'm not fetching coffee or making copies unless that's what needs to be done, and if I'm doing it, everyone else is too.

I read an article the other day on the sexism in sports marketing and I couldn't believe some of what I was reading (it's here if you're interested). I guess it's no surprise, then, that some of that bleeds over into sports journalism et al. It might just be poking fun of fan fiction authors now, but keep the conversation going and nine times out of ten it turns into something much more misogynistic and pointed. That's why I got so angry when I found out it was a female reporter that was showing it to the players.

@ hockey bliss

I kinda have an issue with your dismissing a female writer as a glorified puck bunny. Can't we just call her a hack? Why do you need to tear her down because she's writing in a 'female' way or about things that interest predominantly women? I have a problem with the term puck bunny because god forbid a woman find anything or anyone sexually appealing and/or act on it. It's very Victorian and I think regressive. Why is it bad if it's girls lusting after guys but ok for male fans to ogle female athletes? Do we need to degrade a segment of the female fan base just because they like or emphasize their enjoyment of the players more than the game? I feel it's slut-shaming and it's really divisive. Why do we need to make this 'us against them' when we're all female fans? It doesn't lend us any male legitimacy to do it.

IMO, if the players come across it, it's one thing. I.e. Schenn joshing Couturier about a story or something (you know the younger guys probably think it's HILARIOUS - if it's not about them, anyway). But when the media does it, it's not light hearted or amusing. When in junction with an article like this, it's more pointed and derogatory to the fan base that writes (or draws, etc) these works. At the basis, it's singling out a particular part of the fan base and making fun of them for supporting the team and players, even enjoying the game and players in a different way. And it's undoubtedly done to get a rise out of the players.

It's all part and parcel with the 'fake' geek girl thing. Girls can't be real fans, we don't enjoy the game the same way as guys. And basically because we're not guys. And even when we do support the teams and watch the games like guys do, we have to prove our qualifications. It's not enough to enjoy watching a game over a brew like male armchair fans. God forbid you have the jersey of one of the 'cute' players. Even if you know the stats, understand all the rules, follow the draft and the trades, etc, as a woman you're just lumped in with puck bunnies. Who, let's be honest, are just fans, too, even though most 'real' fans don't want to admit. They may be more fans of the players than the teams or the game but they're an easy segment of fandom to degrade, debase, and look down upon. It's all fucking bullshit. We're only supposed to look pretty, after all. God forbid you have a brain or an opinion when it's male-dominanted thing. Or if you're not thin, pretty or young.

So IMO because it's fan fiction, it's always going to be seen as lesser because it's predominantly a female thing. Anything that's mostly done for, by, or with women is automatically put down. Hell, a published female writer is held to higher standards, or even shunted to the Young Adult section in books or the entertainment/celebrity/fashion/cooking section in media. Or not rated as highly just because they are female. It's bullshit but there's a very visible and strongly enforced gender divide when women enter fields where men are assumed to be the norm. (not to mention when a man does something that's largely held to be female, he's either a hero or a pariah. My SO taking the kids to the store is amazing, wow, how wonderful and thoughtful of him. If it's him at the park, what a paragon of parenting! Me? eh, I'm just another mommy; if it's during the work week, additional assumptions are made as to my education, career-status, and general worth to society. Dads who say they 'babysit' their kids instead of parenting them, teachers who are surprised when dad is involved in school, I could go on...) And that's of course not even bringing up other issues which might compound any of these problems, like race and sexual identify and socio-economic state, etc etc.

@chibs telford
I don't think you're taking it too personally. Everything you said was dead on! I didn't realize that stupid female reporter gave it to Claude to stir the pot.

@kmblue
I am still contemplating taking my stuff down. I don't do this to be ridiculed by glorified puck bunnies like Baicker posing as sports reporters. the fact is a lot of women on here writing this stuff are more talented than published writers. Oh and if Claude was/is offended by it, I think less of him.

Maybe I am taking it too personally but my writing mojo had finally started to return right before this article came out. Now, I don't want to write anymore, at least for a while.

Maybe I am taking it too personally but my writing mojo had finally started to return right before this article came out. Now, I don't want to write anymore, at least for a while.

@ Jayess
I was beginning to think maybe I took it too personally, so I'm glad to see you agree. It's just really disheartening but all the while very eye-opening. It doesn't seem to matter how skilled or creative you are as a writer, you'll always be disqualified because you write fan fiction. Or, even worse, you'll always be disqualified by a man because you're a woman. The latter might be a little extreme, but that's the impression I got from the article itself. It wasn't outwardly sexist, but the undertones were there.

@ hockey bliss
Sarah Baicker showed Claude the article, which really pissed me off. The Philly media's just having a blast since they have nothing else to talk about, I suppose. I don't see why it matters; there are people way more famous and well-known who don't seem to care if fan fiction's written about them, so I don't understand why it matters.

@ Ekangb
Lol, I'm a Flyers fan and couldn't agree with you more. They should talk about why our GM needs to be fired or why we've overpaid for a team that has no chemistry with one another instead of this.

I have to admit that I get skeeved when I read about stuff like this. Breaking the fourth wall can be so fraught and problematic, both to the people (or the portrayers of the characters as well as the creators of the characters) and to the writers, artists, etc. who create fandom-derived works. But here I think it's more about who is involved on the fan side, not so much about the figures who are being written about. Frankly, since it's largely women and girls on both sides of the writer/reader divide, it's easy pickings for those who are looking to make fun of females, which has always been a great past time. It's Harlequin romances 2.0 (well, probably more like 7.0 by this point but you know what I mean). Women like to write and read these things. They have not been legitimized by a male audience, thus they must suck or we must put the genre down lest the wimminz get uppity and forget their place. Let's shame and guilt them some more.

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. I can only hope that Claude doesn't care, and neither do any other players. The fact is we're all hockey fans so they should just be thrilled we watch and support the league. The reporter is a putz, clearly. Most writers on here I follow aren't teenagers. they're in their 20s or older but he reported half-truths to make it more interesting or something. Whatevs, lets keep writing!

They writers are probably just jealous that more stories and words are written about Crosby and Pittsburgh and also Chicago than Philly! Also let's looks at the real story being their team needs some serious help right now! What a waste of time for a sports writer to post something like this. Oh wait, they have nothing better to say about the team right now.

@ chibs telford
Baicker is the c-word and can go fuck herself. That's all I'm going to say about her.
@ fangirl1999
I hope that he will be like other hockey players and laugh it off like the Chicago players do with the ponies.

@ chibs telford
@ kmblue
I was kind hoping that Giroux never saw that article, but of course that reporter made sure he saw it. Oh boy. Maybe he'll be flattered instead of creeped out? It's all harmless stuff.

@ kmblue
Yep, from Baicker, no less. Talk about standing up for your gender. Let's all join in on the mockery of teenaged girls because we think we're better than them. Look at me hanging out with the man you, the commonperson, could only fantasize about! Ha ha ha!

@ fangirl1999

@ chibs telford

I think if he mentioned the really good shit, there wouldn't be much to mock for him. I hate douchebags. And there is now a pic on twitter of G reading the article.

@ kmblue
@ fangirl1999

I read BSH everyday, which is why it surprised me. Even Sarah Baicker mentioned it on Twitter with a condescending snippet and she's, like, big time.

I get what he was doing. Like I said, I'm a sports journalist myself, and sometimes we do quirky or nontraditional pieces to juxtapose features and game stories, but I didn't get anything out of it. He didn't interview anyone from Mibba that couldn't explained to him why they write what they write (or defended themselves, I s'pose), he just logged onto the site. There was no substance, really.

@ kmblue
That's nice that BSH readers are decent about fan fic. I know some Japers readers stumbled across some before and loved to mock it and post poorly written sections. To be fair, the particular story they were reading was not the best written story, but it seems cruel to be mocking teenage girls that way. I didn't care for how the author of the article wrote about the Flyers fan fic writers and tried to pass them off as being silly, horny teens. He of course didn't mention the main characters of some Giroux stories that were written by slightly older women, stories that I thought were quite good.

Not surprised to hear that the writer like that in person. I just think he was unnecessarily harsh about some teenage girls. I wonder how he even stumbled upon Mibba.

@ fangirl1999
BSH readers reads my drabbles on tumblr often. They aren't really into being hypocrites.

I know that writer a bit in real life. He's a sarcastic jerk who was trying to troll but should stick to making animated gifs.

A friend sent me a link to this article because she saw a fan post on the Flyers SBN blog linking to this article, and the fan post was entitled "People have written 861,000 words about sexual fantasies with Claude Giroux." I was kind of surprised the comments on the fan post there weren't mean and in the same mocking tone as the article and the title of the fan post.

http://www.broadstreethockey.com/2013/10/10/4823986/teen-girls-have-written-861000-words-about-sex-with-claude-giroux

I have to admit I read that article going ok let's see what sort of article someone who considers him a real writer writes about fan fic, but that quickly turned into "I hope my story isn't mentioned and mocked". I feel bad for the writer of the G story that was prominently featured, the way he gave out personal details about her. I feel like the author of the article belittled most writers of fan fic with that piece. At at least it does appear that he put in his time researching the Flyers Fan fic. I think he probably doesn't realize either that there are a fair number of women in their 20's and 30's writing hockey fan fic, and many of these women are exceptional writers. I would pay to read their work and I'm grateful that they share it with us for free. I hope no one is scared off of writing a story just because of an article like this. His overall tone about romances in general was rather degrading, which I found quite offensive.

I've written a story about G, in fact it's indirectly mentioned in the article ("the longest is an astonishing 175,581 words"). I personally don't feel like writing a story on Giroux was the waste of my time that the author implies it is. I put a lot of time and effort into trying to write that story (sadly I never finished it). I feel like my writing skills have increased a lot through writing fan fic. Maybe someday I'll end up self-publishing a story and it will all be because of the experience I gained through writing fan fic. But apparently this is not considered a worthy pursuit by the author.