Asylum InformationBelow is information about the "Fans for the Environment" asylum on InsaneJournal. To join this asylum, click here. You may leave the asylum at any time. |
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User: | ecofans (456312) Ecofans
Fans for the Environment |
(no userpics) | |||||||||
Name: | Fans for the Environment | ||||||||||
Theme: | How fandom, fan works, and the works we fan relate to the enviroment/ can help solve env'l problems. | ||||||||||
E-mail: | slashpine.lj@gmail.com | ||||||||||
About: | Is fandom, especially online fandom, simply an escape? Do we care about global problems? Discussions about race, gender, sexism, etc., show that's not the case. Also, fans don't overlook problems just because their show or book or movie does. In fact, fans bring those subtexts to the surface specifically to advocate for social progress. But what about environmental problems? Many fans are environmentally aware. Fans may also, as activists or students or professionals or just plain community members, work for conservation and sustainability. But this interest isn't very clear in online fandom. In the fanfic we read, our discussions, the shows and books we love, where is "Nature"? Why is it that fan works and fan discussion rarely brings up the problems caused by humans over-exploiting the environment?
Discuss! Whatever the reasons (and there may be many), environmentally minded fans do want to include the planet we live on in the list of things we care about and talk about. For discussions of how our fan texts and fannish activities fit into the larger context of the world we care about, this is the place. Fandom means being passionate and engaged with all kinds of things, including the earth, nature and the environment. What interests us here is how our shows, books, music, comics and other media texts, and the ways we fan them, converge with the planet that supports us all. This is Media Ecostudies - a way of looking at media that doesn't forget to consider their impact on, and engagement with, both the natural and the social environments. Postings appropriate for this comm include essays, links to fanfic, and announcements related to ecocriticism (environmental themes in literature and media), which is also often called media ecostudies. We can hold discussions of possible activities, make polls, and post relevant announcements of media and fandom environmental events, actions, books or articles, and other information. If a cool job announcement in an environmental field floats by, we can post that here too. Some specific areas could include: • Fandom ecostudies, or ecocriticism. This would include comments, meta, and discussion about environmental themes and environmentally minded people in our favorite show, book, movie or musical group. For example: Are Hogwarts' Professor Sprout, Hagrid, and Neville protectors of nature? Is Luna Lovegood an "ecofeminist"? Does the Harry Potter series ignore environmental problems - or does the Muggle world, ignorant of wizards, symbolize the way we muggles are oblivious to the many amazing, different, and increasingly endangered life forms on our planet? • Fandom environmental actions. Like members of the Harry Potter Alliance, we care! What are we doing as individuals, or through organized movements and campaigns? For example: how do we save energy overall by being in fandom online despite the energy use and material 'footprint' of our computers? (Do we recycle our E-waste? how?) Are we joining in the various climate change campaigns? Which ones? When we go to a movie or meet-up or con, do we take public transit? Buy carbon offsets? In the areas of energy, transportation, food, material goods, water, housing, and education, fans can be environmental superheroes - maybe even save the world, like Harry Potter. Or you can just love your organic garden, or your rescue dog companion, and share your pictures, favorite recipes, etc.! Don't forget that job announcement: it might be perfect for another ecofan. • Media impact on the environment. Some movie, book, television and music producers are conscientiously working to "green" the industry. The impact of entertainment and media industries goes beyond just singing or writing about the environment, although that's good too! But in the process of production, choices can be made, such as: using recycled materials for movie sets, books and albums; lowering the energy costs of production; providing recyclable packaging or downloads instead of any packaging at all. Media is one of the most enormous industrial sectors in society, with a huge environmental impact. Are those who work in media aware of this? What are they doing? Post! Link! Discuss! MODERATORS ALWAYS NEEDED! This comm was started by /Pine in response to suggestions in a panel on Harry Potter & the environment at an HP con, as well as discussions earlier in the year at an academic conference (the Media Ecostudies workshop of ASLE, the Assoc. for Study of Lit. & the Envt). There's lots of ways it can work, and lots of people can help with it. Email me if interested! Rules of the ecosystem, or How To Avoid Invasive Species in Fandom All postings are to be kept within reason, please. • Major daily spam of every environmental this-and-that would be bad. Links to sources for such news (like grist magazine online) would be fine and can be compiled after their first posting for the links list. • Environmental topics are a wide range (see above). Don't rule out other people's particular interests; we each have our standpoint and our place in the ecosystem. Tug on anything in nature, as John Muir said, and you discover things are connected. That said, it's not rude to ask what the connection is. The mod may be the first one asking, if your cat-playing-piano pic seems not to have any connection to the comm. • Use cuts on giant posts, pics and videos. • Links to metafandom and similar round-ups are ok, links to personal journals ok, links to fandom_wank are not ok. • Reposting from your personal journal or another comm (with permission) is ok unless it turns into spam or too much length. In that case, reposting policy will be revisited when/if it gets to be a problem. • Eco-wank is about egos, not the environment, and will not be welcome here. Reasoned, calmly argued critique of differing perspectives is an important part of science, society and fandom. Repeatedly spamming on the same wavelength is not, nor is trolling or wank. Immediate freezing/deletion and/or bans will be considered for any of the following: repeated postings of what is essentially the same message; wanky argumentation and derailing; OTT posts; failure to use cuts on long posts or large images. • Anonymice will be screened and usually not okayed. Use your account or get one so as to engage with other accountably. Sockpuppets will be banned along with their dirty laundry. | ||||||||||
Interests: | 60: activism, agriculture, animals, biodiversity, climate change, cohousing, communitarianism, cons, conservation, deep ecology, ecoactivism, ecocriticism, ecofeminism, ecology, ecomedia, ecopsychology, ecowarriors, environment, environmental justice, essays, fair trade, fan fiction, fandom, fanfic, farming, food, forests, future generations, gaia, global change, global warming, greening the campus, greening the planet, harry potter, hp alliance, industrial ecology, leed, loving the earth, media ecology, media ecostudies, meta, nature, oceans, organic, preservation, recycling, restoration, rivers, saving the planet, smart cars, social action, social ecology, soil, sustainability, transit, triple bottom line, water, watersheds, wilderness, wildlife | ||||||||||
Maintainers: | 1: slashpine | ||||||||||
Members: | 1: slashpine | ||||||||||
Account type: | Free Patient |