The State of the Supergirl Fandom

Not to go OT here, but I note in the post a button that says "Accept As Answer." What will happen if one clicks it?

Hit it.....I dare ya.

And for a different perspective than anyone else. I am deeply disappointed in what the cast did. And I know many others are also. But does that deserve the hate they received, absolutely not. A lot of people have reached out respectfully to the cast to let them know what the real issue is. This is not just about SC shippers. A lot of LGBT fandoms from other shows have also voiced their disappointment in what the cast did. I will not get into that here because that is not the point of my post. I just want to voice my opinion that people have a right to be hurt and to say they are is not wrong. Many have been respectful without the hate. The hate just gets more attention.

I hear you, and I respect your feelings on it....I disagree with you, but I respect how you feel. The problem however is, it has gone far beyond..."they are the ones getting the attention", that has been the reasoning for months now. That reasoning has gotten those of you who are fans of Lena nowhere. They are getting the attention because ANY, AND AT THIS POINT ANYthing that these actors post on Instagram or Twitter is then inundated with the hate, with MAYBE 2 people that believe as you do calling for calm. It went beyond that weeks ago.

What if, just a what if....Jeremy had said in his song...and then Lena and Kara became good friends, so please stop harassing us on Twitter and Instagram and let us post in peace with all the fans....do you think that would have been allowed to pass? I think not, we would have the same exact thing as we have now. Had they left just the first part of what I said....the same thing would have happened. HAD THEY SAID NOTHING at all about Lena and Kara, that would have triggered hate as well. The Sanvers crowd was upset that Maggie and Alex weren't mentioned in the song....

When you have a group of people that simply want to spew hate, anything will set that off. And we have proof after proof after proof of that.

So, though you totally....YOU TOTALLY have my respect in what you are feeling.... unless your side of this fandom doesn't speak up louder........this will continue and it will no longer be a "they hijacked our fandom" it will be "guilt by association"....In that song, they weren't disrespecting you, they were confronting (FOR THE FIRST TIME I MIGHT ADD) that faction of the fandom that has shown them nothing but disrespect, threats and harassment. Did they mean to come off in a disrespectful way to you? Of course not...but to you they did, and that's a problem, but you will never get redemption in this as a fandom because this group that you say gets the attention, once this dies down, will find something new....it will be in a look from Melissa at Katie in an interview that means absolutely nothing, it will be in a rumor made up by someone to forward their narrative, but it will happen again. That I am totally sure of. I wish soooo much that this fandom was unified in its love for Supergirl, that is where I stand and will continue to stand. But the...."That's them......" narrative just does not go very far with me anymore. I'm sorry....

One point I would like to make is that my favorite character on the show is Kara and it has been since season 1. I don't really appreciate the "you Lena fans" comment. Do I need to start saying "you Monel" fans? So don't act like you know why I watch the show.
And for all of you griping about people thinking that their view is the only one that is right, there is a lot of that going around on the board. And I'm not saying I'm right but ya'lls opinion is no better than mine.

Can you point me to where I said..."you Lena fans"...the reason I said those of you who are fans of Lena, is because what I have seen from you here, that is what I saw, it looked to me that you were a fan of Lena. I'm a fan of Lena as well...but more so of the entire cast, I think they have done a fantastic job putting this group of actors together...I apologize for not reading that correctly, no disrespect was meant by it. As far as opinion, I'm simply saying that we differ in opinion, and actually my post had nothing to do with the "difference in opinion" I just wanted to be totally upfront as to where I was coming from....I am totally not getting where you got that from my post. Wow...


ok.....

PS....making a note......Kara is your favorite.

Considering a rally call. General mobilisation to a twitter crusade. All the sensible people here, do what we can, bury the SC comments with positivity and show the cast sense prevails, and they have no need to be forced into apology by people who hijacked their sexuality to use it as a weapon in what is in fact a fandom war.

If you will look at my avatar, that is exactly what is happening. That is just a part of that campaign.

Not to go OT here, but I note in the post a button that says "Accept Answer." What will happen if one clicks it?

Perhaps that ends the thread.

Not to go OT here, but I note in the post a button that says "Accept As Answer." What will happen if one clicks it?

And for a different perspective than anyone else. I am deeply disappointed in what the cast did. And I know many others are also. But does that deserve the hate they received, absolutely not. A lot of people have reached out respectfully to the cast to let them know what the real issue is. This is not just about SC shippers. A lot of LGBT fandoms from other shows have also voiced their disappointment in what the cast did. I will not get into that here because that is not the point of my post. I just want to voice my opinion that people have a right to be hurt and to say they are is not wrong. Many have been respectful without the hate. The hate just gets more attention.

I hear you, and I respect your feelings on it....I disagree with you, but I respect how you feel. The problem however is, it has gone far beyond..."they are the ones getting the attention", that has been the reasoning for months now. That reasoning has gotten those of you who are fans of Lena nowhere. They are getting the attention because ANY, AND AT THIS POINT ANYthing that these actors post on Instagram or Twitter is then inundated with the hate, with MAYBE 2 people that believe as you do calling for calm. It went beyond that weeks ago.

What if, just a what if....Jeremy had said in his song...and then Lena and Kara became good friends, so please stop harassing us on Twitter and Instagram and let us post in peace with all the fans....do you think that would have been allowed to pass? I think not, we would have the same exact thing as we have now. Had they left just the first part of what I said....the same thing would have happened. HAD THEY SAID NOTHING at all about Lena and Kara, that would have triggered hate as well. The Sanvers crowd was upset that Maggie and Alex weren't mentioned in the song....

When you have a group of people that simply want to spew hate, anything will set that off. And we have proof after proof after proof of that.

So, though you totally....YOU TOTALLY have my respect in what you are feeling.... unless your side of this fandom doesn't speak up louder........this will continue and it will no longer be a "they hijacked our fandom" it will be "guilt by association"....In that song, they weren't disrespecting you, they were confronting (FOR THE FIRST TIME I MIGHT ADD) that faction of the fandom that has shown them nothing but disrespect, threats and harassment. Did they mean to come off in a disrespectful way to you? Of course not...but to you they did, and that's a problem, but you will never get redemption in this as a fandom because this group that you say gets the attention, once this dies down, will find something new....it will be in a look from Melissa at Katie in an interview that means absolutely nothing, it will be in a rumor made up by someone to forward their narrative, but it will happen again. That I am totally sure of. I wish soooo much that this fandom was unified in its love for Supergirl, that is where I stand and will continue to stand. But the...."That's them......" narrative just does not go very far with me anymore. I'm sorry....

Not to go OT here, but I note in the post a button that says "Accept Answer." What will happen if one clicks it?

Considering a rally call. General mobilisation to a twitter crusade. All the sensible people here, do what we can, bury the SC comments with positivity and show the cast sense prevails, and they have no need to be forced into apology by people who hijacked their sexuality to use it as a weapon in what is in fact a fandom war.

The purpose in showing the screenshots was to go along with our original and long discussion on this matter.

A few here said the angered LGBTQ fans' pain had nothing to do with homophobia, that no one was labeling the cast as such. Clearly, I'm seeing much different.

But, experience shows, all of this nonsense will die down; and people will either stay and watch or move along.

Bring on Season 3. I, for one, am stoked and have a renewed joy for the show and cast. Thanks for that, Comic Con.

Well, the cast, aside from Mehcad, is probably done with social media for a while. And I don't blame them. The comments they've gotten are 1000x worse than anything they actually did or said.

Poor Melissa. She finally starts to come out of her shell, on social media, after being pretty much silent for 2 seasons, and these jerks rip her apart. I honestly wish people could disable comments on twitter and instagram.

You can disable comments on Instagram but unfortunately not for Twitter.

Maybe we can just stop showing tweets like that, it give them an interest that they do not have.

Well, the cast, aside from Mehcad, is probably done with social media for a while. And I don't blame them. The comments they've gotten are 1000x worse than anything they actually did or said.

Poor Melissa. She finally starts to come out of her shell, on social media, after being pretty much silent for 2 seasons, and these jerks rip her apart. I honestly wish people could disable comments on twitter and instagram.

Screenshot some of the foul comments being made to David Harewood on his Twitter for simply responding to a fan who said, "Hang in there Space dad, we love you." To which he simply responded... ready for this?... "Will do." (I edited a few words)

Steven 32 you hit the nail on the head.

Thanks

Argo

@Thalolli

Well said. I'm aware that it's not everyone, but Kara/Lena shippers have been sending threatening messages to cast members for months, before this fiasco ever happened. And because of that, that particular group of fans (even if not all of them are guilty of abuse) likely have a bad reputation in the cast's eyes. Why do you think interviewers continually ask about Supercorp? Because they are aware of how out of hand segments of that fan group have gotten, and it adds drama to the interview.

I'm also aware that not everyone is doing this, but construing this incident as a slight against the whole LGBTQ+ community is out of hand. Yes, it may have been aimed at the aforementioned segment of the Supercorp shippers who have said horrible things and made threats, prior to this incident. But many members of the LGBTQ+ community have come forward saying that this in no way offended them. Some of them (not me) have stated they feel people are being overly sensitive about the situation, and that the seemingly overreaction hinders what they have fought for over the years.

Now, I'm not LGBTQ, so I don't think I get a say in that particular situation. But I do get to have an opinion. And mine is that it was not offensive to me, and it was never intended to be offensive to the LGBTQ community. It's also my opinion that the reaction was blown WAY out of proportion to the actual incident.

Many people have said something akin to "if you're not gay, you don't get to have an opinion on this, and you can't see why this was hurtful". Well, I pose you this question: If it's not possible for a straight person to understand where your coming from and why you are offended, then how in the world was Jeremy Jordan supposed to know how it would hurt you? or Melissa?

Saying straight people don't know what hurts you, then getting super upset when a straight person hurts you unintentionally just doesn't make sense to me. If straight people "don't know", then how was he or Melissa supposed to?

Back to the topic of SuperCorp shippers. I'm truly sorry if you were hurt over this. And I'm NOT saying you asked for it. But I will say I think the extreme segment of the SuperCorp fanbase ruined your group's reputation long before comic con, due to the aforementioned threats against Chris and Rahul, at the very least. And when a group sends that type of pure hate, and even threats of harm, to the cast, I can't blame them for wanting to set the record straight. And I honestly think Melissa said it was "brave" of him because she knew the blowback would be insane. Kinda like saying he was just being really ballsy about it.

And as for how it was handled...when you're improvising a song as you go, you sometimes just say what comes to mind, without having a chance to really think it through. I'm not saying what happened was right, I'm just saying you can't take the time to filter what you wanna say when you are improving a song.

Now the incident is on PinkNews. Article clearly written by someone with no insight into the state of the fandom and nature of the show.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/07/24/supergirl-cast-accused-of-mocking-lgbt-fans/

The actual hell.

not only is this horse dead, but we've made burgers and put ketchup on this sucker at this point.

Excuse us for speaking out about an incident that deeply, deeply hurt the LGBT section of the fandom. Jeremy has and he seems genuinely sorry, and I for one accept that apology. That doesn't change the fact that A) It happened, B) It echoes what several of the more nasty fans have said to us, and C) Melissa has not apologized when she was the one who called Jeremy 'brave' for what he did.

Considering how they immediately got sent death threats, how is brave not a very apt prediction? Melissa was predicting that he would get abuse over this and lo and behold he immediately did. Why is it so hard to accept that with the type of hate the actors get it is completely reasonable for them to perceive that aspect of fandom as something scary? Why would you not be intimidated of people who send you death threats over fictional characters?

And no, the excuse that it is only because they insulted fans in real life does not cut it, because 1.) death threats are never okay, your feelings don't mean that you have the right to threaten people and 2.) Rahul was attacked like that when he hadn't done ANYTHING except play a role he was cast for and his episode hadn't even aired yet. It happened because people apparently thought he deserved to get hate for daring to get cast and accepting a job offer where his fictional character would touch another fictional character whose fictional sexuality those people happened to be invested in.

Yeah, mocking Kara/Lena also hurt the nice fans (and Jeremy has apologized), but what is this brave comment if not a commentary on those fans that are indeed scary obsessive and verbally violent over this particular couple? And who react absolutely with unreasonable hate over a completely legit decision. The show is absolutely within their right to give Lena a past boyfriend, Lena is their character. And it is completely within somebody's right to then take that role and get money for it.

The Kara/Lena fans don't want to admit to their fangroup having a huge problem with verbally abusive overly obsessive fans. And yes, other fangroups have that too and then hopefully they also have a negative reputation in their fandom. And maybe if Kara/Lena fans were gone then the Kara/Mon-El fans would do the majority of the abuse. But then the Kara/Mon-El fans would be what I would be complaining about. But right now, Kara/Lena fans make up the majority of the abuse.

It's not even comparable to the behavior by the Kara/Cat Grant shippers in season 1. I don't know why the Kara/Lena fans have so many much more mean spirited members, but that's the way it is. They are the ones who do the majority of the abuse in this particular fandom. The fact that other fans are also mean doesn't change that right now most of the aggressive fans in this fandom come out of this fan group. Those fans rightfully earned their negative reputation for being mean spirited, by being mean spirited and hateful towards the actors.

Maybe in a really weird, twisted way having Alex be gay somehow made the mean fans think if they are just mean enough to the writers they will get their couple. If so, then that's truly messed up. BECAUSE the show actually tries to do uplifting and loving representation in Alex, they in the minds of some people are suddenly fair game for abuse. When shows that are way more homophobic and never even have a gay couple or character get a free pass. What kind of destructive logic is that? Nobody is ever invited to be verbally abusive. There is no "that tv show was wearing a short skirt, so it had to expect to get that kind of reaction":

Everybody in the world has feelings. Even dictators and serial killers. There is nothing inherently special about feelings. People, whether fans or cast, need to stop acting like the world starts and ends with their feelings. Feelings shouldn't be used to oppress others. They are maybe an explanation, not an excuse for bad behavior.

Feelings are great, everybody has them, but that doesn't mean that you should wallow in them.

If you are upset over something is really that big, then maybe you really should stop watching the show or the actors for a while. And maybe actors really should close down their social media or go private or friends only, yes, even if it is sad that it deprives the fans who are not hateful to the actors.

Jeremy apologized multiple times. If you can't take that apology, then maybe you really should stop watching the show. How many of the "fans" who have sent abuse have apologized? Just because "you were upset" doesn't mean that that behavior is not worth apologizing for.

I have more faith that Jeremy won't do it again, than I have faith that those type of "fans" won't do it again. It's gotten "cool" to be hateful to actors on the show.

And yes, Jeremy has gotten hate from people for political reasons before. But the difference, I'm sure those people don't pretend to be "fans".

And the excuse shouldn't be, well, he got hate from homophobes before, so it's okay we also send him hate. It's bad behavior in either situation and there isn't really excuse for either one. Hateful homophobes shouldn't really be the standard you want to measure yourself against.

See when this type of stuff happens, Jeremy would need to be very brave indeed to do what he did

This type of stuff happens regardless of what's happening in the fandom. Jeremy has gotten a bunch of gross hate just for being an ally and activist for the LGBT community. This hate isn't completely isolated to fandom issues, so let's not act like it is.

There was nothing brave about what was done. Causing unintentional hurt wasn't brave. Fans sending hate in retaliation isn't brave.

Excuse me but i quite don't understand how we escalated from expressing a point of vu "in this case for a relationship" to be immediatly related at devalorising it or being done for hurt others.
Are we gonna expect that exchanges with the actors/producers as to be reduce to posting pictures ?
When someone in this very "nice" forum gives his opinion, we can agree or not without being accuse at something we haven't even think of. Doesn't mean it's always well receive by everyone, just that we didn't have any agenda other than sharing.
And it became "brave" for them to saying what they think ? So the communities and/or internaut are taking away the ability to talk from them ? ... I don't imagine what it's like when you absolutly can't say anything that isn't transformed because of what the reader or viewer is feeling at that moment.

I take the last event here but if the issue it's really not about what Jeremy Jordan has said but how he said it, then it comes back to an interpretation relative to the viewer and his own feelings.
Feelings are real and not questionnable, but without internet everybody would have to deal with them differently first. And eventually, if it's still needed, send a mail after. Why don't keep that in mind and take a pause before responding to someone, who ever it is.
People usually don't say things to hurt others (i hope). And if they do they shouldn't

I remember the beginning of IRC and the chatrooms ... that not a leap from where we are now, it's a galaxy.

My thoughts exactly starlord. I don't know who this person is that wrote the email, but they really shouldn't have.

Don't think her agent would spell McGrath wrong
Idiotic move by this person to do this

seems someone emailed Melissa's team for an apology. Here is the statement from her team