zeegoeshere

I think the main discussion was about how race and diversity is dealt with in bandom in relation to other fandoms. There's no doubt that in the whole scheme of things there's some glaring shortcomings, but the whole commending bandom on its diversity wasn't in terms of diversity in the fic and other forms of online output, but more in what constitutes bandom, i.e. the bands, boys and girls themselves. Because there was some comment about it only being made up of a bunch of 'white boys' or whatever.

In terms of the points you make in this post however, I wholeheartedly agree. And I love the fact that the whole recent bandom diversity talk has prompted open discussion about issues of race such as this one. Its always been something i've noticed and silently acknowledged, but never actually openly commented on (maybe I felt like there wouldn't be others wanting to talking about the topic, or my voice would get lost in the noise) and those with the big flists and big voices in bandom aren't usually people with the subject foremost in their minds to bring up.

Treckett (Travis/Beckett) was what introduced me to bandom (and to GCH. Seeing their onstage and offstage interaction and how open they were simply boggled my mind. Canon for the pairing, imo, was so much stronger and out there than alot of the more popular pairings. I wrote strictly Travis/Beckett for a long time before I touched Panic! or FOB fic, yet finding well-written Treckett from writers other than you and a few others was, and still is so rare.

Similarly with Travis/Pete. We read an interview about the Panic boys having sleepovers with Pete, and to this day there'll be pages and pages of fic based on that alone. Travis and Pete shacking up and painting, playing with hemmy, being mutually insane and adorable for days? We'll see only writers like gigantic (who i love from afar SO MUCH) put something out, and there'll be next to nothing after that. Pete will make a blogpost on the heels of announcing his engagement, about how 'its sort of messed up' but he misses when he and Travis were up late at night being doofuses together. In terms of fic or even general aw-age--there's nothing.

And its sad, but its something i've gotten used to. Bandom, in many ways, reflects the catching up that society still has to do in terms of minorities in every sphere of life, so I just add it to my list of things that might (as Obama said, *yesiamlamedontshootme*) never reach perfection in our lifetime, but will be perfected.