![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Okay, so, you have these two pegs. One's square, one's...not quite circular. Octagonal.
Your board has a couple of spots for pegs - again, one square, one octagonal.
Someone comes over to where you're happily occupied and says, "hey, I'm gonna give you fifty bucks, if you can come up with one name that tells me what both those thingies you're putting in that board are."
Fifty bucks? Awesome. So you start thinking. They're different colors, so no good there. They're different materials, so no good there. They're different sha - wait! No, they're not, not entirely. Look, they both have straight sides, and angles!
"Square pegs," you say, with the smug satisfaction of someone who just earned fifty bucks. But when you hold out your hand for your prize, the guy shakes his head and walks off.
You're a thinky sort, and you expect the best from people (poor sap) so instead of thinking he's a jerk, you think you must not have met his requirements. So you ponder, and ponder, and ponder some more.
But the similarities are there! Straight lines! Angles! How can someone see they aren't both square?
"Perhaps," suggests an onlooker, "you were being too specific. What's wrong with just calling them pegs?"
"Well that's too broad. That kid over there has pegs, too, but his are different from mine."
That kid over there does, indeed, have some pegs. And they are, indeed, different. But that kid over there doesn't call his pegs, and upon hearing you say "pegs" assumed you weren't talking about him.
"So I can't just say 'peg', people won't know what I'm talking about. Besides, they are both square," you say, and begin adamantly trying to stick the octagonal peg in the square hole to prove it.
You guys, real person fandom and media-based fandom are different. They have different - overlapping sometimes, yes, but still different - cultures. They have different relationships with canon, with fanon. They have different legal issues.
The fact that they both have canon and fanon and legal issues doesn't make them the same thing.
Calling one by the name of the other is a solution to the problem of referring to both at once, but not a good one. So please stop trying to stick my octagonal peg in your square hole - it's not going to fit, and it's not going to do either one of us any good.
Your board has a couple of spots for pegs - again, one square, one octagonal.
Someone comes over to where you're happily occupied and says, "hey, I'm gonna give you fifty bucks, if you can come up with one name that tells me what both those thingies you're putting in that board are."
Fifty bucks? Awesome. So you start thinking. They're different colors, so no good there. They're different materials, so no good there. They're different sha - wait! No, they're not, not entirely. Look, they both have straight sides, and angles!
"Square pegs," you say, with the smug satisfaction of someone who just earned fifty bucks. But when you hold out your hand for your prize, the guy shakes his head and walks off.
You're a thinky sort, and you expect the best from people (poor sap) so instead of thinking he's a jerk, you think you must not have met his requirements. So you ponder, and ponder, and ponder some more.
But the similarities are there! Straight lines! Angles! How can someone see they aren't both square?
"Perhaps," suggests an onlooker, "you were being too specific. What's wrong with just calling them pegs?"
"Well that's too broad. That kid over there has pegs, too, but his are different from mine."
That kid over there does, indeed, have some pegs. And they are, indeed, different. But that kid over there doesn't call his pegs, and upon hearing you say "pegs" assumed you weren't talking about him.
"So I can't just say 'peg', people won't know what I'm talking about. Besides, they are both square," you say, and begin adamantly trying to stick the octagonal peg in the square hole to prove it.
You guys, real person fandom and media-based fandom are different. They have different - overlapping sometimes, yes, but still different - cultures. They have different relationships with canon, with fanon. They have different legal issues.
The fact that they both have canon and fanon and legal issues doesn't make them the same thing.
Calling one by the name of the other is a solution to the problem of referring to both at once, but not a good one. So please stop trying to stick my octagonal peg in your square hole - it's not going to fit, and it's not going to do either one of us any good.
