Possibly NSFW discussion of a term that gets on my nerves

[avevale_intelligencer]

I wondered how long it would be before someone brought in the masturbation metaphor to describe our discussions on Doctor Who...does anyone ever talk about "football wank" or "political wank" or "real ale wank," or is it just sf fans who get that? And is it possible, in these relatively enlightened days, that masturbation still carries in some quarters the "unnatural act/sin against the Holy Ghost/self-pollution" stigma that's implied by the comparison?

Because it is implied, let's make no mistake about that. When people talk about "fandom wank" they are not describing people indulging in a harmless and pleasurable act which is practiced by (I would imagine) the vast majority of human beings at some point in their lives. They mean to belittle us. They mean to insult us. They mean to be offensive, and they succeed. They mean to turn the passion that we bestow upon our hobbies into something squalid, something dirty, something to which no decent human being would ever stoop.

Our language is rich in words and phrases to describe what happens when people let their passions run away with them, when they lose perspective in focussing on a single issue, when tempers run high and things are said that should not have been said. This happens in all areas and walks of life, to all manner of people. Why should it be that one particular group of people, whose attention is given to particular forms of literature and drama, when they fall into this error or even when they do not, should be smeared with a playground epithet from the sucking pit of Victorian sexual repression?

I suppose it's all part of the standard bigoted view of fans as spotty unhygienic teenage boys who spend too much time reading books and not enough time getting drunk in gangs and bashing members of the minority of their choice. But it seems a little...disappointing, shall we say...when other fans support and sustain the stereotype by using terms such as this to describe each other.

Comments

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

The problem with this is that "wank" is a British term for masturbation, not an American one - in fact, until recent years, "wank" was not an American word at all, and really doesn't have, in our minds, the feeling of "a playground epithet from the sucking pit of Victorian sexual repression".

I'm pretty sure that the current (mostly American, from what I gather) fannish usage comes from the original meaning - "people who play with their fannishness enough as to lose all perspective" - but I don't think most who use it envision even metaphorical masturbation at this point.

And "freedomwank" goes even further, since it's not even used as an epithet there. There is means, basically, passionate discussion. Which is pretty far from masturbation.

[willibald.livejournal.com]

As an example of USAsians non-use of the word until recently, I remember the (unintentional) hilarity at school when we discovered that Mork and Mindy's landlord was Arnold Wanker.

BTW 'Wanker' was originally school slang for a bloater or a derivation of 'Wonker' a useless naval cadet. The modern usage comed from 'Whanker' (military slang) and seems to have lost the h since the Second World War

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, and I remember people sniggering at school about the Wankel rotary engine. Little things, and so on.

I still think that in some and possibly most cases where I have encountered it the word is used in full knowledge of its current connotations and with intent to abuse. Erm, as it were. I may be wrong, of course, and I may be taking an overly jaundiced view...but I remain to be convinced.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Um. Maybe. We are pretty familiar with quite a lot of American slang over here, though, including its associated meanings, and it seems unlikely that there's been no traffic the other way in the past five decades. And "recent years" is what we're talking about.

You could be right, but from the tone and usage of the word as I've encountered it in my websurfing, I can't quite make myself believe it.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure they know what it means - they are comparing fannish arguments to masturbation, which then becomes passionate discourse.

But since they learned the word as adults, not as kids, it doesn't have schoolyard connotations. In a word, it doesn't feel naughty to them, as opposed to the way it feels to those who grew up with it. At best, it began as mildy transgressive - just enough to feel "cool" and maybe superior to those who indulge in the discussions they're snarking, so there is a nasty edge to it.

Not that I have anything against snark, you understand.