Richard Armitage’s high priestess still apparently above criticism

[one sentence I wish I had not written is struck through, but not deleted, so you know I said it.]

You know, Marlise, speaking fan-to-fan here, because I guess that’s why you just blocked me, although I hadn’t even ever bothered to follow you, and you’re behaving like a fan does — the reason you could have that smooch-fest you just had with Daniele Rizzo after you dissed him on Twitter? Because I told you who he was and what his market share was like.

What Marlise Boland said about Daniele Rizzo before she knew who he was:

The other time I tweeted you? To tell you something about the history of Armitage fans’ charity efforts when you decided the only one worth talking about in your interview was the one run by your friend. Whatever. Because you’re a journalist, we can still see you on youtube, Twitter, your website, wordpress, anywhere else you appear — and all I have to do to see you Twitter is log out. That’s how being a journalist works — you put your stuff out there and people can criticize it. I can still tweet about you and talk about you all I want. This kind of makes it more attractive to me to do so. Oh, wait,  you’re not a journalist. Or you are? I’m getting dizzy. This behavior is SO professional.

Don’t get me wrong. Anyone can block anyone else. There are people on Twitter I’ve blocked because their tweets enrage me. I totally get that. But this is not about personal quibble. Oh, wait, unless you’re a fan. Then it’s a personal quibble.

This is how I see it — to me, this fandom was created by fans and has always been for fans.

To me, Marlise Boland has decided her access to Richard Armitage means that she can control what fans say about her. Marlise’s picture of our fandom? The univocal one, where she’s the only voice. The one where we all shut up in the name of “positivity” and her “access” to Richard Armitage — I really wish I hadn’t seen this coming, that “access” was going to be the stick to beat fans over the head with — and just sit back and adore her.

She’s going to be the one voice of Richard Armitage and she’s going to control the access now. Not that this does that — but that’s what it looks like she was trying to signal.

Why do that?

Because you see, this isn’t about whether a fan likes what one voice says about Armitage, whether one likes or despises me or any other blogger — it’s not about preference in bloggers or who is a good blogger or a bad one. The wordpress bloggers have always worked to promote each other’s work and link and reblog so that everyone who read knew what everyone was doing. I spent a year and half of my life on weekends, doing that kind of thing.

But that’s not what Marlise Boland wants. QED. She wants to be the only one. And she thinks those of us who have finally been willing to say something critical about her work — well, she can just shut us up.

What will Marlise Boland decide she doesn’t like next? Who will the next fans be who are not good enough for her?

Talk about it via Armitage Agonistes.

~ by Servetus on December 22, 2014.