Fandom Bitches

:For the LiveJournal account created in response to watchful_entity, see fandombitches.
The Fandom Bitches (also known as avada_sarcastic) were an anonymous group of "snarky" Harry Potter fans active in 2002. It was eventually revealed that the group included BNF Cassandra Claire and members of her "Inner Circle".
The group was perceived as being pro-FictionAlley and anti-Gryffindor Tower and The Sugar Quill. Their primary claim to fame was the creation of two quizzes, "Which Inner Circle are YOU?" and "Which Fanfic Archive are You?" They also made icons.
The group ran the avada_sarcastic LiveJournal. As of March 2003, 69 users had friended the journal.avada_sarcastic - User Info at LiveJournal, archived 21 March 2003 by the Wayback Machine. The account was deleted by early 2004.
The Fandom Bitches GeoCities webpage (called the "fandom bitch h.q." on their LJ userinfo) stated:
==Who Were the Fandom Bitches?==
ali_wildgoose publicly took responsibility for Fandom Bitches in mid-2003, although it was later confirmed that Heidi, Aja, Stacey, and Cassandra Claire were all also involved in the group.Stacey wrote in a 05 July 2003 post titled "*harumph*" (now locked, archived by the Wayback Machine on and quoted in Me & CC; or, BNFs do not have more fun, 18 June 2006):
:"Maybe it's because [Aja]'s upset that I outed her as a member of the Fandom Bitches (aka avada_sarcastic), of former "What Inner Circle" and "Which Fanfic Archive" quiz fame. However, Ali already took the rap for that (very kindly, I must say, considering she is shouldering the blame not only for herself, but also Aja, Cassie, Heidi and I) so Aja should have been clear of that for a motivation to annoy me."
Links to a now-locked post by Ali: http://www.livejournal.com/users/ali_wildgoose/169416.html, posted between April and July 2003. bad_penny readers corroborate "ali_wildgoose then [took] the blame for [Fandom Bitches] all by herself" in the comments of The Ms.Scribe Story, Preface and Chapter One, comments posted 16 June 2006. Heidi had posted at least once to avada_sarcastic in February 2003 regarding The Sugar Quill and publicly took credit for the post.zsenya at LiveJournal, Let us make things perfectly clear, posted 21 February 2003 (WebCite). Begins:
:"Essay Question: WTH is SQ thinking with this 'contest'?
:Respectfully submitted by Heidi8 at avada_sarcastic with regards to the Sugar Quill's Fifth Book Challenge and the Unexpected Task."
Links in original. heidi8 commented on the post 22 February 2003, acknowledging "my post over on the A_S" and trying to clarify its intent (archive.is capture).
Stacey reportedly accused Cassie and Heidi of pressuring Ali to take the blame as to protect their own reputations.Fandom Wank Wiki reports, "After discontinuing her association with Fiction Alley, Stacey apparently said that Cassie and Heidi got other people to do their dirty work to keep their squeaky clean fandom reputations." Wherein Cassie's Good Name Is Besmirched, archived by the Wayback Machine on 15 July 2006, referencing a 16 October 2003 comment by ignatius at fandom_wank, which includes the statement: "...Made me think of Stacey's assertion that other people keep taking the fall for wanky things you [Heidi] and Cassie do, just to keep your squeaky-clean images." In a post about a related issue around the same time, Aja also describes her fear of hurting Cassie, Heidi, or FA's reputation. (See comments on "a small continuation of the 'omg aja is sikotic!' saga" at fandom_wank by Aja et al., 13 October 2003.) Stacey's 25 June 2003 post defining "scapegoat" may be a response to Ali's post. This was one topic in a 2003 public feud between Aja and Stacey (who separately also took aim at Cassie and Heidi): see Aja's "Me & CC; or, BNFs do not have more fun" and Fandom Wank Wiki's "Wherein Cassie's Good Name Is Besmirched".
==A Source of Wank and Inter-Archive Tensions==
Angua9 wrote in the context of The Ms.Scribe Story:angua9 at LiveJournal. More Msscribe Stuff, posted 22 June 2006 (WebCite).
Contemporary discussion of the Fandom Bitches' quizzes and posts has mostly gone offline or is publicly inaccessible. However, they clearly contributed to bad blood and hurt feelings within the HP fandom: Stacey refers to Ali as "taking the rap" and "shouldering the blame" for Fandom Bitches, and there were rumored concerns over Cassie and Heidi's fandom reputations.
Commenters at The Ms.Scribe Story at bad_penny recalled the Fandom Bitches as "Ali, Cassie, and Heidi indulg[ing] in their own rounds of anony-wank."Anonymous commenter at The Ms.Scribe Story, Preface and Chapter One at bad_penny, comment posted 16 June 2006. (Archived 15 January 2008 by the Wayback Machine.)
There are indications that one of the quizzes may have been a topic of discussion at Gryffindor Tower in April 2002 (around the time the quiz was created): Heidi refers to "whoever wrote that snarky quiz" in a response to a thread on their message boards.heidi8 at LiveJournal. That Top HP Fanfic Thingy, posted 09 April 2002. Copy of "What I just posted on Gryffindor Tower, on their thread discussing that they had about the list..." (WebCite) In early 2003, Zsenya called out Heidi for an avada_sarcastic post perceived as hostile to The Sugar Quill.
The quiz also left a bad taste in the mouths of some fans who were not directly involved in the fandom's ship wars or archive politics. In August 2002, ashkitty posted a link to the "Which Inner Circle are YOU?" quiz, commenting: "What the heck kind of quiz is this? I've never seen a fandom so full of itself as HP. And that's saying something. Is it okay to just be here for the fic, or do you get a special visitors' pass for that?"ashkitty at LiveJournal. Disbelief., posted 01 August 2002. (WebCite) (Aja responded to the post with her own, "To Fandom, With Love".)
==References==
Category:Harry PotterCategory:ScandalsCategory:Fandom Wars
Category:Social Media Feature-Wank Wednesday