Today, for my teacher meeting, I was asked to bring in a favorite t-shirt. I have many, many t-shirts to choose from. The t-shirts I considered included some Punk Masters t-shirts as well as some Duran Duran ones. Yet, the t-shirt I decided to go with is a t-shirt that my friends and I got made in 2006, which says, “Work Sucks! I’m going on tour!” Part of me wondered if this t-shirt was the right choice or not. After all, it seems pretty in your face. It seems very anti-work, right? Plus, is it so good to have my fandom out there so much?! Is this my sad attempt at reaching a balance between teaching and what I do in relationship to fandom?
I have a love/hate relationship with work. I am sure that many people feel that way about their job. I love the actual teaching part of my job, including writing, creating and delivering lessons to teenagers so that they understand some historical event, era, concept, etc.. Generally, I have great relationships with my students. This week, I was reminded again of the fun that I can have with my students. Let me give an example. On Tuesday, I wanted to celebrate the anniversary/birthday of Planet Earth. So, I played the video at the beginning of each class period. Most of my students didn’t know what to make of the song or the video. I did have a few kids who declared that they liked Duran Duran. Although, in fairness, some might have said that just to earn some extra brownie points from their teacher. Still, other students took this as an opportunity to give me a hard time about my musical taste. No matter the students’ reactions, I had fun introducing my favorite band to them. It gave me a chance to talk a little musical history and fandom.
On the other hand, I am sitting in meetings all day today, which is not what I want to be doing. I have grading that I’ll be working on over the weekend. In fact, I work so much on nights and weekends that I get pretty excited when I get a day “off”. If that wasn’t enough, I spend a lot of time trying to do tasks that are required of me by my school, district or state that doesn’t do much to help me or my students directly. I don’t really hide some of my frustration over these “requirements” and extra work. Let me honest here, too. Part of the problem is that these extra tasks often interfere with other things that I want to be doing. I want to be writing and researching about fandom. I want to be organizing and holding fan events. Therefore, is my bringing this anti-work t-shirt too much? Too negative? Perhaps. Yet, it is honestly how I feel a lot of the time. I would rather be on tour.
I also wonder if this type of t-shirt show too much of my fandom? Should I hide my fandom at work? Some obviously would argue that I should hide it and that it has no place in a professional setting. Yet, it absolutely doesn’t interfere with my duties. My social media interactions should prove this as I’m rarely able to be online at all during the day and only during my lunch and planning periods. Yes, my students know that I like Duran Duran. I don’t think it is wrong for my students to see me as a person with likes, passions, interests. I hope it encourages them to share their interests, their fandoms. Plus, one thing that I want all of them to understand is that there is nothing wrong with being in a fandom. There is too much stigma already with fandom. If I keep my fandom closeted, so to speak, I would think that I’m sending the message that fandom should be hidden, secret, something to be ashamed of. Do I worry that my supervisors would think less of me? I don’t for two reasons. First, I am good at my job. My fandom doesn’t impact that. Second, I don’t want to hide who I am for anyone or anything.
At the end of the day, the real question isn’t whether or not to hide my fandom. The real question is how to keep the elements of my job that I like while allowing me the time to focus on other interests like my work surrounding fandom. Any suggestions?!? Anyone offer me a deal so that I could go part-time with my teaching?! Can I get paid for going on tour?
-A
I hate to say it, but there is sort of a double standard that exists with fandom, so to speak, in our culture. I work in an office with mostly men and they can talk about football all day long and rave on about how their favorite teams are doing. (And you can imagine it’s at fever pitch right now with Superbowl coming right up). But I get made fun of for saying that I love Duran Duran and follow/worship them as closely as they follow/worship their favorite NFL teams. I really don’t care, though; it actually starts a conversation and sometimes one or both sides end up learning something new. We have a business casual dress code so unfortunately I could not wear any of my band shirts at work, but that means they can’t wear their NFL jerseys to work either! I’ve heard of some organizations instituting stuff like “jersey Fridays”- man, if I was part of that, you’d bet I’d come in wearing my DD T-shirt just to stir things up, lol.
That double standard between fandoms dominated by females and fandoms dominated by males is huge. The Superbowl is a perfect example. -A