Shunning
From Fan History Wiki
Shunning means deliberately avoiding or keeping away from.[1] The word has strongly religious connotations, and many of the specific meanings of the word are associated with specific religious practices.[2]. The closest of these meaning to the usage of the term in LJ-style fandom is the notion of reculement in Wicca, in which elders repudiate an oath-breaker from "outing" closeted Wiccans.[3]
However, this by itself would be an empty gesture, since usually the target of such "shunnings" are usually uninterested in associating with those who wish to shun and often have never heard of them prior to the urge to shun. And given that those initiating shunning may be pseudonymous, the targets may have no idea who it is who has announce an intention to shun, making shunning in the usual sense doubly ineffectual.
So usually such "shunning" is combined with Googlebombing or other harassment intended to punish real or imagined offenses.[4] See for example the usage by Avalon's Willow in the Rachel Moss Kerfuffle from "Who Is Rachel Moss?" posted on May 28, 2009
Actions have consequences. Rachel Moss took some actions. A google bomb shunning is a consequence.
An example of a post used for such purpose is Jesurgislac's March 4th, 2009 post "Kathryn Cramer: fail, fail, and fail" which makes repeated links from the target's name to pages on LJ that the post's author feels are damaging to the target's reputation.
Claire Light explains[5]:. . . punishment is advocated at two places: often the remedial action is punishment of the original offender (as in asking a radio station to fire a racist DJ), and the action threatened if this remedy isn't taken up is usually a punishment as well (official complaint up the chain of command, formal boycott, or bad publicity, and the hanging of the "racist" label on the totality of the offenders.) The action is then picked up by the other bloggers and passed around.
The intention to punish may be denied as with Spiral Sheep's post "In which Kathryn Cramer should be shunned for our own safety and the sake of our communities":
It is my intention to shun Kathryn Cramer and W!ll Sh£tt£rly, not as a punishment but because they deliberately choose to threaten and damage real human beings (in this case for merely speaking out against racism) and I do NOT want to be anywhere near them or to be responsible for anyone else being placed anywhere near them. This shunning extends throughout their personal and professional life as I do NOT want to support their dangerous sociopathic behaviour towards real live human beings in any way, in any place.Liz Henry, writing at the Feminist SF blog, remarked in response to these posts by Jesurgislac and Spiral Sheep:
In these discussions, many people are becoming angry with her to the point of wanting to googlebomb her name. I understand the anger there, but I don’t like answering non-consensual stealing of people’s identity and words with further non-consensual tampering with identity. I appreciate spiralsheep’s outline of events, and really good documenting complete with screen caps - but I don’t like the google bombing of her name.
In Race Fail 2009, these calls to "shunning" preceded the creation of what has variously been called an enemies list or a blacklist.
[edit] References
- Shunning on Wolfram|Alpha.
- Shunning on Wikipedia
- "Who Is Rachel Moss?" by Avalon's Willow, posted on May 28, 2008
- Outrage, Pullback, Punishment: The Structure of One Common Antiracist Post by Claire Light, May 16, 2009.
- Shutting down discussion is wrong by Liz Henry, Feminist SF - The Blog!, posted on March 6, 2009.
[edit] External links
- Religion & Shunning - Why is it so Damaging? from Conversation with Ex Jehovah's Witnesses.
