Topic: What really defines "pandering"?

Apr 13, 2015 7:20 PM

mosaic_

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Jan 2012

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danzMay 6, 2015 10:04 AM

May 4, 2015 1:44 AM

iSuckAtWriting

Offline

Oct 2010

190

I get the feeling the wrong OP was used.

Pandering in all practical definitions means when a work is heavily catering (or hinged on) to viewer's with inside knowledge of whatever it is they're referencing, or something like too many nods to the fans, or being gratuitously [cute, pretentious, violent, smutty]. Due to negative connotation, this is used almost exclusively for disliked pieces or traits of a piece.

In all technical definitions, entertainment p much doesn't exist when you don't pander.

May 4, 2015 7:19 AM

mugi

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Nov 2009

224

Since I'm not a native english speaker, my first encounter with the word was "foreverpandering", and since he had a panda persona, I kept assuming this word has something to do with pandas. Now I know that it's the #1 point of criticism people bring up for certain shows. And it's often the only point they bring up with no explanation why it's bad in the first place.

Jun 21, 2015 5:48 AM

removed-user

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Jul 2018

564127

There's definitely a negative connotation associated with pandering, but there isn't much of a root for why that is. At least, I don't know what it is. I'm not that old, and there's probably a reason that has to do with the evolution of media and social experiments etc. some other psychobabble.

That being said, what really defines "pandering" is still the same whatever the case may be, and that is the general public's opinion of whatever piece of media we are trying to label. Say we take a random anime. Let's take Triage X, that one's easy. If there is a repeated or chronic element in the show, the "pandering" label begins to emerge as a possibility. However, that element must pass through a binary sieve of societal norms, and be categorized as "good" or "bad". With Triage X, you've got... well, you know. And generally speaking, society has deemed that to be "bad". What it actually is for each individual is inconsequential. However, society is self-conscious of the conflicting interests of it's members. Just because something is deemed good or bad by society doesn't mean that everyone thought it was good or bad. For a majority that have one opinion, there is a minority that thought otherwise. This isn't always the case, but society accpets the statistically favorable outcome that there is always at least one member of a minority.
Anyways, after an element of a show has been deemed "good" or "bad", it then get's a "pandering" label. If a show has a "bad" element, then it generally gets called "pandering". Typically, a "good" element does not earn a piece of work the "pandering" label, simply because when a piece of media is playing to a majority of the crowd, they don't want to believe that they are getting played into liking it. The word "pandering" has a negative connotation that is much easier to place on the minority of viewers than the majority.

That makes sense, right?

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Topic: What really defines "pandering"?

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Topic: What really defines "pandering"?

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» Topic: "Buzzwords" and popular words/phrases you'd rather not see in critical discourse