Fantasy readers, sci-fi readers, comic book nerds, secret YA lovers, etc: You are not an oppressed group. At all. In any way.

I have to disagree a bit (not about the 'oppressed') but the 'At all. In any way.' which should be clear by the end how.

TL;DR: There's far less "snobbery" and "judgment" about fantasy novels than people claim there is.

Nice claim, however because many posters seem to simply enjoy being both contrary and condescending I thought I would check. This took all of maybe a few minutes, since it appears in every thread about this subject. These are highlights, which you are welcome to dismiss as anecdotes (I didn't do a analysis of the vote tallies or attempt a rigorous rebuttal), but it seems enough to cast doubt on your claim, if not dismiss it outright.

Well, they certainly aren't classics. They're pop culture phenomena for sure, but literary history is full of pop culture phenomena that get forgotten

Immiediate curt dismissal, and

All books are literature, sure, whatever. Now, whether or not Martin produces quality writing is another matter. His stories certainly have some strong points to them but, w/r/t ASoIaF, the last couple books rely more and more on vulgarity and food than they aspire to literary innovation, deep character exploration, or much in the way of novel social commentary (biting skepticism gets tired when everyone is either an oppressor or a victim, imo)

Sarcasm leading to evntual dismissal (I guess that's improvement?) and

Martin really exemplifies the common criticism of fantasy writing in that way, he's a good storyteller but not a good writer.

I don't get the logic of this one, a bit too much contrariety and

[In terms of Tolkien's influence on literature, capital-L Literature (mainstream literary fiction and poetry), it's negligible.]()

The typical reception he had for spawning a now genre, utter contempt and dismissal.

[While I love Song of Fire and Ice and Harry Potter, I don't find them particularly quotable, and I doubt they'll leave extensive impact in our language.]()

We have a faint praiser! I will try and mix it up a bit

In general, yes, fantasy and scifi (and mystery and romance) genres are looked down upon as being insufficiently serious for academic study.

Nice, what actually appears to be a reasonably view

Genre literature is as per its name "generic" and thus tends to follow very basic plots and exist more for the sake of making money than for achieving some kind of artistic greatness through the medium of words, i.e. literature.

and hows this for sneering snobbery (I couldn't quote it all sadly)

I love Pratchett, and I admire Martin's earlier books, but he's entirely squandered that promise by now, but Gaiman is overwhelmingly incompetent at basic drama (and would rather make a pop-culture reference to avoid it), and Tolkien is simply a reactionary. If this is a "triumph", it's a triumph of sales numbers and self-isolation.

It is quite clear when you have those who are writing works that are clearly solidly esconced within a genre, and their authors deny it, presumably for the sake of their literary reputation.

“Will readers follow me into this? Will they understand what I’m trying to do, or will they be prejudiced against the surface elements? Are they going to say this is fantasy?”

or for convenient a hair splitting denial of being science fiction

"Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction, not a science fiction proper. It contains no intergalactic space travel, no teleportation, no Martians."

told to a book of the month club, that might hesitate to read 'science fiction proper', but would condescent to read

"Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen."

In most of these cases (like the last especially) seem to be other likely operative motives, namely jealousy and popularity. More 'literate' authors seem to often be jealous of their less 'literate' compatriots success and mass appeal, sometimes maybe with cause (I doubt 50 shades of Grey, or Twilight will stand the test of time, though I personally regret that The Hunger Games and Enders Game might) and work to preserve their popularity with their niche audiences. Or as Leguin put it

protecting [their] works from "literary bigots" who relegate genre fiction to a "literary ghetto."

These are hardly outliers, and there are far more in more generally frequented subreddits (like askreddit, and books), but these were simply the most obvious easiest to find. Also it has quite a history. I suspect Doyle dealt with some of these issues and likely many others.

Now exactly how snobby and judgemental are people about fantasy (and lets lump in sci fi too) and how widespread? That is not an easy question to answer and quantify, but consider... Has there been a fantasy or sci fi novel that has won say a pulitzer prize? How about Nobel prize? In my opinion, the road for example is sub par post apocalyptic science fiction. Why do you think they had to invent their own awards, the Nebulas and Hugos.

I suspect there are (to borrow and mangle the biblical epithet) ivory realms and castles where kings and knights fight to protect their preferred literatures (poetry, non fiction, history etc) from usurpers and peasant uprisings. Fantasy and Sci fi have not yet been granted the respect, the cachet, ultimately in a word legitimacy as true literature.