Prejudice against fantasy

I was watching one of those awful, pulpy YouTube videos where they count down the top ten of some random, mainstream topic. It was called "The top 10 best Academy award winning movies off all time" and the description added that they were basing their list based upon the effect that these films had on the industry and on the public.
I was sitting there thinking that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King had better be on that list... and it was number two. Hooray! Not only did I love the trilogy as a child (and the award was for the trilogy rather than just the last one) but there was a reason it won best picture for 2003. It was an amazing feat of cinematography. Not simply did some dudes from New Zealand film and 'unfilmable' book but they made advances to CGI which directly led to the amazing tools available to our current crop of animators. The scope of the storytelling was breathtaking and there has not been another group of films able to match its size and the only places you'll find similarly sized legions of fans are in other fantasy fandoms.
You may be wondering why I bring this up - especially because this is a blog about writing - but what I did after watching the video was scroll down to the comments.
It was full of people wondering how LOTR could possibly be considered among the greats, bemoaning its length, calling it boring or (most often) simply saying they didn't like it as much as some other film. Fair enough, I guess, but many people would complain about boredom and especially length of films such as Schindler's List (3 hours just like LOTR) but they simply weren't. All of the comments were critical of Lord of the Rings despite the unparalleled technical achievement it was.

Where I am going with this is there is a strong current of prejudice against this genre, and it is what inspired me to begin this blog. There was a strong feeling among these commentators that LOTR was less valuable than all of the other films, and the only thing distinguishing it from Gladiator was that it was set in a fantasy world. I was reading a fantasy novel on the train today and realised that I was holding the book in such a way that no-one would be able to see the cover, an act I don't replicate when reading Dickens or Shakespeare in public. There is a frustrating cultural stigma around fantasy that it is for gawky, girlfriendless youths who go and play Dungeons and Dragons in their spare time, implying that that is a bad thing. I honestly haven't thought too deeply about this issue of stigma, being more interested in studying fantasy itself, but it is something to consider.

There is also a difference between the perception of young adult fantasy (Harry Potter, Eragon) and adult fantasy, as if you should grow out of your imagination as you get older. I think this is a wider social issue, which I am not equipped to comment on, but it has a negative impact on those of us who love fantasy. If you have anything to add about this thought feel free to comment and I will certainly respond.