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- Volume 10, Issue 2, 2022
Journal of Fandom Studies, The - Volume 10, Issue 2-3, 2022
Volume 10, Issue 2-3, 2022
- In memoriam
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- Articles
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‘What do you think about …?’: The metaculture of fandom
More LessMetaculture is a theory first posited by Greg Urban in 2001. Metaculture is culture about culture, according to Urban. Fandom is a community of individuals who share a love for a text or person and discuss that text or person. Many fandoms create their own subcultures surrounding the object of their fannish activities. In those discussions and activities, metaculture is created and becomes a central aspect of what makes a fandom. While all fandoms use and create metaculture similarly, the object of their fandom has a unique relationship with metaculture that is influential in the creation of and a part of that fandom. This article describes the relationship between fandom and metaculture generally as well as in the context of Hamilton: An American Musical, Glamberts and Ratatouille: The Tik-Tok Musical by drawing upon Urban, Henry Jenkins and Katherine Meizel, among others, to discuss how reality television, musical theatre and social media all interact with metaculture differently, influencing the creation and continuing existence of fandoms.
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Virtual community during a pandemic: A case study
More LessThe COVID-19 pandemic has not only resulted in millions of deaths worldwide but also ravaged the mental health of countless other individuals by the fear and isolation it has cultivated. This phenomenological case study explores how the Sid City Social Club, a virtual fandom community born from the COVID-19 pandemic, provided a social outlet that participants claimed helped buffer against these negative mental health outcomes of the pandemic. Key to participants’ experiences were the diverse identities and interests of the members of the community and the sense of support they offered their peers throughout the multiple online mediums used by the club. Special emphasis is given to the uniqueness of participating in such a virtual fandom community amidst a historical pandemic and immense global uncertainty. This study gives insight into the benefits of this type of virtual community for those experiencing social isolation for a myriad of reasons, both now and in the future.
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Hate narratives, conditioned language and networked harassment: A new breed of anti-shipper and anti-fan – antis
More LessIn recent years hostility amongst fans based on what a person ships or tolerates in shipping has become a growing point of contention in western fandom. This has resulted in an ‘anti-shipper’ (or ‘anti’) vs. ‘pro-shipper’ (or ‘pro-ship’), ‘Good versus Evil’ dichotomy that has slowly consumed fandom communities from the inside out. At the core of ‘anti’ debates is a foundation of beliefs rooted in conservatism that what a person consumes in fiction determines their real-life behaviours. Thus, an anti-shipper who is against those viewed to be pro-shippers is already deemed more morally pure. This has culminated in the escalation of toxic vigilantism that has driven harassment, violence-based threats and the criminalization of fellow fans. This piece deconstructs this anti phenomenon and the dominant behaviours that accompany it by evaluating the traditionally conservative environments in which these ideas originated, and by exploring how antis employ hate narratives, conditioned language and morally motivated networked harassment to justify dehumanizing and abusing other fans. This examination ultimately concludes that no kind of communal fandom restoration can begin to occur until those targeted by such anti-shippers are viewed as human beings (not sub-human) and a universal understanding of fiction, reality, psychology and human behaviour based in science is established.
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Discussing one’s fan interests with others can satisfy or threaten psychological needs
Many individuals consider themselves a fan of something (e.g. music, sports) and discuss these interests with others. However, these interactions may be risky: a positive interaction could make someone feel socially connected and valued by others, whereas a negative interaction may prompt feelings of exclusion. Thus, these interactions could impact one’s basic psychological needs (e.g. belonging, self-esteem) depending upon the specific conversation dynamics. Three experiments provide data supporting these hypotheses. Specifically, individuals who recalled discussing their fan interest with either a fellow fan or a non-fan who positively reacted to their passions reported increased basic need satisfaction, whereas individuals who recalled a negative interaction with a non-fan reported lower basic need satisfaction. Participants recalled these interactions as having similar effects on their perceived relational value (i.e. how valuable, close or important others perceive them). Collectively, these studies connect fan studies research to the psychology of social inclusion and exclusion, providing directions for future research.
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‘He doesn’t deserve it!’: Digital anti-fandom as public criticism of traffic stars and popular culture in China
By Lihua ChenIn light of the growing body anti-fan studies, this article tries to fill the gap of empirical studies on Chinese anti-fandom by investigating the textual dislike of traffic stars – those who usually are good-looking and possess a huge fan base yet are perceived to lack good texts. This form of stardom has proliferated in China since its emergence in 2015, usually involving high traffic of fans, metadata orientation and mega publicity in the media. By drawing on one of Gray’s anti-fandom categories ‘bad object’, this article examines anti-fans’ discourses about the ‘badness’ of traffic stars. Using anti-fandom of Cai Xukun as a typical case, I present how anti-fans frame the ‘badness’ as due to attributes of both Cai himself (misalignment of achievements and talent, plagiarism, being unpatriotic, femininity, sexually suggestive performance and being a bad role model) and his stardom (capital operation by the culture industry). As such, we shall see how this anti-fandom takes on a critical perspective towards traffic stars. These attributes together constitute the site for ‘coalitional dislike’ towards Cai, and by extension traffic stardom in China.
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‘Maybe if she stanned …’: Reinforcing fan identities and affirming positive fan-object relations through toxic practices in K-Pop fandom
By Faye MercierThis article proposes an analysis of a specific form of toxic fan practice within Korean pop (K-Pop) music fandoms, discussing the role these toxic discourses play in the formation and affirmation of positive fan identities. The specific toxic practices that will be discussed occur in response to the personal tragedies of others, frequently where suicide or attempted suicide is involved. In particular, this article focuses on the ways in which certain K-Pop fans target the personal tragedies of others as a means of reinforcing a positive relation to their fan-object. Crucially, the tragedies these toxic behaviours are directed towards are not immediately related to the fandom or fan-object, and these aggressive fan behaviours are largely unprovoked. This ‘Maybe if she stanned …’ phenomenon serves to express the superiority of fan communities by asserting their distance from the suffering of others, as well as the redemptive qualities of their fan-object. I argue that these toxic fan practices function as a means of reaffirming the righteousness of a particular fandom, and this righteous toxicity is itself the result of the K-Pop industry’s valorization of an emotionally heightened form of fan devotion, as well as a changing online fan environment. In doing so, I hope to demonstrate how toxic fan practices arise as self-affirming meaning-making discourses within fan communities.
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- Book Reviews
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Star Attractions: Twentieth-Century Movie Magazines and Global Fandom, Tamar Jeffers Mcdonald and Lies Lanckman (Eds) (2019)
More LessReview of: Star Attractions: Twentieth-Century Movie Magazines and Global Fandom, Tamar Jeffers Mcdonald and Lies Lanckman (Eds) (2019)
Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 255 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-60938-673-3, p/bk, $55.00
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Aussie Fans: Uniquely Placed in Global Popular Culture, Celia Lam and Jackie Raphael (Eds) (2019)
More LessReview of: Aussie Fans: Uniquely Placed in Global Popular Culture, Celia Lam and Jackie Raphael (Eds) (2019)
Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 239 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-60938-657-3, p/bk, $55.00
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Millennial Fandom: Television Audiences in the Transmedia Age, Louisa Stein (2015)
By Linda HowellReview of: Millennial Fandom: Television Audiences in the Transmedia Age, Louisa Stein (2015)
Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 224 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-60938-355-8, p/bk, $24.00
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Straight Korean Female Fans and Their Gay Fantasies, Jungmin Kwon (2019)
More LessReview of: Straight Korean Female Fans and Their Gay Fantasies, Jungmin Kwon (2019)
Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 236 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-60938-621-4, p/bk, $65.00
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