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So this is my semester project for my GLBT Studies class, or at least my proposal and working bibliography for it. Truthfully, I'm mostly posting it here so that I don't lose it and can get to it from either of the home computers or a computer at school -- but, hey, it serves a second purpose in that I am going to have to interview some people too. And you, dear reader, are people! Or at least know people.
So the project is on queer women's participation in sf fandom. IF YOU ARE or HAVE EVER BEEN a queer-identified woman with any degree of identification with or participation in "fandom" at large or the fandom of any specific science fiction or fantasy text (XF, Harry Potter, SW, Trek, SG1, Xena, Tolkien proper or Tolkien-via-Jackson, Darkover, Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, ad infinitum), and you would like to donate about half an hour of your time, I can send you some questions to answer or, best yet, talk to you over AIM or ICQ. BTW, just to be clear -- this is not a paper about slash, although reasonably enough the writing of slash may figure into it. This is about your relationship to the text and to the fan community, so what I'm saying is, *I want readers as much as or more than I want writers,* seeing as how I'm going to be asking you to talk to me as readers/consumers of the text.
Please feel free to pass this invitation on to anyone you think might be interested in participating here. You can refer them to hth_the_first@livejournal.com or bettyplot@yahoo.com
Heather Watson
WMST 3100
The project topic I have in mind would discuss the ways that some women experience a mutual reinforcement of their identities as queer and as science fiction/fantasy fans – understanding “fan” to mean not just aesthetic enjoyment, but active participation in and emotional loyalty to “fandom” as a semi-organized community. Three things can reinforce the overlapping of queer identity and fan identity for women: the tradition of “strong” female characters in the genre who are not exclusively identified through their role as the love interest of a male character, which provides role models for all women, but also shapes desires in queer women – the social constructionist ethos of science fiction and fantasy, which helps queer women conceive of their own social norms as, in a sense, one “world” or one narrative among many and empowers them to question the assumption that certain ways of living are inherent and natural – and the social structure of fandom itself, with its emphasis on resistance to enforced normalcy and obedience to voices of power, and its self-conscious sense of creating communities and families by intent. I would like to suggest that fandom is often an entry-point for women into cultural resistance, relatively socially acceptable in comparison to overtly political movements and therefore more accessible particularly to young women, and that their identities as feminists, as queer, and as fans can interlock, support, and inform each other.
Resources on Science Fiction/Fantasy Fandom:
Harris, Cheryl ed. Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture, & Identity, 1988.
Hills, Matt. Fan Cultures, 2002.
Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture, 1992.
Lewis, Lisa A. The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture & Popular Media, 1992.
Tulloch, John & Henry Jenkins. Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Star Trek & Dr. Who, 1995
Resources on Women in Science Fiction/Fantasy:
Auerbach, Nina. Communities of Women: An Idea in Fiction, 1978.
Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women: Television Fandom & the Creation of Popular Myth, 1992.
Barr, Marleen. Future Females, the Next Generation: New Voices & Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism, 2000.
Case, Sue Ellen. “Judy Grahn’s Gynopoetics: The Queen of Swords.” Studies in the Literary Imagination, v21 (Fall 1988).
Crosby, Janice C. Cauldron of Changes: Feminist Spirituality in Fantastic Fiction, 2000.
Helford, Elyse Rae ed. Fantasy Girls: Gender & the New Universe of Science Fiction & Fantasy Television, 2000.
Merrick, Helen. “The Readers Feminism Doesn’t See: Feminist Fans, Critics, and Science Fiction.” Trash Aesthetics: Popular Culture & Its Audience, ed. Deborah Cartwell, 1997.
Resources on Queer Science Fiction/Fantasy:
Andermahr, Sonya. “The Worlds of Lesbian/Feminist Science Fiction.” Outwrite: Lesbianism and Popular Culture, ed. Gabrielle Griffin, 1993.
Farley, Tucker. “Realities & Fictions: Lesbian Visions of Utopia.” Women in Search of Utopia: Mavericks & Mythmakers, ed. Ruby Rohrlich & Elaine Hoffman Baruch.
Garber, Eric & Lyn Paleo, eds. Uranian Worlds, 2nd edition, 1990.
Jagose, Annamarie. Lesbian Utopics, 1994.
Martin, B. “Sexualities Without Gender & Other Queer Utopias: Gay & Lesbian Studies.” Diacritics: A Review of Contemporary Criticism, v24 (Summer/Fall 1994)
Palmer, Pauline. Lesbian Gothic: Transgressive Fictions, 1999.
Palumbo, Donald ed. Erotic Universe: Sexuality & Fantastic Literature, 1986.
Pearson, Wendy. “Alien Cryptographers: The View from Queer.” Science Fiction Studies, March 1999.
Zimmerman, Bonnie. The Safe Sea of Women: Lesbian Fiction 1969-1989, 1990.
So the project is on queer women's participation in sf fandom. IF YOU ARE or HAVE EVER BEEN a queer-identified woman with any degree of identification with or participation in "fandom" at large or the fandom of any specific science fiction or fantasy text (XF, Harry Potter, SW, Trek, SG1, Xena, Tolkien proper or Tolkien-via-Jackson, Darkover, Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, ad infinitum), and you would like to donate about half an hour of your time, I can send you some questions to answer or, best yet, talk to you over AIM or ICQ. BTW, just to be clear -- this is not a paper about slash, although reasonably enough the writing of slash may figure into it. This is about your relationship to the text and to the fan community, so what I'm saying is, *I want readers as much as or more than I want writers,* seeing as how I'm going to be asking you to talk to me as readers/consumers of the text.
Please feel free to pass this invitation on to anyone you think might be interested in participating here. You can refer them to hth_the_first@livejournal.com or bettyplot@yahoo.com
Heather Watson
WMST 3100
The project topic I have in mind would discuss the ways that some women experience a mutual reinforcement of their identities as queer and as science fiction/fantasy fans – understanding “fan” to mean not just aesthetic enjoyment, but active participation in and emotional loyalty to “fandom” as a semi-organized community. Three things can reinforce the overlapping of queer identity and fan identity for women: the tradition of “strong” female characters in the genre who are not exclusively identified through their role as the love interest of a male character, which provides role models for all women, but also shapes desires in queer women – the social constructionist ethos of science fiction and fantasy, which helps queer women conceive of their own social norms as, in a sense, one “world” or one narrative among many and empowers them to question the assumption that certain ways of living are inherent and natural – and the social structure of fandom itself, with its emphasis on resistance to enforced normalcy and obedience to voices of power, and its self-conscious sense of creating communities and families by intent. I would like to suggest that fandom is often an entry-point for women into cultural resistance, relatively socially acceptable in comparison to overtly political movements and therefore more accessible particularly to young women, and that their identities as feminists, as queer, and as fans can interlock, support, and inform each other.
Resources on Science Fiction/Fantasy Fandom:
Harris, Cheryl ed. Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture, & Identity, 1988.
Hills, Matt. Fan Cultures, 2002.
Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture, 1992.
Lewis, Lisa A. The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture & Popular Media, 1992.
Tulloch, John & Henry Jenkins. Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Star Trek & Dr. Who, 1995
Resources on Women in Science Fiction/Fantasy:
Auerbach, Nina. Communities of Women: An Idea in Fiction, 1978.
Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women: Television Fandom & the Creation of Popular Myth, 1992.
Barr, Marleen. Future Females, the Next Generation: New Voices & Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism, 2000.
Case, Sue Ellen. “Judy Grahn’s Gynopoetics: The Queen of Swords.” Studies in the Literary Imagination, v21 (Fall 1988).
Crosby, Janice C. Cauldron of Changes: Feminist Spirituality in Fantastic Fiction, 2000.
Helford, Elyse Rae ed. Fantasy Girls: Gender & the New Universe of Science Fiction & Fantasy Television, 2000.
Merrick, Helen. “The Readers Feminism Doesn’t See: Feminist Fans, Critics, and Science Fiction.” Trash Aesthetics: Popular Culture & Its Audience, ed. Deborah Cartwell, 1997.
Resources on Queer Science Fiction/Fantasy:
Andermahr, Sonya. “The Worlds of Lesbian/Feminist Science Fiction.” Outwrite: Lesbianism and Popular Culture, ed. Gabrielle Griffin, 1993.
Farley, Tucker. “Realities & Fictions: Lesbian Visions of Utopia.” Women in Search of Utopia: Mavericks & Mythmakers, ed. Ruby Rohrlich & Elaine Hoffman Baruch.
Garber, Eric & Lyn Paleo, eds. Uranian Worlds, 2nd edition, 1990.
Jagose, Annamarie. Lesbian Utopics, 1994.
Martin, B. “Sexualities Without Gender & Other Queer Utopias: Gay & Lesbian Studies.” Diacritics: A Review of Contemporary Criticism, v24 (Summer/Fall 1994)
Palmer, Pauline. Lesbian Gothic: Transgressive Fictions, 1999.
Palumbo, Donald ed. Erotic Universe: Sexuality & Fantastic Literature, 1986.
Pearson, Wendy. “Alien Cryptographers: The View from Queer.” Science Fiction Studies, March 1999.
Zimmerman, Bonnie. The Safe Sea of Women: Lesbian Fiction 1969-1989, 1990.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 10:26 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 09:34 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 10:34 am (UTC)From:doh!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 01:59 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 09:14 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 04:45 pm (UTC)From:I'm a slasher and a yaoi fan, but some of my earliest fannish experiences actually related to my early stages of self-identifying as bisexual without having much connection to slash fandom as I know it now. I used to run the QueerXF archive. I also had the very interesting experience of playing a lesbian character who impressed a gold dragon in a public online Dragonriders of Pern RPG.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 08:57 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 12:52 am (UTC)From:buddleia[at]livejournal[dot]com
no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 05:51 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 02:43 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 11:40 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 07:39 pm (UTC)From:And I was poking through your site more, and you have tags showing on a lot of the stories - at least, when I look using my Safari browser. (Close to the Chest, Lullaby In Blue, Outclassed.) You might want to go through and re-check that - do they not show up for you?
no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 11:30 am (UTC)From:Those stories are, you're right, terribly fucked up. The problem is, I keep fixing them and they don't get fixed. I'm sure it's FrontPage's fault, but I don't know how to beat the damn thing down; I don't even know what I did differently with those pages that *got* them fucked up, as opposed to all the rest of them. Sigh.
However! Everything on the page that isn't formatted correctly is duplicated in this lj. To get quickly to the Ray/Ray stuff, at least, you could check out marythefan's Ray/Ray index, which is linked off the user page of her lj; Close to the Chest, Lullabye, I think Ride of Your Life, and maybe something else are linked there to the readable lj versions. Good luck. Someday I'll strip those pages down completely and rebuild them, and then hopefully that will fix that.