"Unlike its media counterpart," Merrick says, "studies of literary SF have neglected the processes of production and reception of the text, a rather surprising omission for a genre which has been so closely associated with and even shaped by its unique group of fans. Despite the importance of fans to the SF community, their influence and even presence is at best marginal in most critical accounts, even though the experiences of female and feminist fans have been an integral part of the development of feminist SF" (Merrick, 49-50).
If you're interested in more of this for literary SF, by the way, I strongly urge you to take a look at Justine Larbalestier's The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, which is pretty much exactly about that -- most focused on the letter columns in SF magazines in the 50s and the formation of and response to the Tiptree Awards in the 80s and 90s.
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"Unlike its media counterpart," Merrick says, "studies of literary SF have neglected the processes of production and reception of the text, a rather surprising omission for a genre which has been so closely associated with and even shaped by its unique group of fans. Despite the importance of fans to the SF community, their influence and even presence is at best marginal in most critical accounts, even though the experiences of female and feminist fans have been an integral part of the development of feminist SF" (Merrick, 49-50).
If you're interested in more of this for literary SF, by the way, I strongly urge you to take a look at Justine Larbalestier's The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, which is pretty much exactly about that -- most focused on the letter columns in SF magazines in the 50s and the formation of and response to the Tiptree Awards in the 80s and 90s.