this was a lovely, interesting and well-researched read, I enjoyed it a lot.
as an aspiring academic in film,theatre and media, I've chosen a similar topic for my diploma, so I know a lot of the popular culture texts you've quoted, or used, but you really did a terrific job in summing up fandom-studies over the past 20 years.
I agree with you that there absolutetly must be a study on how the internet changed fandom - I think the influence is very big and so far noone (as far as I know), has worked on that. (a book rec for you, "Brooker, Will: Using the Force. I think it came out in 2002 - can't give you the exact title, my girlfriend has my copy of it. Brooker's book has one chapter about Star Wars slash fandom, most significally Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, which is a very interesting read, considering he isn't a "textual poacher", but a "normal" media fan).
As a queer fan myself, I found especially interesting what your research participants had to say about fem-slash, because I've discussed the same things and expressed the same reservations to my girlfriend, who's in the slash fandom as well. Ironically, my reservations tend not to only refer to slash fiction, but partly to lesbian fiction as well. Most fem-slash does indeed not feel realistic, or at least it doesn't relate to my own sexual experience (I mentioned to my girlfriend that I have the feeling most fem-slash is written by girls trying to find out about their sexuality and fantasizing about lesbian relationships, but that's a completely subjective assumption, of course). I've recently read Susan Water's "Tipping the Velvet" and it was a huge disappointment. Apart from the female main character being insufferable, the sex portrayed felt very unrealistic to me - there was one scene where the female protagonist acknowledges her love to her love interest, and after what felt like two kisses to the lips, they commence to fisting without even so much as touch a breast in the same "make-out session". I don't know about other people, but I don't see myself partaking in fisting with "the love of my life" right after our first kiss. Felt like the author thought "hmmmm, which sexual practice haven't I used so far?". Well, enough of that rant.
I haven't written fem-slash yet, but I want to, you can say my fingers itch for it, but I haven't yet found a pairing I'm really attached to. I write m/m slash though, and I find that it quite suits me, (I also like reading books about gay protagonists or watching films dealing with queer issues, not matter if gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual). In everything but the sex I feel very close to those homosexual male characters, because what they experience is also what I as a bisexual woman in a lesbian relationship (I can't tell you if I feel more lesbian or more bisexual, I don't think it really matters) experience.
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Date: 2004-12-05 10:44 am (UTC)From:as an aspiring academic in film,theatre and media, I've chosen a similar topic for my diploma, so I know a lot of the popular culture texts you've quoted, or used, but you really did a terrific job in summing up fandom-studies over the past 20 years.
I agree with you that there absolutetly must be a study on how the internet changed fandom - I think the influence is very big and so far noone (as far as I know), has worked on that. (a book rec for you, "Brooker, Will: Using the Force. I think it came out in 2002 - can't give you the exact title, my girlfriend has my copy of it. Brooker's book has one chapter about Star Wars slash fandom, most significally Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, which is a very interesting read, considering he isn't a "textual poacher", but a "normal" media fan).
As a queer fan myself, I found especially interesting what your research participants had to say about fem-slash, because I've discussed the same things and expressed the same reservations to my girlfriend, who's in the slash fandom as well. Ironically, my reservations tend not to only refer to slash fiction, but partly to lesbian fiction as well. Most fem-slash does indeed not feel realistic, or at least it doesn't relate to my own sexual experience (I mentioned to my girlfriend that I have the feeling most fem-slash is written by girls trying to find out about their sexuality and fantasizing about lesbian relationships, but that's a completely subjective assumption, of course). I've recently read Susan Water's "Tipping the Velvet" and it was a huge disappointment. Apart from the female main character being insufferable, the sex portrayed felt very unrealistic to me - there was one scene where the female protagonist acknowledges her love to her love interest, and after what felt like two kisses to the lips, they commence to fisting without even so much as touch a breast in the same "make-out session". I don't know about other people, but I don't see myself partaking in fisting with "the love of my life" right after our first kiss. Felt like the author thought "hmmmm, which sexual practice haven't I used so far?". Well, enough of that rant.
I haven't written fem-slash yet, but I want to, you can say my fingers itch for it, but I haven't yet found a pairing I'm really attached to. I write m/m slash though, and I find that it quite suits me, (I also like reading books about gay protagonists or watching films dealing with queer issues, not matter if gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual). In everything but the sex I feel very close to those homosexual male characters, because what they experience is also what I as a bisexual woman in a lesbian relationship (I can't tell you if I feel more lesbian or more bisexual, I don't think it really matters) experience.