International lesbian fandom: between transformative and affirmative fan creativity
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | A fair amount of existing literature portrays fans as active media users negotiating the meanings of media texts with the possibility of changing them. There are many reasons behind this that can often be highly individualized. However, the state of media representation of marginalized identities and the need to change it/reflect it might be one of the most pressing. Stemming from a longitudinal qualitative (mainly netnographic) research of fan communities focused on non-heterosexual media content (TV series, movies, books, etc.) and non-heterosexual interpretation of such content, I want to discuss specific phenomena of international “lesbian fandom.” A “community” without a clear hierarchy and organization symbolically coming together with a common goal: discover, share, make available, and in cases of scarcity, also create non-heterosexual content focused on women-loving- women stories for a diverse audience around the globe. A “community” whose creativity simultaneously reflects/supplements/corrects the actual state of non-heterosexual media representation. |