Fandom Research

CFP: The Ethics of Fan Studies

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:04:20 +0000

Kathy Larsen teaches celebrity studies and fan studies at George Washington University.in Washington D.C. She is the Popular Culture Association Area Chair for Fan Theory and Culture. With Lynn Zubernis, she is currently completing Fangasm.

John Walliss is Senior Lecturer in Sociology, and Director of the Centre for Millennialism Studies, at Liverpool Hope University, UK.

The CFP is here.

Introducing Candie Syphrit

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:39:11 +0000

Hi there! It’s time to introduce you to another survey, this time from Candie Syphrit. I’ll let Candie introduce herself:

My name is Candie Syphrit. I’m a graduate student in cultural anthropology at SUNY at Buffalo with interests spanning the areas of linguistic anthropology, fanthropology, and disability studies. In addition to lurking in a couple different online, I’ve been helping staff at Anime North in Toronto for the past five years. My research notes are and will continue to be available online at FromTheEther.

This is Candie’s survey. Her informed consent form is also there, as well as her contact information. Good luck, Candie!

CFP: Nationbending, a special edition of Transformative Works & Cultures

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:22:29 +0000

Avatar: The Last Airbender is that rare animal: American-produced anime faithful to both its Japanese cinematic influences and its pervasive Chinese iconography. A vast amount of research was invested in bringing a fantasy Asian environment to life: martial arts master Sifu Kisu choreographed each fight and assigned specific fighting forms to each character; a Chinese calligraphy consultant wrote the signage that appeared in each episode, and the series’ creators visited China to study its traditional architecture. These elements create an enticing mash-up of genuine Asian signifiers within a fictional environment. The series’ popularity encouraged a live-action film adaptation from director M. Night Shyamalan. Fan controversy erupted when white actors were cast in roles previously “played” by characters with dark skin. Protests against this act of “racebending” included T-shirts and bumper stickers with the slogan Aang Ain’t White!, the founding of Racebending.com, and a renewed discussion among online fans about the long cinematic history of whitewashing and yellowface

This issue aims to investigate the cultural significance of A:tLA as a transforming and transformative text. Like the Avatar, A:tLA and its settings and characters have many incarnations online, on television, on film, and in print. Likewise, the definitions of anime, cartoons, Asia, and race have been bent by fans and producers alike. A:tLA is part of the ongoing transformation of American media in a global context. We welcome contributions focusing on Asian Studies; media theory and film studies; religious studies and anthropology; postcolonial and queer readings of the series, the films, and the fan works they have inspired; reviews of both canon and fanon texts; interviews with both canon and fanon producers; and reviews of relevant texts, whatever form they might take.

TWC accommodates academic articles of varying scope as well as other forms that embrace the technical possibilities of the Web and test the limits of the genre of academic writing. Contributors are encouraged to include embedded links, images, and videos or to propose submissions in alternative formats: interviews, collaborations, podcasts, comics, drawings, video, multimedia works.

Theory: Often interdisciplinary essays with a conceptual focus and a theoretical frame that offer expansive interventions in the field. Peer review. Length: 5,000-8,000 words plus a 100-250-word abstract.

Praxis: Analyses of particular cases that may apply a specific theory or framework to an artifact; explicate fan practice or formations; or perform a detailed reading of a text. Peer review. Length: 4,000-7,000 words plus a 100-250-word abstract.

Symposium: Short pieces that provide insight into current developments and debates. Editorial review. Length: 1,500-2,500 words

DUE DATES: OCTOBER 2011 (Theory, Praxis) & NOVEMBER 2011 (Symposium)

Please visit Transformative Works & Cultures to find out how to submit manuscripts. If you have any questions, contact me with “A:tLA” in the subject heading.

GAMSA HAMNIDA!!!

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:32:31 +0000

I just wanted to take this time to thank everyone who participated in our survey. Lisa and I are blown away by the sincerity and detail of these responses, and we’re so grateful for your time and effort. Now our real work begins. In honour of the warm and fuzzy feeling the responses gave me, here is a video from my latest K-dorama obsession:

February 15 is your last day to participate!

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:20:20 +0000

Fansubbers: February 15 is your last day to participate in our survey! If you’d like to make your voice heard, give us a click and give the questions some thought. And thanks to all our great participants so far! We’re really happy to hear from you!

Introducing Kyle Stedman

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:54:19 +0000

Kyle Stedmen is a fellow member of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts who introduced himself to me recently after hearing about my and Lisa’s research into fansubbers. I think Kyle might be one of the few people in the field approaching fan studies from a rhetoric angle, and to me that makes his research very interesting. Good luck, Kyle!

I’m Kyle Stedman, a PhD candidate in rhetoric and composition at the University of South Florida in Tampa. I’m inviting fans of various stripes to take a 5-question survey and, if they want, to follow-up with me in an interview about their creative practices.

To understand what I’m getting at in my survey, it will help to understand the kinds of things that folks in my discipline study. In the big picture, rhetoric scholars are interested in how language works in society, especially persuasive language; I’ve recently heard of scholars studying scientific rhetoric (the language people use to shape understandings of science), political rhetoric, and online religious rhetoric. And of course, “language” can easily be expanded to mean any kind of communication–there’s a “language” of videos, songs, video games, and anything else that people purposefully create. The “composition” half of “rhetoric and composition” can refer to the many folks who apply this study of language to writing classrooms, teaching students in turn how to successfully create messages for their intended
audiences.

With that big picture in mind, it makes sense that I, an acafan, would be interested in just what goes on when fans create fic or vids or music remixes. I’m a writing teacher, and I’m always trying to help students broaden their idea of what goes into researching and writing in different settings and genres and media. So I love the idea, for this study, of asking open-ended questions to creative people who compose in fan genres; my hope is that this will help me better understand some of the diverse ways that people find and use source material when composing, and that this knowledge might even help me expand my students’ ideas of the diversity of what “writing” really looks like.

But I’m not just asking fans open-ended questions about composing. I’m also one of a sub-section of scholars in rhetoric and composition who are interested in intellectual property–all those tricky questions that come up when we rely on other sources, like idea-ownership, citation, and plagiarism. In my field, scholars (including me) tend to be skeptical of oversimplified claims about intellectual property; we tend to see “ownership” of ideas as a slippery topic that, when too-harshly enforced, can stifle creativity, lead to political climates that ignore the importance of Fair Use, and treat students like criminals.

Because of that angle, I’m using this study to ask fans about their sense of ownership and creativity about the things they compose. I don’t really know what they’ll say, and I don’t plan to judge them one way or the other. I’m also especially interested the added angle of things like remix competitions, where fans specifically remix the work of other fans. What, I wonder, do composers need to keep in mind if they know their work might be remixed later on? What do remixers keep in mind when they remix the work of someone with whom they participate in a community? That’s why the project is called “Fan Culture and Remix Literacies.” I’d like to know what kinds of strategies remixers use that make their work effective (or moving, or beautiful, or whatever they’re going for). I think those strategies can be pulled together to loosely define a sort of “remix literacy” that describes the kinds of things that others should keep in mind when reading or composing effective remixes. Fun!

My approach is open-ended, and I don’t know what I’ll find. At the worst, I’ll have some intriguing conversations with a lot of people I admire, and that’s plenty.

On my project site, I’ve created 4 different surveys that are the same except for small word replacements (e.g. “fic” for “vid”). 3 surveys are designed for specific communities, where I’ve already collected data (Lost Video Island, Zelda Classic, and OCReMix). At this point, I’m most interested in getting responses for my fourth survey, designed for fic authors–especially any fic authors who have
remixed the work of others or had their work remixed. Links to all of the surveys are at my main survey page.

The IRB at my university has approved me to collect survey data anonymously, and to allow anyone I interview to choose how to be identified in any presentations or publications that come from this work. I like that–it gives the participants the power to disclose as much or as little about themselves as they like.

I’m happy to answer questions or talk through any of my ideas/strategies/methods/assumptions/craziness. Email is easiest; I’m at kstedman [at] mail [dot] usf [dot] edu.

Thanks for your help!

My main project site: http://sites.google.com/site/remixliteracies/home

My survey for fic authors: http://sites.google.com/site/remixliteracies/surveys/ficsurvey

The majority of slashers identify as queer

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:36:24 +0000

According to DreamWidth member Melannen, the long-held claim that slash is primarily for by and for straight women may be very wrong.

Melannen did some digging, looking at both academic citations and user statistics available through online sources, and was surprised by the results. In nine polls taken over seven years in a variety of slash fandoms, participants who self-identified as queer were in the median of total participants, at 60.8%.

I highlight this finding here because much of the discourse of slash studies (and fan studies in general, which in many ways is a fusion of ethnography and feminist scholarship) creates the “slasher” subject position by asserting that straight women enjoy depicting sexual situations between two men as a means of transcending their own marginalization. As a result, criticism of slash culture relies heavily on accusations of mis-appropriation of queer culture by straights. Naturally, this dynamic is of great importance to anyone doing fandom research. But if the numbers Melannen has collated are correct, then scholarly discussion on slash has been off-base, to say the least.

I think the question of how queer women can appropriate queer men’s identity, and the damage that can be done when gay men speaking about themselves are drowned out by women, are valid discussion topics, and worth addressing. That is not a conversation that is going to happen as long as THE MAJORITY OF SLASHERS, WHO IDENTIFY AS QUEER, are being erased from the discussion. fyi.

And SO when people say things like “slash is a legitimate way for straight women to express their sexuality”, what THE MAJORITY OF SLASHERS, WHO IDENTIFY AS QUEER hear is either “you aren’t queer enough, your queer identity isn’t relevant” or “straight voices are the only ones qualified to speak for the slash community”.

I think the question of how straight women’s sexuality interacts with queer sexuality, and the ways straight women’s sexuality defines slash, are valid discussion topics, and worth addressing. That is not a conversation that is going to happen as long as THE MAJORITY OF SLASHERS, WHO IDENTIFY AS QUEER, are being erased from the discussion. fyi.

Proposed Australian law could impact slash fans the most

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:43:02 +0000

Note: I grabbed this post from my friend Katie Freund, a Canadian fandom scholar studying in Australia. If the law described below passes, much of Katie’s academic livelihood could vanish down the ‘tubes. Katie did not write this post, but is spreading it on behalf of a fellow academic who prefers to remain anonymous.

Alert!

In 2010 the Australian Government proposes to go ahead with a mandatory ISP-level internet filtering scheme which, if passed into law, could have a massive impact on anime, manga and slash fans. Why manga and slash fans? Because the main target of the law is to prevent the circulation of ‘child abuse sexual imagery’ – BUT in Australia ‘child abuse sexual imagery’ covers even FICTIONAL representations and includes the ‘under age’ characters in anime, manga and slash. If the law is passed, any fan site that contains or links to this material could be added to a government ‘blacklist’ and denied access in Australia.

The proposal

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has recently announced measures to require internet service provider (ISP) level filtering of overseas-hosted internet material classified Refused Classification (RC) under the National Classification Scheme. Such material includes child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act (Consultation Paper, 2009).

The problem for ACG/slash fans

‘Child sexual abuse imagery’ is a primary target of the proposed filter – as it should be when dealing with pictures of actual children. Yet, in Australia ‘child sexual abuse imagery’ is an extremely broad category that extends even to purely fictional representations of ‘under-age’ characters in violent or sexual scenarios – including animation, comics, art work and text. Hence, existing legislation targets not only a small coterie of adult paedophiles dealing in representations of actual children, but extensive communities of ACG and slash fans whose activities involve the consumption, creation and dissemination of representations of young persons that would be classified in Australia as ‘virtual’ child pornography.

In Australia child pornography and abuse is legislated at both state and federal level. State legislation defines child pornography and abuse as

material that depicts or describes (or appears to depict or describe), in a manner that would in all the circumstances cause offence to reasonable persons, a person who is (or appears to be) a child:

(a) engaged in sexual activity, or (b) in a sexual context, or (c) as the victim of torture, cruelty or physical abuse (whether or not in a sexual context) (Criminal Code Act 1995 [Commonwealth] s.473.1).

The federal legislation refers not only to images or texts referring to actual ‘persons’ but also to ‘a representation of a person’ and ‘material that describes a person’ who ‘is, or is implied to be under age 18’; (however, most state legislation puts the age at 16 – leading to confusion as to what, exactly, is the legal minimum age for such representations). That cartoon representations fall within the definition of a ‘person’ in the Act was clarified by Justice Michael Adams in his ruling in the case McEWEN v SIMMONS & ANOR [2008] NSWSC 1292. The case was an appeal against an earlier conviction for possession of ‘virtual child pornography’ (in this case images of the cartoon children from The Simpsons TV show engaged in sexual interactions). In his interpretation of the legislation, Justice Adams upheld the judgement of the original magistrate, commenting:

In my view, the Magistrate was correct in determining that, in respect of both the Commonwealth and the New South Wales offences, the word ‘person’ included fictional or imaginary characters and the mere fact that the figure depicted departed from a realistic representation in some respects of a human being did not mean that such a figure was not a ‘person’ (McEWEN v SIMMONS & ANOR [2008] NSWSC 1292, para 41).

This ruling is of great importance for Australia-based ACG and slash fans, since it clarifies that in Australia child pornography legislation applies equally to ‘fictional or imaginary characters’, even in instances when such characters ‘depart[..] from a realistic representation’.

Given the ubiquity of such representations on both ACG (BL, Loli, etc.) and slash (Harry Potter, Narnia, etc.) fan sites, it is easy for fans to stumble across material that would put them at the risk of prosecution. As the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995 makes clear, an individual is guilty of an offense if said individual, among other things, ‘uses a carriage service’ to access child-pornography material, cause the material to be transmitted, distribute, publish or otherwise make the material available (Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995, 474.19). Hence Australian fans of ACG and slash who routinely access sites that may contain or link to representations of under-age characters in sexual or violent scenarios run the risk of arrest, prosecution and entry into the sex-offenders’ list.

The effects

Accessing fan materials that transgress the above legislation is already illegal in Australia. However, if this ‘clean feed’ legislation is passed it would result in the issuing of take-down notices to affected fan sites located on Australian servers, and the establishment of an ISP-level filter that would block access to a blacklist of overseas fan sites. Given the concerns raised above, it is likely that a huge number of fan sites could be affected, seriously diminishing the ability of Australian fans to participate in these global fan communities.

What can I do?

If you are the owner of an Australian or overseas fan site that may be impacted by this legislation please consider making a submission to the Government consultation process outlining (1) how existing ‘child abuse publication’ legislation is overbroad and unfairly targets your community and (2) the deleterious effects that this filtering plan would have upon your community.

Happy New Year!

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:16:59 +0000

Just so you know, we are in fact alive over here at FR.org. It was a busy fall for all of us, and I’m thinking of new ways to keep the site fresh. I also have to migrate my own website (eek!). Watch this space for news on upcoming publications and blog posts!

That whole “fan labour” thing

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:45:17 +0000

Today, I worked on adding our fansubbing survey to SurveyMonkey, so that it would be easier for participants to send us their information. Doing so meant re-examining our questions in the harsh light of SurveyFail, and I found myself considering why Lisa and I use the word “labour” so often in our survey. Coincidentally, I’ve also been reading some other posts totally unrelated to SurveyFail or fan studies about the ideas and emotions we associate with certain words — their specific semiotic baggage. So I thought it was time to think about my own choice of words in this context.

Normally, I try to avoid thinking about fan activities as “labour.” This is because I have some specific associations with the word, or at least assumptions that pop up when I hear it:

It’s a heavily-gendered term, also used to connote childbearing
It’s tied to the politics of unionized workers
It’s tied to British politics
It connotes paid activity, which fan activity is not

But in our study, Lisa and I are concerned with the very real, very hard work that goes on to produce fansubs. The translation, segmenting, encoding, and distribution of fansubs is a team effort, and the teams often treat it as a matter of pride that their work be the best possible. Ditto scanlation. These people have consumers — client bases that they answer to. (Who hasn’t read a friendly “we’re working as fast as we can to bring you the best that we can! stop bugging us, we do this for free!” message at the front of a scanlation, or on top of an episode release?) So maybe thinking of it as labour isn’t so inaccurate.

After all, time spent fansubbing is time you could be spending at a job — if there were any jobs to be had. And here’s where we get to My Crazy Ideas About the Future: fans might be the best prepared to handle the current economic crisis. They’re used to splitting work into tiny pieces and sharing it across national borders, they’re early adopters of technology, and they commonly think outside or around traditional economies, regulations, and cultures. They frequently keep two worlds (or more) in their heads at once. They speak global. They also know how to organize within a group and prioritize tasks to accomplish a goal. Today’s fansubbing teams in high schools and universities across the globe are tomorrow’s employment roster, and when the economy finally has room for them and their skills, they’ll be better-prepared than their peers because they’ll have learnt all of this on the ground rather than in the classroom.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m too much of an optimist. But I think that the experience of fan “labour” is valuable — and not just because it might make you a better editor or communicator or designer, or because it’ll teach you about Japan or Korea or any other country. Like any other activity, fan labour is a chance to form identity and share community with others. And unlike a traditional labour environment, the motivation is love and not money — more School of Rock than Office Space. But what the traditional work environment looks like will soon be up to them, not us. And I’d be happy if it looked more fannish.