For this last journal I thought I’d talk about two of my greatest loves: fanfiction and queering things. Unfortunately these two things don’t always go together in any kind of positive way. I’ve grown to absolutely love fanfiction. Through my involvement in online fandom-verses I’ve met so many great people through fanfiction, my best friend included. Fanfiction is a great way to express creativity and keep creative juices flowing. It is also a great way to express your own headcannons and fan theories. Fanfiction is now clouded with a new wave of young writers ready to fetishize someone’s sexuality for pleasure.
As Dr. Powers mentioned in one of our discussions fanfiction was once almost solely written by middle age women. That is no longer the case. A wave of young, pubescent girls has taken over the common voice as fanfiction authors. On the surface this may not seem like much of a problem but as Catherine Tosenberger says “the internet cut out the middle man; anyone, of any age, with a computer and with a modem could obtain access” (Homosexuality at the Online Hogwarts: Harry Potter Slash Fanfiction). This open and easy access to such a variety of human experience is a positive thing that has come with a rather nasty consequence. Pubescent girls use fanfiction to fetishize male/male relationships.
These stories have gone from fill-in-the-blank-of-cannon to thousands of words of smut. According to Wikipedia Plot What Plot and Porn No Plot (PWP/PNP) are in the top five tags on Archive of Our Own. These fanfictions focus entirely on the sexual relationship between two men. They are often reduced to this top/bottom, sub/dom trope that in no way can be counted as a fair reflection of homosexual experiences. Many of these stories include tags or author notes on how the author was “sinning” or is “going to hell” because of what they wrote. It is for these reasons that I cannot accept the hyperfocus on male/male relationships in fanfiction as a healthy form of representation and sexual expression.
I like what you have here! I think it’s so cool to incorporate something we’re so passionate about into our college classes (and combining them is double the awesome!)
Do you think this “wave of young, pubescent girls” will continue the trend in the future?
Try to use some more in-text citations, as well. I know we have to have at least three references to our sources to receive full credit.
It’s spooky to think that erotica that influences inexperienced young people might very well be written by inexperienced young people. I’m imagining a sort of feedback loop that creates more and more shared ignorances and unhealthy misunderstandings. Again, potentially spooky stuff.
After hearing you speak about these 2 things throughout the semester I was really interested in reading this journal, and I was actually somewhat shocked to hear about the wave of pubescent girls that fetishize male/male relationships. It’s interesting to me how fan fiction has started with middle-women and changed over time to this. I really respect that you dispute the male/male relationships as a healthy form of sexual expression and fully understand why after reading your journal. I think you did a great job with getting the reader on your side. I do agree with Joel that you need a little bit more in-text citation. Other than that, great job!