some notes from the Overambitious Dissertation

[rhivolution]

Right, I've decided that since I'd like to have it all in one place without memes and random squee cluttering it up, Overambitious Dissertation posts will now be on Dreamwidth, cross-posted to LiveJournal for your reading convenience. (Unless it's a poll, as I don't have a paid DW account.)

Or you could just friend me (rhivolution) on Dreamwidth, your pick. My apologies to anyone who might be reading it twice, so...

Personal Conclusions

• Fanwork creating media fandom (which I will call 'fandom') and feminist SF fandom (which I will call 'FSF') vaguely share a common goal: the expansion of silenced voices both within a story and from the author.


• This is a conscious thing in FSF, but less so in fandom; some people in fandom, though, are aware of this concept while for others it's subconscious.


• The common thread here is that both FSF and fandom are telling the stories that they want to hear, as opposed to the 'sanctioned' texts of the dominant paradigm/canon.


• Critical literature (Jenkins, Baron-Smith, Bury, Busse & Hellekson) supports this claim.


• Now, obviously, this is an idealised version of the reality. For many people in both groups, it's about the storytelling, not the underpinning radical nature of creation or whatever.


• And neither group does this without issues. There's a lot of inherent problematic stuff in fanworks, but also in a lot of FSF.


• This sort of reflects societal issues with...let's say kyriarchy because I don't want to exclude any isms. FSF may be more aware as a whole, but it sure as hell ain't perfect.


• Anyway, both groups also have similar community practices, outside of work creation. Issues of diversity, identification with genre, vibrant online discussion, etc.


• At the risk of making too broad a generalisation, both populations are sort of female-dominant enclaves against the more 'acceptable' (v. male) parts of the canon. I know I'm not saying this right, but bear with me until I can find the words.


• Not to mention that a growing number of people take part, at least somewhat, in both spheres, particularly but not exclusively where SFF media is involved. That said, it's like a Venn diagram, and plenty of people are exclusive or generally ambivalent towards the other area.


• For that matter, who is overlapping between media fandom and print SF consumption overall? I mostly focus on the FSF area because women are outspoken in FSF about their love of the SF genre.

My Project Hypotheses:

• That point begs the hypothesis of this project: What is the resonance of SF as a genre across media to female communities?


• The sheer growth of fandom around Abrams' Star Trek and the amount of people who then went back to TOS is a staggering example. Also, consider the huge fandom participation surrounding the Stargate programmes, Doctor Who, Gundam Wing, the Firefly and Dollhouse parts of Joss Whedon's work, comicverses, and Star Wars. Sorry, but if you're liking one or more of these things, you're enjoying some SF, or at the least, SF tropes.


• This isn't to say that everyone in FSF who's into fandom enjoys exclusively SF fandoms, by the way. However, I hope it reveals a bit about why the intersection is growing, particularly in who is doing it.


• Seriously, what is it? I have some ideas, but at the same time...I'm looking for other people's answers as well, which is where you come in.


• Also, in doing this, I want to address what it means to have the identity of being 'a fan', for women.

Some side notes, with no HTML list as I am tired of coding
- I have no idea when I'm going to get to interview anyone UK-side, as I have heard nothing from the Uni about those of us not-on-placement-but-needing-video-access. I should have brought my camera back, but as I don't have a UK power cable (and like hell I'm plugging a vital piece of equipment into a standard converter), it'd be moot.
- I really want to avoid working off 'how women interact with romance novels' if at all possible. There's so much feminist research on that, and it frankly bores me, but it may be inescapable with the whole 'reasons why fanworks are created' theory floating around. I really do think there's more to reading/writing fanfic besides this. Then again, there's probably more to romance novels...but they pretty well bore the crap out of me, is pretty much my logic.
- I've got some reading done on why we empathically connect to fiction, and how some connection to fiction is considered socially acceptable: going to Italy because you read The Talented Mr Ripley or A Room with a View is okay. So why is dressing up as the Doctor not? Is it because it's seen as over-empathic or is it genre-related, or both?
- Haven't broken into Bacon-Smith much, but Justine Larbalestier's The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction has been a godsend for information on both women fen and writers in SF pre-70s. I've read it before, but highly recommend it; it's not dull academic writing at all.