I recently completed my honors thesis on fandom culture. My intention was to look at how mainstream media representation influences public awareness and perception of slash fanfiction and female media fans. Supervisors: Kelli Matthews and Erin Hanna Address: Eugene, Oregon, United States
Slash fiction is loosely defined by Kelly Boyd as, "sexually explicit, amateur, gay male and lesb... more Slash fiction is loosely defined by Kelly Boyd as, "sexually explicit, amateur, gay male and lesbian tales produced predominantly by heterosexual women for heterosexual women, about characters in mainstream television series and feature movies." My research confirmed that slash fiction fans are predominantly female, but I also found that a significant portion identify as part of the LGBTQ/queer community. I look at past research to frame the functions of slash fiction and why media representation is important as it relates to the queer community and female sexuality. My research found that fans believe mainstream media's understanding of slash fiction and fandom culture is poor, but they also believe media representation has a significant influence on public perception and awareness of fandom culture. In examining the level of risk participants associated with slash in Kelly Boyd's 1997 study on slash fiction, feminism, and risk compared to 2015, I found that my participants were more worried about judgement for writing sexually explicit material than about homophobia specifically.
Slash fiction is loosely defined by Kelly Boyd as, "sexually explicit, amateur, gay male and lesb... more Slash fiction is loosely defined by Kelly Boyd as, "sexually explicit, amateur, gay male and lesbian tales produced predominantly by heterosexual women for heterosexual women, about characters in mainstream television series and feature movies." My research confirmed that slash fiction fans are predominantly female, but I also found that a significant portion identify as part of the LGBTQ/queer community. I look at past research to frame the functions of slash fiction and why media representation is important as it relates to the queer community and female sexuality. My research found that fans believe mainstream media's understanding of slash fiction and fandom culture is poor, but they also believe media representation has a significant influence on public perception and awareness of fandom culture. In examining the level of risk participants associated with slash in Kelly Boyd's 1997 study on slash fiction, feminism, and risk compared to 2015, I found that my participants were more worried about judgement for writing sexually explicit material than about homophobia specifically.
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