dreamer_easy | (no subject)

Browsing through Enterprising Women over on Google Books, I found some evidence to back up one of my hunches: that a lot of fangirls are mutants like me. The author, Camille Bacon-Smith, recounts how many female fans have experienced "scorn" for their "masculine" interests. She describes Star Trek fangirls growing up during a time when, as teenagers, they were expected to give up any tomboy inclinations, and defer to and flatter boys. "Many women in fandom, however, did not make this transition". Some were outcasts because of their physical appearance; some refused to mask their intelligence. Even in fandom, some suffered ostracisation or harassment from male fans. (That said, as a teenager, I was far more bullied by girls than by boys.) It's possible this explains some of the sensitivity around issues of gender and inclusion into which I have poked my thumb.

Some data points on the gender makeup of fandom. Firstly, from Enterprising Women: in 1988, an index of 34,000 Star Trek fanzines included only 4 edited by men, and only 10% of contributors were male. Polls of readers of sexually explicit Trek zines found they were mostly women. Secondly, this list of 80s/90s fanzines gives a snapshot of offline Doctor Who fandom in the UK: there are women editing and writing, but they're a tiny minority.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The difference between 1988 and today is the internet. Outcast fans no longer need to publish a zine in order to keep in touch with like-minded people -- they just make an LJ community.

That's a very true observation. If the internet was available at around that time I might have joined a LJ comm and written fic instead of staying in my room and reading books, day dreaming and building/customising merchandise that wasn't available for me. Pah, wrong country, too small village too far away from any fan groups.