Girls who like Boys who like Boys – Ethnography of ... - Yuuyami.com

egarding this topic) friends. However the italicized “different” above is a
warning to not draw hasty conclusions. Real life and online fandom both
provide equal opportunities to express oneself, yet both spaces are different.
Social and cultural conventions still exist in fandom, but they are different
(and online conventions are informed by offline regulations).
One example of a very personal connection online that baffled me the
most but also incited me to ask a few crucial questions is Eiko’s relationship
to an older male fan. Having met him through MAX fandom, Eiko developed a
deep closeness to Russell. She refers to him as oniichan, Japanese for “big
brother,” not only in Instant Messenger conversations with him, but also when
talking about him. Russell, a young computer programmer with a nice income,
sees Eiko as his younger sister, and bestows gifts on her, for example buying
fan merchandise she wants at online auctions. I had learned about Russell as
my computer crashed one day, and I had a couple of problems with the reinstallation.
Eiko offered to send her “oniichan” an Instant Message and ask
him for help. Not only did this incident re-affirm a notion of meaningful
online connections, but it also posed a few questions: Is it possible to not form
connections eventually? More importantly, is it possible to be a fan and not
form connections, to, essentially, be an online fan in a vacuum? These
questions took on even more urgency, as I had had a conversation with Kira
on her definition of fandom. Though she had initially defined “fan” in terms
of the fandom or community, she sent me an email later, revising her opinion:
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