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

a girl asked her what she was writing. Barb attempted to deflect by saying it
was fanfiction, but the girl (and fellow-fan) simply asked what fandom she
wrote in. As Barb had to take leave for two years, most of the friends she had
found at that time were on the verge of graduating, or had already done so.
She has, however, found a new circle of friends, and lurks online, as well as
has interpersonal interactions offline. She explained that these interactions
were part of instances of fandom, and cited her own life as an example:
[…] like what we do at the dinner table, and we discuss
whatever. It’s not always at the dinner table, but that’s
where it tends to start, because dinner is where we all find
each other.
Because she kept emphasizing her fan-friends, and talking about fannish
topics, I asked Barb why she only talked about fannish interaction. Quite
spontaneously she answered:
I actually have more acquaintances that aren’t fans. There’s
very little to talk about with them when they aren’t fans, I
could talk about classes, or living conditions. A lot of my
conversation grows out of fandom.
I was baffled, as I knew there was much more to Barb than only her fan-mode.
The first time I had ever met her, well before I knew that she was a fan, was at
a mutual friend’s birthday party. Conscientiously, she prepared the birthday
dinner, and we talked about various topics, none of them fan-related. Some
time later, this mutual friend advised me to talk to Barb about my project. The
first time we met in that capacity, I had intended to only outline my objectives
to her, but we ended up talking about fandom and discussing various topics
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