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

“Internet fandom” is what essentially makes up fandom for Barb, allowing her
to participate, albeit passively, in a larger context of fandom, which produces
an abundance of material more communal than its offline tenets ever could
have. As a filter, the requirement to know of fandom serves to allow a better
connection and understanding both ways; the point is that, even if these
friends do not really understand what it means to be a fan, the fact that they
know of fandom provides Barb with some measure of security, while her
friends, knowing about fandom may understand Barb’s shyness and character
traits better.
Fandom is by no means the sole connector fans rely on, in order to
build long-term social relations. A fan may very well be “possessive” of their
own fandom, unwilling to share it with others. As I recently talked with Red
about this topic, she mentioned that she didn’t want to share this world, and in
fact had found herself unable to do so to a large degree (though the writing of
this project has prompted her to discuss some keynotes and fandom topics
with me). I believe that she intended to discuss this issue of connection in her
interactive section. I have sometimes steadfastly refused to share one of my
fandoms with others, the Weiss Kreuz fandom was one such case; resisting
friends’ attempts to talk about fanfics, I claimed possession of it as “mine,”
not simply because it was my first online fandom, but more so because I still
enjoyed the feeling of “aloneness” that reading fanfics conveyed to me, and
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