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

holding it at a distance, it’s about being awash in it, being
affected by it, that’s when that classical music consumption
is connected to fandom in a very real way. Fandom is not
about Bourdieu’s notion of holding art at a distance, it’s not
that high art discourse at all; it’s about having control and
mastery over art by pulling it close and integrating it into
your sense of self. (Hills 2001)
Though there are many similar instances that could be cited,
demonstrating fannish notions outside of a fandom context, it is certainly not
the purpose of this thesis to argue for a fan-mode of identity in each
individual. The fact that some individuals identify as fans, and others do not,
is important in and of itself. The risk of forgetting that these selfidentifications
and identifications by defining the “other,” imagined as they
may be, are lived realities is indeed too dangerous. It is often easy to forget
that the texts we have written are but interpretations of fragments of reality,
and that the frameworks we use are simple theoretical boxes, utilized to help
both our audience and us understand that which is “different.”
The purpose of this thesis was multi-leveled; what began as the
translation of a fannish identity unfolded into multiple dimensions of space,
time, individuality and community, as well as online and offline dimensions,
and into the explorations of these dimensions through observing the individual
fan. Striving to achieve a personal goal of complexity, I have attempted to
discuss all of the dimensions involved in a fan-mode of behaviour, as well as
demonstrate my own process of research. In this sense, my hope that this text
could be, in return, equally utilized toward multiple purposes prevails. If it can
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