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

uses his authorial position to loosely connect these statements together.
Through the fans’ words the authors examine the role TV plays in the creation
of slash, the re-creation of gender, the role of misogyny, the issue of
homosexuality, sex/fantasies, and the freedom of slash as a platform for the
expressions of individuality. The conclusion, two excerpts from fans Morgan
and Barbara, brings the diverse topics together, as much as they can be
brought together, but leaves the reader floundering without a common
denominator (Green, Jenkins & Jenkins 1998).
As a fan-scholar, Jenkins finds himself in a precarious position in the
middle of a very active power structure; torn between both academia and
fandom, and ultimately between the dichotomous “good” and “bad,” Jenkins’
as well as Bacon-Smith’s agendas narrowed the effectiveness of their
respective texts. As I am aware of my position as both fan and academic, I
would suggest, with Matt Hills, that a scholar-fan/fan-scholar’s duty lies in
giving neither fields or “modes” priority over the other; 6 in other words,
neither should theoretical frameworks distort the reality of fandom, nor should
fan agendas distort theoretical frameworks. By focusing on the particular and
always returning to it, or by focusing on the persons, and not extrapolating ad
absurdum, Anthropology’s theoretical framework is centered around, and
originates from, the particulars and details of life.
6 I use both terms, because I see both terms as applying to myself. Though Hills did not go
into this detail, fan-scholar versus scholar-fan are not simple one-dimensional roles, but come
as a spectrum. In my own case, both modes of identity of academic and fan were distinctly
separate up to the beginning of this project. Consequently, it does not matter which label is
used to identify my person, as the difference between both is but a slight shift in perspective.
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