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

mother, who was very concerned about her sitting in front of the computer and
acting like a “stereotypical geek,” as well as not interacting with others. This
wasn’t very much possible, Barb maintained, as with the disease it was very
difficult to say anything beyond “I like this.”
In a way I could also discern some effects this period had on Barb’s
own brand of fandom, or the way she defines fandom which causes her to call
herself a “fandom snob.”
The problem is that when I tend to talk about fandom, I
tend to talk about people who read and write fanfics, so I
don’t tend to think about cons so much, even though I
know they’re a fairly large part of fandom. So the mindset
is sort of appropriation of the text…and this goes back to
Henry Jenkins […]
Barb’s fandom is very fic-centered, and in a very specific way based online, in
a medium that she grew up with and could find entertainment in. Fanfiction is
also published in hardcopy fanzines, but Barb sees these, along with cons (or
conventions) as part of a more traditional fandom.
The third reason she brought up for being a lurker was that when she
first started out in general online fandoms she was fifteen, at a period in time
when the Internet decency act was passed; mailing lists started being a lot
more careful about the ages of their members, and they were very strict about
all members being 18 years or older. 13
In a way it was very interesting that Barb painted such a dichotomy
between online lurking versus offline friendships; while I am a lurker myself,
13 The Communications Decency Act was passed in 1996, but was revoked by the Supreme
Court a year later, in 1997, on the grounds of being unconstitutional.
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