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

found friends through her activities as an author at an archive, which
organizes chats.
On the other hand, being a lurker does not equal a sense of oneself as
outsider. Though Eiko lurks in the HP fandom, because she feels that there is
not much she can contribute that would be original or worthwhile other fans’
time, she feels no less a HP fan for that. By contrast, in popslash, she was not
a fan of the source medium or the music groups in question, but rather became
interested in the music after she read fanfiction that she liked. In that sense,
she was part of the popslash online fandom, before she ever became part of
the actual pop music fandom.
Keeping both of these views in mind, I asked Barb in an interview on
her personal position:
SY: So what do you think about this “being a personal
slash-fan” versus the community?
Barb: […]You’ve got people who take the text, and read
the text and read what Rowling says, and who don’t read
the fic, who don’t read the meta [meta-text analysis &
discussions in fandom] ….but they’re still fans. And I think
they’re a different kind of fan: Unless they’re talking about
the meta on their own with other people in real life, it ends
up being a shallower interpretation.
SY: So about Dinah and Eiko’s views on this?
Barb: Their views make sense…I’m a very dedicated
lurker. I’ll occasionally delurk if someone asks a question
no one has answered yet. […] I don’t participate in Harry
Potter: I’ll watch it, I observe it, but I won’t post, I won’t
crit [critique]; I’ll read what other people write and every
once in a while I might give some feedback.
SY: Do you feel as part of it? As part of the community?
Barb: I don’t think I’m part of the Harry Potter fandom
community, and I’m comfortable with that.
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