Fansplaining

Huge news!! Fansplaining is becoming a full-on weekly publication, with a wide range of writing (and audio! and art!) by, for, and about fandom. Head over to the site to sign up for updates about Fansplaining 2.0. "Fansplaining's Next Chapter": We're relaunching as a weekly publication featuring reporting, analysis, criticism, personal essays, and more—all by, for, and about fandom. Read the whole...

Our final article of 2025 is here! Kayti Burt—who first wrote for us last spring, in a fantastic piece on the precarity of being a fandom journalist ( https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-fan-journalist-tightrope )—returns to Fansplaining to tackle the subject of fandom tourism, and how fans can approach journeys with respect rather than entitlement.  "Can Fandom Make Us Better Tourists?" In...

Our November piece is here! Newt Albiston's essay is one part guide to fandom text-based roleplaying, one part meditation on working through gender exploration via roleplay. Plus: be sure to click through and see the gorgeous art we commissioned from illustrator Anna Lark. "Alternate Universes" Through text-based roleplaying, I've lived so many other lives—and experienced so many other bodies.  Re...

Our October piece is part essay/part excerpt: Meghan Fitzmartin, who's written for DC Comics, Supernatural, and many other fan-favorite properties, has published an indie comic, Mary Sue , about—you guessed it!—a fanfiction writer. While the essay is a standalone text you should be able to listen to just fine here, we highly recommend heading over to the piece itself to see excerpts from Mary Sue...

September's piece is by longtime fandom journalist Aja Romano, on the explosion of Kpop Demon Hunters , and its intersections—or lackthereof—with real K-pop artists and fans. "K-Pop's Demons, Real and Fictional" by Aja Romano. KPop Demon Hunters has seen massive mainstream success in the U.S. What does that mean for real K-pop artists and their fans? Read the whole piece: https://www.fansplaining....

Our August piece is by novelist (and Fansplaining SDCC 2025 panelist!) Tessa Gratton, about navigating the intersections of the fan and pro writing worlds, and how their queerness shapes their framings of these worlds. "The Fan, the Pro, and the Spaces In Between" by Tessa Gratton. Writing for Star Wars challenges me to interrogate fandom power dynamics—and figure out where I fall in a rapidly shi...

Fansplaining returned to San Diego Comic-Con this year (our tenth anniversary!) with a fantastic panel of fandom folks who work in pro entertainment careers. There's an audio recording here on our feed, and over at the website:   https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/sdcc-2025-the-fandom-advantage   You can watch video version as well as read a full transcript. Because the intro to the audio is on...

Our latest piece is about making fanworks—and fandom friendships—last through the decades!  "How Friendships Onscreen and Off Fueled Half a Century of Fandom" by Jay Castello. For the admins of the Starsky & Hutch Fiction Archive, preserving fanworks and fannish community go hand in hand.   Read the full piece: https://fansplaining.com/articles/how-friendships-fueled-half-century-fandom  

This month's Fansplaining piece is a bit of a departure from our usual fandom reporting and critical analysis: for the first time, we're very excited to share a virtual art exhibit of sorts, from Toronto-based curators and BTS fans Rea McNamara and Bo Shin.  I came to ruin you: The Collecting Practices of K-pop Fandoms was on display at York University this past spring, and what follows is an expa...

In our newest piece, Sacha Judd goes deep on RPF, tracing it back decades and tackling its thorny intersections with other kinds of fan practices.  "The RPF Question" by Sacha Judd. Amid blurry boundaries between fic, celebrity fandom, and conspiracy theories, how real person fiction evolved from forbidden to mainstream and back again. Read the full piece:  https://fansplaining.com/articles/the-rp...

Our latest piece is by Amanda-Rae Prescott, who was one of the expert guests in our "Race and Fandom" series back in 2020! ( https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/135b-race-and-fandom-revisited-part-2) "Bridgerton and Period Drama Fandom's Enduring Racism Problem" by Amanda-Rae Prescott. Complaints about historical accuracy and acting quality are often dog-whistles: some fans only want to see whit...

Gav is back in Fansplaining in 2025! This time, she writes about Sam Wilson's recent Captain America debut—and how the MCU failed both the character and the fandom. "Sam Wilson Deserved Better Than Brave New World" by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw: Marvel wants fans to care about lore without thinking too deeply about themes and emotions—the things that brought them to this fandom in the first place. Read...

Our first article of 2025 is here—and it's a big one!   "The War That Almost Broke a Classic Fandom" by Lena Barkin: Blake's 7 fans and actors mixed regularly at cons and on the pages of zines—until an anonymous letter changed everything. Read the full piece here: fansplaining.com/articles/the-war-that-almost-broke-a-classic-fandom

Around this time in December, we usually wrap up Fansplaining with " The Year in Fandom ": a look back at five trends from the prior year followed by five trends from the year coming to a close. With Flourish's departure this summer, the podcast is now on hiatus—but I had a lot of thoughts about 2024, particularly when it came to fanfiction. Many thanks to Flourish for looking this over; in a way,...

Our latest article is by Abby Kirby, who writes about her experiences teaching fanfiction to middle schoolers: " Fic does something that my traditional English classes cannot: it places the power in the hands of the student." Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/bringing-fanfiction-into-the-classroom

We're excited to welcome back Allegra Rosenberg, who's written a new article for us on contemporary Beatles fandom: "The Beatles Live! New generations of fans are cultural archaeologists, working with the materials of the past to create the passion of the present." Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-beatles-live

Our newest article is "The Scream Fandom's Enduring Divide" by Michael Boyle: Nearly a year after star Melissa Barrera was fired for pro-Palestinian social media posts, fans remain torn over the future of the franchise. Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-scream-fandoms-enduring-divide

Our newest article is "The Acolyte's Squandered Potential" by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw: The show brought a whole new set of fans to a stagnating franchise. Its cancellation suggests Star Wars is only interested in looking backwards. Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-acolytes-squandered-potential    

Our newest article is "The Traumatized Gatekeepers of Broadway" by Laura Wheatman Hill: Theatre fans measure their passion by nitpicking. Does it do the industry more harm than good?  You can read the full article here:  https://www.fansplaining.com/articles//the-traumatized-gatekeepers-of-broadway

Our first piece in this new era of Fansplaining is "The Yellow Balloon Movement" by Maria Temming: Within jam band fandoms often dominated by substance use, clean and sober fans are building their own communities. You can read the full article here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-yellow-balloon-movement   Hi, Fansplaning listeners, Elizabeth here. So everyone probably knows by now that...

After nine years of collaborating on Fansplaining, Flourish and Elizabeth mark Flourish's final regular episode by casting back to the state of fandom when they first met on a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July of 2015. A decade ago, we were at the height of Hollywood's "Geek is Chic" arc, facing the rapid mainstreaming of fandom and the beginnings of the "creator-ification" of fanworks. What's...

Flourish's final "Ask Fansplaining Anything" episode follows the format of the previous 18 (!!), with a new batch of (thoughtful as ever!) listener letters and voicemails. Topics discussed include people bringing a prior adaptation's fandom baggage to a new version, writing RPF about people who aren't actually famous at all, the tropification of fanfiction, and whether multiple versions of a chara...

On Episode 221, "Self-Inserts," Elizabeth and Flourish welcome fan studies scholar Effie Sapuridis to talk about the wide world of self-inserts, including Y/N and x reader fic, imagines, shifting, and classic Mary Sues. Topics discussed include differences between platforms, including AO3, Wattpad, Tumblr, and especially TikTok; ties to things like roleplaying, LARPing, and theme parks; and whethe...

On Episode 220, "The Fan-Journalist," Flourish and Elizabeth welcome one particular fan-journalist—Kayti Burt—to discuss her recent article for us on the specific challenges of covering things you love in a very precarious industry. Topics discussed include Kayti's journey from youthful fandom to pop culture reporting, a step-by-step rundown of how an article goes from idea to finished product, an...