Fansplaining

In Episode 194, "The Pain Fandom," Flourish and Elizabeth are joined by journalist Maria Temming to discuss her recent article on whump, hurt/comfort, and fandom communities centered around fictional characters in pain. Topics discussed include the history of whump and its place in modern fandom, the overlap (and divergence) between broader fandom interest in h/c and self-declared whumpers, and wh...

In Episode 193, "As Me About My Fanart," Flourish and Elizabeth talk to longtime fanartist Fox Estacado about the business and the pleasure of fanart. Topics discussed include changes she's observed in the practice over time, the way platforms like Etsy handle legal issues, meeting fellow fans in artists' alleys at cons, and her mixed feelings about monetization versus the fandom gift economy.

In Episode 192, "Death, Mourning, and Fandom," Elizabeth and Flourish talk about the complicated dynamics around death within fandom, where our connections to each other can be deep but transient. Jumping off an article Elizabeth recently wrote for WIRED on the AO3's Fannish Next-of-Kin feature—which lets you leave your fanworks to a fellow fan if you die—they talk about the failings of other digi...

In Episode 191, "Femstats February," Flourish and Elizabeth welcome back Destination Toast—the Steve Martin of Fansplaining—to talk through their massive stats analysis comparing the F/F, M/F, and M/M categories on the AO3. Length, rating, frequency of certain tags and warnings: What results matched their expectations, and what results were surprising? And what do the differences between them sugg...

In the latest (fifteenth!) installment of "Ask Fansplaining Anything," Flourish and Elizabeth tackle a new collection of listener letters. Topics discussed include defining "canon" in RPF fandoms, the sad fate of fandoms on Twitter, and what to do about non-fandom friends who judge your fannish activities. Plus: a query about the hypothetical legality of physically printed fanfiction in libraries,...

In Episode 189, "No Cultural Impact," Flourish and Elizabeth look at the entertainment industry's "fan-first" strategy for franchise-building, and the already-massive box-office success of Avatar 2: The Way of Water , part of a property that, as people continue to say on social media, no one remembers or cares about. Are fan activities, memes, or online chatter necessarily good indicators of franc...

Continuing an end-of-year tradition, Flourish and Elizabeth review five big fandom-related trends they followed in 2022. Topics discussed include clashing norms between fans on different platforms, the increasing precariousness of the streaming space, brands doubling down on fandom—and anti-fandom—in high-profile celebrity stories, and yes, of course, the collapse of Twitter. Plus: they read a let...

In Episode 187, "Artificial Fandom Intelligence," Elizabeth and Flourish respond to a listener's letter about AI tools like ChatGPT and Lensa, which are currently sparking anxiety in fandom and across the broader web. What are the realities of this technology, now and in the coming months and years? Are we looking at a future where any fan can plug in a few terms and receive a halfway-decent compu...

In the second and final installment of the "Disability and Fandom" double episode, Flourish and Elizabeth get the perspectives of even more disabled fans. Featuring conversations with Lindsay Mixer and Valerie Gristch, and voicemails/letters from Soph, TallysGreatestFan, Lizard Socks, May Barros, Cora Maria, miscellanium, Bodge, Julia, and Jessica. Topics covered include depictions of disabled cha...

In the first installment of the "Disability and Fandom" double episode, Flourish and Elizabeth get the perspectives of a wide range of disabled fans, including conversations with Rebecca Milton and Joan Miller and voicemails/letters from Dr. Paul D. C. Bones, buffer-overrun, Taylor, Wheelchairidan, Hannah, and Sandy. Topics discussed include Mad studies and depictions of disability in video games...

In Episode 185, "RPF Revisited," Elizabeth and Flourish use a trio of listener letters to return to the perennially thorny topic of real person fiction. How does RPF fit into the broader fandom space in 2022? What does "canon" even mean when it comes to real people? How do fans reconcile with troubling new information about celebrities they've written and read about? And is RPF source material the...

In Episode 184, Flourish and Elizabeth talk to Justin Bolger, who previously ran Star Wars' social media and is currently the senior brand manager for "Star Trek Fleet Command." Topics discussed include using pop culture as social capital while moving around a lot as a child, parlaying fannish interests into a career in the entertainment industry, how the gap between knowledge and wisdom shapes fa...

In Episode 183, "Fandom and Religion," (one year into seminary) Flourish and (goes to church to sing songs) Elizabeth take a look at the way religion and fandom are discussed together: the surfacey comparisons, the more nuanced parallels, and the modes of thinking that shape fandom discourse. Topics discussed include the glut of simplistic articles comparing fannish and religious activities, the J...

In the fourteenth installment of "Ask Fansplaining Anything," Flourish and Elizabeth read and respond to a fresh batch of listener questions. Topics covered include fictional fandom conspiracy theories, the use—or misuse—of the AO3 collections feature, the spaces created within fandom for toxic behavior, and advice for anyone looking to move from lurking to participating.

In Episode 181, "The Illusions of Crowds," Elizabeth and Flourish discuss a listener letter about the ways fans convince each other of interpretations or outcomes—and what happens when creators are on a very different page. Who's responsible for mismatched fan expectations? Should fandom hold some responsibility for wishful but ultimately misleading theories? They also respond to a follow-up lette...

Flourish and Elizabeth mark yet another year of the podcast with their traditional anniversary episode format: inviting the past year's guests to share their thoughts about what's changed in fandom, both broadly and personally. Topics discussed include making your own spaces versus giving up on fandoms entirely, bringing fresh perspectives to older source material, and the continued fracturing of...

In Episode 179, "Fan Labor, Fan Consumption," Flourish and Elizabeth use a listener question to discuss some of the intersections between fans and corporations. Is there an inherent tension when fanfiction communities' "punk gift economies" are centered around properties owned by mega-conglomerates? What happens when fans performing unpaid labor for networks and studios start pushing back? And fre...

In Episode 178, Flourish and Elizabeth sit down with Kaitlyn Tiffany, an internet culture reporter at The Atlantic and the author of the book Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It . They talk about One Direction—the source of the book's title and one of its central subjects—and Kaitlyn's journey from 1D fan to covering fandom in the mainstream press, tou...

In Episode 177, "The Good, the Bad, and the Popular," Flourish and Elizabeth use a trio of listener letters to talk about the various factors that make fandoms spark and grow. Is there actually any relationship between the quality of the source material and the size of a fandom? Are there any reliable reasons why fandoms form in the first place? And does a show/film/book/etc being labeled "good" m...

In Episode 176, Elizabeth and Flourish welcome Liang Ge, a PhD candidate studying Chinese boys' love fiction (aka danmei) and its fans. Topics discussed include a history of danmei, ambivalence around gender and sexuality amongst its readers, and how fan culture has shifted with the huge success of several BL-adapted web series—and the subsequent crackdown from the Chinese government. They also re...

In the latest (13th!) installment of the "Ask Fansplaining Anything" series, Flourish and Elizabeth tackle a fresh batch of letters from listeners. Questions posed include: Are author's notes "unprofessional"? What are the distinctions between fusions and crossovers? Are some fans writing x reader fic to avoid engaging with canonical characters of color? Would it really be so hard to make a new fi...

In Episode 174, "The Classification of Fandom," Flourish and Elizabeth break down some of the broad categories people use to define types of fans, starting with a foundational meta that proposed distinctions between "affirmational" and "transformational" fandom. Why do we create these categories, and are they—or have they ever been—meaningful? They also welcome the first Fansplaining Fellow, Peppe...

"The Meta Episode" isn't an episode about episodes: Flourish and Elizabeth use a listener letter about fan meta—nonfiction writing about an object of fandom or fandom at large—as a springboard to talk about the past, present, and future of the practice. Topics discussed include the shift from mailing lists to LiveJournal to Tumblr, narrow and expansive definitions of meta, and how the lack of shar...

Episode 172, "Safe Spaces," is split into two parts: first, Flourish and Elizabeth read and respond to a series of listener letters about their recent "Fandom-Tinted Glasses" conversation; then, they discuss another listener letter on younger fans' struggles to avoid or escape "anti" or "purity culture" dynamics. In increasingly fractured—and increasingly hostile—digital spaces, is it possible to...

In Episode 170, "OFIC Magazine," Flourish and Elizabeth welcome back fic writer, editor, and writing teacher Betts to talk about her latest project, a literary magazine of original writing by people from fandom. Topics discussed include OFIC 's origin story, Betts's observations from the first round of submissions, whether fic has a unifying genre or aesthetic, and ways readers in and out of fando...