Fansplaining

In Episode 145, "The Fic and the Source Material," Flourish and Elizabeth review the results of the "Fanfiction & Source Material Mini-Survey," in which 6,744 respondents shared their preferences on whether they need to know the canon to read the fic. They discuss each of the dozen questions and give their own answers along the way, from Elizabeth's serial fandom monogamy to that time Flourish rea...

In Episode 144, "Writing Women," Elizabeth and Flourish celebrate Femslash February by talking to breathedout, a longtime f/f fic and meta writer. They discuss her route into fandom through queer female erotica, fandom's longstanding biases towards male bodies, what types of characters get to be "default" vs "political," and the role desire can play in reading and writing.

In Episode 143, "Ask Fansplaining Anything: Part 9," Elizabeth and Flourish read a fresh batch of listener letters. Topics covered include age and fandom, fanfics of fanfics, pop culture's role in protest movements, and a trio of letters about trans, nonbinary, and asexual exclusion in fan spaces.

In Episode 142, "Copyright Brainworms," Elizabeth and Flourish try to get at the diseased intersection of creativity and the law in the U.S.: our broken copyright system. Spurred by conversation around The Great Gatsby coming out of copyright, topics covered include transformative collaboration on TikTok, the Ratatouille musical, fannish feelings amongst pro creators, and what strange impulse lead...

In Episode 141, Elizabeth and Flourish end a very unusual year in a very ordinary way: revisiting big fandom trends from the past 12 months. What happened in 2020? (What didn't happen in 2020?) Topics covered include J. K. Rowling's continued radicalization, the explosion of Anglophone interest in both K-pop and Chinese dramas, and the moments when the waves of fan expectation crashed against the...

In Episode 140, Flourish and Elizabeth interview Miranda Ruth Larsen, a media studies scholar who focuses on K-pop, anime, and horror. They dig into the 2020 spotlight on K-pop in Anglophone spaces, the concept of "affective hoarding," and her essay in the anthology Fandom, Now in Color , on her experiences as a multiracial American researcher in Japan. They also revisit the last episode's convers...

In Episode 139, "The 'Q' is for 'Queerbaiting,'" Elizabeth and Flourish dig into the thorny concept of "queerbaiting"—when creators tease at queer relationships in their shows and films but fail to follow through. Topics covered include disconnects between creator and audience expectations, fans' conflation of shipping and representation, and shifting attitudes and norms in television writing and...

Nearing the end of a very strange year, Flourish and Elizabeth sit down with fandom stats whiz Destination Toast to dig into recent fanfiction trends on the Archive of Our Own. Topics covered include the massive uptick in fic production (that predated the pandemic!), the impact of China's AO3 ban and the rise of Chinese media in English-language fandom, which fandoms and tags are growing in popula...

In Episode 137, Flourish and Elizabeth talk tropes: in fanfiction, outside of fanfiction, the places those ideas intersect—and where they don't. Topics covered include untangling tropes from themes, formats, and set-ups in fic, how romance and YA authors have adopted the language of fic tropes and fic tags, and how tropes alter the way we search for new reading material.

In Episode 136, Flourish and Elizabeth talk about the messy intersections of politics and fandom, and the narratives we create around political figures and actions. Topics discussed include why journalists keep using fandom terms they don't understand, political RPF vs. fantasy ideas about candidates, and invoking pop culture during political protest. They also, as a podcast, unequivocally endorse...

In the second half of "Race and Fandom Revisited," fans of color continue to speak about their experiences—and Elizabeth and Flourish talk with another white fan (and fan scholar) about how whiteness operates in fandom spaces. Featuring interviews with Amanda-Rae Prescott and Dr. JSA Lowe, and clips from Stitch, Anisa Khalifa, Effy, Sam, and Phoebe Sinclair. Topics covered include deprogramming in...

Four years after the original "Race and Fandom" double episode, Flourish and Elizabeth return to the topic with a mix of old contributors and new voices. In the first installment, they interview Sunny Liu and Paracelsus Caspari, and they hear clips from Dr. Rukmini Pande, The Navy Language, Holly Quinn, PJ Punla, Roz, and Clio. Topics covered include the way Western fans engage with Asian media, f...

In Episode 134, "Ask Fansplaining Anything: Part 8," Elizabeth and Flourish once again open up the mailbag and answer listener questions. Topics covered include sports RPF, the ethics of sporking, adaptations of fan-favorite properties, how to make new friends in fandom, and even more of everyone's favorite topic: slash discourse.

In Episode 133, Elizabeth and Flourish talk directly about a topic that creeps into a lot of Fansplaining discussions: slash fic and the people who write it. They walk through the history of "slash fandom" and the ways that early narratives about it endure to this day, and they dig into the fraught gender politics around slash, wrapping up with a discussion of whether the term means anything at al...

In Episode 132, Elizabeth and Flourish receive a letter asking them to revisit the topic of purity culture, which they last discussed in 2018. They talk about the way the term "anti" has changed in the past 15 years, connections between fiction and real life, and the specific way the fannish migration to Twitter has amplified these dynamics. They also hear from EarlGreyTea68 in a belated anniversa...

Flourish and Elizabeth celebrate their fifth anniversary with an annual tradition: inviting back guests from the past year to talk about changes in fandom, from the global to the personal. Topics discussed include race and racism in fandom, harassment and accountability, increases in "migratory fandom" behavior, and the act of rereading providing comfort over the past few months.

In Episode 130, Elizabeth and Flourish interview Pam Noles, the self-described "executive geek" in charge of one of the restricted entrances to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. They discuss Pam's history with cons, how being on-staff changes the con-going experience, and the past, present, and future of SDCC. Plus: Pam tells some behind-the-scenes stories about saying "no" to A-listers, studio execu...

In episode 129, Elizabeth and Flourish talk about J. K. Rowling's unremitting transphobia—and how beyond no longer engaging with her work, they don't want to have anything to do with the Harry Potter fandom anymore, either. Topics covered include the rise of TERFism in British feminist media, Tonks's beloved status amongst trans and nonbinary folks, and viewing the books' regressive gender politic...

In Episode 128, "The K-pop Narratives," Keidra Chaney returns to the podcast to discuss mainstream framings of K-pop fans and their online actions in support of Black Lives Matter. Topics covered include the flawed foundations of these narratives, the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of boosting hateful hashtags, and the continued anti-Blackness within K-pop fan spaces—and its connections to anti-B...

A short statement about why there's no new episode today.

In Episode 127, "A Fan of Fandom," Elizabeth and Flourish get (too?) meta answering a listener letter about the term "fan of fandom," which Flourish had previously dismissed as "cute." They discuss the ways different communities use the terms "fan" and "fandom," the role of affect in their fannish lives, and whether approaching all media with a fannish lens might lead to more inclusive fan spaces—...

In Episode 126, "Social Media Fic," Elizabeth and Flourish welcome Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, culture journalist and Elizabeth's collaborator on "The Rec Center," back to the podcast to talk about how fanfic has expanded across Twitter. Topics covered include the fuzzy lines between fiction and roleplay, changing norms around pseudonymity, and generational shifts around fanworks and ephemerality.

In Episode 125, Flourish and Elizabeth discuss the state of fan conventions in 2020, whether they've been canceled, moved online, or, in a few cases, are supposedly going forward (DragonCon, what are you doing???). What's lost in the transition from IRL to remote—and what can fans potentially gain? They also answer a listener question about, uh, other listeners' questions!

In Episode 124, "Ask Fansplaining Anything: Part 7," Elizabeth and Flourish dig into a new pile of listener questions and comments. Topics covered include fan reactions when male versus female actors talk about shipping, whether spec scripts count as fanfiction, what to say to friends who disrespect fic, and how the podcast gets made.

In Episode 123, "Reread, Rewatch, Replay," Elizabeth and Flourish think about that most ubiquitous of comfort activities—returning to old favorite books, shows, films, games, and fics. Topics covered include the specific pleasures of re-experiencing narratives, how repeat consumption is an inherent part of fan culture, the different things people seek out when rereading fic, and how moments of col...