Fansplaining

In Episode 47, Flourish and Elizabeth interview Zan Romanoff, the author of the forthcoming novel Grace and the Fever, about a boyband fan who winds up in the band's inner circle. Topics covered include vintage Beatles fanfic, the Hanson brothers' tendency to marry fans, fans' search for the truth about celebrities' lives, and of course, a discussion about and critique the book. They also discuss...

In episode 46, "Defining Fanfiction: The Survey," Flourish and Elizabeth discuss Fansplaining's newest survey, which asks respondents to define what fanfiction is—and what it isn't. They discuss the genesis of the survey and the thinking behind its questions before launching into a wide-ranging discussion about intent, authorship, context, and more. They also tackle the survey's specific examples,...

Flourish and Elizabeth interview Teresa Nguyen, who went from novice seamstress to cosplay master in less than four years. Topics covered include screen-accuracy vs. interpretation, "professional cosplayers," and the experience of going to a con in costume. They also discuss the Fansplaining Definitions Survey and play a pair of voicemails from a listener who shares her experiences in North Africa...

In Episode 44, "Mary Sue," Elizabeth and Flourish discuss Elizabeth's new article of the same name, about self-inserts and perspective characters in fanfiction and beyond. Topics covered include the history of the term "Mary Sue," its use in broader popular culture, imagines and second person fic, roleplaying, American Girl Dolls, and more. They also welcome fandom stats wizard DestinationToast ba...

In Episode 43, "A Fangirl Goes to Hollywood," Elizabeth and Flourish talk with Britta Lundin, a longtime fangirl who's now a staff writer on the CW's new Archie Comics adaptation, Riverdale. Topics covered include her journey from fan to pro (including what it's like to be a fan *and* pro), working with your idols, the writer's room process, and fan/creator interaction, with special focus on two p...

In Episode 42, "Fresh Out of Tokens," Elizabeth and Flourish talk to Tanya DePass, host of a podcast of the same name, founder of I Need Diverse Games, and author of a whole lot of Dragon Age fanfiction. They discuss gaming, fan/creator interaction, intersectionality, politics, and more. They also share a listener letter about game fandom and discuss the place of art in times of political crisis.

For their next episode, Flourish and Elizabeth wondered how to record a podcast while the world was on fire. So in episode 41, "Fandom Trumps Hate," they speak to Winter and Porcupine Girl, two of the organizers of the Fandom Trumps Hate fanworks auction, which raised more than $32,000 (!) for charities resisting the Trump agenda. They discuss the origins of the auction, how it worked, how it was...

In Episode 40, "Axanar [Lawsuit Intensifies]," Elizabeth and Flourish discuss Paramount v. Axanar with Rob Burnett, the director of the planned full-length Axanar fan film. The conversation, recorded days before the lawsuit was settled, covers what might happen with the lawsuit, the problems with crowdfunding a project, the pleasures of fan filmmaking, and whether there are or should be divisions...

In Episode 39, "Fansplaining!!! On Ice," Elizabeth and Flourish interview Lauren Orsini, a journalist and anime expert. Topics discussed include different generations of anime fandom in the United States, the way language barriers affect the transcultural conversation, depictions of gay men in anime, and—of course—Yuri!!! On Ice. They also take reader mail and discuss the term "beta reader" and th...

In Episode 38, "The Year in Fandom 2016," Elizabeth and Flourish (unsurprisingly) talk about the year in fandom! They start by recapping their 2015 list and seeing how those trends have played out in the past twelve months before diving into new trends from 2016. Topics covered include the high and low points of fan/creator interaction, potentially incorrect uses of the term "fanfiction," the impa...

In this episode, Flourish calls England to talk to both Elizabeth and Emily Roach, an academic (from fandom!) who specializes in queer literature, particularly queer YA. They talk about queer representation—or the lack thereof—in objects of fandom, especially the gap between YA and other parts of the mainstream media landscape. They also touch on DestinationToast's stats about fanfiction productio...

In Episode 36, "There's No Place Like Home," Elizabeth and Flourish reflect on the ways that reboots and never-ending sequels have changed the experience of being a fan alongside an extended (and hopefully successful!) metaphor about relationships with family over time. Topics covered include reconciling or moving on from problematic texts, the trajectories of some franchises versus others, and an...

In this episode, Elizabeth and Flourish discuss how different people use fandom to deal with trauma, grief and overwhelming feelings. ...Oh, who are we kidding? In this episode, Elizabeth and Flourish talk about the US Presidential election, how mad they are, how sad they are, how much they're not participating in fandom right now, and what they can do to change things. We'll get back to fandom so...

In Episode 34, Flourish and Elizabeth devote most of the hour to further discussion of the Fansplaining Fic Preferences Survey, where more than 7,500 readers weighed on 144 fanfic tropes and themes. They talk about the purpose of the survey, the choices they made while designing it, some conclusions about the results, and incorporate reader feedback, from long-form responses to a list of tropes th...

In Episode 33, Elizabeth and Flourish talk to Bob Proehl, the author of A Hundred Thousand Worlds, a novel about comics and cons that includes characters inspired by Gail Simone and Gillian Anderson. (!!!) They discuss "literary" vs genre fiction, gender dynamics in convention culture, and the fuzzy boundaries of RPF. In the second half, Elizabeth and Flourish discuss some initial results from the...

In Episode 32, "Nerds for Her," Elizabeth and Flourish talk to Paul DeGeorge, half of Harry and the Potters and the creator of the #NerdsForHer, a campaign to get fandom excited about Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election. Topics discussed include the idea of "political fandom," Hillary's bad narrative, John Travolta and Emma Thompson in Primary Colors, and whether fanfiction can he...

In episode 31, "Get Recced," Flourish and Elizabeth are joined by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, a fan culture journalist who co-curates "The Rec Center," a weekly fandom newsletter, with Elizabeth. They discuss recommendation versus criticism, what makes a good fic (to read and to rec), the antipathy to critique in many corners of the fanfic world, and some of their favorite—and least favorite—tropes. The...

In episode 30, "Games and Fandom," Elizabeth and Flourish interview Evan Narcisse, a journalist who covers both comics and video games. They compare gamers and media fans, think about the way that gatekeeping functions in different nerdy subcultures, and consider strategies for critiquing media texts. They also read more listener mail about fanart, and go deep on the Sims. Elizabeth does not promi...

In episode 29, "Shipping and Activism," Flourish and Elizabeth talk to fan studies scholars Rukmini Pande and Dr. Lori Morimoto about what happens when peoples' ships become emblems of political positions. The conversation covers the history of shipping-as-politics, the changing nature of the fan/creator divide, and the intersections of race and queerness. They also discuss a listener's response t...

In Episode 28, "Happy Anniversary #1," we welcome the past year's guests back on the podcast to talk about what's changed in fandom since Fansplaining began. Answers cover news items like what fandoms have emerged, which have cratered, and what's been going on in the law, but they also touch on the ways that fandom is increasingly breaking the fourth wall, the concept of "fan entitlement," and the...

In Episode 27, Flourish and Elizabeth talk to Leslie Combemale, proprietor of the Art Insights Film Art Gallery, about the role of artists in the entertainment industry (animation cels, movie posters, concept art...) and how fanart intersects with it. They discuss licensing, fanart contests, and limited-print runs, and they try and put their finger on what, exactly, makes fanart transformative.

In Episode 26, "Consplaining," Flourish and Elizabeth break down fan conventions. Elizabeth, who has only recently (grudgingly) started going to cons, is fresh out of Leviosa, a small, fan-run Harry Potter con, and both she and Flourish are getting ready to attend the big mama, San Diego Comic-Con. They discuss the differences between cons large and small, how things change when you physically mee...

In this episode, Elizabeth and Flourish talk to Sarah Jeong, a lawyer and journalist who is currently a contributing editor at VICE Motherboard, about Paramount and CBS's lawsuit against the Star Trek fan film "Axanar." They also cover the new fan film guidelines have been issued in the wake of the lawsuit, and return to the question of whether "affirmative," "curatorial," and "transformative" are...

In this episode, Elizabeth and Flourish talk to Kevin Fanning, author of "Kim Kardashian: Trapped In Her Own Game," about RPF, the fourth wall, Wattpad, and branded content. Then they answer reader mail with more discussion about RPF and the fourth wall—and try to figure out whether fandom really is "broken." Interstitial music from Nicolai Heidlas Music on Soundcloud!

In episode 23, Flourish and Elizabeth take on the fourth wall—not the metaphorical wall between the audience and the actors on a stage, but the one erected BY fans to separate them (and their fanworks) from creators. After a crash course on the history of the fannish fourth wall, they discuss famous fan/creator clashes, from the Phelps twins confronted with Weasleycest to Benedict Cumberbatch writ...