[ecrea] Last call for abstracts: Toxic Fan Practices

Call for Papers, Themed section of Participations: International Journal 
of Audience and Reception Studies

TOXIC FAN PRACTICES

Editors: Bridget Kies (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA) and 
William Proctor (Bournemouth University, UK).

Since its inception, the discipline we now know as Fan Studies 
necessarily set out to challenge stereotypical perspectives on the 
behaviour and practices of fan cultures, many of which constructed the 
figure of the fan as a figure of fun; of pathological disorder, 
instability and ‘enfreakment’ (Proctor, 2016; Richardson, 2010). In so 
doing, and in many ways, Fan Studies followed the trajectory established 
by Media and Cultural Studies beginning with the Birmingham School in 
the 1970s. In particular, the ‘first wave’ of Fan Studies was invested 
in demonstrating that audiences are not solely passive recipients of 
so-called media messages, or ‘dominant ideologies,’ but active 
participants in the production of transgressive and transformative 
practices – fan fiction, fan ‘vidding’ and the like – and involved in 
the negotiation of making meaning. The advent and proliferation of new 
media technologies, especially the Internet, has forced previously 
marginal fan cultures into the mainstream (Bennett and Booth, 2014; Gray 
et al, 2007; Scott 2013). As a result, the heightened visibility of fans 
and their ability to comment, celebrate and criticise produces readily 
accessible discourses for public consumption. While such a shift in 
visibility has had a clear impact on “monolithic conglomerates” 
(Johnson, 2013: 43) in that “fan audiences are now woo’d and championed 
by media industries” (Gray et al: 2007: 2), we believe that this 
represents only a fraction of the story, and one that requires 
significant redress. The visibility of fan cultures may very well shine 
a light on creative and participatory practices, but mainstream, public 
exposure also demonstrates the heterogeneity of fan communities, warts 
and all.

Of course, Fan Studies has since moved through several phases and, in 
recent years, fans themselves have become the subject of mainstream news 
media, but often in highly negative ways. Such discourses circulate 
around the figure of the fan, not as a figure of fun necessarily, but as 
a figure of racist, homophobic, sexist and reactionary politics. 
Moreover, news reports are beginning to stereotype fans in ‘new’ ways, 
such as the belief that the affordances of new media have led to an era 
of “fan entitlement syndrome” (Mendelsohn, 2014), of “nerd rage” and 
antisocial, toxic behaviours. Stereotypes of fan entitlement circulated 
in online news media (professional, amateur, pro-am) seems to be an 
“updated and retooled” version of William Shatner’s oft-cited ‘get a 
life’ stereotyping (Hills, 2016: 271; see also Jenkins, 1992).
The anonymity provided by social media platforms, with their (cyber) 
pseudonymous (and obfuscated) identities, has provided a figurative wall 
behind which participants may hide. As Claire Hardaker (2015) 
emphasizes, ‘this anonymity can also foster a sense of impunity, loss of 
self-awareness, and a likelihood of acting upon normally inhibited 
impulses’ (224). By the same token, Michael Suler explains that ‘people 
say and do things in cyberspace that they wouldn’t ordinarily say and do 
in the face-to-face world’ (2004: 321). This disinhibition can be 
salutary (supportive, cathartic) but these fan discourses in particular 
exemplify toxic disinhibition signified by ‘rude language, harsh 
criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats’ (ibid).

The fan studies discipline has already started grappling with these 
issues. Analyses of inter- and intrafandom Othering, ‘of fans, by fans’ 
(Hills, 2012), have been conducted on such quarrels and conflicts, 
including fan-objects such as Twilight (Hills, 2012; Williams, 2014), 
One Direction (Jones, 2016; Proctor, 2016), R.E.M (Bennett, 2011), and 
the female-led Ghostbusters remake/ reboot (Proctor., 2017). Moreover, 
online conflict and “toxic technocultures” (Massanari, 2015) has been 
analysed in other disciplines, including the #GamerGate controversy and 
hashtag activism such as #RaceFail, #Ferguson, #BlackLivesMatter 
(Rambukkana, 2015) and #BlackStormtrooper (Proctor, forthcoming), to 
select a few examples (see also, Burgess and Matamoros-Fernandez, 2016; 
Chess and Shaw, 2015; Hardaker, 2010; Hardaker, 2013; Hardaker and 
McGlashan, 2015; Luce, 2016; Massanari, 2015; Poland, 2016).

How can researchers examine toxic fan practices beyond those offered by 
mainstream news artefacts, many of which cherry-pick examples from 
social media without adequate theorisation or methodology? That some 
fans are racist, homophobic, sexist or otherwise exclusionary is one 
thing; but how can researchers develop tests to measure this extant 
discourse? How do we know who is speaking? How do we know that these are 
fans at all, as opposed to ‘trolls’ or ‘flamers,’ that is, those online 
individuals who find delight and entertainment in conflicts of this kind 
(Hardaker, 2015)? This special section does not seek to deny that toxic 
fans and audiences exist.  We do, however, seek to provide an academic 
space whereby these issues are placed centre-stage via methodology that 
moves beyond reductive, handpicked selections.  We are also interested 
in theorisations of the place of toxic fan practices within larger fan 
communities and as objects of study for the maturing fields of 
Fan/Audience Studies, including research across disciplines.

Contributions are welcome on a variety of topics that investigate the 
concept of toxic fan practices and methodological issues arising such as:

*   Online methodologies/ netnographies of particular fan communities 
and social media platforms
*   Specific case studies of toxic fan cultures (e.g. Star Trek fans’ 
responses to gay Sulu or Marvel fans’ reactions to female Thor)
*   Criticism of toxic fans from within fandoms, intra-fandom conflicts 
(e.g. Game of Thrones fans condemning and celebrating scenes of rape)
*   Widescale protests and boycotts on social media (such as 
#boycottstarwars or #buryyourgays)
*   Criticisms of representations of race, gender, sexuality, etc., in 
fan cultures

Proposals are also welcome on other topics as long as they meet the aims 
of the special section.

Please send 300 word abstracts to the following email addresses by March 
1st 2017.
(bproctor /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(bproctor /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk)><mailto:(bproctor /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(bproctor /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk)>>
(bkies /at/ uwm.edu) <mailto:(bkies /at/ uwm.edu)><mailto:(bkies /at/ uwm.edu) 
<mailto:(bkies /at/ uwm.edu)>>

Bridget Kies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies
LGBT+ Studies
(bkies /at/ uwm.edu) <mailto:(bkies /at/ uwm.edu)>

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