In fanfiction a move for change

Fanfiction, a genre that allows writers to reconstruct gender roles and sexual behavior in fictional worlds, offers ample freedom for safe exploration. It is especially appreciated by people who enjoy altering comics and film with a narrative that reinvents relationships in an unconstrained environment.

Since at least the 1960s, following the popularity of Star Trek, most creators of fanfiction have been female. In the Japanese doujinshi market, for example, women contribute most fanfiction; and in fanfiction websites the writers showcased are usually female. Women also dominate fanfiction panels and events at anime and comics conventions. So why do women gravitate toward fanfiction?

In the past female writers often used male bylines in their work. Today this is no longer the case as much, but contemporary female writers still encounter difficulty entering various markets. Fiction and film—which are so often intertwined—remain a particularly challenging industry for women, as evidenced by the fact that AMPAS first selected a woman as best director in 2010. Kathryn Bigelow won for directing a man's story.

Most celebrated and popular films of the 21st century do not pass the Bechdel test, a sore fact that demonstrates the lack of women's presence in fiction. Sure women write many great stories, but oddly these narratives rarely depict the tribulations of female characters. Note that my intention here is not to devalue or criticize the importance of men's stories, but to understand how the absence of women's stories from mainstream fiction may have created the market for fanfiction.

Many people now believe that women's participation in fanfiction is a consequence of their exclusion from the thriving fiction markets dominated by men. Writer Camille Bacon-Smith explains that fanfiction satisfies female audiences seeking "fictional narratives that expand the boundaries of the official source products offered on the television and movie screen”. In other words women want stories that go beyond the male centered view of the world so prevalent in fiction markets.

Gender and sexuality in fanfiction illustrate the cascading problem of mainstream fiction: If popular fiction lacks women's stories, by default it does not present the female experience of gender identity and sexuality. Moreover, since mainstream fiction and media suggest heterosexuality as normative, in confluence they feed the public a double dose of commercial heteronormativity. These stereotypes of sexuality are male derivatives, which become embedded in media and culture, and are then promoted as the global norm.

Women, gay, bisexual and transgender people fall bluntly outside mainstream fiction. Whence comes fanfiction. The outsiders of literary spaces create and sustain fanfiction, much of which contains erotic material free from the conventions of heterosexuality. Yes, its authors are usually women and people whose sexual or gender identity offends the stereotypical male construct of gender and sexuality.

Fundamentally we are discussing how patriarchy affects art and culture. The idea that men govern and control society is ancient and genderless. Fanfiction does not escape this framework just because it exists to satisfy unconventional reality or imagination. Fanfiction is not a paradise just because it provides a safe space and multifaceted stories for people who are not male heterosexuals. Like mainstream fiction, fanfiction incorporates many oppressive components that influence behavior and define culture.

One notably disturbing example is the concept of rape as benign occurrence, also found in some fanfiction. Clearly abuse and destructiveness impact all forms of fiction, and neither identity nor sexuality can exert sanctimonious power over their course. Still, a brief assessment of available fiction shows that fanfiction does provide an alternative space for people who do not fit in the restrictive armor of proper culture.

Fanfiction as such is an important field of exploration for theoretical feminists. This is particularly so because it is an area that allows writers to transform stereotypical stories into diverse narratives that function as literary activism for the forms they represent. Through fanfiction people can change fiction to impact media and culture. In this way fiction becomes a tool for engineering real change in society.

Kubra Guven prepared this text with assistance from e-feminist staff.