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O Mighty Flist (and beyond), I seek your assistance!
As you may or may not know, I’m currently working on my MA in Critical Media and Cultural Studies at University of London, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). For my thesis, I’m delving into the question of how culture, one’s own, as well as that of the source material one is fanning on, affects how fans identify and interact with said media and the fandoms surrounding them.
I am very aware that academic scrutiny of fandom has at times been…less than pleasant, shall we say. With that in mind, I’d like to make clear that it is not my intent to place fen or fandom under the microscope, but rather to use them as one concrete example in the broader investigation of culture’s impact on the field of media studies.
The following questions I’ve split into two sections, one focused on the media itself, the other on fandom as a whole. These are just a jumping-off point; feel free to answer as many/as few of the questions as you’d like, in as much/little detail as you feel comfortable. If you’d prefer to comment anonymously or email me directly at gnine AT livejournal DOT com, that’s fine, too.
Media Questions:
How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?
How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?
Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?
If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)
Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?
The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ?
Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?
Fandom Questions:
At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?
Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?
If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions?
Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences?
Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings?
Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture?
Additionally, there are a few details that’d be helpful for everyone to include, if they could:
Nationality:
Native language(s):
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in):
Gender (that you're most comfortable identify yourself as):
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper:
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc):
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.?
Beyond that, if there are any other details, personal experiences, general trends you’ve observed, feel free to expound. Further discussion/questions in the comments is also very welcome.
If anyone's willing to link this in their journals, I’d be grateful, as the more responses the more expansive the research.
Thanks for your help!
I am very aware that academic scrutiny of fandom has at times been…less than pleasant, shall we say. With that in mind, I’d like to make clear that it is not my intent to place fen or fandom under the microscope, but rather to use them as one concrete example in the broader investigation of culture’s impact on the field of media studies.
The following questions I’ve split into two sections, one focused on the media itself, the other on fandom as a whole. These are just a jumping-off point; feel free to answer as many/as few of the questions as you’d like, in as much/little detail as you feel comfortable. If you’d prefer to comment anonymously or email me directly at gnine AT livejournal DOT com, that’s fine, too.
Media Questions:
How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?
How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?
Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?
If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)
Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?
The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ?
Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?
Fandom Questions:
At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?
Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?
If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions?
Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences?
Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings?
Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture?
Additionally, there are a few details that’d be helpful for everyone to include, if they could:
Nationality:
Native language(s):
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in):
Gender (that you're most comfortable identify yourself as):
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper:
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc):
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.?
Beyond that, if there are any other details, personal experiences, general trends you’ve observed, feel free to expound. Further discussion/questions in the comments is also very welcome.
If anyone's willing to link this in their journals, I’d be grateful, as the more responses the more expansive the research.
Thanks for your help!
Part 3
1.) The Japanese manga / anime / drama stereotype of “good girls” being quiet, shy and fragile, while “funny girls” are loud, brash and open, with the “funny girl” not often being a serious love interest unless it’s a comedic manga / anime / drama. (And even then, there often seem to be scenes showing her being quite shy and withdrawn around her love interest.)
2.) The American (i.e. United States) stereotype of a hero / expert being exceptionally good at his/her chosen field. This is especially noticeable when compared with a lot of European books / TV shows: A lot of the detectives in British or Skandinavian books / TV shows are good, but not really exceptional at their job (unless they’re James Bond or possible The Doctor, though he seems really bad at doing some of his people’s stuff too, like repairing the TARDIS…), while a lot of the detectives in American books are often explicitely shown/described as The Expert or exceptionally brilliant in their field. (Like the books and the TV series about forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, for example, or the books by Dan Brown.)
Fandom Questions:
At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?
No, not since I made the progression from the (smaller) German-language forums to the English-language forums. There’re quite a few other Germans around in the J-Pop, anime/manga and TV shows fandoms, but the majority are either Asian (in the J-pop fandoms), American (in the TV shows fandoms), or both.
Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?
This really, really depends, I think. I would generally say yes, simply because of exposure of the source materials – J-pop is far more known in other Asian countries than in Europe or the United States, which of course means that the majority of people come from the countries (or cultures) with more exposure. Since these fans are not Japanese, however, they’re more likely to organize themselves in an “international” fandom, resulting in an international, English-speaking fandom which has majority of people from Asian countries. And if it’s a fandom that is organized not in English, but in the language the original material is in (like German-language bands, for example), chances are high that the majority of people there are also native speakers.
On the other hand, though, there are certain fandoms, like “Top Gear”, “Gorillaz” and (the new) “Doctor Who”, in which there seem to be a lot more people (in the organized online fandom) from other countries (especially the United States) than people from the country that the original materials comes from. It might have something to do with the source material’s original language… but I’m not sure about that.
If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions?
No, sorry, I’ve never really been to a convention.
Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences?
Again, I’ve never done that.
EDIT: Sorry, accidentally copied some stuff twice! ^^"
Part 4
Yes, in a few cases, though most of the instances were not actually fandom related. (I.e. I had discussions with people from other cultures that I had met through fandom, but not about fandom.) The discussions usually were about cultural misunderstandings / different cultural views, though. (Like, in one instance, the question of whether European / American sports commenters shouldn’t even attempt to pronounce Chinese names, because they always got them wrong anyway.)
Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture?
Yes, very definitely! For example, when I’m in a Japanese based fandom (especially a Japanese mainstream culture based fandom, like “Johnny’s And Associates” (J-pop boybands), I’m willing to accept views and actions that are, to my Western eyes, chauvinistic and “anti-feministic” far more readily than I ever would in (Northern) European and American based fandoms, because I know that feminism in Japan is very different from feminism in Northern Europe and the United States or Canada.
Additionally, there are a few details that’d be helpful for everyone to include, if they could:
Nationality: German
Native language(s): Mainly German (raised with an English-speaking father, but the most-spoken language at home was still German)
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in): English (nearly exclusively)
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper: Yes!
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc): Kegom (a nickname that I occasionally use in RL as well)
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.? Yes, of course! (Just PM me if you need more information.)
Good luck!
Re: Part 4
Also, as I mentioned to someone else above, so very much NOT tl;dr; this is just what I'm looking for and all these details help greatly! Thank you thank you! Expect to hear from me in a week or so with more questions/discussion as a sort through all this data. Again, THANK YOU! ^__^
...Also, I LOVE your icon, years later and my sister and I still randomly quote that line!^__^
Re: Part 4
In what ways (if any), for you personally, do your fannish practices change depending on the source culture of the material you're fanning on? (e.g. do you watch more music vids for anime, do you read/write particular kinds of fic for western shows, do you seek out cons for only certain types of fandoms, etc.) The more specific the examples, the better.
Semi-related to the above question, in what ways, if any, has your fannish practices changed over your time in fandom? (both in general over the years you've been in fandom and in specific fandoms. ) And have these changes at all coincided with differences in source culture? (eg for western fandoms, you've always just watched/read fic w/out much change over time but with Japanese fandom, you started watching anime then moved on to music vids then progressed to
helping scanlate manga because you went on to learn Japanese, etc.)
And one or two questions on one topic I might be exploring in a bit more detail, so:
Are you interested in/have any experience with/in slash/Boys Love/yaoi/ m/m etc.? If yes, do you notice a difference in how it is approached/explored depending on the source culture of the material? Examples/details appreciated.
Do you personally approach it differently/have different expectations for how it's depicted in fan works depending on the culture? If so, in what ways?
Oh, also, if I don't already know it (ie know you in person) and you're comfortable sharing it, what gender do you identify yourself as?
Again, thanks for your time, any details you have already or can additionally provide are a big big help! ^_____^