A Fannish History of Fandom: Script | Episode 01 Defining Fandom

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Hello, I’m KA and I’m the human behind this project and here we are with our first episode. I decided to start off with the most obvious thing when talking about fandom by defining the term fandom. So let’s get started. 

So you’ve found out about fandom and are wondering what is going on. First, off congratulation, you’ve joined, a global, not secret super-secret club, step one is learning the secret handshake, it’s not terribly complicated and no you won’t be tested on it. 

Step two is figuring out what you love and finding the people who love the same thing you do and the squeeing as loudly (or as quietly) as you’d like. I promise there is a fandom for any and everything. And if there isn’t start it, as the saying goes if you build it they will come.

So what is fandom? As I said I figured it was as good of any place to start with this project. I made a survey, sent it around the internet, read some books and then wrote this essay. 

After asking a bunch of people on the internet how they would define and explain fandom and this is the gist of what we as a collective came up with. Fandom is both a way to describe a group of people as well as a thing that a group of people participates in. A quasi-proper definition would be;  

Fandom (noun) is a group of people who enjoy the same thing, a place people can and do congregate both digitally and in their meatsuits and a thing people do together. The key thing that defines fandom is the people.

(1) Fandom is a subculture of people who share an interaction about a source material in a different form than the original manner. They want to devote their time and energy to creating or engaging in transformative fanworks be it fanfiction, podfics, fanart, meta or any other medium and material. 

(2) Fandom describes both the group of people as well as the community they are a part of. Fandom as a place is a collective  

Someone doesn't have to be part of fandom to be a fan, you can be a fan of something and not part of its fandom, just like you can not be a fan of the original source material and still be part of a fandom.

To break that down even further when a group of fans are devoted to a particular thing they collectively are known as being part of its fandom. While a fan space can occur offline most modern fandom spaces exist in a digital and online format. 

Fandom can be anything from TV shows to movies to books to sports to video games and music. It is about engaging in discussions about it and in particular creating and consuming transformative works for it.

The phenomenon of fandom and fan spaces are global. We as a community are everywhere and have been for centuries though not always named as such. Fandom to paraphrase some of the lovely people who replied to my survey fandom is a group of people who love something so much that they are willing to spend hours upon hours of their time to build something and support one another. 

Fandom is for a lot of us our home on the internet, it is something that becomes a way of life during the formative parts of our lives. It teaches us things about things from feminism to gender and sex to relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. Not to mention the history learned, the research is done and the skills acquired for the writing, the vidding, the podficcing, and the art. Fandom is much more than just the amazing media being created but also it’s the friendships being built, its a source of entertainment and community. A community that is of acceptance no matter how weird we get, because trust me you’re not alone like I said if you build it they will come.