Identity, Gender, and Fandom Instructor

Harvard Summer Session 2015 SWGS-1224, Syllabus DRAFT 5/29/2015

Identity, Gender, and Fandom

Instructor: Keridwen N. Luis [email protected] Ofﬁce Hours: Mon, Wed, 3-5 Ofﬁce: Boylston G25 Time: Mon & Wed, 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm Location: Lamont library 240 Class Site: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/3045

Short Course Description This course examines the experiences of those who identify as "fans" through the lens of anthropology, sociology, and gender studies. We will examine a wide variety of fandoms and ask questions such as, how does fandom shape gender expression? How do gender, race, and sexuality shape fandom? How are class, race, and cultural background implicated in fan expressions? How do fans create community? Who is welcomed and who is excluded from fan communities? We will examine particular fandoms, including online fandoms, sports fandoms, and sci-ﬁ/fantasy fandoms, among others, and read works by sociologists, anthropologists, and the fans themselves.

Course Description What makes a "fan?" This course investigates the ways in which fandom is constructed in various contexts, focusing particularly on how media, fans, fan behavior, and the structure of fandom itself are gendered. Why do certain fandoms consist of mainly women, while others consist of mainly men? What social interactions and mores are different in fan interactions as opposed to non-fan interactions? Why do we have particular stereotypes of "fans" and where do these overlap other stereotypes ("geek," for example)? What can the study of fandom teach us about human interactions as a whole? Do fans count as a sub-culture? We will examine the construction of fan communities, fan language, and fan studies itself. We will then use fandom as a way to approach larger questions of how human communities are built, how gender is created, changed, and manipulated, and how class, race, and the body are all used to both challenge and support hegemonic cultural meanings. We will unpack gender as an organizing force, examine community, communitas, and nostalgia, and delve into the attraction of fandom itself. This course will use basic anthropological tools, although knowledge of anthropology or sociology is not a prerequisite. We will read a wide variety of works, ranging from anthropological and gender theory to self-reﬂective works by fans themselves.

Course Goals Students will gain a general understanding of anthropological method and learn to apply it to cultural groups which are familiar and non-exotic. We will work against the "fetishization of the exotic" and uncover complex social workings in cultures students may already be familiar with. Students will also learn basic gender theory and analysis, as well as intersectional theory, and learn to apply it to speciﬁc human interactions. We will also gain a general understanding of the phenomena of fandom and of the scholarship currently available in this area.

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Class Structure

Required Readings: Books will be available at the bookstore and on reserve at the library. I also recommend trying the Advanced Book Exchange, at http://www.abebooks.com, a consortium of independent used booksellers which I have found very useful in the past for ﬁnding multiple copies of used books (in varying conditions and prices).

Additional required articles--marked in the syllabus with the word reserve in bold print--will also be available to students via the library. These articles are essential to the course. A link to the library reserves is available via our course website at

PLEASE NOTE (re reserve): The library does NOT make book chapters available online, but these are available via physical reserve. For the convenience of students, I make all reserve articles available for a limited time on our course website, as I happen to have them in electronic format for my own use. Although book chapters are allowed as fair use, Harvard University prefers that they not be made available through online distribution, and thus they will be available only for a limited time. Weekly readings will be available a week or two in advance, and will be taken down after the lecture day on which they are due. I recommend copying the PDF ﬁles to your own hard drive or USB drive if you wish to keep copies of book chapters for your own perusal. Please note that this service is provided as a courtesy only. All reserve materials are also available via library reserve.

Required Books: Jenkins, Henry. 2012. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. ISBN: 0415533295 Merrick, Helen. 2009. The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms. Seattle: Aqueduct Press. ISBN: 1933500336

Recommended: Russ, Joanna. 1983. How to Suppress Women's Writing. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN: 0-292-72445-7 [out of print, but available at ABE Books.]

Course Requirements: This course will require some short writing assignments, participation in a class wiki, a short essay, and a ﬁnal project.

Discussion Participation/Attendance 10% Discussion Questions/Short Writing 20% Wiki Participation: 20% 2 Short Essays/Research Final Project: 40%

Paper assignments/topics will be posted on our class website well in advance of the due date-- and I'm always willing to discuss other topics if you don't feel inspired by my suggestions!

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General Requirements: Class attendance and participation are both essential to this class. For this reason, unexcused absences will impact your grade; the discussion we do in class cannot be replicated by simply doing the reading. Also, this is a seminar class, and so it is necessary to do the reading beforehand to participate in the discussion. It also makes the class more engaging if we have things to talk about. Although this is not a writing intensive course, the papers are another vehicle for you to reﬂect on the reading topics and to introduce your own ideas; creativity, critical thinking, and good analysis are all highly encouraged. Please note that reading must be completed before class.

Graduate Students: Gradate students attending this course will complete all of the same assignments that are required of undergraduates, but will be held to more stringent standards and will receive separate assignment sheets. We will also schedule a couple of graduate-only discussion sections during the semester, our schedules permitting. In particular, the ﬁnal research paper will be held to a graduate-level standard of research, theory, and writing.

The use of cell phones, pagers, or other communication devices will NOT be permitted in class, unless you are an EMT or other medical professional on call. Laptops will also not be permitted without my prior consent. Please turn off or silence your cell phone.

Cell phones which ring in class (we all forget to turn them off sometimes) should be silenced, not answered. Cell phones which ring more than once are subject to being answered by me.

Written Work: All written work will be graded on presentation (grammar, writing skills, proper citation, etc.), arguments (ﬂow, use of texts, coherent and clear thesis), and grasp of the ideas presented in class as well as on your own original theory and take on the material. Written work submitted later than ﬁfteen minutes after the due date and time will be lowered by a third of a grade for each day late, except in cases of illness or emergency. All sources MUST be cited. Please use in-text citation. For example:

American teenage girls seem to be in a liminal state, for "as a society, we discarded the Victorian moral umbrella over girls before we agreed on useful strategies and programs--a kind of 'social Gore-Tex' to help them stay dry" (Brumberg 1997: 201).

Works Cited:

Brumberg, Joan. 1997. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House.

NOTE. Proper anthropological citation utilizes the LAST NAME of the author, the YEAR of the publication date, and the PAGE number, in that order. I will also accept MLA citation.

Details: Be sure to include the works cited page. All papers must be word-processed, spellchecked, double-spaced, with reasonable margins. Please include page numbers and use a font no smaller than ten point and no larger than twelve. I highly encourage you to proofread as

3 Harvard Summer Session 2015 SWGS-1224, Syllabus DRAFT 5/29/2015 grammar and punctuation are essential parts of writing well, and writing is one of the main tools of the social sciences. Clear and readable prose is also highly esteemed!

Turning it in: Papers will be turned in electronically using our class website, they may be emailed directly to me in order to acquire a timestamp. Paper grading will be done via electronic comments. You should only email me papers if you cannot access our class website; email is not as secure a means of communication as our Dropbox.

Specific Assignments: Please note that more detailed assignment sheets will be available on our website in the folder marked "Class Assignments." Wiki Building: Students will define various terms pertinent to the class and help to build a class wiki which will provide useful definitions for jargon, slang, and cultural events pertinent to the class. Students will define terms from three categories: one from a given list of terms, one term not on the given list, and one term from a list of events which will require considerable research and resource-gathering. Students will also edit the wiki entries of other students for credit. Short Writing/Discussion Questions: Students will prepare discussion questions for class in rotation; in addition, I will assign short writing exercises in class from time to time. 2 Essays/Research Final Project: Students may choose to either write two essays or to turn in a proposal and do a larger research-based or creative final project. (Students who have not yet completed a year of college-level work must take the 2 essay option.) Students doing the latter option undertake an original research project on some aspect of fandom they are interested in. This may take the form of a research paper, a vid, or a multimedia presentation, and other forms will be considered if you consult me about them in advance.

Class Participation and Courtesy: --I require and expect all students to treat each other with courtesy. Courtesy includes being prepared, being on time, and being respectful of the material and your colleagues' work with it. --Harassment, whether physical, sexual, or verbal, will not be tolerated in this class. We may be discussing some sensitive and sometimes upsetting topics; I expect this classroom to be a safe space for students to express their views. --It is possible to disagree respectfully: rather than telling people that they are wrong, do what is called "reflecting" before responding. For example, "You seem to be saying that X is Y," (reflection) "however, I have a different opinion, which is that X is Z, because of A." Also, be sure not to disagree with people (i.e. "you are wrong,") but with their actual statements ("I do not agree with X equalling Y"). --Speak up in class. I don't expect every student to volunteer an opinion in every class, but your opinions count -- be sure to share them in most classes. As an adjunct to this, share the floor! Let others speak (and if you are afraid that you will forget your point, write it down). --Respect confidentiality. If you want to adduce examples which do not come from the texts, don't give names: we will be discussing sensitive subjects (this goes as well for your papers, if you are giving personal experiences or doing fieldwork). A friend gave me this excellent advice for talking about issues, and not individuals: "plots, not characters." --Use "I statements" for your opinions rather than assuming that what you think should be universal. This can also be helpful for distinguishing between personal opinion and facts which can be backed up by documented scholarly evidence.

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--Expressions of bias are hurtful even if unintended. However, even if you did not mean to step on my foot, it's best if you move when I tell you that it hurts. Similarly, when someone says something that another person finds biased and hurtful, it's best to cease and apologize, even if that's not what the first person intended. Intent is not magic and will not prevent bias from happening; we all carry around unconscious misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, racism, and a host of other prejudices because of how society is. I encourage all students to try to be graceful about listening when their bias is brought up (and I promise to do my best, myself). --LAST IMPORTANT NOTE: No one is permitted to post comments on ANY of the internet materials in the name of this class. Due to recent events having to do with badly- handled academic discussion of fandom/fanfic, fan communities are noticeably uninterested in the comments of outsiders. I am, myself, uninterested in having this class trigger off a flamewar or a doxxing attempt, which is possible no matter how much we did not intend to do so. Intent is not magic, everyone makes mistakes (especially when one is not a member of a community and does not know the cultural standards), and the Internet never forgets. Let's not go there. If you have any problems or questions, I encourage you to bring them to me, or to the Office of the Dean of Students.

Regrade Requests: In the event of a grade dispute, I will re-evaluate the entire work according to my grading rubric. A higher grade is not guaranteed.

Email Policy: Emails will be answered within 24 hours, except for weekend days (when I cannot guarantee to check my email as regularly). I do not check email between the hours of 7 pm and 8 am. Please keep emails short and to the point; longer commentary may be better discussed during ofﬁce hours.

Academic Integrity: Academic integrity is expected of all students. All work turned in must be the work of the student whose name appears at the top of the paper, except where you have speciﬁcally requested and received permission for a collaborative effort. All students are expected to cite their sources fully (whether from texts, interviews, or online). Ignorance is not an excuse: misrepresentation of another person's work as your own is plagiarism under any and all circumstances. If you have any questions on when or whether to cite, please do not hesitate to ask. You may not turn in work for this class which you have previously turned in for other classes. Plagiarism will be dealt with according to the Academic Honesty Policy; plagiarized work will result in a failure of the class and further sanctions, at the discretion of the Harvard Summer School Administrative Board, may result.

If you are a student with a documented disability and wish to have accommodation made for you in this class, please contact the Disabilities Ofﬁce: [email protected].

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Schedule of Topics and Due Dates

Week 1: Introduction to the Class: Identity, Community, and Fandom June 22 Reading: None

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June 24: Gender, Culture, and Fandom: Other Cultures and Other Genders? Reading: Nicholson, Linda. 1994. "Interpreting Gender." Signs:Journal of Women and Culture in Society 20: 1. pp. 79-105. Reserve. Bell, Colin, and Howard Newby. 1972. "Theories of Community," in their Community Studies: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Local Community. New York: Praeger Publishers. Reserve Merrick, Helen. 2009. "Mothers of the Revolution: Femmefans Unite!" and "FIAWOL: The Making of Fannish Feminisms," in her Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms. Seattle: Aqueduct Press. Sandvoss, Cornel. 2005. "Introduction: Representing Fandom" and "The Dominant Discourse of Resistance: Fandom and Power," in his Fans: The Mirror of Consumption. Cambridge: Polity Press. Reserve. Jenson, Joli. 1992. "Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of Characterization," in The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, Lisa A Lewis, ed. New York: Routledge. Reserve. Jenkins, Henry. 1992. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. Please read Chapter 1, "Get a Life." Suileabhain-Wilson, Michael. 2003. "Five Geek Social Fallacies," from Plausibly Deniable (webpage). [http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html ] Online. Recommended for students unfamiliar with gender studies: Lorber, Judith. 2001. "'Night to His Day': The Social Construction of Gender," in Feminist Frontiers, 5th Ed. Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, and Nancy Whittier, eds. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Reserve. Recommended for students unfamiliar with fandom: Gray, Jonathan, Cornel Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington. 2007. "Introduction: Why Study Fans?" in Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, Cornel Sandvoss, Jonathan Gray, and C. Lee Harrington, eds. New York: New York University Press. Reserve. Recommended (lecture basis): Arensberg, Conrad. 1961. "The Community as Object and as Sample." American Anthropologist 63(2): 241-264. Reserve

Week 2: Performing Gender and Race Through Fandom June 29 Sports Warnings: Domestic violence: Jones; Discussions of war: Jansen & Curry. Offensive racial stereotypes, discussed and analyzed: Williams, Moore, Watson, Ng Reading: Jansen, Sue Curry, and Don Sabo. 1994. "The Sports/War Metaphor: Hegemonic Masculinity, the Persian Gulf War, and the New World Order." Sociology of Sport Journal 11(1): 1-17. Reserve. Allain, Kristi A. 2008. "'Real Fast and Tough': The Construction of Canadian Hockey Masculinity." Sociology of Sport Journal 25: 462-481 Reserve. Wenner, Lawrence A. 2012. "From Football Widow to Fan: Web Narratives of Women and Sports Spectatorship," in Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization: Exploring the Fandemonium, Earnheardt, Adam C, Paul M. Haridakis, and Barbara C. Hugenberg, eds. New York: Lexington Books. Reserve. Williams, Dana M. 2006. "Patriarchy and the 'Fighting Sioux': a Gendered Look at Racial College Sports' Nicknames." Race Ethnicity and Education 9(4): 325-340. Reserve. Ng, Konrad. 2012. "#Linsanity." Amerasia Journal 38(3): 129-132. Reserve.

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Recommended (for interest in masculinity): Morrison, Todd G., and Marie Halton. 2009 "Buff, Tough, and Rough: Representations of Muscularity in Action Motion Pictures," The Journal of Men's Studies 17(1): 57-74. Reserve Recommended: Moore, Louis. 2010. "Fine Specimens of Manhood: The Black Boxer's Body and the Avenue to Equality, Racial Advancement, and Manhood in the Nineteenth Century." MELUS 35(4): 59-84. Reserve Recommended: Jones, Katharine W. 2008. "Female Fandom: Identity, Sexism, and Men’s Professional Football in England." Sociology of Sport Journal 25: 516-537. Reserve.

July 1: Masculinity and Femininity Reading: Bartky, Sandra Lee. 1998. "Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power," in The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior, Rose Weitz, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reserve. Brown, Jeffrey A. 2000. "Reading Race and Genre," and "Reading Comic Book Masculinity," in his Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Reserve. Merrick, Helen. 2009. "Resistance is Useless? the Sex/Woman/Feminist 'Invasion,'" in her Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms. Seattle: Aqueduct Press. Valkyrie, Zek Cypress. 2012. "The Goddess Paradox: Hyper-resonance Shaping Gender Experiences in MMORPGs," in Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game Play: New Research in Digital Media and Technology, David G. Embrick, J. Talmadge Wright, and Andras Lukacs. New York: Lexington Books. Reserve. Ehrenreich, Barbara, Elizabeth Hess, and Gloria Jacobs. 1992. "Beatlemania: Girls Just Want to Have Fun," in The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, Lisa A Lewis, ed. New York: Routledge. Reserve. Recommended (for interest in femininity): Okabe, Daisuke, and Kimi Ishida. 2012. "Making Fujoshi Identity Visible and Invisible," in Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World, Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuji, eds. London: Yale University Press. Reserve. Recommended: Merrick, Helen. 2009. "Birth of a Sub-Genre: Feminist SF and Its Criticism," in her Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms. Seattle: Aqueduct Press. Recommented: Ali, Suki. 2002. "Friendship and Fandom: Ethnicity, Power, and Gendering Readings of the Popular." Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 23 (2): 153-165. Reserve.

Week 3: Fandom Performs Gender July 6: Cosplay and Other Identities Reading: Butler, Judith. "Critically Queer." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 1: 17-32. reserve Gn, Joel. 2011. "Queer Simulation: The Practice, Performance and Pleasure of Cosplay." Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 25(4): 583-593. Reserve. Pierson-Smith, Anne. 2013. "Fashioning the Fantastical Self: An Examination of the Cosplay Dress-up Phenomenon in Southeast Asia." Fashion Theory 17(1): 77 – 112. Reserve.

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Figa, Alenka. 3/12/2015. "Trans, Genderqueer, and Genderfluid Cosplayers On Finding Their Safe Space In Conventions." The Mary Sue (online). [ http:// www.themarysue.com/trans-genderqueer-and-genderfluid-cosplayers-on-finding-safe-spaces-in- conventions/ ] Online. Williamson, Milly. 2005. "Donning Fangs: Gender, the Vampire, and Dressing the Self," in her The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction, and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy. New York: Wallflower Press. Reserve. "Kivabay" 4/27/2014. "Shut Up and Take My Money! A Tale of a Poor Gamer." FemHype (online media). [ http://femhype.com/2015/04/27/shut-up-and-take-my-money-a-tale- of-a-poor-gamer/ ] Online. Highly recommended: Rahman, Osmud, Liu Wing-sun and Brittany Hei-man Cheung. 2012. "'Cosplay': Imaginative Self and Performing Identity." Fashion Theory 16(3): 317 – 342. Reserve. First Wiki Entry Should Be Done

July 8: Fandom Violence as Gender Performance, Day 1 Warnings: Violence: all readings; Domestic violence (personal accounts): Crosset, Sabo et al.; Sexual harassment (depictions, personal accounts): Pinachefsky, Valentine Reading: Sabo, Don, Philip M. Gray, and Linda A. Moore. 2000. "Domestic Violence and Televised Athletic Events: 'It's a Man Thing'," in Masculinities, Gender Relations, and Sport, Jim McKay, Michael A. Messner, and Don Sabo, eds. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Reserve. Dunlap, Kathryn, and Carissa Wolf. 2010. "Fans Behaving Badly: Anime Metafandom, Brutal Criticism, and the Intellectual Fan," in Mechademia 5: Fanthropologies, Frenchy Lunning, ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Reserve. Pinachefsky, Carol. 8/3/2012. "Sexual Harassment in Videogame Culture." Forbes. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/08/03/sexual-harassment-in- videogame-culture/ ] Online. Valentine, Genevieve. 2012. Readercon posts: "Readercon: The Bad and the Ugly," "Readercon: The Verdict," "Updates on the Readercon Response," "Readercon: Updates, Responses, McMufﬁns," "Readercon: The Outcome," and "Things You Should Know About the Fallout," on her Livejournal (blog). [http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/tag/readercon ]. Please comment, if you must, respectfully, and note that this issue was resolved two years ago. Online. Strongly recommended: Crosset, Todd. 2000. "Athletic Afﬁliation and Violence Against Women: Toward a Structural Prevention Project," in Masculinities, Gender Relations, and Sport, Jim McKay, Michael A. Messner, and Don Sabo, eds. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Reserve. Recommended: Dunning, Eric, Patrick Murphy, and Ivan Waddington. 2002. "Towards a Sociological Understanding of Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon," in Fighting Fans: Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon, Eric Dunning et al, eds. Dublin: University College Dublin Press. Reserve. Recommended: Young, Kevin. 2002. "A Walk on the Wild Side: Exposing North American Sports Crowd Disorder," in Fighting Fans: Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon, Eric Dunning et al, eds. Dublin: University College Dublin Press. Reserve.

Week 4: Gender Performances Continued

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July 13: Fandom Violence as Gender Performance, Day 2 Important Warning: A number of these articles are online and deal with Gamergate. I strongly recommend not reading any comments, and cannot advise strongly enough not engaging in commenting. DETAILED DEATH AND RAPE THREATS ARE QUOTED IN THESE ARTICLES. Reading: "Feminist Frequency" (Sarkeesian, Anita). 1/26/2015. "One Week of Harassment on Twitter." tumblr.com (online media). [ http://femfreq.tumblr.com/post/109319269825/one- week-of-harassment-on-twitter ] Online. Chu, Arthur. "Of Gamers, Gates, and Disco Demolition: The Roots of Reactionary Rage." The Daily Beast (online media). [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/ 2014/10/16/of-gamers-gates-and-disco-demolition-the-roots-of-reactionary-rage.html ] Online. Wu, Brianna. 7/22/2014. "No Skin Thick Enough: The Daily Harassment of Women in the Video Game Industry." Polygon (online media). [ http://www.polygon.com/ 2014/7/22/5926193/women-gaming-harassment ] Online. Cross, Katherine. 3/19/2015. "Revenge of the Sealion: GamerGate's Crusade Against Blocking." Feministing (online media). [ http://feministing.com/2015/03/19/revenge- of-the-sealion-gamergates-crusade-against-blocking/ ] Online. Zennistrad. n.d. "Gamergate is Killing Video Games." Originally at tumblr.com, now at archive.is (online media). [ http://archive.is/wh8Rr ] Online. Please note that the original post has been removed to cut down on Gamergater trolling, doxxing, swatting, and other harassment of the original poster. Wagner, Kyle. 10/14/14. "The Future of the Culture Wars is Here, and It's Gamergate." Deadspin (online media). [ http://deadspin.com/the-future-of-the-culture-wars-is- here-and-its-gamerga-1646145844 ] Online. "Social Justice Bread" n.d. "Games Deserve Better Than the Gaming Industry." Storify (tweet aggregator). [ https://storify.com/strictmachine/games-deserve-better-than-the- games-industry ] Online. Strongly recommended: Thériault, Anne. 2/13/2015. "Let's Call Female Online Harassment What It Really Is: Terrorism." Vice.com (online media) [ http://www.vice.com/read/ lets-call-female-online-harassment-what-it-really-is-gender-terrorism-481 ] Online. Strongly recommended: Chu, Arthur. 11/17/2014. "Rage Against GamerGate’s Hate Machine: What I Got For Speaking Up." The Daily Beast (online media). [ http:// www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/17/rage-against-gamergate-s-hate-machine-what-i-got- for-speaking-up.html ] Online. Strongly recommended: Johnson, Derek. 2007. "Fan-tagonism: Factions, Institutions, and Constitutive Hegemonies of Fandom," in Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, Cornel Sandvoss, Jonathan Gray, and C. Lee Harrington, eds. New York: New York University Press. Reserve.

July 15: How (Not?) to Suppress Women's Writing: Gender, Fandom, and Fandom Practices Reading: Russ, Joanna. 1984. How to Suppress Women's Writing. Austin: University of Texas Press. Please read "Prologue" through "Isolation" (pages 1-61). The rest of this work is also highly recommended. Reserve.

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Russ, Joanna. 1995. "What Can a Heroine Do? or Why Women Can't Write," in her To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Reserve. Scodari, Christine. 2003. "Resistance Re-Examined: Gender, Fan Practices, and Science Fiction Television." Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture 1(2): 111-130. Reserve. Coppa, Francesca. 2006. "Writing Bodies in Space: Media Fan Fiction as Theatrical Performance," in Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. Reserve. Turk, Tisha. 2014. "Fan Work: Labor, Worth, and Participation in Fandom's Gift Economy." Transformative Works and Cultures 15. http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2014.0518. Strongly Recommended: Hellekson, Karen. 2009. "A Fannish Field of Value: Online Fan Gift Culture." Cinema Journal 48(4): 113-118. Reserve. Strongly Recommended: Jenkins, Henry. 1992. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. Chapter 5 ("Scribbling in the Margins"), and Chapter 6 ("'Welcome to Bisexuality, Captain Kirk': Slash and the Fan-Writing Community"). Recommended: Jenkins, Henry. 1992. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. Chapters 2-3 ("How Texts Become Real" and "Fan Critics"), Second Wiki Entry Due

Week 5: Sexuality and Erotics in Fandom July 20: The Complexity of Fandom Erotics Warnings: Discussion of sexuality: all readings; explicit material: Lackner et al (but not really, it's an academic paper) Reading: Sedgwick, Eve. 1990. "Introduction: Axiomatic." The Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press. Reserve. Green, Shoshanna, Cynthia Jenkins, and Henry Jenkins. 1998. "Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking: Selections from the Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows," in Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture, and Identity, Cheryl Harris and Alison Alexander, eds. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press. Reserve. Coppa, Francesca. 2009. "A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness." Cinema Journal 48 (4): 107-113. Reserve. Lackner, Eden, Barbara Ann Lucas, and Robin Anne Reid. 2006. "Cunning Linguists: The Bisexual Erotics of Words/Silence/Flesh," in Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. Reserve. Williamson, Milly. 2005. "Re-Writing the Vampire: Gender, Sexuality, and Fan Fiction," in her The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction, and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy. New York: Wallﬂower Press. Reserve. Strongly recommended: Benshoff, Harry M. 1998. "Secrets, Closets, and Corridors Through Time: Negotiating Sexuality and Gender Through Dark Shadows Fan Culture," in Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture, and Identity, Cheryl Harris and Alison Alexander, eds. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press. Reserve. First Essay/Project Proposal Due

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July 22: Who Is Queer? Reading: Sedgwick, Eve. 1990. "Chapter 1: Epistemology of the Closet." The Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press. Reserve. Dhaenens, Frederik, Soﬁe Van Bauwel, and Daniel Biltereyst. 2008. "Slashing the Fiction of Queer Theory: Slash Fiction, Queer Reading, and Transgressing the Boundaries of Screen Studies, Representations, and Audiences." Journal of Communication Inquiry 32(4): 335-347. Reserve. Lothian, Alexis, Kristina Busse, and Robin Anne Reid. 2007. "'Yearning Void and Inﬁnite Potential': Online Slash Fandom as Queer Female Space." English Language Notes 45 (2): 103-111. Reserve. Willis, Ika. 2006. "Keeping Promises to Queer Children: Making Space (for Mary Sue) at Hogwarts," in Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. Reserve. Wolf, Matt, and Marvin J. Taylor. 2004. "On Fandom and Smalltown Boys." GLQ 10(4): 657-70. Reserve. Highly recommended: Miller, D. A. 1990. "Anal Rope." Representations 32: 114-133. Reserve. Recommended: Kohnen, Melanie E.S. 2008. "The Adventures of a Repressed Farm Boy and the Billionaire Who Loves Him: Queer Spectatorship in Smallville Fandom," in Teen Television: Essays on Programming and Fandom, Sharon Marie Ross and Louisa Ellen Stein, eds. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. Reserve. Recommended: Johnston, Nancy. 2008. "'Happy That It's Here:' An Interview with Nalo Hopkinson," in Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction, Wendy Pearson, Veronica Hollinger, and Joan Gordon, eds. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Reserve.

Week 6: The Wild Unicorn Herd: Race in Fandom July 27 Warnings: Offensive racial stereotypes and language (in the context of analyzing same): all readings Reading: Espiritu, Yen Le. "Ideological Racism and Cultural Resistance: Constructing Our Own Images" in Feminist Frontiers, 5th Ed. Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, and Nancy Whittier, eds. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Reserve. Delany, Samuel R. 1998. "Racism in Science Fiction." The New York Review of Science Fiction 120. [http://www.nyrsf.com/racism-and-science-fiction-.html ] Reid, Robin Anne. 2014. "The Wild Unicorn Herd Check-In: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction Fandom," in Black and Brown Planets: Literary Explorations into the Radical, Hopeful Racial Futures Imagined by Science Fiction. Isaiah Lavender III, ed. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Reserve. Devega, Chauncey. 9/2/2012. "White Space: A Black "Ghetto Nerd" Reflects on His Experience at Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention," in We Are Respectable Negroes (blog). [http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2012/09/white-space-black- ghetto-nerd-reflects.html ] Online. Velasquez. 2013. "The Occasional Ethnicities of Lavender Brown: Race as a Boundary Object in Harry Potter," in Critical Insights: Contemporary Speculative Fiction. Booker, M. Keith, ed. Salem Press. Reserve.

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Recommended: Napier, Susan. 2007. "The Dark Heart of Fantasy: Japanese Women in the Eyes of the Western Male," in her From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West. New York: Palgrave Macmillian. Reserve. Recommended: Reid, Korin. 4/27/2015. "Gender, Race, and Stereotypes in 'Scorpion,' 'Silicon Valley,' and 'Big Bang Theory.'" Model View Culture (online media). [ https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/gender-race-and-stereotypes-in-scorpion-silicon-valley- and-big-bang-theory ]

July 29 Warnings: Offensive racial stereotypes and language (in the context of analyzing same): all readings Reading: Daniels, Jessie, and Nick LaLone. 2012. "Racism in Video Gaming: Connecting Extremist and Mainstream Expressions of White Supremacy," in Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game Play: New Research in Digital Media and Technology, David G. Embrick, J. Talmadge Wright, and Andras Lukacs. New York: Lexington Books. Reserve Deitrich, David. 2012. "Worlds of Whiteness: Race and Character Creation in Online Games," in Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game Play: New Research in Digital Media and Technology, David G. Embrick, J. Talmadge Wright, and Andras Lukacs. New York: Lexington Books. Reserve. Conditt, Jessica. 1/16/2015. "Gaming While Black: Casual Racism to Cautious Optimism." Joystiq (online media). [ http://www.joystiq.com/2015/01/16/gaming-while-black- casual-racism-to-cautious-optimism/ ] Online. Payne, LeSean. 8/13/2014. "A Life Spent Gaming While Black." Polygon (online media). [ http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/13/5995139/a-life-spent-gaming-while- black ] Online. Sperb, Jason. 2010. "Reassuring Convergence: Online Fandom, Race, and Disney's Notorious Song of the South." Cinema Journal 49(4): 25-45. Reserve. Recommended: Beltran, Whitney Strix. 4/27/2015. "Why Minority Settings in RPGs Matter." Tor.com (blog). [ http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/04/why-minority-settings-in- rpgs-matter ] Assignment to Vid Group will be done in class today

Week 7: Fandom Productions August 3: Identifying Images: Gender, Race and Serious Play Warnings: Vids contain explicit material: violence. Reading: Mulvey, Laura. 1999. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," in Film Theory and Criticism : Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford University Press, pp 833-44. Reserve. !!Glenn, Cerise L. and Landra J. Cunningham. 2009. "The Power of Black Magic: The Magical Negro and White Salvation in Film." Journal of Black Studies 40: 135-152. Reserve. Lothian, Alexis. 2009. "Living in a Den of Thieves: Fan Video and Digital Challenges to Ownership." Cinema Journal 48(4): 130-136. Reserve. Micole, 9/29/2007. "Women's Art and Women's Work" in Ambling Along the Aqueduct (blog). [http://aqueductpress.blogspot.com/2007/08/womens-art-and-womens-

12 Harvard Summer Session 2015 SWGS-1224, Syllabus DRAFT 5/29/2015 work.html ] The vid included ("Women's Work") is also required (but be careful of highly explicit violence). [Vid: http://archiveofourown.org/works/719415?view_adult=true ] Online. The Guild. 4/2/2013. "I'm the One Who's Cool" (music video) at The Guild. [https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFhgupR565Q ] Bonet, Vicente. 2011. "Love Wars" (fan ﬁlm) [http://www.queerty.com/watch- stormtroopers-take-gay-love-to-the-dark-side-in-stars-wars-spoof-20120110/ ] (ignore terrible commentary) McIntosh, Jonathan. 6/20/2009. "Buffy vs. Edward: Twilight Remixed" (remix ﬁlm). [http://transformativeworks.org/fr/projects/vidtestsuite ] (scroll down)

Recommended: Jenkins, Henry. 1992. "'Layers of Meaning': Fan Music Video and the Poetics of Poaching," in his Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. Third Wiki Entry Due; no more editing of entries.

Viewing Lists: (with thanks to futuransky and the Wiscon Vid Party) IMPORTANT NOTE: Students will be assigned to one of the four viewing lists during the previous class. Students are only required to view all the vids on their own viewing list, although of course you are welcome to view them all, if you have time. The reading (and ﬁlms) above are required of all students. Students will discuss their ﬁlms with their group in class and select one to present to the whole class, with commentary and discussion. Please note that any of the vids below may contain violence, explicit sexual material, nudity, and offensive racial characterizations/stereotypes.

Group 1: Masculinity and the Female Gaze Luminosity. 8/15/2007. "Vogue - 300" (fanvid: 300) [ https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=2_NrUD1iqME ] Warnings: explicit violence, ﬂying body parts. Flummery (Seah and Margie). 2008. "Handlebars" (fanvid: Doctor Who) [ http:// ﬂummery.org ] Warnings: implied violence. Thingswithwings. 6/16/2011. "The Price" (fanvid: multi) [ http:// thingswithwings.dreamwidth.org/145368.html ] Warnings: explicit violence, death. Clucking Belles (Sandy and Rache). 2002. "(I Like 'em) Big and Stupid." (fanvid:multi) [ http:// relative-obscurity.org/belles/cb.html ] Recommended: TJonesy and Killa. 2004. "Closer" (fanvid: Star Trek TOS). [http:// transformativeworks.org/fr/projects/vidtestsuite ] Warnings: implied violence, rape, explicit sexual material.

Group 2: Multiple and Cyborg Femininities Charmax. 5/30/2011. "Space Girl" (fanvid: multi) [http://charmax.dreamwidth.org/ 130488.html ] Shapiro, Laura. 8/10/2010. "Stay Awake" (fanvid: multi) [http:// laurashapiro.dreamwidth.org/306241.html ] Warnings: violence, medical violence. Beccatoria. 5/26/2012 "Machine" (fanvid: Mass Effect) [http:// beccatoria.livejournal.com/164655.html ] Warnings: violence, animated. Kiki_miserychic. 8/12/2014. "Flawless" (fanvid; Disney Princesses) [ http:// archiveofourown.org/works/2126589?view_adult=true ]

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Recommended: Grammarwoman. 2014. "Fembots" (fanvid: multi) [ http:// archiveofourown.org/works/2122515 ] Recommended: Shati. 1/8/ 2011. "If I Were a Prince" (fanvid; Revolutionary Girl Utena) [http:// shati.dreamwidth.org/1438.html ]

Group 3: Beyond the Magical Negro Hapex_legomena. 4/26/2009. "Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers of Death (Collector's Edition)" (fanvid: Lord of the Rings/meta) [http://hapex-legomena.livejournal.com/9248.html ] Warnings: violence. Talithia78. 2006. "'White' and Nerdy" (fanvid: Psych) [ http://transformativeworks.org/ fr/projects/vidtestsuite ] Lierdumoa. 2008. "How Much Is that Geisha in the Window?" (fanvid: Fireﬂy) [ http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZr9wsZz_bk ] (For link to author, download, and commentary, see [ http://lierdumoa.dreamwidth.org/282494.html ] Warnings: offensive language. Chalia. 5/27/2012. "Parable" (fanvid: book) [ http://chaila.dreamwidth.org/ 129661.html ] (You may want to look up the narrative she is vidding, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler.) Warnings: implied violence.

Group 4: Meta/Narrative: Vids About Vidding and Fandom Flummery (Seah and Margie). 2005. "Walking on the Ground" (fanvid: multi/meta) [ http://ﬂummery.org ] Fong, Kandy. 1980. "Both Sides Now" (fanvid: Star Trek TOS) at "in media res: a media commons project" (webpage) [http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/2007/11/19/ celebrating-kandy-fong-founder-of-fannish-music-video ] (Be sure to read the curator's note) Lim. 1/3/2007. "Us." (fanvid: multi) [ http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/ 2008/02/01/us-a-multivid-by-lim ] Giandujakiss. 8/11/2012. "A Different Kind of Love Song" (fanvid: multi/meta) [ http:// giandujakiss.dreamwidth.org/785401.html ] Recommended: Ghost_lingering. 2/17/2015. "Silent Fandoms" (fanvid: multi/meta) [ http:// ghost-lingering.dreamwidth.org/166967.html ]

Bonus Round! Fandom Erotics, Slash, and the Queer Gaze (Optional/Recommended) Clucking Belles (Sandy and Rache). 2005. "A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness." (fanvid:multi)[ http://relative-obscurity.org/belles/cb.html ] CerseiDM. 2/8/2014. "I Ship It." (fanvid: multi) [ https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Qyh_zZS0Bv8 ] Charmax. 7/2/2008. "I'm Your Man." (fanvid: multi) [ https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=0cAb1OAb93w ] Thingswithwings. 2/14/2015. "I Am What I Am." (fanvid: Batman TV series) [ https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=qksfGjU7J-A ]

August 5: Student Presentations & Class Party Reading: No Reading! Student Final Papers and Presentations Due