Exploring Explicit Fanfiction As a Vehicle for Sex Education Among Adolescents and Young Adults Donna Jeanne Barth University of South Florida, [email protected]
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School November 2018 Exploring Explicit Fanfiction as a Vehicle for Sex Education among Adolescents and Young Adults Donna Jeanne Barth University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Public Health Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Scholar Commons Citation Barth, Donna Jeanne, "Exploring Explicit Fanfiction as a Vehicle for Sex Education among Adolescents and Young Adults" (2018). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7472 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Exploring Explicit Fanfiction as a Vehicle for Sex Education among Adolescents and Young Adults by Donna Jeanne Barth A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a concentration in Biocultural Medical Anthropology Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Nancy Romero-Daza, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Cheryl Vamos, Ph.D. Tara Deubel, Ph.D. Date of Approval: November 2, 2018 Keywords: fanfiction, sexual health, internet communities, applied anthropology Copyright © 2018, Donna Jeanne Barth Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv Glossary of Terms ............................................................................................................................v Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Project Overview ............................................................................................................1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Literature Review.................................................................................................................5 Explicit material in fanfiction ..................................................................................5 Pornography and academic writing .........................................................................8 Sex education in the United States.........................................................................10 Common fanfiction studies ....................................................................................13 Online research ......................................................................................................17 Conclusion .............................................................................................................19 Research Purpose ...............................................................................................................19 Study Design ......................................................................................................................20 Overview ................................................................................................................20 Survey ....................................................................................................................22 Individual interviews .............................................................................................23 Analysis..................................................................................................................24 IRB Compliance.................................................................................................................24 Chapter 2: Archive of Our Own Structure and Tag Findings ........................................................26 Term Introduction ..............................................................................................................26 Genre ......................................................................................................................26 Relationships ..........................................................................................................28 Archive of Our Own and the Organization for Transformative Works .............................29 Tag System.........................................................................................................................30 M/M Preponderance...........................................................................................................32 Tag Cloud...........................................................................................................................32 Discussion .........................................................................................................................34 Chapter 3: Fanfiction Findings ......................................................................................................36 M/M Preponderance...........................................................................................................36 Romance vs. Hardcore .......................................................................................................37 Health and Consent ............................................................................................................39 “You Can’t Plan for Everything” and the ABO Trope ......................................................42 Popular Works vs. New Works ..........................................................................................43 i Safer Sex vs. Unsafe Sex ....................................................................................................47 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................47 Chapter 4: Survey Findings ...........................................................................................................50 Demographics ....................................................................................................................51 Prosumer Perceptions of Fanfiction’s Influence ................................................................52 Accuracy ............................................................................................................................55 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................57 Chapter 5: Interview Findings .......................................................................................................60 Basic Questions ..................................................................................................................61 Impacts on Sex Education ..................................................................................................63 Comparing Fanfiction to Mainstream Pornography ..........................................................66 Is Fanfiction Accurate? ......................................................................................................67 What Should Be Done? ......................................................................................................67 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................70 Chapter 6: Overarching Themes ...................................................................................................73 Fantasy vs. Reality .............................................................................................................73 Accuracy ................................................................................................................73 Pride in independence and variety .........................................................................74 Fanfiction as a place for exploration ......................................................................75 Fanfiction is for fantasy .........................................................................................76 Romance vs. Hardcore Continued .....................................................................................77 Fanfiction as better than porn ................................................................................78 M/M Preponderance...........................................................................................................80 Queer History and Experience ...........................................................................................84 Fanfiction as critical ...........................................................................................................86 Fanfiction as Self-Critical ..................................................................................................87 Chapter 7: Limitations and Conclusions ........................................................................................91 Limitations .........................................................................................................................91 Answering the Study Questions .........................................................................................94 Does fanfiction influence prosumers? ...................................................................94