The Feminist Side of The Force: Women Negotiating Feminism and Star Wars / Doctor Who Fandoms A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences 2019 Neta Yodovich Department of Sociology List of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Declaration ................................................................................................................................ 6 Copyright Statement ................................................................................................................. 7 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 9 1. Introducing the Field ..................................................................................................... 12 2. Research Motivations .................................................................................................... 14 3. Research Questions and Method ................................................................................... 15 4. Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2: Literature Review .................................................................................................. 22 1. Identity, Self, Belonging and Everything In Between .................................................. 24 2. "We Should All Be Feminists": Revisiting Feminist Strands ....................................... 29 3. Getting a (Fannish) Life: From Marginalized Fans to Stigmatized Fangirls ……...…. 36 4. Putting Feminism and Fandom Together ...................................................................... 43 5. Summary and Implications For My Research Questions ……………………………..44 Chapter 3: Methodology ......................................................................................................... 46 1. Feminist Methodology .................................................................................................. 46 2. Qualitative Semi-Structured Interviews ………………………………………………48 3. Participants .................................................................................................................... 50 3.1 Age Range ......................................................................................................... 50 3.2 Star Wars and Doctor Who Fans ....................................................................... 51 3.3 Nationality ......................................................................................................... 54 4. Recruitment Process ...................................................................................................... 54 5. Interview Process .......................................................................................................... 57 5.1 Fieldwork Period ............................................................................................... 58 5.2 Comparing F2F, Skype and Telephone Interviews ........................................... 59 6. My Position in the Field ................................................................................................ 61 7. Ethical Considerations and Challenges ......................................................................... 63 8. Analysis and Coding ..................................................................................................... 65 9. Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 4: Becoming a Fan/Feminist ………………………………………………………..69 1. Becoming a Fan: “Just Like Falling in Love” …………………………….…………..70 2 2. Practicing Fandom: A Labor of Love …………………………………………………72 3. Becoming a Feminist: From Feminist Mothers to Caitlin Moran …….………………81 4. Practicing Feminist Identity: "Before I Didn’t Care and Now it's a Lot of Work" .…..83 5. Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………..…..89 Chapter 5: Feminist Icon Needed - Feminist Fans’ Readings of Doctor Who and Star Wars' Female Characters ……………………………………………...…………………..…91 1. Star Wars and Doctor Who ……………………………………...………...………..…92 2. From Slave Leia to General Organa: Feminist Female Fans' Engagement with Princess Leia ……………………………………………………………………..94 2.1 The Feminist Inspiration of Princess Leia …………………………………….94 2.2 The Postfeminism of Slave Leia ………………………………………...….....96 2.3 The Ageism of General Organa ………………………………………..….....100 3. "I wanted to be Sarah Jane": What makes a "Good" Doctor Who Companion? …….101 3.1 Young Sarah Jane ……………………………………...…………………….102 3.2 Older Sarah Jane …………………………………………………………..…103 4. The 13th Doctor: "She's a Time Lord, Not a Time Lady" ………………………..….104 4.1 “PC Gone Mad”: Fighting Against the Backlash …………………………....105 4.2 “Please Not Girly”: Expectations of the 13th Doctor ………………………..109 5. Rey, the “Mary Sue” ………………………………………………………………....112 6. Conclusions ……………………………………………………………..……………115 Chapter 6: Feminist Fans' Conditional Belonging in Doctor Who and Star Wars' Fandoms ……………………………………………………………………………………………... 117 1. "Someone's Girlfriend" or "fangirl"? Fan as a Masculine Identity …………….......119 2. Connoisseurship-Based Inclusion ……………………………………………….…126 3. Conditional Belonging, Hierarchies of Belonging and the Generalized Other …….130 4. Including the Excluded …………………………………………………………..…135 5. Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………...137 Chapter 7: "Being a Feminist Can't Stop Me from Enjoying Things" - Negotiating Feminism and Fandom …………………………………………………………………..…139 1. “It’s Not Perfect, But They Are trying”: Reconciling Fandom and Feminism Through Narrative Tactics …………………......…………………………...…........141 2. "Bloody Patriarchy, Let's Write Some Fanfic to Correct it": Marrying Feminism and Fandom Through Practice Tactics ……………………………………………..146 3. Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………...154 3 Chapter 8: Conclusions …………………………………………………………………....157 1. Key Findings ………………………………………………………………………159 2. Contributions to Knowledge ………………………...…………………………….162 2.1 Theoretical Contributions …………………...…………………………….162 2.2 Methodological Contributions …………………………………………….164 3. Limitations ………………………………………………………...………………165 4. Looking Forward …………………………………………………….……………166 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………168 Appendix 1: Recruitment Flyer ……………..…………………………………...………..194 Appendix 2: Participant Information Sheet ……………………………………………….195 Appendix 3: List of Interviewees …………………………………………………………198 Appendix 4: Interview Guide ……………………………………………………………..199 Appendix 5: Consent Form ………………………………………………………………..200 Appendix 6: Example of Coding Sheet …………………………………………………...201 Word Count: 67,978 4 The Feminist Side of The Force: Women Negotiating Feminism and Star Wars / Doctor Who Fandoms - Abstract Feminism has a long history of critiquing misogyny and sexism in popular culture. Although studies scrutinized women's engagement with sexist contents before, the experiences of feminist women, who promote gender equality while identifying as fans of such contents, are neglected. Inspired by Gay's Bad Feminist (2017), the main objective of this research is to examine how women negotiate feminism and fandom and explore whether feminist fans see themselves as "bad feminists" for enjoying contents that belittle or disregard women. Through tying between feminist and fan identities, this thesis contributes to literatures on feminism and fandom, as well as providing a broader understanding of conflicted identities management. Thirty in-depth interviews were undertaken with women between the ages of 19 to 55, who self-identify as feminist fans of Star Wars or Doctor Who. The broad age range provided a rigorous and comparative account of feminist fans from different generations, who might differ in their interpretations of feminism. Star Wars and Doctor Who were chosen due to their male-dominated fandoms, historical use of female characters as love interests, backlashes against new female protagonists, and longstanding success in popular culture. Findings reveal that feminist female fans experience feelings of inadequacy and inauthenticity when negotiating feminism and fandom. Despite taking part in numerous fannish practices, feminist female fans doubt their legitimacy and eligibility to identify as fans. Using Mead (1972) and Cooley's (1992) theories, in conjunction with belonging literature, the thesis explains that the reason feminist female fans doubt the authenticity of their identities is due to perceived and actual lack of approval by their "generalized other": male fans. While Mead and Cooley did not explicitly discuss gender, this thesis expands their theories by demonstrating the importance of gender in the development of one’s identity through the generalized other. Given this, this thesis defines 'conditional belonging,' a liminal stage in which feminist female fans are policed to conform to values and practices dictated by dominating male members in the community. They are obliged to conceal their feminist identities in order to be included in the community and receive validation of their fan identities by veteran male fans. Despite criticizing their fanned content's representation of female characters