The Fan Studies Network

Call for Papers, Themed section of Participations: International Journal of Audience and Reception Studies

TOXIC FAN PRACTICES

Editors: Bridget Kies (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA) and William Proctor (Bournemouth University, UK).

Since its inception, the discipline we now know as Fan Studies necessarily set out to challenge stereotypical perspectives on the behaviour and practices of fan cultures, many of which constructed the figure of the fan as a figure of fun; of pathological disorder, instability and ‘enfreakment’ (Proctor, 2016; Richardson, 2010). In so doing, and in many ways, Fan Studies followed the trajectory established by Media and Cultural Studies beginning with the Birmingham School in the 1970s. In particular, the ‘first wave’ of Fan Studies was invested in demonstrating that audiences are not solely passive recipients of so-called media messages, or ‘dominant ideologies,’ but active participants in the production of transgressive and transformative practices – fan fiction, fan ‘vidding’ and the like – and involved in the negotiation of making meaning. The advent and proliferation of new media technologies, especially the Internet, has forced previously marginal fan cultures into the mainstream (Bennett and Booth, 2014; Gray et al, 2007; Scott 2013). As a result, the heightened visibility of fans and their ability to comment, celebrate and criticise produces readily accessible discourses for public consumption. While such a shift in visibility has had a clear impact on “monolithic conglomerates” (Johnson, 2013: 43) in that “fan audiences are now woo’d and championed by media industries” (Gray et al: 2007: 2), we believe that this represents only a fraction of the story, and one that requires significant redress. The visibility of fan cultures may very well shine a light on creative and participatory practices, but mainstream, public exposure also demonstrates the heterogeneity of fan communities, warts and all.

Of course, Fan Studies has since moved through several phases and, in recent years, fans themselves have become the subject of mainstream news media, but often in highly negative ways. Such discourses circulate around the figure of the fan, not as a figure of fun necessarily, but as a figure of racist, homophobic, sexist and reactionary politics. Moreover, news reports are beginning to stereotype fans in ‘new’ ways, such as the belief that the affordances of new media have led to an era of “fan entitlement syndrome” (Mendelsohn, 2014), of “nerd rage” and antisocial, toxic behaviours. Stereotypes of fan entitlement circulated in online news media (professional, amateur, pro-am) seems to be an “updated and retooled” version of William Shatner’s oft-cited ‘get a life’ stereotyping (Hills, 2016: 271; see also Jenkins, 1992).
The anonymity provided by social media platforms, with their (cyber) pseudonymous (and obfuscated) identities, has provided a figurative wall behind which participants may hide. As Claire Hardaker (2015) emphasizes, ‘this anonymity can also foster a sense of impunity, loss of self-awareness, and a likelihood of acting upon normally inhibited impulses’ (224). By the same token, Michael Suler explains that ‘people say and do things in cyberspace that they wouldn’t ordinarily say and do in the face-to-face world’ (2004: 321). This disinhibition can be salutary (supportive, cathartic) but these fan discourses in particular exemplify toxic disinhibition signified by ‘rude language, harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats’ (ibid).

The fan studies discipline has already started grappling with these issues. Analyses of inter- and intrafandom Othering, ‘of fans, by fans’ (Hills, 2012), have been conducted on such quarrels and conflicts, including fan-objects such as Twilight (Hills, 2012; Williams, 2014), One Direction (Jones, 2016; Proctor, 2016), R.E.M (Bennett, 2011), and the female-led Ghostbusters remake/ reboot (Proctor., 2017). Moreover, online conflict and “toxic technocultures” (Massanari, 2015) has been analysed in other disciplines, including the #GamerGate controversy and hashtag activism such as #RaceFail, #Ferguson, #BlackLivesMatter (Rambukkana, 2015) and #BlackStormtrooper (Proctor, forthcoming), to select a few examples (see also, Burgess and Matamoros-Fernandez, 2016; Chess and Shaw, 2015; Hardaker, 2010; Hardaker, 2013; Hardaker and McGlashan, 2015; Luce, 2016; Massanari, 2015; Poland, 2016).

How can researchers examine toxic fan practices beyond those offered by mainstream news artefacts, many of which cherry-pick examples from social media without adequate theorisation or methodology? That some fans are racist, homophobic, sexist or otherwise exclusionary is one thing; but how can researchers develop tests to measure this extant discourse? How do we know who is speaking? How do we know that these are fans at all, as opposed to ‘trolls’ or ‘flamers,’ that is, those online individuals who find delight and entertainment in conflicts of this kind (Hardaker, 2015)? This special section does not seek to deny that toxic fans and audiences exist.  We do, however, seek to provide an academic space whereby these issues are placed centre-stage via methodology that moves beyond reductive, handpicked selections.  We are also interested in theorisations of the place of toxic fan practices within larger fan communities and as objects of study for the maturing fields of Fan/Audience Studies, including research across disciplines.

Contributions are welcome on a variety of topics that investigate the concept of toxic fan practices and methodological issues arising such as:

*   Online methodologies/ netnographies of particular fan communities and social media platforms
*   Specific case studies of toxic fan cultures (e.g. Star Trek fans’ responses to gay Sulu or Marvel fans’ reactions to female Thor)
*   Criticism of toxic fans from within fandoms, intra-fandom conflicts (e.g. Game of Thrones fans condemning and celebrating scenes of rape)
*   Widescale protests and boycotts on social media (such as #boycottstarwars or #buryyourgays)
*   Criticisms of representations of race, gender, sexuality, etc., in fan cultures

Proposals are also welcome on other topics as long as they meet the aims of the special section.

Please send 300 word abstracts to the following email addresses by March 1st 2017.
bproctor@bournemouth.ac.uk<mailto:bproctor@bournemouth.ac.uk>
bkies@uwm.edu<mailto:bkies@uwm.edu>

Symposium: Exploitation Cinema in the 21^st Century.

Event Date: June 9^th 2017

Canterbury Christ Church University, UK

Deadline for proposals: 3^rd March 2017

Keynote Speaker: Dr Johnny Walker, Northumbria University

In relation to cinema, the term “exploitation” has been adopted by various individuals and institutions over time, from opportunistic film producers and marketers of the 1920s to contemporary online distributors releasing new films in the 21^st century. There is a current wave of exciting and productive scholarship on the historical developments of exploitation cinema, and its famous, and not so famous, films and filmmakers. But much of this research focuses on exploitation before the year 2000, with a particular focus up to and including the VHS era of the 1980s. Less research exists on the inflections of exploitation in the 21^st century, and the trends and developments that have taken place since the turn of the century. This one-day symposium seeks to shed new light on the embodiments of exploitation cinema since 2000, with particular emphasis on current waves and cycles, the way in which they are now consumed (such as online rather than in theatres), and which particular exploitation filmmakers stand out as being important in contemporary times.

Topics might include (but are not limited to);

• Analysis of single films
• Studies of current waves or cycles of exploitation
• Exploitation cinema from global national contexts (in particular from non-English speaking countries)
• The re-emergence of old cycles since 2000 (Rape-Revenge, the Biker movie, etc.)
• Individual filmmakers
• New genres, sub-genres, and hybrids
• High budget exploitation (such as that produced by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez)
• Patterns of exhibition and distribution
• Studies of industrial models or modes
• Exploitation studios (The Asylum etc.)
• Exploitation online
• Exploitation fandom and audiences

We invite proposals of up to 300 words for 20 minute papers, plus a short bio (up to 150 words) by March 3^rd 2017.

We also welcome video essays to be submitted with a 300 word proposal/150 word bio, sent to us by March 3^rd 2017. Final video submissions should be sent by June 2^nd 2017 via Vimeo link. Video submissions should aim to be 10 minutes maximum running time.

All proposal (and any queries) should be sent to Dr James Newton at james.newton@canterbury.ac.uk

CALL FOR PAPERS

Conference: Teenage Kicks: Global teenage cultures, representations and practices

Event date: Saturday 9 September – Sunday 10 September 2017
Kingston University, London
Deadline for Proposals: 1st March 2017

Keynote Speaker: Dr Kate E. Taylor-Jones, School of East Asian Studies, Sheffield University

The popular contemporary representation of a teenager is someone who stays in their bedroom with their tablet and phone, only venturing out for sustenance.  Media panics around violence and videogames, online pornography and extreme television and film also construct the teenager as a passive victim of the mass media. The purpose of this two day conference is to interrogate popular representations, cultures and sub-cultures, and practices of teenagers on a global level.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks 20 minute papers and panel proposals which interrogate popular conceptions and misconceptions of the teenager. Papers and panels will approach the teenager from a global perspective are particularly welcome.

Themes include:

•       Bedroom Cultures

•       Fan practices and cultures

•       Blogs/Vlogs and other internet practices

•       Selfie culture

•       Fashion and beauty

•       Music and sub-cultural identities

•       Constructions of the ‘girl’ or constructions of the ‘boy’ in popular culture

•       Teenage cinema

•       Online dating and sexting

•       K-Pop/J-Pop and hybridity

•       Teenagers and the ideology of anti-social behaviour

•       Religion and the teenager

•       Histories of the teenager

•       Young Adult literature

•       Young Adult television and film

•       The law and the teenager

Please email abstracts (250-300) words to Colette Balmain (c.balmain@kingston.ac.uk) or Lucy Williams (l.williams@kingston.ac.uk) by no later than March 1st 2017 and don’t forget to include your name, email address and institutional affiliation if applicable. We look forward to hearing from you.

For further information about this event contact: Dr Colette Balmain at: c.balmain@kingston.ac.uk.

Updated details will appear on the conference website:

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/events/item/2444/09-sep-2017-teenage-kicks-global-teenage-cultures-representations-and-practices/

Call For Papers: Transnational Monstrosity in Popular Culture

Saturday 3^rd June 2017, York St John University

This one-day conference will explore the figure of the monster in transnational popular culture, across cinema, television, games, comics and literature, as well as through fandoms attached to global monster cultures. It is our intention to bring together researchers to consider how transnational monstrosity is constructed, represented and disseminated in global popular culture.

Since the popularisation of monster narratives in the nineteenth century, the monstrous figure has been a consistent border crosser, from Count Dracula’s journey on the Demeter from Romania to Whitby, to the rampaging monsters of Godzilla movies across multiple global cities. In folklore, such narratives have long been subject to specific local and national cultures, such as the shape-shifting Aswang of Filipino folklore or the Norwegian forest Huldra, yet global mediacapes now circulate mediatised representations of such myths across borders, contributing to a transnational genre that spans multiple media. Aihwa Ong has referred to ‘the transversal, the transactional, the translational, and the transgressive’ in transnational ‘human practices and cultural logics’, and each of these categories can encompass the scope of transformations imagined within cross-border constructions of monstrosity.

There has been significant recent interest in the ways in which transnationality, particularly in film studies, has depicted flows of people and demonstrated lines of cultural flow. This conference will explore cultural flow as it relates to the construction of a transnational genre (by producers and audiences), but will also explore the ramifications of representations of monstrosity in socio-political terms. The event also intends to engage with the ways in which monsters metaphorically represent forms of social and political otherness as they relate to cross-cultural or transnational forms and social groups, either directly or indirectly. Monstrosity has long been explored in a number of ways that connect gender, sexuality, class, race, nationality and other forms of otherness with depictions of monsters or monstrosity. The representation of refugees across Europe has been just one example of the ways in which cross-border monstrosity and otherness are culturally fused, with media outlets and political figures contributing to the repeated representation of refugees as a monstrous ‘swarm’ moving into and across European borders.

While the study of monsters in fiction is nothing new, the examination of the figure of the monster from a transnational perspective offers the opportunity to better understand: issues of cultural production and influence; the relationship between national cultures and transnational formations; hierarchies of cultural production; diasporic flows; the ethics of transnationalism; as well as the possibility to explore how shifting cultural and political boundaries have been represented through tropes of monstrosity. Hence, this conference seeks to offer new insights into the nature of transnational cultures and help us to understand how one of the oldest fictional metaphors has been transformed during the age of globalisation.

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers, on topics around transnational monsters and monstrosity. Possible themes might include (but are not limited to):

Monstrous-genders/sexualities/ethnicities: transnational approaches to femininity and/or sexuality as monstrous or othered; interpretations of otherness in cross-cultural or comparative approaches.

Monster fandoms: transnational fandoms around monsters, or representations of monstrosity, which might include Whitby Dracula pilgrimages, kaijū eiga, or Pokemon.

Transnational horror and the monster: approaches to investigating particular monster tropes in comparative national cultures or across media that might include the figure of monsters in the slasher film, or the transnational appropriation of folkloric monsters in horror games such as the Wendigo in Until Dawn.

The transnational monster genre: theoretical explorations of the genericity of monster narratives and their relationships with national and transnational cultures (including regional approaches to affinitive transnational areas, such as Scandinavia or Latin America).

Reimagining monsters:  cross-cultural appropriations of specific monster figures; issues of cultural power and difference within appropriations that might include Dracula, Godzilla, King Kong or zombies.

Monster as metaphor: cultural metaphors relevant to the figure of the monster as it relates to transnational, cross-border concerns, which might include the reflection of concerns about migration in The Walking Dead and the potential impact of those metaphors.

Proposals are welcomed on any other relevant topics

Please send proposals of 300 words, along with a brief biography (50 words), to transnationalmonsters@gmail.com by Wednesday the 1^st of March 2017.

We will be announcing details of our invited speakers early in 2017.

Follow @TNMonstrosity on Twitter.