scholarly journals Fan-ning the flame

2021 ◽  
pp. 87-103
Author(s):  
Aviva Dove-Viebahn
Keyword(s):  
Character Development ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Main Text ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Cable Channel ◽  
Television Shows ◽  
Fan Communities ◽  
Lesbian Couple ◽  
Cult Television ◽  
Historical Antecedents

While promoting recent seasons of supernatural Western horror series Wynonna Earp (2016), cable channel Syfy released several fan-style videos championing the show’s resident lesbian couple: the protagonist’s sister, Waverly, and police officer Nicole Haught (celebrated via the portmanteau “WayHaught”). In 2019, a network “shipping” its own queer characters in service of fans contrasts starkly with the televisual landscape twenty, or even ten, years prior, when viewers invested in lesbian characters and/or same-sex couples relied on subtext and fan paratexts to fuel their enthusiasm for mostly unacknowledged or thwarted relationships between female characters. In this article, I engage in a two-part interrogation of the representation of lesbian romance on cult television shows in the last twenty-five years, with a focus on Wynonna Earp and its historical antecedents—supernatural, sci-fi, and fantasy shows featuring women and their female companion(s) (whether close friends or lovers). This includes a historiography of the development of lesbian fan communities around certain shows from the late 1990s and early 2000s, as well as an analysis of the narrative stakes and character development in both historical and contemporary shows, like Earp, in order to interrogate their representations of subtext or main text romantic pairings.

Case Study for Counseling Same Sex Couples Through the Fertility Process

2020 ◽  
pp. 66-88
Author(s):  
Meredith A. Rausch ◽  
Haley D. Wikoff
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Counseling Relationship ◽  
Professional Counselors ◽  
Vitro Fertilization ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Lesbian Couple

Fertility and reproductive technologies are increasingly important topics for counseling LGBT+ individuals. As legislation improves, lesbian couples have additional opportunities to expand their families. Professional counselors may be aware of the various fertility methods (e.g., artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization), but may lack understanding of the specific differences inherent in the process for two females. Lesbians also face barriers present in a heteronormative society. This chapter describes a counseling relationship with a lesbian couple who are working through the fertility process. When performing counseling work, using the multicultural and social justice competencies allows the counselor to provide ethical practice. The counselors use Relational-Cultural Theory, a feminist theory, to help Jane and Kelsey set goals consistent with the tenets of the theory. Additionally, the counseling team and couple work through the unique barriers a lesbian couple faces when experiencing the fertility process in a heteronormative society.

scholarly journals Adjective Intensification as a Means of Characterization

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Reichelt ◽  
Mercedes Durham
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Natural Speech ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Buffy The Vampire Slayer ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Television Shows

This paper examines the use of intensifiers on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer in order to establish the ways in which they can be used for characterization. We found that the male and female characters used intensifiers differently (similarly to what is found in natural speech), but also that intensifier choice was related to changes in social networks for several of the female characters on the show ( so and totally). Furthermore, intensifiers were also used to distinguish the British characters on the show from the American ones ( extremely, terribly, and bloody). By comparing our results to findings for other television shows ( Friends) and for natural speech, we were able to establish the extent to which the show makes use of (then) innovative linguistic features for characterization. These findings underline the extent to which scriptwriters and/or actors were able to use linguistic features to index specific types of character.

Narractivity and the narrative database

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Booth
Keyword(s):  
Media Content ◽  
Narrative Construction ◽  
Knowledge Communities ◽  
Television Shows ◽  
Cult Television

Wikis, websites designed for the communal creation of media content, have previously been theorized using the work of Levy (1997) as knowledge communities. In this conception, wikis are seen as storehouses of data that communities can use to organize and explicate their encyclopedic “communal intelligence.” In this paper, I expand on Levy’s argument to examine the narratological possibilities of wikis. Using as examples fan-created wikis for the cult television shows Lost and Heroes, I show that these media-based wikis highlight the fan community’s interactive construction of a narratological database. Using the interactivity omnipresent in wikis, fans articulate a new conception of narrative construction, a conception I term “narractivity.”

scholarly journals Review of The Fan Fiction Studies Reader, Eds. Hellekson, Karen., and Kristina Busse (2014)

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-293
Author(s):  
Fiona N. Cheuk
Keyword(s):  
White Paper ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Fan Fiction ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
Television Shows ◽  
Fan Communities ◽  
Television Media ◽  
Western Film

Disability is often absent in both the content and the production levels of Western film and television media, and other popular cultural productions. They rarely include disability except as plot devices that invoke ableist tropes such as: tragedy, pity, or a temporary challenge for non-disabled characters to overcome, or as lessons for the main character to learn from, and many more. In the Ruderman white paper on Employment of Actors with Disabilities in Television, Woodburn and Kopic found that 95% of disabled characters in the top ten US television shows were played by non-disabled actors (2016). Yet, these marked absences of disability from popular media has not been reflected in the numerous fan creations produced by fan communities in tribute to their favourite fandom.

Fans of Q: The Stakes of QAnon’s Functioning as Political Fandom

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110422
Author(s):  
CarrieLynn D. Reinhard ◽  
David Stanley ◽  
Linda Howell
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Fan Studies ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Sports Teams ◽  
Television Shows ◽  
Fan Communities ◽  
Cartoon Characters

Affective activation, and the community engagement it fosters, is the driving mechanism of all fandoms, irrespective of the specific “objects of affection” around which they coalesce. These centralized objects of affection may hail from popular culture, such as in the form of sports teams, television shows, cartoon characters, or musicians. As fan scholars have increasingly recognized, fandoms can also emerge around profit-driven brands, specific politicians, and social movements. Much has been said regarding the dangers of the online conspiracy theory QAnon. However, these warnings have tended to overemphasize the rapidly evolving, amorphous beliefs of its adherents, rather than recognize the affective activation propelling the movement. Through its analysis of affect-driven communities, the field of fan studies can be productively applied to investigate the online discursive activities of QAnon community members. Framing QAnon as a fandom elucidates the functions through which the conspiracy theory radicalizes “normies” by exploiting the types of fan activities already well-established in mainstream fan communities. Underscoring the transferability of fan studies concepts to political movements and communities, this exploration outlines the societal stakes of QAnon’s manipulation and normalization of the toxic emotions cohering its adherents into a fanatic community.

scholarly journals This is not Marketing. This is HBO: Branding HBO with Transmedia Storytelling

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Bourdaa
Keyword(s):  
Cable Channel ◽  
Transmedia Storytelling ◽  
Television Shows ◽  
The Sopranos ◽  
The Us ◽  
True Blood ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Media ◽  
The Wire ◽  
The Way

This article deals with the way HBO promotes its shows today using strategies of ‘transmedia storytelling’ (Jenkins 2006). The US pay-per view cable channel has a history of creating a specific promotional system around its programs. Its famous slogan ‘It’s Not TV. It’s HBO.’ accompanied the introduction of narrative complexity in shows like The Sopranos (HBO/Brillstein Entertainment Partner, 1999-2007) or The Wire (HBO/Blown Deadline Productions, 2002-8) for example. Transmedia Storytelling, as theorized by Henry Jenkins, is a way to extend stories across multiple media platforms in order to create a coherent storyworld, giving information on characters or insights on the plots and the narrative universe. This article analyses how HBO is developing strategies of transmedia storytelling. I will focus on two specific television shows, True Blood (HBO/Your Face Goes Here Entertainment, 2008- ) and Game of Thrones (HBO/Television 360/Grok! Television/Generator Entertainment/Bighead Littlehead, 2011- ), in order to understand how HBO managed to promote these shows and expand its brand in the American and international television landscape. I use a dual methodology, first presenting an analysis of the transmedia strategies related to the universes of the shows. Then I will draw on interviews with the creators of these strategies in order to understand how they are included in the promotion of HBO.

Case Study for Counseling Same Sex Couples Through the Fertility Process

2022 ◽  
pp. 441-458
Author(s):  
Meredith A. Rausch ◽  
Haley D. Wikoff
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Counseling Relationship ◽  
Professional Counselors ◽  
Vitro Fertilization ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Lesbian Couple

Fertility and reproductive technologies are increasingly important topics for counseling LGBT+ individuals. As legislation improves, lesbian couples have additional opportunities to expand their families. Professional counselors may be aware of the various fertility methods (e.g., artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization), but may lack understanding of the specific differences inherent in the process for two females. Lesbians also face barriers present in a heteronormative society. This chapter describes a counseling relationship with a lesbian couple who are working through the fertility process. When performing counseling work, using the multicultural and social justice competencies allows the counselor to provide ethical practice. The counselors use Relational-Cultural Theory, a feminist theory, to help Jane and Kelsey set goals consistent with the tenets of the theory. Additionally, the counseling team and couple work through the unique barriers a lesbian couple faces when experiencing the fertility process in a heteronormative society.

Distributing Whiteness: Please Like Me and Global Television Circulation

2021 ◽  
pp. 152747642110528
Author(s):  
Melanie E. S. Kohnen
Keyword(s):  
White Privilege ◽  
Promotional Material ◽  
Cable Channel ◽  
Fan Communities ◽  
Global Television ◽  
Point Of Intersection ◽  
Trade Press

This essay examines the formal and informal distribution of Australian dramedy Please Like Me via the now-defunct American digital cable channel Pivot and via fan communities on Tumblr. I argue that structural whiteness operates as an invisible engine at the heart of Please Like Me’s distribution. My analysis unpacks how an unexamined narrative of white privilege forms the backbone of Please Like Me’s diegesis, fandom’s investment in circulating the show, and Pivot’s alignment of the show with its supposedly socially conscious brand. Examining trade press, promotional material, and fan discourse, I demonstrate how structural whiteness functions as point of intersection between industry and fan-driven distribution.

scholarly journals Female-centered fan fiction as homoaffection in fan communities

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ria Narai
Keyword(s):  
Star Trek ◽  
Fan Studies ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Fan Fiction ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Fan Communities ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

In the scholarship of fan studies, a lot has been said about why female fan communities enjoy writing about male characters and relationships in fan fiction. In contrast, there has been a dearth of research into female fan communities that are centered around female characters and their relationships with each other. Here I examine the heretofore unnamed female-centered fan fiction genre of homoaffection fic through a close reading of examples chosen from the Star Trek fandom. I show how this fan fictional genre reworks the masculine narratives of the television series and movies in order to define female experience and demonstrate the way in which this in turn creates female communities in both the world of the fic and our own world.

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