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Though you might consider being a fan a passive condition, fans have always found ways to become active readers, watchers, or listeners. Take, for example, fanfiction. Far from a modern phenomenon, fanfiction can be traced at least back to the 18th century, when readers composed their own stories based on the 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels. As with fanfiction of today, these fan-written tales were often more willing to tackle taboo topics than the source material.
In the 20th century, the most famous case of fanfic comes from Star Trek. The series is said to have spawned the first widely distributed copy of slashfic—fanfiction that depicts a romantic relationship between two male characters. The first piece of Kirk/Spock fanfiction was published in a fanzine in 1974.
Despite its now canonical status, Kirk/Spock fanfic was heavily censored at the time, in part due to obscenity laws. Censorship and legal issues have long plagued fanfic writers, most famously in the case of Anne Rice.
Interview With a Vampire was once a popular topic for fanfics until Anne Rice came out strongly against the exercise, even sending cease and desist letters to fans. Due to Rice’s aggressive stance, the popular site Fanfiction.net still does not allow fanfiction based on her works.
The beloved fanfic site Archive of Our Own—also known as AO3—emerged as a direct response to these copyright problems. While FanFiction.net relied on ads to stay afloat, AO3 is a volunteer-run non-profit that focuses on safeguarding fan works. Their parent group, the Organization for Transformative Works, endeavors to preserve fan-made creations and protect creators from legal issues. (In recognition of all the works posted on the site, AO3 won a Hugo Award in 2019.)
While fanfiction is more accepted than it once was, the practice remains controversial. This may be in part due to the fact that fanfic sometimes tackles taboo subjects that aren’t represented elsewhere, including sexually explicit content. There is also the contested genre of Real-Person Fic (or RPF), which entails stories of real people rather than fictional characters. At the same time, fanfiction has received validation from respected authors such as Cassandra Clare and N.K. Jemison, who are both prolific fanfic writers.
Fanfiction has long been the domain of women, which may also explain its trivialized status. A survey of the demographics on AO3 found that cis, white women are most represented on the site. Indeed, Slashfic is primarily written by women, some of whom are straight, and some of whom are queer. Femslash—which depicts romances between two female characters—is another growing category on the site, though slashfic is still the most popular type of pairing by far.
Why it matters
The dynamics of fanfiction are complex. In one sense, the fanfic posted on AO3 has an anti-capitalist bent, as the site is a non-profit, and writers are legally prohibited from making money off their work. Nonetheless, it is possible to turn fanfiction into a profitable enterprise, as E.L. James did with her Fifty Shades series.
Though trans, non-binary, queer, and asexual people are overrepresented within the fanfic community, that doesn’t mean equality prevails. There are still issues with racism, sexism, and ableism on these sites, as there is everywhere on the internet.
TL;DR: Fanfiction isn’t inherently radical, but it is inherently interesting.
