#gleesearch

If any of you ever thought, 'hey, I wonder what stuff's most popular on the GKM?' my current research is right up your alley. The top 25 kinks of the Glee fandom as of today.

Well, the paper at SCMS went well and I got some interest in the work I'm doing from a few other academics. I also got a few people telling me they had no idea what a non-canon shipper even was but now they know they were surprised by the kind of work Faberry shippers put into their fandom. Good surprised. 

As for the culmination of this particular project, the article I've written (just shy of 7,500 words) is currently in the process of peer reviewing. This means other academics read it and see if they think the work is of a good enough calibre to be published. This can take a few months. If they like it it's then put into the publishing schedule. This can be anywhere from 6-18 months. Academia moves slowly.

Once I know what's happening and have anything concrete to report I will publish info here. After all, without the Faberry fandom not only would this work have never come about but I would never have had half as much fun doing it. I've always been a textualist but this fandom has shifted my entire concept of what the text is and who makes it. So thanks.

"In the Tumblr fan bubble an intricate, self-referential and robust text can be created which easily rivals the canon text and in doing so fosters creativity in the non-canon shipper unlike any seen before. "

So the fan response part of my research is up and running. If you have the time, please go fill it in for me. All answers are anonymous but your help is hugely appreciated.

While it's been fun I'm kind of glad the tour is over. Maybe now I can get some actual work done. What have a learnt? Chris Colfer has a lot of very loud tween girl fans. No one cares what Will Schuester has to say. And more importantly, in a diverse audience of thousands night after night what got the most response, the loudest cheers? Sweet moments between non-heterosexual couples. Whatever you believe about things being in or out of character, whatever relationships you ascribe to these people, at no point in the tour was there a moment given to representing a heterosexual couple. And the audience loved it. Little kids, older couples, straight, gay and everything in between, they loved it. And that's something. Over a million tickets sold across two continents, that's a lot of people embracing the acceptance this show was meant to be about. I won't get into issues of the actual narrative and representations because right now I just want to be happy about what that signifies. It's also maybe given me inspiration for my next project.

But that will have to wait because with the end of the tour comes the end of the research section of my Achele/Faberry project. Now I have to turn it into some kind of cohesive article. It's been one hell of a ride and more fun than I ever thought. So thank you to the fandom, you're the craziest, most passionate people I've come across.

The last 24 hours have been fascinating for me. As a fan and a lesbian speculating about Dianna Agron’s actions and words, things both said an unsaid, is unavoidable. Of course I have my own ideas about what these moments mean. However, as an academic my purpose is to analyse how others react, the effect her actions have on the fandom. Of course at times it is hard to separate these parts of myself, but ultimately that is the job of the academic.

The initial jubilation over the t-shirt was, as always, heart-warming. This fandom again and again delights me with the joy it finds in feeling a connection, a kind of acceptance. Their love comes both from the idea that they see a part of themselves in Agron, but also that they see her as inspirational. She is in some ways a kindred spirit. Moreover, these fans also love each other, and moments like this bring them even closer together because they get the sense that Agron is speaking to them, that she understands them in some sense.

Now as I said, my job is not to personally speculate. But we know Agron is aware of what is said about her so there is no way in which she was unaware of how her actions would play into this game of speculation. Fans throw around the term ‘troll’ in jest, implicitly aware that this is a game both sides are playing.

Perhaps what surprised me most was this was not all game. Sure there was the fun at first, of guessing what it might mean, folding this moment into the story of Achele through shared jokes and references, but it was also so much more than that. There was a feeling among the fans that it felt as though she was standing up for them. That even if it wasn’t a coming out it was a brave moment in which Agron was saying that she didn’t care what was said about her, because, hey, what’s wrong with being gay? With one shirt she made the fandom feel accepted, proud.

I’ve said before this fandom gets a lot of stick, especially considering all they’re really doing is trying believe that there could, just maybe, be a real life love story that lived up to the fictions they rarely get to see. What could be so offensive about that? But somehow people do find it offensive. But the fandom stands proud and doesn’t bite back, always striving to be the bigger man in shipping wars.

Hours later when Agron responded I saw two things. Firstly a fandom tending its wounds. With the words “I’m not a lesbian” things changed, foundations shifted. Agron stopped playing the game. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I saw a fandom that quite graciously said “OK”. They accepted Agron’s statement at face-value but did not let it change their status as fans.