#malefandom

In this final chapter of our blogging journey we look into one of digital media’s fore front aspects, an aspect that the digital media exists to serve, that is the fandom – a select group of a specific media content that is devoted just as equal if not better than the producers of the media. Not only we are looking at fandom but we are specifically focusing on the male side of the fandom – this means we’ll explore the notion of what it means to be a male within a fandom. Because fandoms are always centered around a media related phenomenon – this essay will select the Star Wars franchise as a subject of male fandom, we will look into what makes one a Star Wars fan, how they identify, their traits and most notably how they make their presence onto the digital world so we can apply our digital thought onto them.

Fandom, a hybrid term that is as a result of combing a fan + kingdom, it refers to a form of subculture that is formed under the celebration of a mutual bond between people over a media text or a spectacle – it can be a book, TV show series, a movie franchise, a band, a sports team or even a car model or brand that has become imbedded into popular culture, Gray et al. (2017). The larger Fandom is then broken into smaller factions, also called fandoms with a lower-case ‘f” – these smaller faction are ones often named or given special names that resemble or consequential to the subject of admiration. Examples of popular fandoms include Adele’s fans being called Daydreamers, while The Beatles’ are called Beatlemaniacs and The Hunger Game book series’ fans are Tributes – surprising enough the fans for our chosen fandom, the Star Wars do not a specific fandom title despite being one of the oldest existing and successful movie franchises that has managed to see itself in par with franchises like the Harry Potter and Star Trek, Byam (2007).

Star Wars was developed by George Lucas and the first film was in 1977 and it soon become a cultural lifestyle – the film is also credited to elevating the launch of science fiction in the late 1970s and early 1980s carving out science fiction films as a genre worth the title of a ‘blockbuster’. Since the film was also released its influence among the science fiction genre films and television can be evidently observed. What makes the fandom of Star Wars particularly of interest is their male fan base, Hills (2003).

Male fans of the Star Wars franchise have turned things up down on the current state of the once peaceful and happy fandom, their excuse being that they do not agree with the current steering of the film franchise. This was highlighted when a recent Star Wars movie (: The Last Jedi) that was released just last year – the release of the movie come with news report outlining that the star that who plays once of the key characters to the film Rose Tico (real name Kelly Marie Tran) had deleted all of the images on her Instagram account. This was as a result of her receiving online harassment and abuse for an extensive period from the fans of Star Wars, particularly those who hated The Last Jedi and her character. She was not the first however as it was also reported two years earlier that another female Star Wars’ star Daisy Ridley also deleted her Instagram account after constantly receiving harassment after she expressed her sentiments in favor of gun control policies.

The perpetrators of these harassments were identified to be mainly male – those whom their online profile were public and they did not only end on the stars of their beloved franchise but hate this current installment. They also went after Rian Johnson, the director of The Last Jedi – he was faced with enormous amounts of abuse on Twitter by those who could not get of their dislike for the film, they further even went after Chuck Wending whom has written several Star Wars novels. They blamed Chuck and claimed he is part of ‘ruining’ the franchise.

Even in the midst of what the Star Wars fandom is currently going through, it would be unfair and oversimplified to conclude that the fandom has a serious problem, mainly because fan entitlement is not a new thing, especially to male fans nor it is a problem that is exclusively facing Star Wars.

What is currently happening with the Star Wars fandom is a highlight of what the other side of being a fan looks like, being a fan can be a wonderful experience, one that brings people of different backgrounds together and explore their passion while meeting people can become lifelong friends. It can also bring out the less desirable sides of people – it can breed a sense of entitlement due to the long years of engagement which may lead to some to believe that they are always right and nobody can appreciate this craft better than them as with the case of the male fandom of Star Wars, Proctor (2013).

“To speak of masculinities is to speak about gender relations. Masculinities are not equivalent to men; they concern the position of men in a gender order. They can be defined as the patterns of practice by which people (both men and women, though predominantly men) engage that position. There is abundant evidence that masculinities are multiple, with internal complexities and even contradictions; also that masculinities change in history, and that women have a considerable role in making them, in interaction with boys and men”.

- R.W. Conner 1995

For those participating in more marginalized fandoms—those celebrating content that is not accepted by mainstream society to be worthwhile or cool—shame plays a large role in their fandom participation (Bell, 2013). With the emergence of the Internet and Internet communities, fandom has become more accessible to the average fan. Interestingly, these fan-based communities are often highly segregated across gender.

Fandom can be creative in its appropriation and recreation of media and cultural texts, it is social in that in fosters a sense of community within the fans because of their shared object of fandom and the sense that one is not alone in their quirks. It can be actively formed against mass culture or perpetuate mass culture. Fandom can be resistant, offering alternative readings to what the producer may have intended, however this may not always be the case Poaching and ‘nomadic behaviour identified in fandom by Jenkins (1992) can be described as fans navigating their way through different textual landscapes and appropriating them how they deem fit. This navigation and movement through the textual landscape is an intertextual one, meaning that fans do not rely only on one text but have the luxury to choose from an array of texts, whether related or not. Self-identifying as fan, one could argue is an assertion and a claiming of one’s fandom, therefore by doing this one displaces the mainstream notion of what a fan or fanhood is, there is a taking back of power in how one chooses to enact their fandom.

Fandom threatens power by going against the ‘acceptable’ ways in which texts are supposed to be read, Jenkins (1992) reiterates this by stating that, “fan interpretive practice differs from that fostered by the educational system,” (Jenkins 1992:19). Therefore, fans have a complete disregard for these rules and move through texts as ‘nomads’ and ‘poaching’ what is beneficial to them. The cultural value that is bestowed upon certain texts is questioned and the ‘correct’ reading of texts that has been taught in institutions of higher learning, or passed on through cultural exchange is ignored. A fandom like the men that form part of what I will refer to as the ‘Brony Bunch’ popularly known as Bronies, are likely not be taken as seriously as their expression of fandom deviates from the everyday expressions of fandom by men- a toxic masculine fandom is predominantly characterized by aggressive behaviour as epitomized by the ultimate football fan.  

Bronies (‘bro + pony) are young adult men who follow the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic animated series. Not only have they been met with ridicule but they are controversially debated amongst those who cannot comprehend why a man would enjoy something meant for little girls. It goes against traditional notions of manhood and the potential construction of hegemonic masculinity.

There is a ‘boy code’ that cannot be transgressed, this code is a set of rules and expectations that are places on boys from a young age on the kind of masculine behavior that they are expected to enact (Hautakangas, 2015). However, Bronies to transgress this ‘boy code’, stipulating that it offers a joy that cannot be found among discourses that frame hegemonic masculinity. Bronies’s interest in the My Little Pony series has been met with suspicion, explained as a sexual fetish or as ‘gay behaviour’.

“the apparent out of placeness of bronies speaks volumes about naturalized gender norms, and how they are related to our everyday media cultures” -Mikko Hautakangas 2015 

Bronies have to reconcile their fandoms with the masculine identities; Bronies recognize that their fandom as a violation of gender norms, and becoming a brony is described as a process of recreating one’s masculine identity. Brody culture embodies an identity that transgresses the stereotypical attitudes.

Even though Brony fandom can is deemed as going against the conventional performance of masculinity. Antihegemonic expressions of masculinity such as theirs still have access to hegemonic masculinity, and affirming heteronormativity and marginalising non-heterosexual, non-masculine identities, they exclude certain social classes and ethnicities/races as well.

Nonetheless this critique does not take away from the subversive potential of Brony culture, the series brings to its male audience a much-needed opportunity to lose themselves in a de-masculinised world.

References

Connell, R. W. (2005). Masculinities. 1995. Cambridge: Polity.

Hautakangas, M. (2015). It’s ok to be joyful? My Little Pony and Brony masculinity. The Journal of Popular Television, 3(1), 111-118.

Jenkins, Henry (1992). ‘“Get a life!”: Fans, poachers, nomads’. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York & London: Routledge