This Week In Fandom History

There's no need to call him 'sir,' professor! This week, V and Emily really, really try very, very hard to be generous and understanding about people loving Severus Snape even though it is extremely difficult for them because he is the worst. In their personal opinions. Which are not facts, just opinions, and do not mean that you cannot love Severus Snape if you love him!!! Go ahead and love him!!! And listen to this tale of a group of women who really, REALLY loved him!!! Ahem. Do you have thoughts or feelings about Severus Snape? Were you, perhaps, astrally married to him?

No pithy exclamation this week, folks, we're jumping right into the actual episode description: This week, V and Emily are joined by Maggie @bossymarmalade, who was one of the key meta-writers during this unfortunate fandom (and wider writing world) event. "Racefail '09" is the moniker for a lengthy discussion on LiveJournal in 2009 about the role of race in fandom and the SF/F community, from heinous depictions of POC in SF/F titles to the way POC always seem to die first in fan-favorite TV shows to the lack of representation of fans of color at conventions, and more. Maggie very graciously agreed to be on TWIFH as a primary source for what it was like "on the ground" during this touchstone fandom imbroglio, and we are so grateful that she was willing to look back at this turbulent and often painful time with us. Were you a writer or follower of Racefail '09 on LJ? What do you think its legacy is in fandom today? 

FanHistory Wiki's Racefail Timeline

Avalon's Willow's Racefail Timeline

DeepaD's "I Didn't Dream of Dragons"

bossymarmalade's "Sees Fire"

Badwards and cookies and unicorns, oh my! This week, V and Emily head to Forks and dive off the cliff into the world of Twihards, Twank, and one very special gazebo as they look at the first Twilight superfic and, arguably, the one with the biggest impact on the fandom: Wide Awake by angstgoddess003. Is this fic the reason that 50 Shades of Grey exists? Kind of. Is it ridiculous? Absolutely. But did V gobble up every cookie-themed chapter? Hell yeah! Learn about a Cassandra Clare-level wank with us and -- unlike the Cullen vamps -- burst into flames of rage at E.L. James' grossness. Were you a Twihard (or perhaps a Twimom)? Do you suffer from insomnia that can only be cured by the beautiful bad boy next door??

The Author would like to tell you all to suck it! This week, V and Emily scroll way, way, way back to 2021, when every single fucking page of AO3 was blighted by the tagslist on the one, the only: Sexy Times With WangXian. You know it. You hate it. And it led to archive-wide changes in tag limits and a discussion about tagging etiquette (and those terrible multifandom short-fic works that take up your whole screen. You know the ones). Were you in STWWX's direct fire? 

CUT! This week, Emily and V go back in time for a retrospective of truly despicable actions and quotes by a truly despicable man, Joss Whedon, whom fandom-at-large gave far too many passes for far too long. From killing off Cordelia Chase to punish Charisma Carpenter to outright racism against Ray Fisher, Joss Whedon's career is as full of people to whom he was joyfully cruel as it is full of nerdcore heavy hitters. Can you really separate art from the artist? What is the line beyond which art just isn't worth it?

PEPPERONI! This week, V and Emily go completely off the rails as they join in on the annual Star Trek holiday of Threshold Day. This is the silliest episode we have ever done and likely will ever do. Get ready for salamanders! Polls! Crabs! Daddy issues! If you've never celebrated Threshold Day, just... get ready.

With thanks to @hollie47, @vanilkaplays, @fictionalred, @forfuckssakejim, @myenterpriseisparked, @spacelizardswhopassedthreshold, @wanderingwriter87, @ohmyoverland, and Star Trek fandom as a whole. Also, the salamander babies. 

Helloooooo, internet land! This week, Emily and V were treated to a primer on the OMG Check Please! fandom by listener and friend-of-the-pod korechthonia, and Emily explains the divide between the pro-Parse and anti-Parse sides of the otherwise sweet and peaceful fandom. Plus, she tells V about growing up on a boys' hockey team herself and losing a tooth on the ice! Also, inextricable from OMGCP's sweet tale of gay hockey players in love is the sad, homophobic truth of the NHL, so we had to dig into that as well. But mostly: cute hockey comic about love and pies. WERE YOU PART OF THE KENT PARSON DISCOURSE OF 2016 OR WERE YOU NORMAL?

If you would like to suggest an event in fandom history and/or give us a fandom primer, get in touch on our Tumblr! You can support this podcast and also get in touch with us on Patreon.

Hey kids, you want some recs? This week, V and Emily go back to LiveJournal to explore a mainstay of 2000s-era fandom: the rec blog, The Crack Van. They discuss the problems with convergence culture, changing multifandom and multishipping norms, and the eternal question -- where are the rec blogs of today?

Oh, boy. This week, Emily and V dig into yet another cult of personality and banana-bonkers conspiracy theory within fandom: BBC Sherlock's The JohnLock Conspiracy, or TJLC. From the totally normal metas dissecting why curtains are blue on the show to totally abhorrent doxxing at a convention, this episode has everything. Gay tea. Secret BBC vaults. Un... aired... specials. Were you a BBClock fan? (Given that Johnlock is the #2 ship on AO3, some of you must be!) Did you TJLC?

Happy one year of TWIFH! To celebrate the end of our first year and to give you a huge chunk o' podcast to get through New Year's Eve, this week V and Emily are holding their breaths and taking a deep dive into the strange, insidious, bananapants crazytown world of Andrew Blake AKA Jordan Wood AKA Amy Player AKA Victoria Bitter AKA VoyagerBabe AKA strwriter AKA thanfiction and his many, many crimes in the fandomspace (and outside of the fandomspace, too). Because this story deals with many heavy topics and is incredibly long and harrowing, we have split this episode into two parts.

PART I covers the first ten years of Andy thanfiction's cult of personality and Munchausen by Internet, and deals with the following sensitive topics: gaslighting, intimate partner abuse, emotional abuse, suicide attempts, fraud, mental illness, Munchausen by Internet, financial abuse, and brainwashing tactics.

PART II covers the second ten years of Andy thanfiction's cult of personality and downward spiral, and deals with the following sensitive topics: gaslighting, emotional abuse, Munchausen by Internet, suicide, murder (gun violence), gendered violence, intimate partner violence, unhealthy weight loss, mental illness, disassociation, financial abuse, and fraud.

Sources:

Andy Blake: A Timeline by @theteablogger

Abbey Stone's Wordpress blog

Happy one year of TWIFH! To celebrate the end of our first year and to give you a huge chunk o' podcast to get through New Year's Eve, this week V and Emily are holding their breaths and taking a deep dive into the strange, insidious, bananapants crazytown world of Andrew Blake AKA Jordan Wood AKA Amy Player AKA Victoria Bitter AKA VoyagerBabe AKA strwriter AKA thanfiction and his many, many crimes in the fandomspace (and outside of the fandomspace, too). Because this story deals with many heavy topics and is incredibly long and harrowing, we have split this episode into two parts.

PART I covers the first ten years of Andy thanfiction's cult of personality and Munchausen by Internet, and deals with the following sensitive topics: gaslighting, intimate partner abuse, emotional abuse, suicide attempts, fraud, mental illness, Munchausen by Internet, financial abuse, and brainwashing tactics.

PART II covers the second ten years of Andy thanfiction's cult of personality and downward spiral, and deals with the following sensitive topics: gaslighting, emotional abuse, Munchausen by Internet, suicide, murder (gun violence), gendered violence, intimate partner violence, unhealthy weight loss, mental illness, disassociation, financial abuse, and fraud.

Sources:

Andy Blake: A Timeline by @theteablogger

Abbey Stone's Wordpress blog

Bonjour! This week, Emily and V look into another fandom neither of them knows much about: Miraculous Ladybug, one of Tumblr's biggest fandoms of 2023. They look into the premise and basic plot of the show, its adorable OTP love square (with only two people), and the long and much-anticipatory road to its premiere in America. Just what makes this show such fandom bait? Do you Miraculous Ladybug?

The great game is on! And by the great game, we mean the invention of modern fandom as we know it. (Although we also discuss The Great Game, which: nerds.) This week, Emily and V go further back in the fandom time machine than we've ever gone or likely ever will. The Victorian gaslamp fandom of Sherlock Holmes lost their main man this week in 1893, and in the first documented act of modern fandom, promptly lost its shit. We take a look at what it meant to be a Sherlock Holmes fan back then and what it still means today. Are you a Sherlockian? Which adaptation is your favorite?

NSFW! No, but really, this episode is extremely NSFW. And not child-safe. If you ignore that warning, it's on you. This week, V and Emily take a trip back to a contested date in fandom history: the first usage of "tongues battling for dominance." Since there's debate about the origin of that term, they decide to go whole-hog (double entendre intended) and talk about all kinds of fanfic terminology. Especially the kind used in... smut. 

Look at us remembering to link a source in our show notes!

Let teenage girls make bad art, GODDAMMIT! This week, Emily and V beat a familiar drum as they recount the unfortunate invention of Mary Sue: she's beautiful, she's smart, she's the best pilot in the Galaxy, and all your faves are in love with her. And so what?! Who does it really harm to let girls have a power fantasy?! God forbid women do anything. And by anything, we mean write self-insert Mary Sue fanfiction about Captain Kirk and Spock and Bones all falling in love with her. She deserves it. You deserve it. We all deserve a little treat. Have you ever been accused of writing a Mary Sue? How did it affect you?

Who the hell is Bucky? Well, this week, V and Emily just have a breezy totally chill chat about exactly that question -- who is this most wet and pathetic of scrungly little meow-meows, and why does he drive fandom so absolutely, singularly insane? What makes Bucky Barnes the most blorbo? Does the MCU know what to do with him? Will Thunderbolts make V tear her own face off?!?! Ahem. The story of Bucky Barnes is one of fannish love from beginning to... the end of the line... and for this holiday week episode, we just had a good time talking about him. Join us, won't you?

Baaa, says the Yuletide Goat! This week, Emily and V celebrate 20 years of fannish Yuletide, the biggest fic exchange there ever was for the tiniest fandoms there could ever be. V, newly freed from Yuletide Jail, chimes in with on-the-ground experience while Emily gives the stats and facts as someone who's never heard of Yuletide before now. Featured are Yuletide's greatest hits: Folgercest, Wait Wait Don't Eat Me, and Re: The Snake Portion Of Your Defense, plus Anthony Bourdain and a whole mess of oceanic fears. Do you Yuletide? What did you request this year?

Chomp! This week, V and Emily get deep into them guts of the omegaverse to take a long, hard look at where it came from, why it spread so quickly throughout fandom-at-large, and how it's been adapted differently in Western versus Eastern fandoms. With Emily as a noted omegaverse Li'l Hater and V as a noted Buzzfeed-approved omegaverse aficionado, all perspectives are represented (from Alpha to omega, one might say) on this heated journey. Do you omegaverse? What was the first fandom where you encountered it?

They attempted the impossible, and that makes them mighty! This week, Emily and V jump into the Firefly 'verse, and the Whedonverse at large, to take a look at the 2002 Firefly Immediate Assistance Campaign. They look at all of the odds stacked against Firefly by the Fox Network, and how so many of those marketing woes made the show catnip for fandom. Plus, the Jossification of scifi in the 2000s, silliness about Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite, and why Firefly (gulp) might not hold up in 2023. Are you a Firefly fan? What are your Whedon thoughts?

What an amazing bowl of word salad! Yes, those words are all in the right order, and this week, V and Emily explain how, why, and who the culprits were in this fandom wank of epic proportions. It's got everything. Cannibal mermaids. Chinese-Pakistani sex trafficking survivors. Politician RPF writers. Lin... Manuel... Miranda. This is truly one of the fannish implosions of all time. Were you involved in Hamilton fandom? Did you read either of the fics in this tale?