Anti-fandom
| Synonyms: | hatedom, anti-fan |
| See also: | sporking, lolfan, heifan, Akgae |
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Anti-fandom is a term used by fans and especially academics studying fandom. It has been used to describe people who focus on a source text for the entertainment value of mocking it, but also might be used to characterize fans whose genuine hatred for the fandom or its canon involves no mockery or ironic distance. Sometimes anti-fans were never actually fans of the original source text to begin with, but sometimes they were fans who became increasingly disenchanted and finally angered or repelled by canon or fanon developments.
Source texts with anti-fandoms include Twilight and the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton, and some K-pop fandoms. Cassandra Clare is a focus of anti-fans and anti-fandom.
Traditionally academics who researched "anti-fandom" characterized it as a mirror image of fandom that mocked or criticized rather than adored the fan-object. Discussion among academics and especially fans has since shifted to "anti-fans" who exhibit anti-social behavior. Some behaviors of antifans include doxing, spreading rumors, abusing or physical harassment of other fans. Note that an antifan is not the same as an anti-shipper.
Further Reading/Meta
Academic Publications
Various academics have been publishing research on anti-fandom since 2003. Some examples:
- Gray, Jonathan. "New Audiences, New Textualities: Anti-Fans and Non-Fans." International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, March 2003.
- Jones, Bethan. "'I hate Beyoncé and I don’t care who knows it': Towards an ethics of studying anti-fandom". Journal of Fandom Studies, vol. 4, no. 3. 2016.
- Click, Melissa A. Anti-Fandom: Dislike and Hate in the Digital Age. NYU Press, 2019.