A Cyborg Subculture: Slash Fandom Online
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| Commentary | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Cyborg Subculture: Slash Fandom Online |
| Commentator: | Mia |
| Date(s): | June 2000 |
| Medium: | online essay |
| Fandom: | Due South, Meta, fan fiction |
| External Links: | archived online, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A Cyborg Subculture: Slash Fandom Online is a survey of Due South slash fans written by Mia in 2000.
"Like Henry Jenkins, Cynthia Jenkins, Mirna Cicioni, Patricia Frazer Lamb, and Shoshanna, who have done critical work on slash from an 'inside' perspective, I am writing about slash from a participant position, having been involved in online 'gen' fan fiction (see glossary) since 1995, and slash since mid-1999. In this, I draw upon the recent tradition of an ethnography influenced by feminist and queer identity politics, in which the ethnographer "writes from a position of their own lived subjectivity" (Jenkins, 1996: 263). I cannot claim critical distance from my subject. Instead, I have chosen a participant ethnographical approach that engages with the model of slash criticism suggested by Jenkins, Jenkins and Green. They argue that academic studies should take "as a given that the fan community has meaningful things to contribute to an understanding of slash and that cultural studies will be enriched by listening to them speak" (14). As such, this study will be strongly informed by my own experiences and fan criticism, as well as academic criticism.