Mono-fan
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | fannish butterfly |
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A mono-fan, or someone who is mono-fannish, is a fan who has only one fandom.
Characteristics of a Mono-fan
A mono-fan tends to get deeper into their fandom than fans who follow many fandoms at once. They're more likely to know every episode title, in order, set up canon vs fanon listings, or fabulous repositories of canon knowledge such as the Stargate Handbook. If they go to conventions, mono-fans are more likely to go to guest-cons that have actors from their show, or fan-cons that are specifically for fans of one show, like WinchesterCon; fans with multiple interests might be more likely to go to mixed conventions like MediaWest for gen fans, or Slashcon, Escapade or BASCon for slash fans.
Warhammer 40,000 tends to have a large number of these depending on the era.
Mono-fans are also less likely to know what's going on in other fandoms, and more likely to think that all fandoms must do things the same way things are done in their fandom. When mono-fans wander out into greater fandom, this can lead to wank.
Mono-fannishness is contrasted with the condition of being multi-fannish (having multiple fandoms at once). This is sometimes also called being a fannish butterfly.
A fan who periodically moves to a new fandom, but stays with each individual fandom mono-fannishly (solely and for long periods of time), is serially mono-fannish.
Examples
- from a fan on a Starsky and Hutch mailing list: "One of the VP members went on to say her one and only love is S/H -- that's okay. Everybody is in a different place. If you asked me 15 years ago if I'd ever be into anything other than Star Trek, I probably would have fainted at the thought... I know some people who started in Trek back in the '70's and who are still into it, still writing and publishing quite happily." [1]
- a fan in 1986 jokes: "Yes, multiple fandoms do leave one open to suspicion. Father like beinq a Baptist, a Lutheran, and an Episcopalian all at once, I think. If you don't have 'one true religion' people suspect you of being less than sincere. Or maybe it's like having several husbands at once." [2]