Multifannish

Synonyms:	polyfannish
See also:	fannish butterfly, mono-fan, Multimedia, Multifandom
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A fan who is multifannish participates in multiple fandoms or is a fan of multiple texts or sources.

History

In the beginning of media fandom, there were only one or two fandoms to choose from: Star Trek or, perhaps, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Few people left their single track of monofannishness, possibly due to a lack exposure to what other options were available (Comics fandom, etc.). As more fandoms developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a term was needed for people who followed more than one source text. For those interested in m/m pairings, "slash" was adopted, as in "slash fans." This was used for fans of not only K/S, but also S/H, B/A, and other such relationships. "Media fandom" became the term on the gen and het (called 'adult' at the time) side of the house. MediaWest*Con became the premiere convention for people with multifannish interests.

By the early 1990s, mailing lists and Usenet groups usually had strict guidelines as to what was on-topic or off-topic, again making it somewhat difficult for fans of one fandom to casually come across discussions or meta from different sources. This lack of interaction also made it difficult to pimp fans into new fandoms. Virgule-L, and later Slashpoint and others allowed for cross-discussion of slash fandoms and meta about slash, but equivalent lists for gen and het didn't currently exist, though they would develop over time. Many fans joined several different lists in order to have a multimedia (meaning 'multifandom') conversation.

As of 2008, most fans on LiveJournal were at least somewhat multi-fannish, and could be fannish about many different types of source texts simultaneously, from text such as comics, books, video games, TV and movies to manga and anime and to actors, bands, sports figures, and pundits.