Samantha Aburime
| Name: | Samantha Aburime |
| Also Known As: | Sam, Rainy Studios, Fujin Elder God |
| Occupation: | Animator, Illustrator, Writer, Manager, Graphic Novelist, Academic Researcher |
| Medium: | Meta |
| Works: | Colorful Everyday Life, The Cult Structure of the American Anti, Hate narratives, conditioned language and networked harassment: A new breed of anti-shipper and anti-fan – antis, The influence of transphobia, homonationalism and anti-Asian prejudice: Anti-BL attitudes in English-speaking fandoms |
| Official Website(s): | On Twitter On Tumblr On YouTube |
| Fan Website(s): | n/a |
| On Fanlore: | Related pages |
Samantha Aburime, more well known as Sam Aburime, is an American webcomic creator and acafan. Their webcomic Colorful Everyday Life, published under the name Rainy Studios, has many fans, though in wider fandom spaces, they are most known for their research regarding Anti-shipping and anti-sexuality culture, dubbed, "puritan culture," by some fans due to some similarities it has to the belief of Puritanism.
Sam's studies also extend to discussion surrounding BL and fujoshi. They run Fujoshi.info, an informational website created to share sources regarding information surrounding BL, Danmei, Yaoi, Fujoshi, Geikomi, Nonke, Bara, Fudanshi, anti-shipping, censorship, and how people process fiction. The site also contains a database with various resources and academic texts for users to expand their knowledge. The website debuted in September 2021, shortly after 'The Cult Structure of the American Anti' was published.
Publications
The Cult Structure of the American Anti
In September 2021, they published the article The Cult Structure of the American Anti in Transformative Works and Cultures. In the journal, Sam explains how anti-shipping culture may reflect on American conservatism and social shaming, typically enacting the BITE model, to have a negative effect on typically younger fans.
Abstract: The online-based group known as antis, which originated around 2016 in the United States, exhibit morality-based, cult-like behavior and perpetuate hate speech and censorship in online spaces. Anti ideology has encouraged harmful, obsessive, and dangerous behaviors among its members, specifically minors and young adults. An analysis of the anti-fandom movement through political, sociological, and behavioral lenses reveals its damaging effects on women, people of color, minors, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Hate narratives, conditioned language and networked harassment: A new breed of anti-shipper and anti-fan – antis
In September 2022, Hate narratives, conditioned language and networked harassment: A new breed of anti-shipper and anti-fan – antis (Published in May of 2023) was accepted to be a part of The Journal of Fandom Studies. This article delves deeper into the possible psychological issues brought upon by fandom, specifically anti-shipping culture, on social media from an anthropological perspective. The article is available to read, but is not open access, and digital copies must be requested from the author for viewing.
Abstract: In recent years hostility amongst fans based on what a person ships or tolerates in shipping has become a growing point of contention in western fandom. This has resulted in an ‘anti-shipper’ (or ‘anti’) vs. ‘pro-shipper’ (or ‘pro-ship’), ‘Good versus Evil’ dichotomy that has slowly consumed fandom communities from the inside out. At the core of ‘anti’ debates is a foundation of beliefs rooted in conservatism that what a person consumes in fiction determines their real-life behaviours. Thus, an anti-shipper who is against those viewed to be pro-shippers is already deemed more morally pure. This has culminated in the escalation of toxic vigilantism that has driven harassment, violence-based threats and the criminalization of fellow fans. This piece deconstructs this anti phenomenon and the dominant behaviours that accompany it by evaluating the traditionally conservative environments in which these ideas originated, and by exploring how antis employ hate narratives, conditioned language and morally motivated networked harassment to justify dehumanizing and abusing other fans. This examination ultimately concludes that no kind of communal fandom restoration can begin to occur until those targeted by such anti-shippers are viewed as human beings (not sub-human) and a universal understanding of fiction, reality, psychology and human behaviour based in science is established.
The influence of transphobia, homonationalism and anti-Asian prejudice: Anti-BL attitudes in English-speaking fandoms
In February of 2024, The influence of transphobia, homonationalism and anti-Asian prejudice: Anti-BL attitudes in English-speaking fandoms (Accepted July 2023) was published in the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture. The article is available to read, but is not open access, and digital copies must be requested from the author for viewing.
Abstract: In recent years, hostility towards Asian boys love (BL) media and fans in western English-speaking fandoms has been growing. This has manifested in anti-BL and anti-fujoshi anti-fans, many of whom express the general notion that queer western media is morally good and queer Asian media is morally bad. This division has encouraged a dehumanizing environment and some of these anti-fans consider their prejudiced behaviour morally justified and necessary. Their proposed aim is to maintain the moral sanctity of LGBTQ+ representation in their western English-speaking fan spaces. This article explores what drives this division and how BL and fujoshi specifically came to be so vilified in parts of LGBTQ+ western English-speaking fandom. The origins of this growing desire for LGBTQ+ moral sanctity in western English-speaking fandom are critiqued and how anti-trans gender critical beliefs in online communities came to affect western English-speaking fans’ perceptions of BL and fujoshi is revealed.