Stitch

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Fan
Name: Stitch, stitchmediamix
Alias(es):
Type: fanwriter, podcasts
Fandoms:
Communities:
Other: She/They pronouns
URL: Stitch's Media Mix (website)
stitchmediamix on tumblr (archived link)
@stichomancery on twitter (currently locked), @stitchmediamix on Twitter (currently locked)
Stitch in Teen Vogue
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Stitch is a black nonbinary fan, pop culture journalist, and writer. They publish fanfiction, original fiction, book reviews, and meta essays about fandom on their site, Stitch's Media Mix both in text and podcast/audio form. They were previously active on Tumblr and tweet under the handle @stitchmediamix. In their meta essays, Stitch primarily writes about issues connected with race and fandom, the characterization and perception of characters of colour, representation and erasure, toxic fandom, and fandom tropes and trends.

Stitch is also a regular writer for Teen Vogue. They have covered numerous topics related to fandom including RPF, K-pop, tabletop RPGs, Reader-Insert fanfic, Stan Twitter and more, and are the author of a column entitled Stitch's Fan Service.[1] Stitch has also written for Polygon and hosts an informal podcast called Stitch Talks Ish, centered on fandom and media commentary.[2]

“I write about racism in fandom to cope with my trauma”/”this is my emotional support anti racism”. I speak for myself, but I’m backed up by two decades of life in online fandom and over a decade of watching fans defend and promote racism in queer/feminist fandom spaces. If you use can my words to help explain what you’re going through in fandom as a fan of color, I love that for you. I’m here for you. You aren’t alone and I will do my best to support you in these trying, super racist times.

Stitch's Media Mix[3]

Fandom Commentary

Journalism

Stitch is mainly active as a freelance blogging journalist and public social media figure, with her main freelance work being a regular writer for Teen Vogue's website where she writes about fandom. She published her first Teen Vogue article in July 2020, which was a piece discussing K-Pop group ATEEZ titled "ATEEZ Parent Company KQ Entertainment Issues Apology for Hongjoong’s Cornrows."[4] Her Teen Vogue column, Stitch's Fan Service, had its first published article on Jan 28, 2021, titled "Who Actually Gets to “Escape” Into Fandom?" which discussed how racism in fandom spaces limited how black and other POC fans were able to use fandom as an escape, particularly during Covid-19 when fandom flourished.[5]

On Mar 5, 2021, Stitch also wrote an article for Polygon titled "The torpedo of stan Twitter hurts everyone." The article had a focus on a controversy involving Taylor Swift, the show Ginny & Georgia, and Swift's stans on Twitter. Other themes included parasocial relationships, RPF, and how Twitter users react to controversy by flooding Twitter tags with specific phrases or images.[6] Many comments on the article were in agreement with Stitch's discussion of stan Twitter and the boundaries between content creators and their fans, such as one commenter comparing the issue to Dream: "You search Dream Minecraft on twitter and there are 15/16 year olds that spend HOURS posting their fantasies of this random minecraft youtuber having sex with their friends, some of who are BARELY of age. It’s legitimately chilling to me."

Outside of Teen Vogue and the above article for Polygon, Stitch writes on her personal Website, Stitch's Media Mix, and expresses opinions on fandom on her Twitter. On Stitch's Media Mix, blog entries function as more casual fandom discussions than her freelance journalistic work with Teen Vogue, though still cover many of the same heavy topics. One of her blog series from her website is "What Fandom Racism Looks Like," started on Apr 15, 2019, in which each piece in the series discusses a different way in which racism is present in fandom spaces (see Meta and Essays). Another series is "Urban Fantasy 101," a series starting from Oct 31, 2018, on how certain tropes in fiction can be harmful to people of color and the LGBTQ community.[7] Stitch also has verbal essays via her podcast, Stitch Talks Ish.[2]

Outside of her essays and articles on fandom, Stitch has also written fanfiction and original stories.

Interviews

Accolades and Appearances

Stitch has presented and appeared on panels at various conferences and conventions. They have appeared as a speaker twice at the Fan Studies Network of North America annual conferences. In 2020, they presented a paper called “The Absence of Clout and the Aca/Fan Existence” as part of the workshop “Fraught Fandoms: Navigating Aca/Fan Identities and Structural Racism”; in 2021, they were a panelist for the plenary session entitled “Fan Studies Ethics in Practice”.[8][9][10] Additionally in 2021, Stitch appeared on a panel at Flights of Foundry called “Fandom for All: Creating Inclusive Spaces”.[11]

In 2021, Stitch won the Critic’s Award for reviews and analysis of the field of speculative literature at the FIYAHCON Ignyte Awards for their work on Stitch’s Media Mix.[12] FIYAHCON is a virtual convention run by the literary magazine FIYAH that centers the contributions and experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) in Speculative Fiction.[13][14]

In 2022, Stitch participated in a roundtable organized by Mel Stanfill for Volume 37 of Transformative Works and Cultures entitled “What is an anti? Exploring a key term and contemporary debates” along with Alexis Lothian, Anne Jamison, and Sneha Kumar.[15]

In May 2023, Stitch appeared on the fan-run Fansplaining (podcast) as the featured guest in Episode 197. Stitch talked about their fandom origins as a child in the Sailor Moon fandom; their current media interests; their love of Omegaverse; their personal evolution to working in fandom commentary and journalism including their work for Teen Vogue; and the harassment they and other Black fans face for commenting on and critiquing pop culture and fandom.[16]

In May 2023, Stitch appeared on Fast Company’s Creative Control podcast in their episode, “The dark side of fandom”. Stitch discussed the racist harassment of John Boyega by Star Wars fans, as well as naming the racism harassment that Stitch themself has faced as a queer Black person.[17]

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

DC Comics

Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics

Teen Wolf

Castlevania

Jujutsu Kaisen

Trigun Stampede

Other fandoms

Podcasts

Meta and Essays

Reception, Criticism & Harassment

Stitch’s essays and commentary on race and fandom have been well-received, with many fans and onlookers praising their insights and the work that they do to draw attention to racist trends and attitudes in fandom and media spaces. They have become widely recommended as a fandom commentator and a voice on fandom racism.[18][19][20][21][22] In 2021, Stitch (and Stitch’s Media Mix) won the Critics Award for reviews and analysis of the field of speculative literature at the FIYAHCON 2021 Ignyte Awards.[23]

However, there are fans who object strongly to Stitch’s use of dismissive terms like "PickMe POC" (for more context on this term, refer to What Fandom Racism Looks Like: PickMe POC), "minions of color" (discussed in more detail on Rey/Kylo Shippers: A New Look At An Old Face of Fannish Entitlement) and "social justice Pokémon of color" to refer to fellow fans of colour, with some deeming this harassment.[24][25][26][27][28] Others have defended their use of the term PickMe, pointing out that it is AAVE,[29] and arguing that terms like these are mild considering the toxic behaviour perpetrated by fans.[30]

Some also characterise Stitch's focus on particular characters and ships, such as Reylo, as a front for attacking ships they disagree with rather than true unbiased critique;[31] others have countered that this is a disingenuous framing of justified criticism, levied by fans who feel threatened by Stitch's work.[32][33]

One comment made by Stitch has been interpreted[34][35] as advocating for the harassment of creators of racist fanworks in a bid to have them remove those works, which Stitch has stated was a wilful misinterpretation of their comment and one which takes their words out of context.[36]

Stitch has been subjected to continual harassment as a result of their published writing on race and fandom,[37][38][39] harassment which has worsened as she has gained a more prominent platform writing for Teen Vogue. Stitch and others have highlighted this pushback as evidence of fandom racism and the unwillingness of fans to confront their own racist behaviour and tendencies, and its tendency to attack those who call attention to it,[40] - as well as how this type of behaviour is disproportionately directed at POC.[41] The harassment worsened after Stitch interviewed Kelly Marie Tran (an interview during which both discussed their experiences of online harassment), with some fans attempting to send screencaps of supposed negative behaviour by Stitch to Teen Vogue and KMT’s publicist team in an attempt to have them fired or deplatformed.[42][43][44] In another incident, Courtney Milan received an email with "proof" of so-called bullying by Stitch,[45] which prompted her to tweet a thread about behaviour she does and does not consider bullying, writing, "Calling someone racist when you truthfully believe them to be racist? Not bullying.[46] [...] someone talking shit about people who ship a thing on their own timeline? Is just. Not. Bullying.[47]

References

  1. ^ Stitch's Fan Service, Teen Vogue. Accessed February 8, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Stitch Talks Ish, Buzzsprout. Accessed February 8, 2022.
  3. ^ Stitch's Media Mix: About. Accessed 2023-06-30.
  4. ^ ATEEZ Parent Company KQ Entertainment Issues Apology for Hongjoong’s Cornrows by Stitch, Teen Vogue, July 14, 2020. Accessed February 8, 2022.
  5. ^ Who Actually Gets to “Escape” Into Fandom? Teen Vogue. Jan 28, 2021 (Accessed 2022-02-09)
  6. ^ The torpedo of stan Twitter hurts everyone, Polygon. Mar 5, 2021 (Accessed 2022-02-09)
  7. ^ Non-Fiction MasterPost, https://stitchmediamix.com/ (Accessed 2022-02-09)
  8. ^ Fan Studies Network of North America Conference Archive. Accessed June 8, 2023.
  9. ^ FSSNNA 2020 Conference Program, October 17, 2020. (Accessed 2023-06-08)
  10. ^ FSSNNA 2021 Conference Program, October 24, 2021. Accessed June 8, 2023.
  11. ^ Fandom for All: Creating Inclusive Spaces, April 18, 2021. Accessed June 8, 2023.
  12. ^ Ignyte Awards 2021 Results, September 19, 2021. Accessed June 7, 2023.
  13. ^ Ignyte Awards. Accessed June 7, 2023.
  14. ^ FIYAH. Accessed June 7, 2023.
  15. ^ What is an anti? Exploring a key term and contemporary debates TWC Editor, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 37, 2022. Accessed June 7, 2023.
  16. ^ Episode 197: Stitch Fansplaining, May 3, 2023. Accessed June 8, 2023.
  17. ^ The dark side of fandom Fast Company, Creative Control, May 25, 2023. Accessed June 7, 2023.
  18. ^ Tweet by @CheeryOptimist, March 27, 2020. Accessed February 18, 2022.
  19. ^ Tweet by @JupiterDoomsday, January 17, 2021. Accessed February 18, 2022.
  20. ^ Resources Wednesday by Wolfstar in Color. Published August 4, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  21. ^ Tumblr post by superohclair, September 22, 2021. Accessed February 18, 2022.
  22. ^ Tumblr post by chocochipbiscuit, published June 1, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  23. ^ Ignyte Awards 2021 Results, September 19, 2021. Accessed June 7, 2023.
  24. ^ Tweet by @necromanceranni, February 11, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  25. ^ Tweet by @cq_angel_hamuel, February 12, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  26. ^ Tweet by @kgkrapologist, September 14, 2020 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  27. ^ Tweet by @inkyubus13, February 11, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  28. ^ Tweet by @AntiRants1, February 11, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  29. ^ Tweet by @fiercynonym, February 9, 2022 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  30. ^ Tweet by @ahn_writing, February 13, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  31. ^ Tweet by @SolarLilith, June 25, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  32. ^ Tweet by @AussieRavenclaw, May 29, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  33. ^ Tweet by @DillonDev, January 16, 2021 (Accessed February 18, 2022).
  34. ^ Re: AO3, Fail Fandom Anon, June 13, 2020.
  35. ^ Re: Ask Meme - Rukmini Pande and racism in fandom, Fail Fandom Anon, June 17, 2020
  36. ^ Tweet from @stichomancery 16 Jun 2020 (via Wayback Machine)
  37. ^ What Fandom Racism Looks Like: No Safe Space/”Curate Your Space”, Stitch's Media Mix. May 7, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  38. ^ Tweet by @renay, May 29, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  39. ^ Thread by @ShoMarq, February 12, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  40. ^ Tweet by @DillonDev, May 29, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  41. ^ Tweet by @stitchmediamix, December 6, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  42. ^ Tweet by Jenny Trout, May 29, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  43. ^ a letter to the world, a friend, and to everyone else by A, Stitch's Media Mix. Published February 11, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  44. ^ Reylo fans attempt to get black writer fired from Teen Vogue, ohnotheydidnt, Livejournal. Published June 1, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  45. ^ Tweet by @CourtneyMilan, June 1, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  46. ^ Tweet by @CourtneyMilan, June 1, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
  47. ^ Tweet by @CourtneyMilan, June 1, 2021 (Accessed February 19, 2022).
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