IMAGINATION

Fandom is meant to be fun! We give ourselves permission to play and imagine beyond the original source material. We believe that imagining new worlds and ways of doing things in fandom influences and helps change the broader world. By valuing fan creation and imagination, we model a world where everyone’s story matters and can change their community and the world for the better. 

CULTIVATE IMAGINATION

PRACTICE 1: REMIXING 

Fandom is known for many things: obsessing over minor details, learning fictional languages, or speculating that characters are in love with each other. These activities, for the most part, engage with the established world (or canon) of the media. But if you’ve ever been inspired to create something because you asked yourself, “what if Sherlock Holmes was a young Black dude from a London council estate?” then you’ve engaged with what’s referred to as Remixing. 

Remixing is a term used to describe the changing of an existing work into something altered and new. By nature, fandom culture is remix culture. Think about “AU” (Alternate Universe) fanfics or #BlackHermione. Throughout fandom history, we’ve seen remixed fan works make a legitimate impact not only in fandom spaces but in popular media too. 

Popular media is making strides with diverse stories and storytellers, but there is still work to be done. For example, only 12% of characters on tv are LGBTQ, and Black and brown people are still underrepresented in films on both sides of the camera. It’s not new for fans to remix elements of media to see themselves or their desires represented. In fact, it’s actually built into the foundation of fandom as we know it. 

LGBTQ characters in movies and tv in the past (and often still today) were either erased or presented as damaging stereotypes. Slash, or imagining that the chemistry between two characters is hella gay, is one of the most well-known remix practices because it gives LGBTQ fans an opportunity to see themselves more accurately represented in media. Fandom as we know it originated with the original Star Trek show in the late 60’s with fanzines, conventions, and fanfiction; Spock/Kirk was such a popular topic for fans that it became the first slashed couple of modern fandom and originated the term slash.  

Another remix practice in fandom is racebending, or imagining that a character is a different race or ethnicity than their canon description. One of the most well known examples of this is from the Harry Potter fandom, with many artists imagining Hermione Granger as a Black girl. The casting of Hermione as a Black woman in the Cursed Child play was seen as a win, something that moved from fandom to a wider stage (pun intended). Since opening both in the UK and America, only Black actors have played the role, an important step not for “color-blind” casting, but color-conscious casting.

When fanworks are legitimized into canon, we both celebrate the win, and remain careful of how the win can be weaponized against fans asking for more—more diversity, more representation, more fanworks acknowledgement.

When remixing creative works, there are SOME things to keep in mind

Using a generous citation practice:

Fanworks are often created either from media that is a specific intellectual property or from another artist's work. Citation is important in order to acknowledge the original creator, and professional artists do it all the time. 

Sarah Ahmed writes in her 2007 book Living a Feminist Life, “Citation is how we acknowledge our debt to those who came before; those who helped us find our way when the way was obscured because we deviated from the paths we were told to follow.” Citation also shows that you're not plagiarizing someone’s work. 

Compensating independent artists if applicable:

Crediting/Citing a fanwork’s artist is fairly straightforward– just give credit where credit is due. But what about compensation? The main principle to keep in mind is honest communication with the independent artists whose work you may be using or commissioning for a project. Remember: if you are profiting, so must your artists. If you are volunteering for a non-profit or non-monetary event, communicate upfront with your artists that this is a volunteer opportunity for them as well. Check out our article about financial transparency for more information about how to best communicate money stuff with other fan creators. 


A NOTE ON Financial Transparency

In our capitalistic society, we are taught that it is somehow shameful to discuss money. This is because financial transparency is a threat to the foundations of capitalism itself. If we discuss money openly and honestly, it encourages equity. Equity is the foundation of an anti-capitalist society. 

So, we encourage open and honest discussions about finances! As it relates to fandom activists, this is particularly relevant to nonprofits and fundraising efforts. Let’s talk about these separately:

If you run a nonprofit, your finances should be publicly available–all of them. How much money are you bringing in? How much are you paying your employees? Where is the rest of the money going? Break this down by job position and specific areas of expense. Publish updates semi-regularly.

If you are doing a fundraiser, especially if you are asking for artists/creators to donate time or goods, be clear both upfront and afterward about where the money you raise is going! Include receipts, and publish the information where it is readily available.

Talking about money this way can be scary, and there will always be people who aren’t happy with you. If you are running a nonprofit where you make a living wage and your organization depends on volunteers, folks will want to call you out for not just paying more people. We recommend dealing with this by being even more open. Talk about the nonprofit burnout epidemic. Talk about creating a sustainable work environment. Be more open about why things are structured the way they are. You’ll never be able to please everyone, but then again, that shouldn’t be your goal. 

PRACTICE 2: CLAIMING THE NARRATIVE

Fan activism is one part of a long history of using storytelling to create change. You’ll hear terms like culture jamming or narrative change in organizing circles (or maybe just in your history books), so let’s go over a few basic pieces of jargon:

  • Fan activism: drawing parallels between real world issues and popular media to mobilize fans for social change.

  • Fan activist: a fan who participates in fan activism.

  • Fan organizer: a fan who organizes other fans for fan activism.

  • Narrative organizing: “the act of building, creating and using narrative to shift power towards justice, equity and democracy.” (Narrative Initiative) Generally, fan activism could be considered a subcategory of narrative organizing.

  • Culture jamming: subversion of mainstream media and/or culture to highlight or communicate a social issue.

A great example of culture jamming is the Rising Hearts Coalition’s 2017 Redhawks campaign, when organizers successfully organized a viral campaign around fake announcements that the Washington football team had changed their racist name. This was an effective way to demonstrate how the name change would be received by the public. In some ways, the idea of “fanon,” or fandom remixes that are so widely accepted they’re somewhat like canon, also serves as a culture jamming tactic. Particularly in the case of slash ships (imagining queer relationships between characters who are not queer in canon), racebending, and other representation-oriented remixing, this kind of fanon functions as a way of highlighting lacking representation as much as it’s just plain joyful to participate in. 

Narrative organizing thinks about what the popular narrative currently is and how it needs to change in order to support our goals for social justice. For example, many organizations and organizers spent years changing the narrative around same-sex marriage in order for it to move from a fringe idea to a widely accepted one within the culture of the United States. 

As a fan organizer, here are some ways you can think about your own narrative organizing within a fandom framework:

  • Find a strong connection. Not every story is going to be a good match for every social issue. A campaign about fair trade chocolate makes sense in the context of Harry Potter, where chocolate is an important feature in the story, but if you tried to do the same thing with Marvel it would probably be a challenge. Think about the most important elements of your fandom’s source material, and consider how those might connect to narratives in our own world. 

  • Consider what the mainstream story is now, and where you want it to be. You probably have a good sense of what the most mainstream beliefs look like, and what goals you want to achieve as an organizer. How would that mainstream story need to change in order to support those goals? What are some core beliefs or misunderstandings that need to be addressed? This will help you decide where your efforts can be best put to use.

  • Build a map. Now that you know where you want to end up, build yourself a few step-by-step goals to get there. You may not be able to jump straight from where we are now to the finish line, but what might be the first step on that path? Then, consider how your fandom is uniquely suited to be able to support that narrative shift.

PRACTICE 3: EMBRACE PLAY

Playfulness is key in fan activism work! Remember why we’re here in the first place: because of the joy the fandom community brings. Prioritizing playfulness and fun is what keeps fan activism work engaging and sustainable. 

In many ways, fandom culture in and of itself can be a form of protest. Take remixing, for example: when we give ourselves space to imagine how our favorite stories could and should represent us, it gives us opportunities to explore what our own world could be. “Joy is an act of resistance” (Toi Derricotte) is repeated often, but it really is true. Here are some ways you can continue to integrate a practice of play into your fan organizing:

  • Don’t be afraid to experiment. In our productivity and perfectionism obsessed culture, sometimes it feels like we have to have everything perfect before we’re ready, or have everything right the first time for it to be good. Not only is this not realistic, it’s a good way to suck all the fun out of something, don’t you think? Giving in to perfectionism is a good way to keep new and exciting ideas from ever being shared, and when it comes to imagining a better world that’s the opposite of what we need! In a more playful approach to design and assessment of your work, it’s totally fine to experiment with different techniques – even in public! – assess while you’re working, and pivot or take note as needed. You can always try something new the next time, and who knows, maybe that idea you thought was totally not gonna work will end up being your greatest hit.

  • How does it make you feel? Sometimes we continue to do something because we feel like we have to, and while there are plenty of things we have to do (#adulthood), there’s also a lot of room for us to decide what makes us happy in fan organizing. Many if not most of the things we fight for are challenging, emotionally taxing subjects, so why not do our best to make the way we fight pleasurable as often as we can? If you’re realizing that you’re dreading a fan activism project, stop and ask yourself if there’s a different way you could approach the work to achieve the same goals.

  • Celebrate! Passionate activists often forget to stop and celebrate what they’ve done, but having these moments to mark occasions and spend playful time with your community are so important to avoiding activist burnout. There’s always more work to be done, but there’s always room to celebrate.