Fansplaining

The Success of Heated Rivalry Should Not Be a Surprise by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Fansplaining's Next Chapter by Elizabeth Minkel

Huge news!! Fansplaining is becoming a full-on weekly publication, with a wide range of writing (and audio! and art!) by, for, and about fandom. Head over to the site to sign up for updates about Fansplaining 2.0. "Fansplaining's Next Chapter": We're relaunching as a weekly publication featuring reporting, analysis, criticism, personal essays, and more—all by, for, and about fandom. Read the whole piece: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/fansplainings-next-chapter

Can Fandom Make Us Better Tourists? by Kayti Burt

Our final article of 2025 is here! Kayti Burt—who first wrote for us last spring, in a fantastic piece on the precarity of being a fandom journalist (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-fan-journalist-tightrope)—returns to Fansplaining to tackle the subject of fandom tourism, and how fans can approach journeys with respect rather than entitlement. "Can Fandom Make Us Better Tourists?" In an era of overtourism, South Korea's Jeju Island and international BTS fans are building bridges of mutual respect. Read the whole piece: https://www.fansplaining.com/can-fandom-make-us-better-tourists/

Alternate Universes by Newt Albiston

Our November piece is here! Newt Albiston's essay is one part guide to fandom text-based roleplaying, one part meditation on working through gender exploration via roleplay. Plus: be sure to click through and see the gorgeous art we commissioned from illustrator Anna Lark. "Alternate Universes" Through text-based roleplaying, I've lived so many other lives—and experienced so many other bodies. Read the whole piece: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/alternate-universes/

Reclaiming the Mary Sue by Meghan Fitzmartin

Our October piece is part essay/part excerpt: Meghan Fitzmartin, who's written for DC Comics, Supernatural, and many other fan-favorite properties, has published an indie comic, Mary Sue, about—you guessed it!—a fanfiction writer. While the essay is a standalone text you should be able to listen to just fine here, we highly recommend heading over to the piece itself to see excerpts from Mary Sue's first issue! "Reclaiming the Mary Sue" by Meghan Fitzmartin. My new comic interrogates the continued bias against Mary Sues—and brings one life. Read the whole piece: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/reclaiming-the-mary-sue/

K-Pop's Demons, Real and Fictional by Aja Romano

September's piece is by longtime fandom journalist Aja Romano, on the explosion of Kpop Demon Hunters, and its intersections—or lackthereof—with real K-pop artists and fans. "K-Pop's Demons, Real and Fictional" by Aja Romano. KPop Demon Hunters has seen massive mainstream success in the U.S. What does that mean for real K-pop artists and their fans? Read the whole piece: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/kpops-demons-real-and-fictional

The Fan, the Pro, and the Spaces In Between by Tessa Gratton

Our August piece is by novelist (and Fansplaining SDCC 2025 panelist!) Tessa Gratton, about navigating the intersections of the fan and pro writing worlds, and how their queerness shapes their framings of these worlds. "The Fan, the Pro, and the Spaces In Between" by Tessa Gratton. Writing for Star Wars challenges me to interrogate fandom power dynamics—and figure out where I fall in a rapidly shifting landscape. Read the whole piece: https://fansplaining.com/articles/fan-pro-spaces-between/

The Fandom Advantage: How Fan Creativity Fuels Pro Entertainment Careers

Fansplaining returned to San Diego Comic-Con this year (our tenth anniversary!) with a fantastic panel of fandom folks who work in pro entertainment careers. There's an audio recording here on our feed, and over at the website: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/sdcc-2025-the-fandom-advantage You can watch video version as well as read a full transcript. Because the intro to the audio is only on this feed, that's transcribed below. Transcript of intro: Hi everyone! Elizabeth here. I am fresh off San Diego Comic-Con 2025...or not...fresh, but I'm off. [laughing] I got home in the wee hours of yesterday morning. Had a wonderful time, but am happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed. So as you almost undoubtedly know, because we mentioned it a million times over the course of the podcast, Flourish and I first met at San Diego, we were on a panel together in 2015. So this is the ten-year anniversary. And so I was really honored to be able to host a panel again on Fansplaining's behalf, though it was obviously bittersweet because Flourish wasn't there...though I will say I sent over some pictures, and I think Flourish, I'm just dragging them back towards coming, just for Comic-Con in the future. [laughing] So this was the fourth panel that Fansplaining has hosted since we started doing our own panels in 2019. It was called "The Fandom Advantage: How Fan Creativity Fuels Pro Entertainment Careers." So this was an incredibly talented collection of panelists. I'm always so thrilled by the people we can get together for these panels. They've worked on huge properties like Interview with the Vampire, for example, The Witcher, Supernatural, just a long list of fan-favorites—Star Wars. And then indie stuff like FIYAH Literary Magazine and queer indie publishing. And they came onto talk about their fannish past and presents, and how that connects to the work that they do professionally. So this audio, I really appreciate, recorded by Sadie Witkowski, who is the host of another fandom podcast, In Defense of Fandom. Definitely go check that out, if you just google it, or go to fansplaining.com, you can get a link from the show page. Sadie was kind enough to, while sitting in the front row of the audience, record on her phone and on her recorder, but this was an echoey auditorium, this was what we could manage without having access to professional equipment, so the audio quality is a bit mixed. So I would highly recommend going over to fansplaining.com and checking out the full transcript, because I think that will make it a lot easier to follow along, whether you're listening to the audio version here or watching the YouTube video, which is on YouTube itself, of course, and on our site, fansplaining.com. So hopefully you enjoy this conversation, and thanks again to all the panelists. It was really great to talk to you this weekend.

How Friendships Onscreen and Off Fueled Half a Century of Fandom by Jay Castello

Our latest piece is about making fanworks—and fandom friendships—last through the decades! "How Friendships Onscreen and Off Fueled Half a Century of Fandom" by Jay Castello. For the admins of the Starsky & Hutch Fiction Archive, preserving fanworks and fannish community go hand in hand. Read the full piece: https://fansplaining.com/articles/how-friendships-fueled-half-century-fandom

I Came to Ruin You: The Collecting Practices of K-Pop Fandoms by Rea McNamara & Bo Shin

This month's Fansplaining piece is a bit of a departure from our usual fandom reporting and critical analysis: for the first time, we're very excited to share a virtual art exhibit of sorts, from Toronto-based curators and BTS fans Rea McNamara and Bo Shin. I came to ruin you: The Collecting Practices of K-pop Fandoms was on display at York University this past spring, and what follows is an expanded version of the exhibition's brochure, plus images, videos, and interviews with some of the fan collectors and participating artists Jiwon Choi and Lux Pyre. You can listen to the main text of the piece on this feed, but! We'd highly recommend going to the article itself to see all the images and videos (with descriptive captions and alt-text): https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/i-came-to-ruin-you-the-collecting-practices-of-k-pop-fandoms

The RPF Question by Sacha Judd

In our newest piece, Sacha Judd goes deep on RPF, tracing it back decades and tackling its thorny intersections with other kinds of fan practices. "The RPF Question" by Sacha Judd. Amid blurry boundaries between fic, celebrity fandom, and conspiracy theories, how real person fiction evolved from forbidden to mainstream and back again. Read the full piece: https://fansplaining.com/articles/the-rpf-question

Bridgerton and Period Drama Fandom's Enduring Racism Problem by Amanda-Rae Prescott

Our latest piece is by Amanda-Rae Prescott, who was one of the expert guests in our "Race and Fandom" series back in 2020! (https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/135b-race-and-fandom-revisited-part-2) "Bridgerton and Period Drama Fandom's Enduring Racism Problem" by Amanda-Rae Prescott. Complaints about historical accuracy and acting quality are often dog-whistles: some fans only want to see white actors—and white history—on screen. Read the full piece here: https://fansplaining.com/articles/bridgerton-period-drama-fandoms-racism

Sam Wilson Deserved Better Than Brave New World by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Gav is back in Fansplaining in 2025! This time, she writes about Sam Wilson's recent Captain America debut—and how the MCU failed both the character and the fandom. "Sam Wilson Deserved Better Than Brave New World" by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw: Marvel wants fans to care about lore without thinking too deeply about themes and emotions—the things that brought them to this fandom in the first place. Read the full piece here: fansplaining.com/articles/sam-wilson-deserved-better-brave-new-world

The War That Almost Broke a Classic Fandom by Lena Barkin

Our first article of 2025 is here—and it's a big one! "The War That Almost Broke a Classic Fandom" by Lena Barkin: Blake's 7 fans and actors mixed regularly at cons and on the pages of zines—until an anonymous letter changed everything. Read the full piece here: fansplaining.com/articles/the-war-that-almost-broke-a-classic-fandom

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction by Elizabeth Minkel

Around this time in December, we usually wrap up Fansplaining with "The Year in Fandom": a look back at five trends from the prior year followed by five trends from the year coming to a close. With Flourish's departure this summer, the podcast is now on hiatus—but I had a lot of thoughts about 2024, particularly when it came to fanfiction. Many thanks to Flourish for looking this over; in a way, it's a "Year in Fandom" segment in spirit. In 2024, everyone wanted a piece of fic, from AI grifters to traditional publishers to ravenous audiences. Where did that leave the people who write it? Read the full article as you listen along: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction

Bringing Fanfiction Into the Classroom by Abby Kirby

Our latest article is by Abby Kirby, who writes about her experiences teaching fanfiction to middle schoolers: "Fic does something that my traditional English classes cannot: it places the power in the hands of the student." Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/bringing-fanfiction-into-the-classroom

The Beatles Live! by Allegra Rosenberg

We're excited to welcome back Allegra Rosenberg, who's written a new article for us on contemporary Beatles fandom: "The Beatles Live! New generations of fans are cultural archaeologists, working with the materials of the past to create the passion of the present." Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-beatles-live

The Scream Fandom's Enduring Divide by Michael Boyle

Our newest article is "The Scream Fandom's Enduring Divide" by Michael Boyle: Nearly a year after star Melissa Barrera was fired for pro-Palestinian social media posts, fans remain torn over the future of the franchise. Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-scream-fandoms-enduring-divide

The Acolyte's Squandered Potential by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Our newest article is "The Acolyte's Squandered Potential" by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw: The show brought a whole new set of fans to a stagnating franchise. Its cancellation suggests Star Wars is only interested in looking backwards. Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-acolytes-squandered-potential

The Traumatized Gatekeepers of Broadway by Laura Wheatman Hill

Our newest article is "The Traumatized Gatekeepers of Broadway" by Laura Wheatman Hill: Theatre fans measure their passion by nitpicking. Does it do the industry more harm than good? You can read the full article here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles//the-traumatized-gatekeepers-of-broadway