Male Fans Research Articles

It’s Ok to be joyful? My Little Pony and Brony masculinity

Abstract Bronies, the adult male fans of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010–), have raised controversy in public discussions and on the Internet: male interest in something so obviously non-masculine seems to call for some kind of explanation, for instance, as a sexual subculture or as one more ironic Internet meme. Bronies, however, emphasize their sincere enjoyment of the show and foreground their identification with the characters and stories in the series, as well as the significance of the active fan community. This article discusses the Brony fandom as a site for renegotiating male gender norms and constructing masculine identities. The focus is on the fan discourse that Bronies themselves produce and circulate, i.e. how Bronies talk about being a Brony. The empirical material consists of interviews and observations within the Finnish Brony community, both online and offline. It is argued that the ‘neo-sincere’ attitude of Bronies illustrates the centrality of humour in the construction of gendered identities. Bronies themselves emphasize that Brony fandom offers a kind of joy that is hard to find among more traditional masculine discourses.

Twi-dudes and Twi-guys

The Twilight franchise, based upon the popular Young Adult vampire romantic series, is, unquestionably, female-driven. However, the series’ romantic themes and enthusiastic female fans, as well as the public disdain they have received, have overshadowed the male fans of the series. To explore male fans’ interest in Twilight, how they reconciled their masculine identities with their attraction to a feminine text, and what they learned from Twilight’s romantic messages, we discuss our findings from surveys and group interviews with male Twilight fans. Both the lack of scholarly literature on male audiences of romantic media and the experiences of male Twilight fans reveal that we know little about the roles romantic media play in boys’ and men’s lives. We argue that studying male audiences of romantic media is a useful approach to begin to build an understanding of the roles feminine media forms play in boys’ and men’s gendered identities.

“Cosplay Is Serious Business”: Gendering Material Fan Labor on Heroes of Cosplay

“Cosplay Is Serious Business”:Gendering Material Fan Labor on Heroes of Cosplay Suzanne Scott (bio) Cosplay, or costume play, the practice of constructing costumes and props inspired by fictional characters and embodying those characters in real-world spaces such as fan conventions, remains undertheorized within fan studies. Although scholars have considered cosplay as a mode of identity performance and geek culture bloggers are increasingly engaging the identity politics of convention culture for cosplayers, the labor and materiality of cosplay as a mode of fan production, as well as how that labor is gendered, is rarely addressed.1 This is perhaps because cosplay occupies a conflicted positioning within preexisting discourses around fan production and performance. Fan studies as a field has historically focused on female fans’ transformative textual production through the creation and circulation of fan fiction, fan vids, and fan art. Cosplay, by contrast, typically presents itself as a form of mimetic fan production. Mimetic modes of fan production—a term I borrow from Matt Hills—seek to replicate what is seen on screen, and thus do not “create radical mash-ups, or ‘read’ in provocative ways, nor transformatively rework the object of fandom.”2 Hills nonetheless makes a compelling case for a consideration of mimetic fan production, like replicating props, [End Page 146] as a transformative endeavor—one that has the capacity to deconstruct “the separation of supposedly female-centered transformational and male-centered affirmational fandoms.”3 Cosplay, as a form of mimetic fan production popular with both men and women, would thus seem to present an ideal site for navigating ongoing, and distinctly gendered, anxieties surrounding the professionalization and monetization of fan labor. Although, as Hills suggests, mimetic fan practices might allow us to complicate many of the gendered binaries of contemporary fan studies, I contend that these gendered binaries around fannish professionalization not only persist but also are often used to reentrench the notion that male fans are more adept at professionalizing their labor and discursively discipline female fans who make similar efforts to monetize their mimetic fan works.4 To revisit some of the core concerns of the 2009 “In Focus: Fandom and Feminism,” I consider how the SyFy Channel’s reality series Heroes of Cosplay (2013– ) genders professionalization and material fan labor, and how fans have responded to those representations via the Tumblr Heroes of Cosplay Confessions. Too often, labor is marked only when it aligns with the interests of capital. Compared to textual forms of fan production, cosplay is expensive, but it is precisely this expense (the purchasing of items such as fabrics, materials, and makeup), as well as the tactile nature of the product within material fan production, that allows it to be more culturally legible as a form of labor. This, coupled with the growing array of cosplay retailers online and burgeoning legal battles over licensing and the sale of fan crafts on sites like Etsy, creates a fertile space for revisiting and expanding on Abigail De Kosnik and Karen Hellekson’s 2009 “In Focus” exchange surrounding the future of fandom’s gift economy and the professionalization of fan fiction.5 Hellekson, framing fandom’s gift economy as a form of legal and social protection, argued that fandom constructs “a new, gendered space that relies on the circulation of gifts for its cohesion with no currency and little meaning outside the economy, and that deliberately repudiates a monetary model (because it is gendered male).”6 De Kosnik countered with concerns that female fans might be “waiting too long to decide to profit from their innovative art form,” contending that “women writing fanfic for free today risk institutionalizing a lack of compensation for all women that practice this art in the future.”7 I don’t intend [End Page 147] to take sides in this ongoing debate but rather to expose an additional layer to Hellekson and De Kosnik’s initial exchange. As both Heroes of Cosplay and submissions to the Heroes of Cosplay Confessions Tumblr reveal, the question isn’t merely whether women should or should not professionalize their fan labor, but how professionalized female fans are received and scrutinized differently from their fanboy counterparts, who are rarely interrogated about their capacity...

‘Transatlantic connection’: K-pop and K-drama fandom in Spain and Latin America

Abstract The global circulation of Asian cultural products has been on a constant rise since the 1990s. However, the arrival to Spanish-speaking audiences is a more recent phenomenon, one that is linked to the consolidation of web-based tools for consumption, distribution and discussion of cultural artefacts. The different stages in which Hallyu, or the ‘Korean Wave’, reached different countries determined the intensity of scholarly interest in the phenomenon. If the research gap between Asia and Europe is wide, the later arrival to Spain and Latin America means that studies on the reception of Korean popular culture, including those dealing with fandom, are quasi-non-existent. This article is a first attempt at mapping the demographics of K-pop and K-drama fans in the Spanish-speaking world, through an analysis of an online survey. Drawing from the uses and gratifications approach in mass communication research, we discuss fans’ appropriation of K-pop, describe their shared iconography and analyse the peculiarities of male fans by studying their self-narratives. We conclude with a discussion on the need for studies of fandom to transcend national boundaries as exemplified by the advent of a ‘transatlantic connection’ linking fans in Spain and in Latin America via South Korea.

Uncles’ generation: Adult male fans and alternative masculinities in South Korean popular music

Abstract This article discusses the recent emergence of adult male fans of Korean pop (K-pop) music who openly engage themselves in fan activities typically associated with teenagers (particularly teenage girls) and the significance of their adoration of young female celebrities. The recent appearance of the ‘samchon/uncle fans’ in the K-pop culture discourse marks the first instance since the early 1990s, when teenagers became the primary target audience of South Korea’s entertainment industry, in which male adults reclaimed a significant position as a demographic group of fans. The samchon fans differ from the traditional ajossi (middle-aged, patriarchal men) listeners of adult contemporary music in the kinds of singers and musical genres to which they listen, as well as in their self-identification as fans, participation in fan activities and mass media portrayals. I investigate the implications of the men’s consumption pattern and their representation in South Korean mass media within the contexts of the history of the construction of hegemonic masculinity in South Korea and of recent developments in East Asian popular culture. I also explore possible ways to apply, complicate and question existing theoretical and conceptual frameworks to explain the phenomenon and argue for the possibility of politically potent, alternative masculinities constructed and manifested through the men’s conspicuous consumption of cultural commodities.

Gender constructions and negotiations of female football fans. A case study in Denmark

While both the media and the academic literature focus primarily on male fans, in particular on violence and the prevention of hooliganism, little is known about female football supporters. This is also true of Denmark, a country that is known for its high degree of gender equality. This article aims to give insight into gender constructions and negotiations of female football fans in the stands. Drawing on a social constructivist perspective to gender and Bourdieu’s (1984) approaches to field, capital and habitus, we explored the experiences and opinions of female fans. The methods employed were stadium observations as well as qualitative, guideline-based interviews with female supporters of three different clubs. The observations and interviews reveal that traditional gender norms, prejudices and sexism are widespread in the fan stands, and are often accepted and trivialised by the female fans themselves. Female fans have to comply with specific rules of conduct in the stadium, where “masculine” behaviour for both male and female supporters is regarded as ideal fan behaviour. However, there is also space for gender negotiations as long as female supporters display neither “hypermasculinity” nor “emphasised femininity” in their gender performances. Female fans do not only comply with and reproduce the rules of conduct in the stadium but also apply different forms of resistance against sexism and the domination of men in the stadium – both on the field and in the stands. The founding of a women’s fan group can be interpreted as means of opposition to the dominance of men.

Spirituality and Basketball Fanship: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Synthesis

The world of competitive sport affords an individual the opportunity to enter a spiritual community adding meaning that transcends one’s current understanding of life (Parry et al. 2007). Previously established dimensions of sports fanship (group affiliation, psychological commitment and team identification) share characteristics commonly associated with religious or spiritual affiliation indicating that fans may generate substantial life meaning from observing sporting encounters. In the present study, 12 male basketball fans (M=32.42; SD=7.97) completed semi-structured interviews immediately prior to viewing a competitive match at the 2011 European Basketball Championships (Vilnius, Lithuania). Interviews were structured under four headings; 1) the most memorable moment as a basketball fan, 2) thoughts, feelings and emotions attached to their team, 3) affiliation to the team in the context of the fan’s meaning of life, 4) connection with members of the fan’s sporting community. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed to analyse interview transcripts. Raw data clustered into four dimensions; 1) devotion, 2) obscure emotions, 3) connectedness, and 4) universal values. The results indicate that sports fanship is characterised by, and synonymous with, an established understanding of spirituality derived from membership of wider spiritual and/or religious communities. The findings hold implications for the marketing and membership of local, amateur and professional sports clubs and brands, as well as community development, health and welfare.

Otaku tourism and the anime pilgrimage phenomenon in Japan

This article analyses one aspect of the emerging phenomenon of otaku tourism: travel by mainly male fans of otaku subculture to anime ‘sacred sites’ (the locations that feature in favourite anime). It starts by placing discussion of otaku culture in the discourse of postmodernity and elaborating on how otaku subculture is generating new forms of communication. Then, the origins and characteristics of anime pilgrimage are traced. The article concludes by explaining how otaku tourism and anime pilgrimage generate distinctive forms of communication both among fans and between fans and the communities that experience influxes of anime tourists.

‘Which player do you fancy then?’ Locating the female ethnographer in the field of the sociology of sport

This article examines the gendered nature of sport fan ethnographies and addresses the often-overlooked relationship between a researcher’s gender identity and their research environment. It seeks to critically explore the debates that surround female researchers in masculine settings, and argues that the position of a female researcher is both enabling and limiting within the scope of data collection on football fans. Drawing on a qualitative data-set that examines football fans of Everton Football Club, observational data collected over the 2012–2013 Premier League seasons are used to illustrate how the researcher reflexively celebrated, negotiated, subverted and at times froze her femininity. The silencing of the female ethnographer in sport research is attributed to the prominent position that both male sports fans and male scholars occupy in the field. This paper advocates for an alternative approach to the study of sports fans that encourages more reflexively on behalf of the researcher.

May the wild male loose? Male wing fanning performances and mating success in wild and mass-reared strains of the aphid parasitoid Aphidius colemani Viereck (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae)

Aphidius colemani Viereck (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a pan-tropical broadly oligophagous endoparasitoid of many aphids of economic importance, including Aphis gossypii Glover and Myzus persicae (Sulzer). While the trophic interactions occurring among A. colemani and its hosts have been extensively studied, little is known about the male- and female-borne cues that guide mating dynamics. Male wing fanning has been found to play a key role in A. colemani courtship, as successful mounting of females without initial wing fanning has never been observed. In this research, we analyzed wing fanning performance and mating ability of males from three different strains of A. colemani: wasps commercially mass-reared on A. gossypii, wild wasps from parasitized A. gossypii, and wild wasps from parasitized Aphis nerii Boyer de Fonscolombe. Results showed that virgin females did not rely on particular male fanning features during mate choice. Moreover, when A. colemani individuals developed on A. gossypii, no major differences were detected in courtship and mating ability between field collected and mass-reared wasps. In contrast, courtship performance and mating success varied between wild A. colemani males reared on different hosts, with those developing on A. nerii having lower quality wing fanning performance during the mounting attempt phase, and reduced ability to compete for females with other males reared on A. gossypii.

Broncho Billy and the Problem of the Male Movie Fan

This essay examines the decline of the male movie fan in the early 1910s in relation to one of silent film’s first serial franchises—G. M. Anderson’s Broncho Billy series. Much has been written in recent years about the rise of the female fan during this period, but few scholars have sought to explain why studios and other media so actively courted the female spectator in favor of the male audience that had sustained early hobbyist and fan publications. Looking at a Broncho Billy–inspired shooting from 1914, I argue that the decline of male fans (as subjects to whom the film industry at large, and Essanay Studios in particular, appealed) was intimately related to anxieties over feeblemindedness, mental illness, juvenile delinquency, and adolescent violence.

Julia Child’s The French Chef by Dana Polan (review)

Reviewed by: Julia Child’s The French Chef by Dana Polan Mary Rizzo Julia Child’s The French Chef. By Dana Polan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2011. From “Thirty Minute Meals” to “Iron Chef,” Americans are obsessed with watching cooking. Where did this fascination come from? As film scholar Dana Polan argues in Julia Child’s The French Chef, Julia Child and her TV show were key to the popularization of food as a televisual subject. But Child, Le Cordon Bleu graduate and co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961), did not invent the television cooking show. Alongside her husband and producers at WGBH, the Boston public television station, Child contributed important elements to a form that had been in place since TV’s earliest days. In one of the best chapters, Polan traces the cooking show before The French Chef (1963), explaining how early shows created the genre’s conventions, like close-ups on the host’s hands interspersed with longer shots. Child borrowed these, but added a pedagogical depth married to a deep joy in cooking that was evident in each episode, which included recipe instruction with a “conceptual” narrative “that situated each step in its contexts and saturated it with broader understanding” (127). That her show coincided with the rise of a new petite bourgeoisie that used food to demonstrate distinction and taste ensured her success. Equally important was Child herself. Her larger-than-life persona combined with her deep knowledge of French food and the visible pleasure she derived from cooking, [End Page 241] eating, and drinking, made her addictive to watch. As fan letters acknowledge, viewers of widely divergent backgrounds liked her spontaneity and strangeness. While she was no cultural rebel (Polan repeatedly mentions that she used industrially produced foods even if she preferred homemade), Child even appealed to people in the counterculture and avant garde who saw her as candid rather than canned. The fact that mistakes were not edited out of the final shows helped this impression of candor. Rather than being a shellacked sitcom housewife, Child performed realness for the camera. Interestingly given her role in breaking barriers around women’s participation in haute cuisine, Child was no feminist. As she wrote to a male fan, “It’s good to know there are some enthusiastic men at the stove these days; men always have more daring and imagination than women” (97). Child embodied the gender assumptions of her age while stretching them. And, as Polan points out, such gender issues continue to structure TV cooking bifurcated between sexy female hosts and playful male cooks. The French Chef continued until 1973 when Child retired. While Polan gestures to Child’s legacy, he does not engage with historical memory. What does the Smithsonian say about Child in their exhibit of her TV kitchen? How did the blog, book, and film Julie and Julia (2009) reflect gender and class identity? Such forays would extend the analysis, which is strongest when dealing with the prehistory of the cooking show and the specifics of The French Chef. At times, the book seems hastily written, as with an error that placed Michel Foucault at an important scholarly conference that introduced French theorists to America. However, its use of new archival sources and focus on an important figure in American postwar cultural history makes it an intriguing addition to studies of food and television. Mary Rizzo Rutgers University–Camden Copyright © 2014 Mid-America American Studies Association

Intolerance and joy, violence and love among male football fans: towards a psychosocial explanation of ‘excessive’ behaviours

This paper examines the phenomena of intolerance and violence among male football fans through psychoanalytic theory as read through the sociology of postmodern group life. We think of intolerance and violence as points on a shared spectrum of emotion and (unconscious) desire that incorporates other forms of ‘excessive’ behaviour, notably public displays of homosocial love and affection. We argue that the notion of ‘transference-love’ as proposed by Freud and reformulated by Lacan is an important aspect of fans' libidinal investments in players. We maintain that a psychosocial approach to the problem enables a discussion of the ambiguous place of football fandom within postmodern consumer culture, where such identities are necessarily tenuous, but, at the same time, tenaciously held. Uncertainties of identity are exacerbated by the gendered and unconscious (homo)sexual dynamics that exist in the emotional cauldron of the male football crowd. Displays of excessive behaviour can be seen as a defence against the confusion over gender and sexuality that might arise in this cauldron at the time of the match and in the space of the stadium.

Altered egos: gay men reading across gender difference in Wonder Woman

Arguments about representation in comics and other media have largely consisted of simple and direct identity presentation, yet there is growing evidence that audiences construct identification moments in a myriad of ways. Gender identification, for instance, with protagonists in comics may seem straightforward, yet there is ongoing evidence that audience members cross the male–female divide to find themselves within protagonists of another gender. Wonder Woman, for instance, has a considerable gay male fan base. This project approaches Wonder Woman with a semiotic and cultural studies analysis to see how the character is made up of several syntagms that encourage this kind of identification, including same-sex society, fighting intolerance, finding one’s place and thriving in transformation. Rather than a secret identity for the hero, the project calls this relationship an ‘altered ego’ for the reader.

Fandom and male privilege: Seven years later

In 2005, clashes by male comics fans entering spaces created by (predominantly female) slash fans led to an essay exploring the role of male privilege in media fandom. Despite many changes both in fandom and media texts, the essay continues to be relevant today.

Will the real fans please remain seated? Gender and television ratings for pre-game and game broadcasts

Previous analysis of fan motivation suggests a number of differences exist in the sport spectatorship of female and male fans, however discrepancies are present in the collective findings. We extend the literature by drawing on sport economic demand research, testing how specific game characteristics influence consumption patterns for each gender. Through the examination of NCAA football game broadcasts, our results support the importance of female pre-game viewership to establish fan status. By contrast, among the many variables tested, gendered-differences in the impact on game viewership are evident only with respect to income and local team participation. Moreover, we do not find differences related to anticipated or actual game competitiveness. We conclude that within game viewership patterns are essentially similar for female and male fans and offer thoughts regarding the practical implications of this research.

Fin size and associated fanning behaviour as indicators of reproductive status in male round gobies (Neogobius melanostomus)

Determination of male reproductive status in the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) can be challenging because current metrics do not always reflect steroid production. In many fishes, fin size changes during the reproductive season; therefore, fins may provide additional information about reproductive status. In some species, fin size correlates with fanning behaviour; a trait common in fish species that exhibit male parental care as it is important for egg maintenance. Because male fanning begins before spawning, fanning also may play a role in pheromone dispersal and courtship, potential indicators of reproductive status. Initially, we examined which morphological metrics (head width, total length, condition, fin size) best delineated groups of reproductive and non-reproductive male gobies (determined using the gonadosomatic index, GSI). Surface areas of fused pelvic fins and caudal fins best separated these groups of males. Using video recordings of nest-guarding male gobies, we characterised both pectoral and caudal fanning behaviour. Rates of maximum caudal fanning (fin beats per minute) were higher than rates of pectoral fanning; however, caudal fanning overall was less frequent than pectoral fanning. Subsequently, we determined if fanning metrics were related to 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT), GSI and morphological traits. No relationship was found between any of the fanning or morphological metrics and GSI values or 11-KT. However, there was a significant relationship between the maximum pectoral fanning rate and condition factor of males. These findings suggest that relative fin size, but not fanning behaviours, may be useful metrics to measure reproductive status.

Can professional soccer clubs help male fans lose weight and become more physically active? Preliminary evidence from the Scottish Premier League

Introduction: The prevalence of overweight/obesity amongst UK men is amongst the highest in Europe. Modest (5–10%) weight loss can reduce risk of co-morbidity, but many men are reluctant to engage in traditional commercial and health service weight management programmes. Football Fans in Training (FFIT) is a gender-sensitized, weight loss, physical activity (PA) and healthy living intervention that aims to engage men in sustained positive lifestyle change by using Scotland's elite professional football (soccer) clubs as a vehicle for delivery.

Who are we? My club? My people? My state? The dilemma of the Arab soccer fan in Israel

This paper deals with the problematic identity of the Arab male fans of Bnei Sakhnin F.C., which is an Arab soccer club in the city of Sakhnin, Israel. Seemingly, the Bnei Sakhnin F.C. male fan identifies with his club for the same reasons as every other football fan in Israel. However, as an Arab and minority in a state that is in continuous strife with his people – the Palestinians – his fandom and hence his identity as a fan is inevitably affected. The Arab fan of Bnei Sakhnin cannot rest his identity on the club alone. The Arabs’ status in Israel, which is imported to the football stadium, stems from identity being heavily connected to ethnicity/nationality. In essential ways, the Arab male fan cannot separate his identity with the club from his ethnicity/nationality. He is foremost an Arab and then a football fan. Consequently, the football league becomes a constant dilemma of identification by posing the question of “Who are we?”

All the young dudes: educational capital, masculinity and the uses of popular music

AbstractSince its emergence in the early 1970s, glam rock has been theoretically categorised as a moment in British popular culture in which essentialist ideas about male gendered identity were rendered problematic for a popular music audience. Drawing on a Bourdieusian theoretical framework, the article argues that while this reading of glam is valid, insufficient attention has been given to an examination of the relevance of educational capitalvis-à-visthe construction of self-identity in relation to glam. It is therefore concerned with raising questions about social class in addition to interrogating questions of gender. The article draws on the ethno-biographies of a sample of glam's original working class male fans: original interviews with musicians and writers associated with glam, as well as published biographical accounts. In doing so it contends that glam's political significance is better understood as a moment in popular culture in which an educationally aspirant section of the male working-class sought to express its difference by identifying with the self-conscious performance of a more feminised masculinity it located in glam.