Deviance and Stereotypes in Fanfiction

Last summer, as I was conducting my interviews and developing my survey, I met with a colleague who was conducting research on the Millennium Trilogy, AKA the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. Most of her research centered on the differences between the movies, books, and the Swedish-to-English translations. As part of her research she looked at how fan authors write about the series.

We met at a local coffee shop to chat about her findings in the fanfiction department. She didn't know a lot about fanfiction, and what she saw surprised her.

I still think about that conversation occasionally. As an outsider, her thoughts on fandom helped me realize my own conceptions. One of the things she brought up was the use of stereotypes in fandom.

She described the protagonist of the Millennium Trilogy, Lisbeth, as a strong female character who used her skills to hack computers and gain revenge against male rapists. I haven't read the series, but I taker her at her word. She went on to explain that the  Lisbeth depicted in fanfiction was very different. She didn't use her hacking skills or take revenge on her rapists. Rather, she settled down with a family and became heterosexual and (often) pregnant.

My colleague found this strange, and disturbing. She explained to me that she read the book as a push against the stereotypes that women are homemakers, and to see the fans re-writing Lisbeth as a homemaker was going against the stereotype-breaking books.

Now, to me, this was unsurprising. I explained to her that in my own research on slash fanfiction, the same thing happened! Characters who were dynamic and energizing were often written as homemakers with children. Men may become pregnant, or stay at home with kids that seemed to materialize from thin air. When that happened, scholars seemed to wax philosophical about how deviant and anti-patriarchal it was. But when it happened to female characters, it was misogynistic and served to reproduce harmful stereotypes.

What is most interesting here is that the same fan authors are writing about the same types of characters (strong, independent, smart), with very different perceptions of their work. The only difference is one character is male and the other female.

As scholars, it is important to be critical of our own work. I had never considered fan works to be very deviant to fan authors, but I could understand why scholars would view them as deviant to the larger society. But now it seems that even that statement could be suspect. If fans are reproducing the same stereotypes, simply in different bodies, is it truly deviant? Or is there something else at work?

Social Movements: Geeks Out and Orson Scott Card

If you're plugged in to the science fiction community, you've likely heard of the upcoming movie adaptation of Ender's Game. Ender's Game is a novel that takes place in the future. It's about a young boy whose tactical genius gets him enrolled in a battle school during a terrible war. He eventually becomes instrumental in the war. This book was written during the height of the Soviet Union, and was later rewritten by the author Orson Scott Card to reflect societal changes.

If you're plugged in to the geeky queer community, you've likely heard about Geek's Out. This organization is dedicated to representing queer people in geeky media (including science fiction, comics, and games) and giving queer folks a place to gather and make connections through conventions and other means.

What does this have to do with social movements?

Orson Scott Card had been vocal in his opposition to homosexuality. His personal objections have manifested in some professional essays on the subject. Because of his opposition, Geek's Out is asking supporters of queer people to Skip Ender's Game. By boycotting the film, Geek's Out expects to make a statement on what are and are not appropriate statements for a public figure to make.

Social movements come in a variety of different forms. Some of the most notable in recent years include the 99% movement, and the Arab Springs it was based on. These different movements have had varying levels of success depending on a number of factors. The Arab Spring movements were powerful enough to be called revolutions, even though some failed.

While the Geek's Out Skip Ender's Game movement isn't big enough to be a revolution, it is telling in a number of ways. Further, we can evaluate its success relative to our understanding of past movements.

Skip Ender's Game is centered mostly online and seems to be relying on social networking to get its message out. It's working okay so far (that's how I found out about it, after all), but there is only a handful of parties of that have responded with Facebook likes and Twitter retweets. Many people who enjoy the current regime, whatever it may be, dislike social media for its ability to spread its message across borders. However, this particular movement has yet to pick up steam.

They don't all wear t-shirts like that, though.

Orson Scott Card has also faced criticism in the "real world." When he became a writer for Superman, the company received letters protesting his involvement. However, this criticism has run against the brick wall of "personal policy is not company policy" as the company has stated his views do not reflect their own.

What this movement lacks is physicality. Perhaps as we get closer to the Ender's Game release there will be more protests, gatherings, and signs, but for now there is little visibility. In order to be a proper movement people need to be moved. I look forward to what Geek's Out can do with what power it has, but I also hope they can find a way to expand their reach.

What do you think? Does this count as a social movement, even though it is almost entirely online? Will boycotting Ender's Game be effective? Further, is it even targeting the right foe? I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Race on the Runway: The Case of Ms. Korea

About a week ago, a picture of the Ms. Korea pageant contestants went viral across the /r/funny subreddit. It depicted the nearly-identical looking contestants and mocked the prevalence of plastic surgery in South Korea. Eventually, it spawned the following image that truly showed just how identical the contestants were:

If you didn't know better, you might think that this was the same woman with slightly different clothes an hairstyles. But it is actually twenty different women who have felt the power of makeup--not plastic surgery, as Reddit had assumed.

The ability to make contestants in a beauty pageant look identical with only a few dollops of makeup and some clever lighting may seem fascinating, even strange, but the truth is we do it all the time when we hold fashion shows.

I had forgotten all about this flash-in-the-pan meme until a few days later when Sociological Images posted this critique of whiteness in the fashion industry. Non-white models are increasingly becoming non-existent in fashion shows as clothing designers strive for a dream-like show. Fashion designers say that it is necessary for the models to all look identical in order for the clothing they wear to stand out.

Now, besides the obvious objectification of women for the sake of clothing, we also have the problematic nature of only one type of uniformity being the "right" kind for this dream-like show. Because white is the default, many fashion designers do not question themselves when they choose an all white cast of models for their show. Perhaps they will choose one black model, but if more than one non-white model try out for the role... well, it's too late for her.

However, as the image of the Ms. Korea pageant contestants shows, uniformity is very easy to obtain. And these contestants didn't look much like each other before the photo shoot, as this website shows.

So if all it takes is a little makeup to achieve uniformity, why do we consistently hire white models instead of others? In the comments below the Sociological Images post several of the posters share their own thoughts. Most point out that, to the fashion industry, the model simply doesn't matter.

These thoughts are echoed in a recent article in the Sociological Quarterly about the fashion industry. In the article "Ethnography as Precarious Work," Mears discusses her ethnographic journey into the fashion industry as a model. The work is difficult and often unrewarding as the casting agents mock her for already being too old, too fat, and pay her little for her efforts.

Clearly the fashion industry is reflecting the social norms around beauty as it continues to use predominantly white models with a particular look. As we've seen, their excuses don't hold up to even slight scrutiny. What are your thoughts on the fashion industry and its choice in models?

Between Two Fires: Anime Fan Perceptions of “Digital Piracy” and “Leveling”

Guest post by Jessica Harvey

Jessica Harvey is a recent graduate of Central Connecticut State University’s Anthropology Program, where Between Two Fires: Anime Fan Perceptions of “Digital Piracy” and “Leveling” served as her Undergraduate Senior Thesis. She now attends Quinnipiac University’s Interactive Media program, where she hopes to continue her work on digital piracy. For a full copy of the academic paper, please contact Jessica at Jessica.Harvey@Quinnipiac.edu or through her website: www.JessHarveyWrites.com. 

Things change. Just as the advent of the automobile transformed the face of society as we knew it, so too has the Internet impacted our already technology-dependent world as it has forced us to challenge many dominant paradigms that have been in place for generations. Of all the challenges the Internet has brought forth, none has been so prominent in today’s society as the notion of “digital piracy”. This nomenclature suggests that any file-sharing of any illegally acquired digital media, directly through peer-to-peer transfers or by using file-sharing networks, is against the law and promotes widespread copyright infringement (Morris and Higgins 2010). For the anime industry in the United States, the growth of Internet technologies has produced an interesting, paradoxical problem in which portions of the anime fan population have come to be branded as pirates, guilty of illegally distributing the digital media they love so much.

But is it “piracy” or just another form of exchange between producers and fans (consumers) that levels the power relationship between fans and the production houses who market this unique style of animation? My research took the post-modernist view that the deconstruction of piracy in its dominant paradigm form must occur. By focusing on the anime industry, responsible for producing the highly unique animation style originating from Japan, I examined the role that file-sharing and the Internet play in an industry surviving by the loyalty of its fans. This is important because despite the industry currently fighting “piracy” with its final breaths, anime fans have not lost their enthusiasm for their favorite media and anime itself has never cost less to purchase and to own. Moreover, incidences of the digital piracy of anime have increased over the last twenty years. This paradox presents us with the main research question of: Does anime culture encourage the “digital piracy” of anime?

A photo from ConnectiCon 2011, where I

conducted my participant observation session.

Here some fans are cosplaying as characters from

Ouran High School Host Club.

          

The problem of piracy and leveling by anime fans was analyzed by examining the situation through two points of view: that of the anime industry (which is also —currently— reflective of the government) and that of the fans.  This was done through the three methods of: non-random sample surveys, participant observation and the utilization of Internet sources.

For most, if not all, of the history of digital piracy, the view most widely presented is that of the industry, whose rights, they feel, have been compromised. But the fans do not believe this to be the case and they do not see what they do to be illegal, much less explicitly “digital piracy’.  My main research question stemmed from this latter view, wondering if the fans’ ideologies where formed due to the nature of anime culture or because of other reasons. To look at this, I first conducted a large literature review consisting of both academic, peer-reviewed sources and non-academic sources. I also searched YouTube for videos of various industry and voice actor panels taped from anime conventions across the nation. These panels provided insight into the views of not only the fans and industry leaders, but of those stuck in the middle, such as the voice actors and fansubbers. Doing so also provided another new, interesting dimension by allowing me to hear the voices of people who have been anime fans for decades and compare their opinions to those who have found anime only recently.

            Following in line with Equity Theory, I initially expected fans to feel cheated by the industry for various reasons, and so felt that distributing my survey on their terms and on their online territory was the appropriate course of action. To do so, I used Survey Monkey’s services to host the survey, and posted links to it on my Facebook account, the Risembool Rangers fan forum and the forum site for Anime News Network. This allowed for total anonymity and a wide audience from which to gain insight. The survey asked participants about the habits and methods for obtaining anime, what they thought of anime culture, how they were introduced to or got into anime in the first place and why they would illegally download anime. The sample size was a total of 72 survey respondents between the ages of 18 and 40, with 47% being male and 53% being female.

Breakdown of age demographics from the survey sample.

            During the course of this study, I also employed participant observation as a way to gain information and experiences. This was conducted in the form of attending an anime convention in Hartford, CT over the summer of 2011 called ConnectiCon. Here, I participated in panels, Q&A with the guests, various main events and anime screenings.

What I found was not entirely what I expected to, and in the process of doing so, I had to deconstruct my preconceived notions of digital piracy. Initially, I assumed what was happening within the anime industry was a result of digital piracy as the government and industry define it. My assumption caused some initial rough patches when connecting with informants. After that my initial research question did not really address the issue, a new and better question began to form:

While the definition of file-sharing digital media, even if for non-commercial profit, explicitly states that it is against the law, the act itself is widespread throughout today’s society. Within the anime industry, digital file-sharing runs as rampant as it does within any other industry, however, the view the fans of this medium take is increasingly different than any of the others. In fact, the fans may not even be consciously aware that their actions are considered leveling but rather just see their activities as furthering access of anime series to fellow or newer fans who cannot obtain it for themselves. In some cases, such as fansubbing, the act of sharing these anime series through “unofficial” channels may be considered by the fans as a compliment to the actual industry rather than as a detriment to their profit margins, which in turn limits their ability to bring new series over to the United States.

Be that as it may, industry leaders and the government no longer consider these practices as the compliment they once did. In fact, views have changed so much that finding the balance that once existed in the days of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization may be too difficult to achieve in today’s world of instant gratification and easy access to digital media.

I began finding that much of the issue that the anime industry is dealing with today has to do with fansubs moving from a marketing tool to a major obstacle.  Fansubs used to present an option for non-Japanese speakers, as well as a free way for the Japanese to distribute this new art medium to a new audience.

In the same way, U.S. production houses also used fansubs for free market research in order to see which shows would be popular in the U.S. But now that they have become a part of anime culture, and now that the Internet has provided such a quick and easy way to distribute them, fansubs now present a threat they once did not.

A good case in point would be when the U.S. production houses wanted to bring the extremely popular One Piece anime over to the U.S. and dub it into English. They knew from the start that it would be a large hit, but the retail sales for One Piece in the U.S. plummeted despite its popularity (Ayres 2008). In fact, it was so popular that it was the most downloaded show of 2008, beating out the then favorites of: Lost, Prison Break and Smallville.

The simple point is this: this facet of anime culture is no longer about providing anime to those who cannot obtain it, it is about out-competing the legal distributors. It is about leveling the playing field so that fans can enjoy what they may not necessarily otherwise have the money to have.

In a related light, a second major finding I had revolved around the word “fan”. The term “fan” comes from the word “fanatical”, which implies that you are so in love with something that your only intent is to see that it succeeds. However, it is clear that the meaning of the word “fan” is changing—and already has. Zac Bertschy, an editorial writer for Anime News Network, received in 2007 a letter to his “Hey Answerman!” column that talked about the Odex Case in Singapore and ended by saying, “Without fansubs, there are no fans!” Which I thought was interesting, and apparently so did Zac Bertschy.

He wrote back to that person, saying:

And I think that quite nicely sums the situation up. Some anime fans are no longer paying at all for official anime productions, but still call themselves the number one fans because they can obtain the anime they want for free and quickly. The question for the industry then becomes, are they even still fans at this point? The answer could be yes, since they do still enjoy and support the work, but they are not supporting the artist. This relationship is not viable economically because without the fans buying anime and related merchandise, the creators literally cannot afford to create.

The simple point is this: digitally downloading anime for free is illegal. It violates copyright law, costs companies millions and the artist's lose even more than that. At the same time, anime fans just want the ability to enjoy what they love for a low cost or for free. Be that as it may, that does not change the fact that anime costs money to produce. Without buying anime merchandise or DVDs, BluRays, etc, fans are not supporting the industry—only the medium. This is fine in and of itself but from an economic standpoint, it is not a viable relationship, leaving the industry in a precarious position. Theft of intellectual property is wrong. As Michael C. Zalot (2008) proposes in regards to the music industry, records made music a “thing”, a commodity to be bought and sold but digital music files “have even less ‘thingness’ than a CD—no album cover or physical form other than patterns of electrical charges” (179). It is still a commodity, but a social one rather than an object to be purchased—a cultural artifact. It can therefore be shared outside the confines of capitalist distribution, making any one song available to anyone and everyone all at once.

In the same way, fansubs made anime a commodity in the United States, since then all non-Japanese speakers could also enjoy the art medium. However, the emergence of the digisub served to disembody anime from its original state, despite widening the fanbase for the anime industry. This allowed for instantaneous, potentially world-wide distribution of this cultural artifact. Once disembodied from a purely “physical” form, has the distribution of anime in this digital state of being become less of a taboo and more of a culturally acceptable norm within the anime community and within anime culture?

I believe this to be the case, as what the government and big companies call “digital piracy” grows more and more rampant in today’s society. The time has now come to accept that the copyright laws of tradition are not ready to deal with this issue, and also that it is the time to stop thinking of it in a dualistic, black and white paradigm type way. What fans see—for the good or bad of the artist—as leveling, governments and companies see as digital piracy, but the two may not be stuck in an all-or-nothing relationship.

Yes, the illegal and unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content is, in fact, illegal and constitutes copyright infringement, but in absence of strict laws for the virtual world that mirror or complement those of the physical one, what else can be done? Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it, too, and while nothing about that is necessarily wrong, this line of thinking does absolutely nothing to change or improve the status quo, much less serve any purpose but ignite feuds between the two camps.

            In conclusion, anime culture itself does not encourage the digital piracy of its related media, however it does encourage the unconscious leveling process which occurs due to feelings of inequitable exchanges between fans and the anime industry.

Works Cited:

Hill, Charles W.L.

            2007  Digital Piracy: Causes, Consequences, and Strategic Responses. Springer

Science + Business Media, LLC 2007.

Morris, Robert G and Higgins.

            2010  Criminological Theory in the Digital Age: The Case of Social Learning

Theory and  Digital Piracy. Journal of Criminal Justice 38 (2010) 470-480.

Zalot, Michael C.

2008  Digital Dreamtime, Sonic Talismans: Music Downloading and the Tribal

Landscape. Electronic Tribes, edited by Tyrone L. Adams and Stephen A. Smith. University of Texas Press, 2008.

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Would you like to write a guest post for Sociology for Nerds? We accept posts at all times, on any subject either nerdy or sociological! Email sociologyfornerds@gmail.com with drafts or ideas for posts. 

Ethical Considerations in Internet Research

I recently attended the Midwest Sociological Society annual conference in Chicago. While there, I presented on some of the issues that have arisen during my fanfiction research in a talk titled "Ethical Considerations in Internet Research: The Role of the Researcher and the Participant." I presented this talk at a panel I put together on Online Research: Ethics, Methods, and Limitations.

I also got to meet Karl Marx!

I'd like to share some of my talk with you lovely blog readers today.

The basis for my talk was the three research methods I used during my fanfiction research: a content analysis of Star Trek fanfiction, interviews with genderswap fanfiction authors, and a survey of fan producers (you may have seen the CFP on my blog a few months ago).

In addition, before I ever began this research, I performed a literature review to see what past scholars thought about online research. I found that past scholars described internet research as nuanced, methodologically sound, yet ethically muddled. Past scholars sorted internet research into two categories: research on the internet and research through the internet.(1)

Research on the internet concerns spaces and activities that do not occur, or do not occur very often, outside of the internet. Research through the internet concerns typically-research non-internet communities researched through online means (like an online survey). My project is primarily on the internet. I was interested to see how research on the internet created or didn't create new ethical concerns. One of the reasons for my interest was what I felt to be a lack of oversight from IRBs on my own research. I received exemption from IRB approval, but felt that the board should be as critical of me as I was.

Further, past researchers found three man ethical concerns related to internet research (2):

1.  Confidentiality, especially in relation to pseudonyms
2. Informed consent
3. Deception and the role of social interaction

I also found these ethical quandaries arise in my own research.  For me, the ethical concerns broke down thusly:

1. Confidentiality and confidence
2. Establishing rapport
3. The role of the researcher as a participant and observer

Each of these issues came up in my own research, and makes me with the IRB board had been aware of, and warned me about, these issues ahead of time. If you are interested in knowing more about the limitations of this research you can check out my submission in the upcoming edition of Participations. 

___
References:

(1) Bertolazzi, Alessia, Antonina Dattolo, and Nincola Strizzolo. 2011. "Techniques and new mehtods for online social research: the Case Study Drugs 2.0." CIRN PRato Community Informatics Conference 2011.

(2) Beddows, Emma. 2008. "The Methodological Issues Associated with Internet-Based Research." International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society 6(2):124-139.

Lions, and Tigers, and Honors Thesis, Oh My!

By the time you read this, I will likely already be presenting the defense of my Honors Thesis.

Some of you who know me personally, or who have participated in my research, know that my fanfiction research has been channeled into an Honors Thesis in Sociology. Basically what this means is, if I pass the thesis committee, I will graduate with Honors in Sociology and my thesis will become published at the Hamline Library. I will of course make a copy of it available online for all my readers and research participants!

I'd like to take a moment here to share some of my thoughts on this whole process. Overall, it has been a wonderful experience doing research and "learning the trade" so to speak. There have been some pitfalls, which I will also discuss.

First, doing this research has given me the wonderful opportunity of working with my adviser Sharon Preves. Sociologists who study gender may know her as the one who wrote the book on the social construction of intersex. She has been a great adviser and mentor to me as I completed my research.

More than that, she has helped me to take advantage of opportunities many undergrads only dream of (or never realize exist!). I have attended four conferences with plans to attend a fifth, all presenting on my research.

I think the most difficult part of my research was sitting down to write my 65+ page monograph of a thesis. After doing the interviews, reading the fanfiction, and surveying the creators I found that actually writing about them was a daunting task. It took many hours to finally put the paper together! At one point I thought I had lost interest in fanfiction research, only to have my interest renewed when I attended a conference and got the chance to speak to other sociologists who had never heard of fanfiction before. Something about explaining these complicated ideas to other people who speak my language was inspiring, and I know I will continue this research in the future.

I did run into a few problems, of course. There have been a few bumps along the way. My main issue was with how new fanfiction studies are. Although people have poked and prodded at the fan community, not enough have really spoken with us to lay a good foundation. I had to lay my own foundation. It was fun, and exciting, but difficult at times.

I look forward to defending my thesis later today. Hearing the questions from my Honors committee is nerve-wracking, but exciting. I will probably follow up on this post later with a link to my thesis and some more discussion of the entire process.

Wish me luck!

Reblog: "Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is"

Although I'm a little late to the party, I thought my readers may be interested in this post by John Scalzi. In it, he uses a gaming metaphor to explain privledge. He says,

"Imagine life here in the US — or indeed, pretty much anywhere in the Western world — is a massive role playing game, like World of Warcraft except appallingly mundane, where most quests involve the acquisition of money, cell phones and donuts, although not always at the same time. Let’s call it The Real World. You have installed The Real World on your computer and are about to start playing, but first you go to the settings tab to bind your keys, fiddle with your defaults, and choose the difficulty setting for the game. Got it?

Okay: In the role playing game known as The Real World, “Straight White Male” is the lowest difficulty setting there is."

Swing over and check out the entire post. What do you think of it? Do you agree with his metaphor, or with his findings? You can also read his responses to comments in a series of follow up posts he did. Do you agree with his statements on race, gender, and class?