My overall journey around the dsmp fandom

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The land before time - I watched Quackity a whole lot, along with Wilbur (Soot House), Techno, and Schlatt

April 2020 - First time hearing of Dream Team from a Beatles fanartist, I hated them because I thought they were replacing the OGs

Rest of 2020 and up to July 2021 - I was a major anti, I didn't participate in any drama or controversy, but I hated the dsmp and all of the stans with a passion

August 2021 - Technoblade announced his cancer, I lightened up slightly on my burning hatred and started keeping up with Techno again

September 2021 to April 2022 - became best friends with a Dream stan and started to completely lighten up on my anti-ism, also got more exposure to the fandom because they would tell me all about it

May to June 2022 - Started to lurk on people's content, started watching SBI, Ranboo, Tubbo, etc, I stayed away from dteam because I knew that's where most of the controversy was from

July 2022 - I will never forget the absolute shock and pure fucking anguish I felt when I saw "so long nerds" on my recommended, I decided to finally officially join the fandom after his death, started watching DTQK+, the manhunts, and caught up on lore (the best I could)

August 2022 - Caught my first stream! Gnf pov of mcc 24, honestly just living my best life catching up on all the content- I basically watched everyone in the dsmp and wasn't even aware of any drama between the fans, also read heatwaves for the first time and became an official dnfer

September 2022 - the start of my complete and debilitating hyperfixation on the dteam as the face reveal and meetup were coming up, I was literally shitting my pants the whole month

Early October 2022 - I was absolutely on top of the world, the face reveal, meetups, twitchcon, etc etc, I was ecstatic- The face reveal was my first exposure to just how many antis there were though, and I started to keep up with more controversy

Mid to late October 2022 - ☠️

November to December 2022 - in the trenches, low on food and water, gunfire everywhere, my family was dead, my friends were dead, my legs were broken, blood everywhere, dirt in my eyes, contemplating and questioning everything

January 2023 - 100% and totally back baby! No longer in the trenches, not hyperfixated anymore so I can breathe, genuinely having fun in the fandom again and just enjoying my time here in peace- also dnf making my brain melt

ask responses

ok so there’s like a quadrillion anti-k*eluc things in my inbox (like every time this topic comes up)

yea these all shit on k*eluc but if you like that ship idk why you’re here cw: death threat mention (NO ACTUAL THREATS), typical k*eluc bullshit

anon said:  if we're talking about incest, I've seen some shit in this fandom k*eluc could not compare. I wish there was a way to block people/tags in ao3... everyday I roll my eyes so hard to go blind and never see some of the shit in ao3 again

i like... dont want to shame people for their interests because ultimately fanfiction is a way to get some like... weird shit outta your system without harming anyone but like... MAN... some of the fics i’ve seen make me wonder if the authors have ever gone outside and touched grass before,,, and im saying this as someone who fantasizes about 2d pixels for fun.

anon said:  The thing about kaeluc, i heard from somewhere that some ppl tend to go overboard with the warnings.. true, that ship is disgusting, but to warning them with death threat/su*cide? They talk about toxicness of kaeluc but without realizing it, they themselves are toxic. I'm not defending kaeluc stans cuz i've had some bad experience with kaeluc stans too. But I wish they realized that block button exist.

i mean, yes. this is basic human decency (blocking people and not harassing them). the internet has always been pretty reactionary to things they don’t like and is pretty toxic as a whole. idc if you dont like something, death threats are never a viable solution. but imma be honest, i’ve never seen that happen when it comes to that ship and therefore i have no time nor energy to devote to yelling at people for it. not my place.

anon said: I've seen some people saying k*eluc was ok in eastern side of the fandom because it is a cultural difference kind of thing. I don't agree with this because like... that means eastern people want to fuck their siblings??? that's a stupid argument. I don't ship it bc it weirds me out but I also don't really care people shipping it since it's just fiction

though this doesn't mean that it's okay to ship them imo. I just try to stay away from conflict

yea as a white person this sounds like some bullshit lie some asian fetishizing white person made up to justify shipping two brothers. additionally diluc is clearly like... germanic/white ancestry so like... is this argument even still valid? anyways that argument just reeks of racism and holds 0 ground. it’s weird as fuck. also anon, its cute that you want to avoid conflict, i wish that was me. i think this ship is overall pretty nasty and i will take sides LMAO

anon said:  “ayo how can we ruin a fandom” *red/blue ship* sounds an awful lot like kl*nce shippers 🦍💨

yea i wasnt even in that fandom and i heard about it which shows how bad it is,,,

always the red and blue shippers ong

anon said: Just a little snippet from what they said because I constantly have to go back to it and laugh about that because it doesn’t take more than a few secons to go on google an be like “are diluc and kaeya brother” to which the big fat answer will be “yes”"…kaeya has basically disowned himself…Either way it’s fine and not incest if that’s the issue!”How do you disown yourself-

d... disowning yourself means you no longer want contact with your family, it doesn’t change the fact that you once viewed them as family.... what the.... FMKLDSMFLMSD,,, that person you were arguing with is WEIRD

anon said: if people want to ship an ice/fire dynamic that badly why not ship chongyun and bennett or something. sighs. why do people have to be Like That

TRUE,,,, true,,,, this is 100% facts and lowkey thats a big brained ship nonnie

anon said: I've just been reading through the asks about a certain *cough* fire/ice *cough* ship and let me also add something. Everytime i search Genshin on Ao3 I have to make sure one of the excluded tags is said said ship so that it cuts down alot and I mean alot so I can see others but at the same time, some good fic has that tag, not really the focus but still has it, which saddens me because I try to avoid it as much as possible. Also any fics on twitter that talks about the individual (either the fire or ice) in said ship I tend to just "nope" and quickly scroll down(unless it's a het ship weirdly enough it's a little calmer) I just wanted some good fluff and someone just had to ruin the good fluff by arguing that the fire/ice ship is superior than the one in the fic. Like I just want GOOD FLUFF 😭 WHY DO YOU HAVE TO RUIN IT?!I FEEL NEUTRAL BACK THEN NOW I AM JUST ANNOYED. Also sorry for ranting peace 🕊️

i literally only look at ao3 at this point for zhongchi or xiaoven shit so i cannot relate but like gjldgkmldfkglg. k*eluc shippers are inescapable on twitter though i hate it. remember the time the genshin official account reblogged some k*eluc art JSKLD:FKFSMP:GDL i hate it here,

anon said: broke: shipping kaeluc

woke: shipping yourself with both of them and thus creating a love triangle full of angst and a lot of tension and competitiveness between them

bespoke: having them realise that they value each other as brothers more than having petty arguments over the same person they like and thus instead of reader becoming a s/o to one of them we become best friends with both of them and the gang's all happy

i can’t tell if this is oomf trying to convince me to alter the ending of inheritance gjkdsnjskdlskj or if it’s just a genuine big-brained idea. either way... i can get on this train of support. OR the reader picks one of them but the other moves on and lives a happy life because why spend time being hung up over reader when you could find someone else.

anon said: all this kael*c (🤢) talk reminded me of the first scene in which we see diluc (yk the one with collecting dvalin's tears with kaeya in the temple? and at the end diluc comes in and destroys the hydro abyss mage? yeah that one) so I went and rewatched it and hrueizkxbd i now remember why i am first and foremost a diluc simp

diluc was fine as fuck especially in the scene where he interrogates the abyss mage,,, ugh /chef’s kiss/. thank you fellow diluc simp.

I've never seen an episode of supernatural all I see is what's on your blog and each and every day I become more confused about the writing of the show and why people enjoy it :l

okay well first off i am SO sorry you have to see me like this jknbuvgyuhjn i cannot believe im spnblogging in 2020 like im 15 again but things happen i guess.

second of all, the thing to know about supernatural is.... i think, for general audiences, it is an average-to-good show. it's not Bad. It's not Beloved and/or Acclaimed. objectively, i think is also probably the most balanced view of the show and is also probably what the cw and/or people who worked on the show see it as. it lasted 15 years because it consistently pulled in reliable numbers for the cw and grabbed a lot of demographics. like i know the tumblr bubble skews perceptions but, people of all ages, genders, sexualities watched and enjoyed supernatural, yes even to the very end. most people are also not looking at supernatural with the hyperfocused lens that tumblr is and that’s like... okay. those fans aren’t any less relevant or important. if only tumblr was watching supernatural, i promise it would’ve been cancelled like at least 7 years ago.

the spn *fandom* is interesting because like one, no one is watching the same fucking show. like we all watched the same episodes but like this fandom cant even agree on like...basic facets of canon, let alone digging into complex meta. people’s views of characters actions and motivations skew wildly. things one side of the fandom considers nearly canon are like essentially viewed as ooc on other sides of the fandom. you love and hate all the characters and everyone is always about to start swinging on everyone else. you have to simultaneously juggle the ideas that the writers — and for the record this show has had four showrunners and like a billion individual writers who all see and interpret it slightly differently — are brilliant and the writers legitimately are both stupid and bad at their jobs. you have to turn your brain off in terms of continuity because they retcon their own lore every 15 seconds. this isn’t even getting into the ship wars, the boundary crossing, the weird invasiveness , etc., etc., etc. supernatural’s writing is sometimes incredible, sometimes terrible, but generally pretty average, but it had a charm (ESPECIALLY IN SEASONS 1-3) that reeled you in, even if you hated the genre.

when a show is on this long, i think the fans (rightly so) will look back and dig in and get nitpicky on things they wish were covered with more care. things that the show obviously did not decide to write with the intention of addressing/grappling with later on. case in point: dean’s drinking habits. with the exception of like... season 7 where they DO address it, dean drinks a lot as a feature of his character with little to no consequence. he doesn’t get drunk. he’s always driving. it might as well be water. the writers don’t intend for that to be more than just a facet of what makes him a rough and tough action hero even though logically, he should be drunk all the time. even w/ interviews w/ the cast/crew, it’s clear the writers don’t think the fans will care and/or notice a lot of things. they do, because well, they’re invested. the fandom extrapolates because that’s what fandom does, but i really don’t think the writers connect those dots because dean’s drinking /isn’t/ a problem until they need it to be. because spn has gone on so long, it has more instances of things like this than other shows, and our cultural contexts have also evolved a lot along the way from 2005 to 2020. so again, there’s a lot to work with. i don’t really think that’s so much a reflection of the quality of the show than it is a reflection of how long it’s been on and the way society has changed since then. dean not knowing what myspace is is funny for two completely different reasons in 2005 and in 2020, for example.

my own personal opinion is, there’s a lot to enjoy about supernatural. seasons 1-5 are legitimately good tv. for all their flaws, they have a very clear aesthetic and tell a story that is well-structured and relatively coherent in terms of themes and continuity. they set up complex characters and relationships and everyone’s motivations make sense and that arc wraps on a tragic but ultimately narratively consistent and thus fulfilling point. of course, there’s stuff i personally like and dislike but separating my emotions from it, it’s very good. i think if anything, i would recommend anyone watch those five seasons and then decide whether they want to continue or not. if you don’t, you’ll end on a note that feels complete. it’s what i’m doing w/ my friend elaine, currently, actually. if she decides she wants to continue after 5, we’ll do that, but for now we’re just vibing in season 1. after that point, i think if you decide you care enough about the characters to push through wildly inconsistent writing, there’s stuff to enjoy in seasons 6-15, but the quality and particularly the consistency dips and this is also where the retconning really starts to...intensify. it’s also where the mythos of supernatural grows bigger than the show itself, which i think was always supernatural’s downfall. the crew started caring more about the whims of the fandom and frankly the fandom became more of the story than the show, and that’s how you get people piecing together what supernatural is based on out of context gifsets that skew perceptions wildly and get Supernatural Fandom™ which... frankly, in my opinion, changed fandom culture as a whole for the worse, like yes it’s a huge, powerful and often memeable behemoth but also... the way it changed creator-fan interactions is something we’re going to be unpacking for a long time. i think had the writers tuned out fandom wars and internet yelling and strived to tell a story that made sense and was well constructed to /them/, we wouldn’t be here and seasons 6-15 could’ve found a way to be as beloved as the first third of the show. i’m personally of the opinion that being a fan of something, for better or for worse, does not entitle you to part of it’s creative process. it doesn’t become a collaboration, and the door is always there if you get to the point where you want to leave. i think supernatural getting too caught up in its own fandom and balancing all these conflicting interests is ultimately what made the last 10 seasons, and particularly the back third of the show oftentimes flounder. the finale chaos, in my opinion, happened because they tried to please everyone by keeping too many things vague so people would have room to play in their own sandboxes and round out the story the way they wanted to see it and thus ultimately, a lot of things were left in the air and so for many people, the closure they were hoping for just wasn’t there.

i dont know how this became a long and scattered collection of thoughts but tldr, people enjoy supernatural because at the end of the day, it’s an enjoyable show and i think the more you stew in a fandom bubble, there’s more to get worked up about. which is fine. i like that fandom engages in complex conversations that the show won’t grapple with, but that’s not for everyone and i don’t think the fact that we have these conversations is necessarily an indictment of the show’s overall quality.

Speak the Truth--not mine, sharing from the link

https://speakthetruthj2.weebly.com/intro--start-here.html

"What we’ll do for each other, how far we’ll go, they’re using that against us"Everything from this site has been taken from the wonderful Speak The Truth on Storify-- HERE

Do you know your J2 history? The story of Jensen and Jared is an epic one. It is at first deceptively simple. But with a wider view, this seemingly small story tells a much larger, more universal one. In that way, it's also an important one. It's one that spans a time of unique change in American culture as social media tools grew, TV became King, fandom ways were integrated into public lexicon, HW powerhouses rose and fell, and a new hope for true equality in Obama's America supplanted the country's long history of intolerance. It's one that showcases how the role of PR can build over time to consume all levels of actors lives, even two guys who first set out to avoid exactly that. It's one that reveals the widening sphere of PR with the advent of social media, celeb blogs, and online fandoms. Fans are no longer immune to being used by PR as tools in the role of creating an illusion and selling an image. Only together in one place do cracks in the veneer and patterns of PR tactics suddenly emerge as the larger picture focuses into sharp view. It's also a story that I hope one day can be told in full by the people who lived it instead of mere spectators who watched from the cheaper seats and speculated from afar. However, human interest pieces begin with a subject. So here it is. I've been a fan of this show for eight long years. As someone with a "librarian mind", I have saved and documented a lot throughout that time, as have others who have helped me along the way. Supernatural, the TV series, I believe, speaks for itself. 160+ episodes have been produced, aired, and immortalized on DVD. However the larger story that encompasses the show, the actors, the crew, the fans, the HW machine, and the subject of its time, remains hidden if not completely erased from documented fan history. Yet it is one that has enraptured many (even those who won't quite publicly admit it). I believe that counts for something. In other fandoms, I am indebted to other fans who came before me who archived events as they occurred for other fans like myself who came along later. As I leave Supernatural fandom for good, I worry that these details, as we observed them, may be lost. There will be other fans, of the show and of the Js, that will come after me. They should know how it went down all those years ago. This here is merely my small act of scrawling on the cave wall of the internet. As far as I know, there exists no complete record of what a J2 fan has experienced in all the years of the show. So what follows is a timeline summarizing the events of all eight years of Supernatural surrounding its two lead co-stars. It's meant to serve as an J2 archive or library, detailing each event with a date, info, pics, tweets, article, links, videos, and quotes. Most of the focus is on J2 and the players around them, but it will cover show changes and larger HW shakeups in later years as it becomes necessary. If a tiny splash of "Time Capsule" feel snuck in, it's because we all have our experiences and sometimes they feel worth telling. There has been an incredible erasure of fan/show history the last couple years, an act that is rather ironic in a fandom built on the concept of urban legends coming to life. In its wake are attempts to rewrite J2 history. There are some people that have worked very hard to make sure this story is as inaccessible as possible to others. They'd rather see it replaced by their own "revisionist" history that best serves their own interests. But this stuff happened. Records of it are out there. Fans experienced it. And in many cases, J2 or other people directly connected to them responded to it. Denying said part of J2 fan history is disingenuous. Believe what you want to believe in the space between, but events that happened have happened. I know some people will not be happy I have put this together. I struggled with the thought myself. Ultimately, I believe their story in between the lines and cracks of this cobbled together timeline is endlessly iconic. It's a story that shouldn't be lost in the dust of internet time. Because its not just them, even though their unique relationship is quite remarkable. It's that their story has something to tell us all. We all have something to learn in the space in between. You read through the cracks of eight years, follow along detail by detail, and it however small allows you to step in their shoes, no matter who you are, or what you originally thought. Just think, how scared does someone have to be, how many pressures must be put on someone from all angles, your advisers, your bosses, your family, your friends, to agree to these measures over time. When an erasure of a genuine human story happens, we all lose. We, ourselves, as a culture lose. Progress loses. (And what are we here for, if not for progress?) That erasure robs us of that example to learn and grow, improve and teach others. Because no one's life is just their own. We all have a part to play in each others' lives. We all have things we can teach and things we can learn. That's never been more true than the global age of the internet. Thus, as someone who has been in a unique position to watch a lot of these events unfold, I couldn't leave fandom in good conscience without leaving this footprint. They say history is written by the winners. Well, that was before the internet. So fair warning, I will use spn_g links in later years. It is impossible to do an exhaustive archive of J2 without it. Like it or not, it's part of J2 fan history and quite an archival resource when so many LJ links have since been deleted. Careful consideration has been given to the source. Priority is given to the most reliable information. Events (e.g. things we've seen with our own eyes pics, videos, quotes, tweets, etc) are all primary, and denoted by a header font and date. All anon ITK ("In-The-Know") info is considered secondary, and only becomes more or less probable depending on how it fits in with the overall timeline. Thus, some events with "more probable" secondhand information, are noted as an addendum by the phrase, "*rumorhasit:". Unsubstantiated gossip has been left out. This archive is done with the utmost respect for both parties. In a way, it is only in the details that the more real human context emerges. This is something lost in the day-to-day celeb gossip and fandom life. It's easier to make snap judgments about an image than about a fully fleshed out person. My hope is that in seeing the totality of their story, readers can find some form of compassion for the subjects at hand. I've taken great pains to make sure that the record that follows is all of public events only. If they've been released on the internet in a public place, and talked about by fans, they are included here. I've written this in a way that I hope can be a resource for all, both for J2 fans who lived it and those who have yet to make sense of the whole story. In the act of putting this together, even I have learned details that I had forgotten or missed. It's almost a decade of details, it's a lot to keep straight, but I hope that in this timeline format, the clearer picture emerges. If it's the first time you're reading this, just take it in stride. But if you're a fan who lived all of this once already, pay special attention to the timing of events and larger patterns. Watch how appearances and big personal news tend to go together with big professional news like movie casting and season renewals. Notice how players like publicists and managers fit into the story along side girlfriends and fiancees and wives. This is how this industry functions, even with a fledgling show on a netlet. It's in this industry that two guys who initially claimed privacy start indulging fans with stories of their personal life. It's in this climate that a TV show built on two actors' chemistry suddenly tampers said chemistry down to nothing in the middle of its seventh season. There are many threads that pop up here, partly why this story is such an important one. Some things are rarely as they appeared at first glance. Other things are exactly how they appeared at first glance. Decide on your own which ones are which. One can look at this as an archive with two distinct parts. The first four years are more a tribute to the little glimpse we got of two guys with an instant bond that captured us all. The next four years are more a testament to how despite an actor's best intentions, HW can still grab you by the shirt collar and suck you dry. Never forget where the real power of any show lies. Not with the people whose creative work you watch every week. It's those at the top. And they are not as "tolerant" or "liberal" as people might like you to believe. The story of J2 is an epic one, but that's not the only reason why it's important. They're also not the first or last to deal with these extreme machinations. As we proceed into 2013, we are reminded over and over again how much our culture has changed since 2005. Since 2008. Even since 2011. How much longer will it take for HW to catch up with the rest of us? I'm indebted to all the fans who helped me in amassing this record, adding their contributions, holding my hand, listening to my complaints, and overall sharing in the J2/Supernatural obsession for good times and bad. This has been simultaneously the easiest and hardest show to be a fan of. But it would have been impossible to follow for eight years if not for the community of amazing people that I shared it with. Some of them may not understand this, many of them will probably not even read this, but I hope that they still know my thanks and appreciation. Schmaultz aside, we've got 8 years of history to get to! So without further ado!

Male Fandom and Gender Binaries

To speak of masculinities is to speak about gender relations. Masculinities are not equivalent to men; they concern the position of men in a gender order. They can be defined as the patterns of practice by which people (both men and women, though predominantly men) engage that position. There is abundant evidence that masculinities are multiple, with internal complexities and even contradictions; also that masculinities change in history, and that women have a considerable role in making them, in interaction with boys and men’ Quoted by the renowned RW Connel, Masculinities (1995) on his piece ‘Hegemonic masculinity’. With the same breath, introducing the concept ‘Male Fandom’. This essay aims to elaborate the third theme of my Blog, the Culture life masculinity and gender roles.

Focusing on Hautakangas’ journal “It’s ok to be joyful?” I will be elaborating the concept being male fandom by portraying how the community that arises around, for instance, a movie, an a capella group, or even a sports team is recognized as a fandom. One must note that each fandom contains its own culture, rules, and in-jokes that expedite community engagement involving a matter that the members of the group are passionate about (Sesek & Pusnik, 2014; Stanfill, 2013). Members participating in fandom search out those with this regular enthusiasm for request to talk about, investigate, expend, and appreciate content as a member of a network  (Booth & Kelly, 2013 et al.). This dynamic is the component that is linking all fandoms, regardless of the content on which the group is fixated. A group of sports fans might come together to spectate the annual Wimbledon in the front row pitch , while a group of Migos fans might respond to each other’s comments on the band’s bassline in their new hip-hop song. These interactions give the participants a feel of fitting in within the group, and keep fans remain engaged in the content even long after the game or music video is over (Anderson, 2012 et al.). However, for those partaking in more underestimated or alternative fandoms, those praising substance that isn't acknowledged by standard society to be advantageous or impressive assumes an extensive part in their being a fan cooperation (Bell, 2013). Individuals search out being a fan networks to have an approach to express their delight for these types of substance without telling their companions or family about their contribution (Sesek and Pusnik, 2014). Hautakangas speaks about the adult male enthusiasm for a show at first proposed for young ladies isn't unique to Bronies (Hautakangas, 2015). Before there were Bronies, some grown-up men made a fandom around Barbie dolls. Significantly more like Bronies, the show Powerpuff Girls ,which was coordinated by Lauren Faust, had a solid grown-up male after because of the depth of the personality of characters in the show (Ellis 2015). .

With the growth of the internet and internet communities, fandom has become easier to access as opposed to the average fan. The presence of the internet and the expanded openness it gives in some cases indicates that self-conscious fans will make anonymous writes that their peers and family would not have knowledge of. (Anderson, 2012 By having this outlet, members in these fandoms can add to discourse and draw in with others in comparable circumstances, making a tight-weave network that bonds over disconnected society's dismissal of their advantage (Anderson, 2012). In a band, being a fan, a genuine fan does not simply mean you consume the band's music, but rather know each verse by heart, post pictures on social networking media sites or on your home room dividers, and memorizes fanfiction about the band (Sesek and Pusnik, 2014)Since being a fan can possibly turn into an expansive piece of somebody's personality, it channels into numerous parts of life (Anderson, 2012; Bettis and Adams, 2006). At the point when young people are strongly associated with being a fan culture, this network can shape their perspectives of sexual personality (Anderson, 2012; Sesek and Pusnik, 2014). For a few young people engaged with sports fandoms, team promoters are the primary cases of sexualized ladies that they see (Bettis and Adams, 2006). For a few youths engaged with kid band fandoms, the individuals from the band turn into the objects of their sexual wants (Anderson, 2012; Sesek & Pusnik, 2014). The both of these fandoms manage these types of sexual articulation in various courses, taking into consideration diverse societal understandings of the sexualizing dynamic.For example, sexualizing ladies in the realm of games, whether it is in undergarments football or cheerleading, is viewed as ordinary (Bettis and Adams, 2006). Some portion of the manly idea of games fandoms is attesting heterosexuality and strength over ladies (Borer, 2009). Team promoters are the healthy however hot, young ladies’ male dream is a projection of manly want (Bettis and Adams, 2006). The ladies who are sports fans themselves are minimized further, frequently compelled to either discard their gentility for manly, boyish girl mentalities or turn into a "frill fan," at the amusement for the alluring competitors or pink, "young lady suitable" shirts (Borer, 2009, p. 2). There is an inability to allow empowered female sexuality to exist in tandem with something as masculine as athletics, forcing women to become defensive when questioned about their sports fandom subscription (Borer, 2009; Dixon, 2014).

Since the normally held generalization is that men are more sexually expressive and included than ladies, sexual vocalization inside a male-dominated fandom is considerably more acknowledged and recognized as substantial (Anderson, 2012; Bettis and Adams, 2006). Sexual articulation inside a female-dominated fandom is less acknowledged and regularly met with confusion or revolt (Anderson, 2012). Maybe it is a direct result of the non-traditional sign of this female sexuality, fan fiction, that makes it difficult for standard society to comprehend (Sesek and Pusnik, 2014). Keeping in mind the end goal to clarify her interest with homoerotic fan fiction, one individual from the One Direction being a fan said that, "Much the same as men get a kick out of the chance to watch erotic entertainment with two ladies, young ladies jump at the chance to peruse around two good looking men" (Sesek and Pusnik, 2014, p. 119). The contrast between these two mediums (watching young ladies move together or perusing about young men experiencing passionate feelings for) don't appear inconsistent with each other, yet are met with altogether different responses from society (Bettis and Adams, 2006; Sesek and Pusnik, 2014)

Society’s perceptions of the two fandoms examined in this paper are very different. Sports fandoms are normalized and incorporated into mainstream society, while boy band fandoms are thought to be frivolous and childish (Anderson, 2012; Dixon, 2013). Perceptions aside, these two fandoms share a lot of similarities when it comes to dynamics, such as the criteria for what makes a true fan, and the community bonding aspect of the group as a whole. In both male and female dominated fandom, sexual expression is addressed and, although it manifests in different ways, how the fandom deals with it has the potential to shape the sexual identities and attitudes of individual fandom members. Acting as a community and safe place for many, fandom facilitates meaningful relationships for people and content

Society's view of the two fandoms analyzed in this essay are altogether different. Sports fandoms are standardized and fused into mainstream society, while boy band fandoms are believed to be childish and silly (Anderson, 2012; Dixon, 2013). Observations aside, these two fandoms share a ton of likenesses with regards to elements, for example, the criteria for what makes a genuine fan, and the network holding part of the gathering overall. In both male and female ruled being a fan, sexual articulation is tended to and, in spite of the fact that it shows in various ways, how the being a fan manages it can possibly shape the sexual characters and states of mind of individual being a fan individuals. Going about as a network and safe place for some, being a fan encourages important connections for individuals and substance

 Anderson, T. (2012). Still kissing their posters goodnight: Female fandom and the politics of popular music. Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 9(2), 239-264.

Connell, R.W., 2005. Masculinities. Polity.

Sesek, L. & Pusnik, M. (2014). Reading popular literature and digital media: Reading experience, fandoms, and social networks. Anthropological Notebooks, 20(2), 103-126.

Bell, C. (2013). The ballad of Derpy Hooves – transgressive fandom in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Humanities Directory, 1(1), 5-22

Borer, I. M. (2009). Negotiating the symbols of gendered sports fandom. Social Psychology Quarterly, 72(1), 1-4.

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