6 Quotes by Lynn S. Zubernis

While male media fans fear being perceived as not sexual enough, female fans fear being categorized as too sexual, or at the very least too emotional.

As the public shaming of the Twihard moms for their display of desire illustrates, one of the sources of shame for women is the culture's containment of and discomfort with female sexuality.

Fandom itself buys into the stereotype of the overly emotional, crazy fangirl on a regular basis. In fact, fans have internalized such a strong sense of shame that they've projected it onto the objects of their affection, expressing fear that the celebrities are either terrified or disgusted by their own female fans.

Just the admission of liking any kind of fanfiction can be a source of shaming.

Cicioni suggests, as we will here, that rather than being a stimulus for social change, participating in fandom, including writing fanfiction, provides a safety valve for the stress women feel in their daily lives and relationships. Fandom is not only, as is often theorized, about subversive and societal change-but also about pleasurable and individual change, with challenges to existing norms and power relations more a byproduct than the source of fans' motivation and satisfaction.

At the same time, whenever a group of people comes together, there are issues of social standing, popularity, norms and identity on which they will inevitably not agree. Fandom is no exception.