Read on Twitter
Okay! Next up is Rukmini Pande @RukminiPande on "Whose Representation is it Anyway? Contemporary Debates in Online Femslash Fandoms" #ICA20 attn #ica_pop #ica_fsd
. @RukminiPande : 2018 was seen as a watershed year for queer visibility in English-language pop media (US & UK mostly, 20GayTeen) #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : according to GLAAD report, most queer characters ever in US tv and *for the first time* more LGBTQ people of color on broadcast TV than white LGBTQ people #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : That context raises key questions for fan scholars interested in how queer characters are received by audiences, esp via fanworks #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : People often say that RepresentationMatters but pay less attention to what that representation consists of, both on-screen and in fanworks #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : evolving nature of pop culture text & intra-fandom debates means we need to pay much more attention to moments of conflict, esp related to race & racism. Will focus on 2 such moments in femslash for The 100 & Black Lightning #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : primary theoretical lens comes from Hall (1996), Warner (2017) on how regimes of representation continue to be troubled by essentialism, racialization, & respectability politics... esp when fans themselves pick up on this critical language #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : ie *which* representations fans focus on out of canon is revealing #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : Reads Hall as disassembling the idea of a single, whole, innocent "Black subject" into the actual complexity of life #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : cite-out to Warner's concept "plastic representation," where number of non-white bodies on screen becomes "diversity," rather than the dimensionality of the performances #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : In fan studies, adding dimensionality to flat characters is kind of fans' wheelhouse--need to consider fans' claims about representation in context of those claims #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : first will consider effect of growing primacy of non-white queer characters in pop culture canon... while continued absence in fanworks (ref back to her work on characters of color as "glitches" in fandom algorithm of squee) #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : unequal distribution of fannish energy (following white supremacy logic) seen not just in which texts gain primary in production of fanworks but in how physical fan spaces like cons are constructed #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : Quick background on The 100 controversy - is a post-apoc space show where 100 teens sent back to surface, Clark & Lexa (Clexa) canon queer fem pairing VERY popular w fans. When Lexa suddenly killed off, major backlash from fans (lots of lit here) #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : fan audiences are def still niche, but they have much bigger visibility & influence, esp in social media age #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : cite-out to Navar-Gill & Stanfill essay on fan hashtag campaigns, seen as strategic interventions leveraging importance of audience feedback but *which* characters galvanize fans still structured by whiteness #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : The 100 *already* had problems w portrayals of non-white characters tho, esp violent shocking death on-screen as early as s1ep3 #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : argues that early scenes of spectaularized PoC death were "slap back to reality" for Black viewers, even when white queer fans still hailed The 100 as ground-breaking. Just the white queer woman's death = problematic representation #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : so fans of color either have to ignore their feelings connected to race to take part in "universal" squee/outrage or be judged & harassed for bringing "purity tests" or being "too sensitive" etc #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : These debates structure offline fan space like Clexacon too, self-described forum for "celebrating LGBTQ women rep" as evidenced by Nafessa Williams/Anissa Pierce Black Lighting actress at Clexacon 2018 #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : Anissa has major romantic arcs with multiple women, but little traction for show in fandom media terms like # of fanworks produced #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : in physical space of ClexaCon, non-white fans saw major disparity of interest btwn white actresses & Nafessa/Anissa - expressed unhappiness & disidentification feelings. White fans got angry for being made to feel racist in expressing their fandom #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : Queer fans of color often called to support fan spaces, campaigns, etc through their labor & emotional investments as fans. When they find white supremacy still structures these "fan" spaces, white fans see problem as fan of color voice--not racism #ICA20
. @RukminiPande : These white logics get highlighted (for white fans esp) in moments of conflict but are constant context for fans of color. And that's messed up. #ICA20
Ok! That's a wrap for @RukminiPande on "Whole Representation Is It Anyway? Contemporary Debates in Online Femslash Fandoms." All mistakes mine, all ideas Rukmini's! Plz follow up w her & also read her fantastic book https://www.uipress.uiowa.edu/books/9781609386184/squee-from-the-margins #ICA20
