Every month the OTW hosts guest posts on our OTW News accounts to provide an outside perspective on the OTW or aspects of fandom. These posts express each individual’s personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy.

Syd González is a PhD Candidate in Northwestern University’s Department of Anthropology, who studies material embodiments of masculinity as methods of joy and resistance in Latinx Houston, Texas. They are the co-host of a fandom-meets-anthropology podcast called The Fanthropologists. Today, Syd talks about their recently published an article in Anthropology News.

How did you first find out about fandom and fanworks?

When I ‘first found out’ would probably be around 2005 after Kingdom Hearts II came out. I was always on the periphery of fandom, aware of it without knowing exactly what I was seeing or hearing about. My dad used to be a moderator of an online PlayStation forum and I remember hearing about it periodically throughout my youth. His love for video games and scifi was definitely passed on to my sister and me. I was never good at playing video games (I’m still not) but I would watch my dad and sister play them, eagerly awaiting a cut scene and tracking all the pretty outfits.

Kingdom Hearts was one of the games where I sat and watched. Not only were we firmly a PlayStation household, but more specifically a Square Enix household. So Kingdom Hearts, bridging the Square Enix that my dad loved and the Disney that my sister and I loved, was perfect for him to play while we watched. I have a distinct memory of looking up Sora on Google Images and finding art of him and Riku. The memory’s fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure they were holding hands. I’m not sure what I thought of it back then, but it’s funny looking back on that memory and realizing that was my first introduction to OTP fanart.

However, if we interpret ‘first found out’ about fandom and fanworks as first engaging with fan made content then that would be around 2013 with Homestuck. This was a fandom my sister was really into, so as my duty as little sibling, I had to be into it too. This was the first fandom where I made frequent posts on Tumblr and read my first long-form fanfiction on AO3. Admittedly it was a DaveKat fanfiction. I distinctly remember downloading it to my laptop because I didn’t quite understand AO3 yet! And the rest is history, shout out to Homestuck for making me the fandom person I am today.

You wrote an article which discussed your fanfiction routines. Have you ever asked other fans’ about their habits?

I did! I have yet to ask fans about their habits in an official researcher–participant capacity, mostly because of time constraints with my dissertation research and possibly needing institutional approval… but that doesn’t mean I haven’t asked unofficially! My friends who engage in fandom and I will commonly end up in conversation about fanfiction and fandom. Whether it’s sending multiple texts ‘clowning’ over some uncorroborated-by-canon connections we’ve made, anguishing about potential queer baiting, or talking about our bedtime fanfiction routines, I’m ready to chat about any fandom related content under the sun.

Time constraints and approval aside, I have dreams (and plans) of conducting a virtual fandom studies project. My larger dissertation project explores conceptions of joy and masculinity in Latinx Houston, Texas. In the face of legislation that seeks to suppress and silence Latinx, queer, and trans Texans the exploration of joy is necessary.

I’d like to take this exploration of joy along with me whenever I begin this dream project. I argue that fanfiction works as a tool for queer fans to harness their agency and create a fandom reality that brings them joy. With the history of canon media burying their gays, denouncing fan theories through ridicule, or plain ol’ queerbaiting, fanfiction is such an important tool for queer fans. I would love to ask fans questions around this and whether they view their creation and consumption of fanworks as a medium for enacting their agency.

Fans can respond to canon very differently. Are there things you think all fans share when it comes to fanworks?

Fanworks, at the end of the day, are labors of love. We write, draw, create, and engage with these works out of a place of adoration for the characters or world canon has created for us. I think this sense of love for canon is something that all fans share. Even when canon makes us upset, we create worlds for the characters to live in because we care about them. I think, also, to some extent, we hold this love in spite of the canon we were given.

Personally, when I’m thinking about a new fic to write or I’m in the process of writing a fic it’s because of the love and appreciation I have for the characters. I will craft a universe where they can fall in love, be vulnerable, get that hug, work that “hyper specific to my interests” job.
Same goes for reading, I’m reading the same two characters be in love and fall in love across thousands of words every night. I’m reading scenes we wish were in canon, reading the characters in completely different universes somehow tumble back into each other’s lives.

Take away a love for canon and I’m not moved to write fic, or even read fanfiction. Because, while sometimes canon really sucks, at the end of the day it created the characters. And it’s my self-appointed job as a fan to take the vessel of the characters that canon created and pour all my love, hopes, dreams, and wishes into them.

Canon gave me these characters, I owe it to them to create a beautiful life for them to lead.

How did you hear about the OTW and what do you see its role as?

I learned about OTW through my use of Archive of Our Own! Coming from my experience being and working in archives, I do see OTW as a living archive that keeps fanworks preserved and accessible through projects like Open Doors, Fanlore, and AO3.

Archive of Our Own is, quite literally, an archive of primarily fanfiction, but also podfic, fanart, etc., that people can access at the tips of their fingers. As someone who’s been writing and posting fanfiction for over ten years, I always have the urge to go into my works and delete my older, more embarrassing, fics. But as a scholar I stop myself, because my embarrassing fics are part of the historical memory of that fandom.

While working on a Buddie article I went into AO3 and sorted fics by Date Posted because I wanted to see when the first Buddie fic was posted on AO3. If all the authors who first published works about them went and deleted their fics, then future academics or generally curious people would have skewed data!

On that note, OTW’s Transformative Works and Cultures journal is such an important space for academic dialogue regarding fandom. Fandom doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it’s impacted by the world and the world is impacted by it. TWC offers a space for fandom to be in conversation with the world. As someone who dreams of pivoting to fandom studies I’m very biased, but TWC is one of my favorite journals to read. Its interdisciplinary nature exposes me to different fields and different fandoms, along with the conversations happening in them.

What fandom things have inspired you the most?

Fanfiction and edits on TikTok! There’s a destiel fic called The Last Great Race by Wincechesters that’s an Iditarod AU. I remember reading in the back of my mom’s vehicle on the way to a quinceañera and excitedly telling my sister about it. I told her that I wanted to create something as amazing and unique as it is.

Now, almost ten years later, we still interchange ‘magnum opus’ with ‘sleigh dog fic’. As for edits on TikTok, I’m an absolute sucker for them. Slap my favorite ship to a Taylor Swift song edit and I’m a goner. Slap a ship I don’t know to a Taylor Swift song edit and I’m also a goner!

We encourage suggestions from fans for future guest posts, so contact us if you have someone in mind! Or you can visit our Pinboard account to catch up on earlier guest posts.