Fandom News Network #1: The ramifications of pope yaoi hazards

Plus: Homophobic fujoshis, everything is Kpop now, Emily Gould's fic faux pas, was the fourth wall just a dream?

Welcome back to the Fandom News Network, brought to you by Allegra Rosenberg and Memento Whori.

Thank you to everyone who listened and shared the first episode! This is the REAL first episode so you have to listen and share this one too obviously.

If you have any hot tips, things that you’d like us to cover in further episodes, or feedback (like should we be doing more explaining of basic stuff like “what is yaoi” to engage a broader audience???) please drop us a line in the comments or at lookinsidethepaperbag@gmail.com. However please note we already are aware we really need to stop saying stuff like “this could be a whole other episode.”

Listen to the REAL episode #1 here:

Spotify

Apple

Or here, with automated transcript.

In today’s episode…

Fujo News

• AO3 AI scraping discourse
  • more info here
• It’s been one year of Challengers, a movie for fujos
• Discourse in re: the word “fujoshi”: its origins, who is allowed to reclaim it, and the nature of the specific concept of the homophobic fujo (is it still current?)

RPF Updates

• This section devoted entirely to Pope/conclave updates, including:
  • Timeline of “the perfect storm” of Conclave (2024) fandom meets real life conclave
  • Is Catholicism just the original fandom?
  • Did they make this many memes about the last conclave in 2013? what was the vibe on twitter like then?
  • Implicit anti-Asian bias of prejudice against being a fan in a “kpop” way
  • We simply must respect the Pope Crave admin for doing all of that

Main topic

• Ms. Gould, tear down that fourth wall
  • The article that made everyone mad
  • Book rec: Fandom At The Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships (open access link) by Lynn Zubernis and Katherine Larsen
  • Article rec: The War That Almost Broke a Classic Fandom by Lena Barkin
  • Caitlin Moran’s Fic Stunt (Fanlore article)
• Britt Lower’s comparative decency in re: understanding there are parts of Severance fandom that are not for her

Note: M.W. mentions a “song by Hop Along” in this episode named after a term that explains why people marry their childhood friends. Turns out A) it was a song by Charly Bliss and B) the term refers to why people raised together aren’t attracted to each other. Anyway, it’s a banger:

That’s all, folks!