Fans and Fan Cultures

This entry reviews gender and fan studies and explores how ideas about femininity, masculinity, and queerness have been researched and represented, from early work with subcultures to more recent work dealing with online communities. It highlights key themes such as identity, community, media representation, and fan creativity and provides an overview of some of the key debates and studies within the field. Fan studies is a significant site of analysis where the complexities of gender and its relationship to media and culture are interrogated.