The misogyny towards fanfiction

Consider how, by trivializing and marginalizing an entire body of work as unimportant, we are not paying attention to the trends that are manifesting in fanfiction. Think about the profound space fanfiction provides for representation of minority communities. Canonical books, comics and TV shows revolve around the white male. Fanfiction provides the space for a gay Clark Kent, a genderqueer Sherlock Holmes, a lesbian Nancy Drew or an asexual Harry Potter. Most mainstream blogs are cis-gender owned, but Tumblr has more out and proud gender-queer writers in fandoms than any other social media site.

Consider that the most serious criticism of the dubious consent sexual practices in “Fifty Shades of Grey”came from other fanfic writers. Works of fanfiction come with tags, warnings, potential trigger associations and level of maturity — something not offered by published books. There is a lot of good fanfiction is doing in the world, if only we took the time to lift our eyes from the misogynist haze and take notice.