A Room of Fanfiction's Own

HOST INTRO

Fanfiction is the reimagination of TV series, movies, novels and video games. Writers around the world create new stories based on their favorite characters and situations. One of the most popular platforms to post this work is Archive of Our Own–the name is an homage to Virginia Woolf’s book A Room of One’s Own. Many of the stories explore themes of queer identities and experiences. But recently some writers say that they feel less welcome on the platform. Zijie Yang has more.

(Mumbled clip of the movie plays, with keyboard sounds)

ZIJIE YANG, BYLINE

Miko is a financial manager living  in New York. In 2023 she saw a film Red, White & Royal Blue about the romantic same-sex relationship between the son of the President of the United States and a Prince of the United Kingdom. The movie captured her imagination.

CLIP FROM RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE PLAYS...

MIKO 1

I feel I like the characters very much, and I created something like, I wonder how it's gonna be like if they have much In much difference in age. So that was my original thoughts on it.

YANG 1

So she began writing, creating new stories and reimagining the characters. Then, starting last year, she began posting her stories on the Archive of Our Own platform, known as AO3, an online community of fanfiction writers. To her surprise, her writing was warmly received.

MIKO 2

I saw the comments and so many feedbacks coming back to me and many happy moments. They said, the one thing I remember most is I haven't imagined this, and it is very interesting.

ZIJIE 2

Miko isn’t her real name–she doesn’t want to be identified as the author of these stories, which she says are private and intimate. Her work joins over 16 million pieces of fanfiction on the AO3, platform. Among these, there are more than 190 thousand stories tagged by the authors as “Queer.” Henry Jenkins is a Professor of Communication at the University of Southern California, studying media and popular culture and he also writes fan fiction.  He says fanfiction and the AO3 platform in particular  is a safe space where writers can explore aspects of their own sexual curiosity, their own sexual experiences.

JENKINS 1

One of the things that excites me about it is that it’s a space where people are straight, gay, lesbian, trans, and asexual, can write and read each other’s work and explore their sexual identities and feelings in a way that’s non-threatening. 

ZIJIE 3

Normally on the platform, writers read and responded to each other’s critiques in comments with friendliness and care. But recently, Miko says the comments have included cursing and personal attacks, and a growing hostility towards her themes of queer romance and sex. 

MIKO 3

Some people would come to comment like you're writing about this too much. Something very harsh, in a very harsh way.

ZIJIE 4

Jenkins says this kind of hostility towards queer fanfiction is in line with events of our time.

JENKINS 2 

Well have you read the news these days? We got a president of the United States who’s transphobic and queerphobic in every possible way, he’s get a large enough base of support to win the last election. So I am not shocked that there is conflicts and controversies around a community, that generally has a positive attitude towards a range of sexual identities and experiences. 

ZIJIE 5

Coppa says she hopes writers, and readers, aren’t intimidated by any comments on the site.

COPPA 1

I feel like, fanfiction writers should not feel any pressure. Your reader is out there and wants to read your story. And you should write the story you want to write and trust it would find its reader.

ZIJIE 6

Miko recently finished her latest chapter and published it on the AO3. She plans to continue writing the story, despite the comments, although she haven’t though of how the series would end yet. Zijie Yang, Columbia Radio News.