@article{1562993,
      recid = {1562993},
      author = {Stanfill, Mel,},
      title = {Fandom Is Ugly : Networked Harassment in Participatory  Culture /},
      pages = {1 online resource.},
      abstract = {Highlights the importance of considering contemporary  public culture through the lens of fan studiesThe Gamergate  harassment campaign of women in video games, the "Unite the  Right" rally where hundreds of Confederate monument  supporters cried out racist and antisemitic slurs in  Charlottesville, and the targeted racist and sexist  harassment of Star Wars' Asian American actress Kelly Marie  Tran all have one thing in common: they demonstrate the  collective power and underlying ugliness of fandoms. These  fans might feel victimized or betrayed by the content  they've intertwined with their own identities, or they may  simply feel that they're speaking truth to power.  Regardless, by connecting via social media, they can  unleash enormous amounts of hate, which often results in  severe real-world consequences.Fandom Is Ugly argues that  reactionary politics and media fandoms go hand in hand, and  to understand one, we need to understand the other. Mel  Stanfill pushes back on two mainstream assumptions: that  media and the pleasure of consumption are frivolous and  unworthy of study, and that fandoms are inherently  progressive. Drawing on a corpus of angry social media  posts, Fandom Is Ugly finds that ugly moments happen when  deep emotional attachments collide with social structures  and situations that have been misunderstood. By  holistically examining the forms of ugly fandom in cases  that touch upon race, gender, and sexuality, Fandom Is Ugly  produces a comprehensive theory of the negative sides of  fan attachments.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1562993},
}