Our latest piece is by Amanda-Rae Prescott, who was one of the expert guests in our "Race and Fandom" series back in 2020! (https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/135b-race-and-fandom-revisited-part-2)

"Bridgerton and Period Drama Fandom’s Enduring Racism Problem" by Amanda-Rae Prescott. Complaints about historical accuracy and acting quality are often dog-whistles: some fans only want to see white actors—and white history—on screen. 

Read the full piece here: https://fansplaining.com/articles/bridgerton-period-drama-fandoms-racism  

Gav is back in Fansplaining in 2025! This time, she writes about Sam Wilson's recent Captain America debut—and how the MCU failed both the character and the fandom.

"Sam Wilson Deserved Better Than Brave New World" by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw: Marvel wants fans to care about lore without thinking too deeply about themes and emotions—the things that brought them to this fandom in the first place.

Read the full piece here: fansplaining.com/articles/sam-wilson-deserved-better-brave-new-world

 

Our first article of 2025 is here—and it's a big one!  

"The War That Almost Broke a Classic Fandom" by Lena Barkin: Blake’s 7 fans and actors mixed regularly at cons and on the pages of zines—until an anonymous letter changed everything.

Read the full piece here: fansplaining.com/articles/the-war-that-almost-broke-a-classic-fandom

Around this time in December, we usually wrap up Fansplaining with “The Year in Fandom”: a look back at five trends from the prior year followed by five trends from the year coming to a close. With Flourish’s departure this summer, the podcast is now on hiatus—but I had a lot of thoughts about 2024, particularly when it came to fanfiction. Many thanks to Flourish for looking this over; in a way, it’s a “Year in Fandom” segment in spirit.

In 2024, everyone wanted a piece of fic, from AI grifters to traditional publishers to ravenous audiences. Where did that leave the people who write it? Read the full article as you listen along: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction

Our latest article is by Abby Kirby, who writes about her experiences teaching fanfiction to middle schoolers: "Fic does something that my traditional English classes cannot: it places the power in the hands of the student."

Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/bringing-fanfiction-into-the-classroom

We're excited to welcome back Allegra Rosenberg, who's written a new article for us on contemporary Beatles fandom: "The Beatles Live! New generations of fans are cultural archaeologists, working with the materials of the past to create the passion of the present."

Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-beatles-live

Our newest article is “The Scream Fandom’s Enduring Divide” by Michael Boyle: Nearly a year after star Melissa Barrera was fired for pro-Palestinian social media posts, fans remain torn over the future of the franchise.

Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-scream-fandoms-enduring-divide

Our newest article is "The Acolyte’s Squandered Potential" by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw: The show brought a whole new set of fans to a stagnating franchise. Its cancellation suggests Star Wars is only interested in looking backwards.

Read the full piece here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-acolytes-squandered-potential

 

 

Our newest article is "The Traumatized Gatekeepers of Broadway" by Laura Wheatman Hill: Theatre fans measure their passion by nitpicking. Does it do the industry more harm than good? 

You can read the full article here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles//the-traumatized-gatekeepers-of-broadway

Our first piece in this new era of Fansplaining is "The Yellow Balloon Movement" by Maria Temming: Within jam band fandoms often dominated by substance use, clean and sober fans are building their own communities. You can read the full article here: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/the-yellow-balloon-movement 

Hi, Fansplaning listeners, Elizabeth here. So everyone probably knows by now that the podcast is on hiatus. And you may be wondering why is this still showing up in my feed?Thanks for not unsubscribing, because I would say with 95% certainty, the podcast will be back in some form before too long.   But this is showing up in your feed because, as you may recall, in the hiatus portion of the podcast itself, I'm going to be ramping up our publication arm, which we've, you know, kind of periodically added to over the years. Now, there's going to be at least one new piece per month, and we had a listener when I announced this suggest that we also do audio versions. And so everyone who's writing one of these stories also knows they have to record themselves, reading it and then we'll put it up alongside the text.    And so I thought, well, you know, for folks who do like listening, why not use this feed to share the audio with them? You can also find it with the article itself on fansplaining.com, and if you listen to this and enjoy it I would really appreciate if you go back there and maybe share it with folks, whether they like listening or reading.   So that's all to say,I thought I would just, for this one, explain what I was doing, but rather than just dropping the audio into your feet with no, with no warning. So I won't have a big introduction for, for all of them, but for this one, because it was showing up again after a few weeks, I wanted to explain why something new was showing up in your feet.   So without further ado, the first article in this new era of Fanplaining that I am thrilled to publish is actually a repeat contributor. It's by Maria Temming who was the author of "The Pain Fandom," the article we published on whump. She also came on the podcast to talk about that article.   And importantly, she has been one of our two transcriptionists for the past few years. Extraordinary transcriptionist, incredibly meticulous, and she brings that meticulousness to her journalism. The whump story was extremely deeply and thoughtfully reported, and this story is no different. It's about yellow balloon groups. They are clean and sober fans who basically have meetings, like AA-style meetings, right within the concerts they're attending. So it's like creating fandoms within fandoms, and huge, you know, diversity range of ages and experiences of the folks that she talked to for this.   And so it was a real pleasure to edit and to learn about this, like this corner of fandom. And so I really hope you enjoy it. So without further ado, here's Maria Temming.