Open AccessAn archive of whose own? White feminism and racial justice in fan fiction’s digital infrastructure
Author(s) -
Mel Stanfill,
Alexis Lothian
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
transformative works and cultures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1941-2258
DOI - 10.3983/twc.2021.2119
Subject(s) - fandom , racism , politics , feminism , sociology , white (mutation) , economic justice , media studies , metadata , aesthetics , law , gender studies , art , political science , computer science , world wide web , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
In summer 2020, when the language of racial reckoning entered US and transnational public spheres following the murder of George Floyd, the contradictions of fandom's long-standing claims to progressive politics became sharply visible. An open letter with specific demands asking the fan fiction platform Archive of Our Own (AO3) to address the issue of racist content in the archive circulated widely. After offering a brief history of critiques of fannish racism, we turn to the specifics of AO3, the political commitments embedded in its systems, and how attention to racial justice could transform them. Drawing on fan fiction genres, we offer three potential models for thinking through these possibilities: a fix-it that would extend AO3's existing metadata structures; a canon divergence that would alter the makeup of the content on AO3; and an alternative universe that draws from abolitionist organizing to imagine the broadest structural changes of all.