METHODOLOGY: Interview, Narrative Inquiry
(Definition: Narrative inquiry records the experiences of an individual or small group, revealing the lived experience or particular perspective of that individual, usually primarily through interview which is then recorded and ordered into a chronological narrative.)
Feeling that this type of method was the best way to gather qualitative info from an interview, I used this method for Leah’s interview.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/16094069221081594
EXPERT INTRODUCTION:
Leah Holmes is a London-based PhD student at Bath Spa University, specialising in anime and manga, fandom, and cultural studies. Her MPhil thesis is about the history of UK anime fandom and talks about hostility and resistance from wider society.
INTERVIEW SUMMARY:
-Can you share a bit about your background and what inspired you to specialize in anime, manga, and fandom studies?
–I read a lot of manga when I was young. My bachelor’s degree was media production and I had the freedom to write about anime.
-In the anime that you were centered on, were they considered original works or were they considered as fan-fiction?
-Fan studies came around after anime, so I came across fan studies after this. After that I was pointed towards fan studies and fan content. The UK fandom is relatively new and is seldomly documented, so I decided to do the job myself.
-In your experience, what are the most common misconceptions about fan-created content such as fan-fiction, fan art, cosplay, and parodies?
-There was a lot of that in the 90s because a lot of that was very niche, manga videos. It was very hard to share things because the internet was at its infancy. There is a hierarchy there which indicates that fan-fiction is lower in rank than original fiction.
-There is a saying in fandom that “women are creators and men are curators”. If women become interested in something, that thing becomes devalued.
-Hardcore novel fans look down on media fans. Male fans look down on female fans.
-Is this misconception still happening now? In 2024? Or has it evolved?
There are several fandoms who had gained a lot of legitimacy, like the works of Cassandra Claire and Fifty Shades of Grey.
-Can you share any examples of successful interventions or initiatives that have helped to change negative perceptions of fan-fiction?
-No specific examples off the top of my head. It’s well known that Fifty Shades of Grey became such a great hit that it spawned a large amount of fan-fiction. It’s a middle finger to people who are like: “You’ll never get anywhere with writing your fan-fiction!!” It’s writing at the end of the day and it can still get you places.
-People were disgusted that women had access to this “filth” when it was considered “common” when men had access to porn.
–According to the demographics, the big shifting was the arrival of Pokemon. The way the industry works, is that this thing is working so we put it into the media, and we’ll add whatever similar to that thing to make more money.
-Does it really matter if they are original or not? Whether or not they are considered as “fan-created”?
-Not really. It mostly depends on the amount of the audience. Media doesn’t care whether it is original or not so long as it is popular.
TRANSCRIPT:
EVIDENCE:
The full interview recording and transcript are available upon request for academic verification purposes.