This Week In Fandom History

Shake it off? This week, V and Emily delve way too deeply into a corner of the internet that makes them feel insane: #gaylor, which in some accountings kicked off this week in fandom history with Glee's #shirtgate. How? Why? Whomst? Where? It's all been way-too-meticulously recorded for the ages, so join us down the rabbithole. Also featuring Sebastian Stan??? (How could it be a TWIFH episode without mention of Bucky Barnes, tho. T...

Defraud fans and prosper? This week, Emily and V take yet another jaunt to a fan convention gone horribly awry, and once again, it's Star Trek and it's in Dallas. This time, the key ideas are leaking spinal fluid, nuclear-angry celebrity guests, the relative gullibility of us scifi nerds, and German diplomacy. Talk turns very real as we look at the pros and cons (no pun intended) of the mainstreaming of fandom when it comes to conv...

Send a SASE! This week, V and Emily take a look at the illustrious -- pun intended -- life and career of Big Name Fanartist and writer Beverly Zuk, whose Fanlore page is a riot of full-frontal Vulcans. We look at the fascinating fic she wrote, particularly "The Third Verdict," and read through her instructions of how to become a fanartist in 1978. Plus, we marvel at the Star Trek Welcommittee and their work to help fans connect in ...

Help us, Obi-Wan, you're our only hope! This week, Emily and V look at three separate events that, as we say in Star Wars fandom, "rhyme": the releases of Star Wars (1977), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). While audience reactions to the three movies aren't identical, the Force grip that Star Wars has on all of us has remained steadfast since the beginning. Star Wars is more than a fandom. I...

Roar! This week, V and Emily look at a 70-year-old fandom that we'd never considered before: Godzilla. Thanks to a request, we look at the schism in the fandom, and the Godzilla canon, caused by Hollywood's GODZILLA (1998) -- also known as Zilla or GINO -- as well as the special effects fanzines of the '60s and '70s. We learn about Japan's bananas intellectual property laws in the '90s, and about a BANANAS crossover zine that spann...

Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If you've ever thought, "It sure would be fun to spend the weekend with other people talking about my blorbo" but didn't know where to start, Jo...

Accio legal system? This week, Emily and V look into the super-bummer that was a harbinger of even worse super-bummers to come: the time JK Rowling sued her biggest fan for basically knowing more about Harry Potter than she did. And everyone in the whole world sided with her, because it was 2008 and the deification of that woman was REAL. Fortunately, it's 2026, the scales have fallen from our eyes, we've already covered Lindaaaaa ...

To the Common Room! This week, V and Emily look with such fondness at the best era of fic since the internet began: the 2012 Avengers Tower era. This requested episode features Clint in the vents, Thor eating Pop-Tarts, a surprising number of penguins, Darcy Lewis, and genuine softness towards Tony Stark. Also, we have a pitch for Disney+ and a new drinking game for all you listeners. Journey back with us to a time and a place wher...

And print! This week, Emily and V learn what a letterzine was as they look at one of the biggest of its kind from the 1980s and well into the '90s: multifandom slash zine, Late For Breakfast. They also discuss the now-mysterious biggest slash fandoms covered in the zine, from Bodie/Doyle to Blake's 7 and TWIFH nemesis, due South, as well as some shallow-dive biographies on the two fans who spearheaded Late For Breakfast over its le...

Gross! This week, V and Emily are balls of white-hot rage as they discuss the very 2008 debacle that was the Open-Source Boob Project at Penguicon '08. The originator of the project -- the same dude who created the Purity Test that everyone in the late aughts took in college, because of course he was -- tried to defend his lechery with a veneer of "social science experiment," and as usual, it did not work and just remained totally ...

Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If you've ever thought, "It sure would be fun to spend the weekend with other people talking about my blorbo" but didn't know where to start, Jo...

Yikes, Scoob! This week, Emily and V hold their noses and sink into the cesspit that is the Tumblr blog of ASOIAF BNF and certified GOT Hater, Lindaaaa (Linda Antonsson). We literally can't use any of the words that Lindaaaa uses to refer to fellow A Song of Ice & Fire/Game of Thrones fans and still have this episode be SEO-searchable and able to show up on your podcatcher, so, uh, make sure you're wearing headphones if you pla...

Yikes. This week, V and Emily try their best to be Carefully Neutral (well, V does) as they delve into the sordid, obsession-fueled assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr, who wanted very badly to impress child actress Jodie Foster. After the event, though, came the fallout: the idea of "the obsessed fan" became a cultural boogeyman of the early '80s. So what was fandom supposed to do if not write scathing LOCs...

Weewoo! This week, Emily and V talk about not Steve and Bucky, nor Steve and Eddie, nor Edward and Stede, but the FOURTH slash pairing with the same names: Buck and Eddie from 9-1-1. Specifically, the glorious handling of Buck's realization of his bisexuality and the awesome way his actor, Oliver Stark, is stewarding his role and the storyline. Of course, not everyone loved Buck's coming out -- either because of biphobia specifical...

SOS! This week, V and Emily talk about the fandom for one of V's favorite bands, although sadly she was not in attendance at this legendary event: JonasCon. We discuss nostalgia, cringe culture, TWO new kinds of fanfiction that we'd never heard of before in our lives, pairing preferences differentiated by fic platform, the Taylor Swift of it all, and millennials' dreams of living in the mall.

Were you a Jonas Brothers fan? Did you,...

Welcome to a brand-new TWIFH special miniseries podcast! We're calling it "CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention." Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If you've ever thought, "It sure would be fun to spend the weekend with other people talking about my blorbo" but didn't know where to s...

Attention! This week, a very special guest joins V and Emily to help tackle one of the biggest shows ever on American TV and, further, one of the biggest shock character deaths of all time. We're so excited to have Lily, AKA @dearmash1975project, join us to talk about the M*A*S*H season 3 closer, "Abyssinia Henry," and how it inspired her to embark on the coolest fan project of all time. We talk about the Dear Mash 1975 project, sh...

Dangerous love! This week, V and Emily return to the world of kpop for a tale that is truly too wild to be believed. There's badfic. There's a fanfiction contest that should NOT have happened. There's fanservice. Emily learns the word "skinshipping" and hates it. There's a ghost kidnapping boy banders in the woods and it doesn't even matter because there's fanfic on television. In 2006. There's compulsory military service. There's ...

Wotcher! This week, Emily and V look at a massively, massively popular and influential fanfiction that blew up during the long winter of COVID lockdowns thanks to... long sigh... #FicTok. Unfortunately, it is a Harry Potter fic. We once again condemn every single goddamn thing JKR says, does, and stands for; however, we must discuss the Wizarding World because we are a fandom history podcast and those books changed, and continue to...