We often do not realize that beyond the dichotomy of proactive or passive consumer of popular culture, especially media culture, that we are contained within sometimes loose, sometimes strict borders of fandom, and yet most people are fans of something. Are we afraid to confront the reality that scholarship of fandom translates in its entirety to a study of our complex interpersonal and social relationships and construction of personal identities? Does the field challenge academics’ identities, formal disciplines, and scholarly norms?

We often do not realize that beyond the dichotomy of proactive or passive consumer of popular culture, especially media culture, that we are contained within sometimes loose, sometimes strict borders of fandom, and yet most people are fans of something. Are we afraid to confront the reality that scholarship of fandom translates in its entirety to a study of our complex interpersonal and social relationships and construction of personal identities? Does the field challenge academics’ identities, formal disciplines, and scholarly norms?

– Douglas Kellner and Heather Collette-VanDeraa (reviewing Gray, Sandvoss, & Harrington’s Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World)