ALTWhat if we told you Sherlock Holmes’s most famous companion… wasn’t who you thought?
For Meta Monday, we’re spotlighting “Watson was a Woman?”, a delightfully tongue-in-cheek 1941 essay by Rex Stout that asks a bold question about the Dr John Watson we think we know.
He argues Watson must be a woman, based on the way Watson speaks to Sherlock.
From fainting at Holmes’s return, to nursing him through illness, to trying to get him off cocaine, Stout reads Watson’s narration as less “loyal friend” and more “long-suffering wife.”
The result is a fascinating early example of fannish meta: playful, provocative, and deeply engaged with character dynamics long before modern fandom discourse took shape.
Did Stout mean it seriously? Not quite. But like much of fandom, the fun lies in the interpretation – and in asking “what if?”
Curious? Dive into the essay on Fanlore!
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ALTThis Meta Monday, we’re spotlighting “What Fandom Racism Looks Like: Beige Blank Slates”, an essay by Stitch posted to their website in 2019. It covers the largely disproportionate focus on white male characters, and the inclination to consider them blank slates, occurring within Western media fandoms.
The essay explains that blank slates are not problematic on their own, and have the potential for good within transformative fandom. The issue is the tendency to brush aside women and characters of color, no matter if they are part of the main cast or blank slates themselves. Stitch adds that white maleness is considered “neutral” and “apolitical”. Meanwhile, characters of color are never viewed through that lens.
She provides examples from multiple fandoms, and outlines the popular fanon traits given to white male characters, even when they are not truly underdeveloped in canon. A call to action concludes the essay: for fandom to meaningfully engage with characters of color, changing the broader trends that surround blank slates.
Want to learn more about this meta essay? Visit its Fanlore page!
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ALTWe’re exploring the wildest shit that happened in Homestuck’s fanbase for Meta Monday! This discussion began with a now-deleted Tumblr post that, a decade later, has accumulated almost one hundred thousand notes.
Some topics of conversation were cosplay and conventions, how inconsistent webcomic updates shaped the fandom, and Homestuck’s influence on fan culture today. Much emphasis was placed on the fandom’s massive scale during its prime. And for good reason—its impact extends from modern convention standards to everyday language.
Are there any additions to this Tumblr discussion that we missed? Come share them with us on Fanlore!
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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!
ALTThis Meta Monday we’re taking a look at the meta essay Birds of Gay by Julian shipyrds. It’s written about the femslash pairing Barbara Gordon/Dinah Lance, aka Babs/Dinah, from the DCU, after the author read the Birds of Prey comics in 2023.
The author discusses the relationship from the perspective of a latecomer to the fandom, saying there’s a challenge in finding contemporary fan responses for the comic and the author wanting to talk about the ship’s “nightmare relationship”.
The essay goes on to discuss topics such as disability, identity, and Barbara Gordon’s refusal to let herself be known, how the ship is deeply codependent and there’s an information imbalance, as well as digital decay, queer archives, and the ephemeral nature of comics, and other topics like this, too, is yuri.
It’s featured in the third volume of Yaoi Zine, which was themed “Yuri Zine.”
Don’t forget to check out our Fanlore page where you can read excerpts from the essay.
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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!
This Meta Monday, we’re highlighting “Rule 63 and femslash within fandom Women, femslash, trans identities, rule 63/genderswap, and fandom: a not at all definitive essay”, posted in 2014 by Dreamwidth user intransitive. It covers the exclusion of Rule 63—or genderswapped—characters from femslash events.
The essay does not call to abolish this rule, and acknowledges the need to give canonical women a spotlight. It does encourage organizers, when prohibiting genderswapped characters, to check their language for echoes of transphobia and gender essentialism. Intransitive ultimately proposes both types of femslash can coexist.
Responses were varied. In 2019, one femslash event moderator cited the essay when choosing to allow Rule 63.
Want to learn more about this piece of meta? Check out its Fanlore page!
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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!
ALTMonday, monday monday! This edition of Meta Monday is looking at @glockgal’s essay: Drawing Characters of Colour.
The essay covers the lack of fanart of POC characters, Glockgal’s own experiences and internalized assumptions, and tips on how to do better. Not only that, she includes links to other resources that can help improve your art.
Learn more on the fanlore page, or give the essay a read on her Livejournal. Once you’ve finished, if it inspired you to make some art, reblog and add it to the post! We’d love to see what you make as we highlight Fandom in Color this July.
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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!
ALTThis Meta Monday we are taking a look at the anthology Some of Us Really Do Watch for the Plot. This is a collection from 2007 of meta essays about the show Supernatural that span 333 pages and more than 40 essays.
It explores the dynamics of the Winchester family, with insights into Sam and Dean’s psychology and emotional lives, as well as some of the supporting characters. Some essays also examine the show’s themes of free will and faith.
If you’re a fan or just curious to learn more about the fandom, this anthology is worth checking out!
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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!
ALTFans often have their own theories about fandom, and one big early theory was the Wave Theory of Slash, which is this week’s Meta Monday feature. Originating from a 1993 essay by Lezlie Shell, the theory posits that any given fandom (or fan) progresses through clusters of tropes and styles of slash shipping, similar to feminism’s progression in “waves”.
The essay classifies slash fic into four waves:
Each wave is further defined by four characteristics: the explicitness of a sex scene, the relationship of the story to canon, sexuality focus within a sex scene, and the writer’s perceived relationship to the fandom.
Learn more about what defines each wave and discussion about the theory on Fanlore!
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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!
ALTFor Femslash February, we’re highlighting the article “Yuri isn’t Made for Men” written by essayist and vidder Zeria. The article addresses the assumption that yuri is a genre catered towards men by looking into the reader demographics of yuri manga.
In the article, Zeria summarizes their research on the gender and sexualities of yuri mangakas and readers. Zeria’s finding reveal that, of the 150 yuri mangakas that were included in their research, at least 60% are female. Additionally, the reader survey of the magazine Comic Yuri Hime and Zeria’s own survey suggest that a large percentage of yuri readers are female, many of whom also identified as queer. Zeria thus concludes that ‘’yuri manga is primarily made by women and consumed by women’’.
It is also worth noting that Zeria’s article was one of the few sources in English that covered the topic at the time, something which they also brings attention to as they calls for further research on the yuri genre.
Want to learn more? Visit the article’s Fanlore page and consider checking out Zeria’s other works!
ALTThis Meta Monday we’re reflecting upon “unpopular f/f opinion” by grison-in-space.
“unpopular f/f opinion” is a 2018 Tumblr meta post where the author says they are tired of soft lesbians and they want to read about hard, broken, or conflicting lesbians in stories. The post garnered a large response at the time, receiving thousands of notes and sparking some discussion.
Do you agree? Or are you curious to learn more? Head over to the Fanlore page!
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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!
