SHIPPING DISABILITY/FANFICTION

•Disabled fanfiction producers doing disability online

DISABLED FANFICTION PRODUCERS ONLINE• Disabled people have less access to ICT and

the Internet than nondisabled people: only 30% of disabled people vs. 75% nondisabled (Jaeger, 2012).

• Disability culture and disabled people are nonetheless present online

• Disabled people not often included in Internet research unless:• They are the research focus• Research is about disability, illness, disease

• Disabled people are not researched as creators of online community, culture, content

• Disabled fanfiction producers are leading discussions about disability representations in source texts and fanfictions

PARTICIPATORY CULTURE• Ease of artistic expression & civic engagement

• Support for creating/sharing w/others

• Informal mentorship between participants

• Contributions by participants matter

• Social connection w/others• Implicit authenticity of exchanges

• Talk back /contribute to mass media culture

FANFICTION• Form of participatory culture • Based in self-expression, peer, mentorship, fan

culture.• Any text written by fans based on original

source-texts (fandoms) shared with other fans, usually found online.

• There are millions of fanfics online. Fandoms with most fanfictions on fanfiction.net:

• Harry Potter 683K• Naruto 360K

• Twilight 216K• Fanfics are written in dozens of languages by

all kinds of people• Fanfiction has it's own vocabulary, literary

genres and cultural practices.

DISABILITY FICS• Fanfictions where one or more characters’ disability(ies) plays a substantial role in the story, often to explore “dark” themes, such as loss, trauma, death

• Nondisabled characters in canon are “given” a disability, most popular:• Madness, Blindness, Deafness, paralysis and amputation

• Disabled characters in canon are explored through their disability

• Most reproduce well-documented disability tropes

RESEARCH QUESTIONS• How and where is disability present in online fanfiction communities?

• Where are the disabled fans in online fanfiction communities?

• How are they negotiating being disabled as an intrinsic part fan identity?

Methodology:Post-modern deconstruction

WHERE IS DISABILITY IN ONLINE FANFICTION?• General fanfiction-related websites

• Fanlore.org• Fanthropology: The study of fandom• Organization for Transformative Works (OTW)

• Multi-fandom multi-genres archives:• Fanfiction.net (FF.net)• Archive Of Our Own (AO3).  

• Multi-fandom disability fic-only archives• disability in fanfiction disabfic by disabfic

• disability illness and injury masterlist by stepp and slashmistress

• HP Themed List: Disability by painless_j (has since disappeared)

Fanfiction fests• Festibility• PWD being awesome comment fic. terakj. 2010, 2011, 2012

•  cripbigbang: the cure for the disability AU

 Fanfiction and disability postsWriting guides:• Diary of a Goldfish’s Disabilty in fiction- a load

of lovely links• 10 things fiction writers need to remember about

disability • s.e. smith’s post on writing the Other on this ain’t living

• Blindness resource guide for fan fiction writers by resourceres7

• katta. (12-20-2009). Some clues on how to not write Deaf characters

Critiques of disability representation in ff/source-text 

• Anon (Created 012-11-29). Fuck no, ableist fandoms.  

• attackfish. (2009-09-09). I hate “teachable moments”: disability and fanfiction, or how not to fail at disability in comments.  

• chasingtides. (01-20-2009). Wheelchairs and shotguns: Handicapped Other in Supernatural fandom.

• he_dreams_awake. (05-04-2005). Disability in fic.  • jadelennox. (05-01-2005). Look, I call *myself* a

crip.  • kaz. (2010-06-14). Disability and the curing thereof. • The 32nd flavor: milkshake butterfly. (2005-07-27). A House rant, as promised.  

• The 32nd flavor: milkshake butterfly. (2010-04-30). Drop the plot crutch (another disability writing meta).

• kestrell’s Reading in the dark: ‘Harry Potter’ disability fanfic.

• lightgetsin’s article Do I do it for you? Service kink and disability 

Disability fanfiction scholarship, peer-reviewed

Kociemba, David. 2010. "This isn't something I can fake": Reactions to Glee's representations of disability. Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 5. doi:10.3983/twc.2010.0225

sasha_feather. (2010). From the edges to the center: Disability, Battlestar  Galactica, and fan fiction. Transformative Works and Cultures, 5.  http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2010.0227

Disability and fandom-related communities • Dreamwidth vs LiveJournal

• Disability, on Dreamwidth, is a community where people can talk about general issues related to disability;

• Accessportrayal is a community on Dreamwidth whose goal is to be a resource for fanfiction writers who want to include a disabled character.

• Access_fandom is a community specifically about fandom and disability, and states its mandate to be twofold: to make conventions more accessible and to make fandoms more disability-friendly.

WHAT IS DISABILITY IN ONLINE FANFICTION COMMUNITIES?• Disability (accessibility) as an organizing principle• Web accessibility in developing websites/communities

• Through high profile fans and/or creators who are disabled or disability allies

• Shows up in OTW’s mission, vision and value

• Shows up in Dreamwidth’s organization/development

• Shows up in communities by and for disabled fans• Uses an expansive understanding of accessibility and web accessibility

Disability as a category• categorize stories on disability fics archives : Madness/mental illness, blindness, Deafness, paralysis, amputation

• differentiate btwn characters disabled in canon / characters not disabled in canon• To restrict inclusion of either one or the other in some cases

Disability as not a category• disability fics are a type of narrative but not a fanfic genre

• is a tag but not a category on fanfic archives except disability fic archives

• Recognition by fans that disability fics are problematic• disability is a contested category

Disability as impairmentAccurate representations of impairment as respectful

- Physical/physiological accuracy- Emotional accuracy- Environmental accuracy- Accuracy in representing ableism

Accurate representations as denoting inclusion

Disability as not impairmentDisability is a social, political, and economic form of oppressionWeb accessibility is a problemAttitudinal/cultural ableism are problemsIgnorance of disabled people's lives is a problem

Disability as identity/experience of the world Presented in online self-narratives by fanfic producers

-Being disabled online-Being disabled fans and fan producers-Being authoritative about disability

representations in fandoms/fanficGives specific/particular knowledge through experiences of inaccessibility and ableismCreates ambiguity in the love of fandomsCreates ambiguity regarding disability ficsSpringboard to disability activism

-Through education- Through participation/creation of fan

communities- Through online initiative to fight

ableism/inaccessibility

WHO IS DISABLED IN ONLINE FANFIC COMMUNITIES• Characters are disabled• Characters not disabled in source text

• Used as a plot twist or device, to learn a moral lesson

• Reproduces disability tropes or challenges ableism

• Perceived as less justifiable by disabled fans

• Characters disabled in source-text• Used to develop unexplored characters/ story lines

• Reproduces disability tropes or challenges ableism

• Perceived as having more potential by disabled fans

Fanfic producers are disabledMain initiators of disability representations online - They use personal narratives of being disabled - They use emotional and logical arguments

- They 'do' disability online- They support, mentor and educate one

another about disability, activism, accessibility, fanfiction

This has impacted fanfiction and fan communities online and offline. Disabled fanfiction producers are creating transgressive and subversive spaces and interventions online

CONCLUSIONS:• Disabled fans produce creative and activist work online about disability

• Disabled fans are leading the way in challenging disability stereotypes and tropes at a grassroots level

• Disabled fans are developing supportive online environments for disabled people online

• Critical disability studies can only benefit from further examining the role of cyberspaces in disabled people’s lives.

THANK YOU!