BONUS! Trans Fans Have Always Been Here (TW Old-Fashioned Terminology Uses)
Release Date: 05/07/2025
June 8, 2024: A Surprise for Emily! (TW Mentions of Suicide, Parental Grief, Religious Control)
This Week In Fandom History
Roll for initiative! This week, V and Emily use the actual "what happened this week in fandom history" event (the USPS released Dungeons & Dragons themed stamps) purely as an excuse to talk about a meatier topic: the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and its effects on fandom... focusing on the writing of one blorbo extraordinaire, Mr. Eddie Munson. Stranger Things did a great job with Eddie and the other nerd characters! The 1980s did NOT do a great job with nerds! And for being the only two people on the internet who don't play DND, we think we did a great job with this topic...! NOTE: This...
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June 3, 2011: Cherik Explodes the X-Men Multiverse
This Week In Fandom History
To us, our X-fandom-historians! This week, Emily and V venture once again into a fandom that has way too many moving parts to understand as they discuss the release of X-Men: First Class and the subsequent multiversal explosion of Cherik (Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr, or Professor X/Magneto) fanworks. Even though this is literally a pairing V has written, we claim no knowledge of the X-Men franchise, because again: there are so many X-men and they are all always doing things. While the internet fandom for the X-Men had been alive before XMFC, as we discussed in our Subreality episode, Cherik...
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May 25: A Double Nerd Holiday!
This Week In Fandom History
Grab your towel and your hard-boiled egg, nerds! This week, Emily and V look at a double holiday once again, because May 25 is a big day for two big fandoms: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy celebrates Towel Day, while Discworld remembers Sir Terry Pratchett and celebrates the Glorious 25 of May. Both of these hugely influential, beloved book series have spanned decades, genres, and all manner of fans, becoming tentpoles in the worlds of scifi and fantasy. Whether you're hopping from planet to planet with Arthur Dent or patrolling the streets of Ankh-Morpork, there is something about the...
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May 19, 1997: Clan Denial Avenges Richie Ryan... On the High Seas
This Week In Fandom History
There can only be one! And that one better fucking be Richie Ryan! This week, V and Emily tackle a requested topic from lovely Patron @elismor and look at the extremely confusing, way-too-many-installments fandom of Highlander. Specifically, Highlander: The Series. And specifically, teenage thief and heartthrob Richie Ryan, and how he was unjustly killed off by canon and revived by the formation of Clan Denial. This fandom-within-a-fandom is also nine inside jokes wearing a trench coat, but that's our favorite thing, so it's a fun romp. Come along with us as we shadow Clan Denial on a cruise!...
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May 1–31, 2020: The First VoiceTeam!
This Week In Fandom History
Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah! This week, Emily and V head to summer camp! That is, we discuss the podfic summer camp extravaganza that is VoiceTeam, an annual challenge to create creative podfic for any fandoms and pairings your heart desires... as a team. We also look at how podfic was THE COOLEST way to pick up chicks in the '90s, where podfic started back in the '80s as a way for sight-impaired fans to get their shipping on, and what VoiceTeam 2025 is doing (and how it's stressing V out). Let's pull some pranks and make some friendship bracelets! And, of course, make some podfic! This...
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May 6, 2001: BNF Leyla Harrison Appears on The X-Files
This Week In Fandom History
Grab your tissues, it's a crying episode! This week, V and Emily look at the short life and long impact of X-Files BNF (Big Name Fan) and BNA (Big Name Author), Leyla Harrison. The very first thing she did when she got the internet was post an X-Files fic... and immediately got anon hate. From there, she became one of the cornerstone writers of '90s XF MSR fic and helped to shape the way we all still think about, read, and write fanfiction. Her legacy loomed so large that when she died of cancer, the actual X-Files created a character named after her. Join us as we sob about the time she met...
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April 27, 2023: Fanbinding Puts Dramione Fandom in a Bind
This Week In Fandom History
Going once, going twice, sold... unfortunately! This week, Emily and V look at an event requested back while it was actually happening: the 2023 fanbinding drama that nearly ended Dramione- and Reylo's fanbinding communities on Instagram. Mostly, though, it's an episode about people coming into fannish spaces without an interest in fannish community, and people who view fanfiction as "content" to be consumed rather than art to be engaged with or affection bids meant to be answered. We're probably preaching entirely to the choir if you love fandom enough to be listening to a fandom history...
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April 20, 2000: The Haircut Warning Wars
This Week In Fandom History
Grab your floaties! This week, V and Emily travel back 25 years (gross) to the spring of 2000, when the internet was the Wild West and everyone was an asshole. Or maybe not everyone, but wow, this one e-mail list for The Sentinel sure was. We discuss the difference between tags, warnings, spoilers, and censorship, and we also discuss just how much has changed in the fandom landscape over the last 25 years in terms of expectations and norms. Get ready to be kind of mad at people in the past! Sources This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this...
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April 13: Homestuck Banging Out the Tunes
This Week In Fandom History
We finally learned what Homestuck is! This week, Emily and V look at a very special double-holiday: April 13, the day that Neil banged out the tunes and, also, Homestuck Day. Who is Neil? The greatest pianist who ever lived, that's who. And what's Homestuck? That was our question every goddamn day of our lives until Emily dipped a toe into the extremely deep water that is the Homestuck multiverse and came back alive to tell V about it. Sources This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history! Follow This Week in Fandom...
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BONUS! Trans Fans Have Always Been Here (TW Old-Fashioned Terminology Uses)
This Week In Fandom History
In light of certain fandoms' creators recently using their considerable fortunes to substantively make life worse for trans people, particularly trans women, this week, V and Emily take a look at a pioneering gender-nonconforming person who, literally, founded modern scifi fandom: Donald Wollheim. We look at Donald's fannish history, including hosting the very first scifi con ever; publishing Lord of the Rings in the US; and founding the Futurians, the early East Coast scifi fan club who definitely won the all-time BNF war. Then, we look at the other side of Donald's life as a landmark figure...
info_outlineIn light of certain fandoms' creators recently using their considerable fortunes to substantively make life worse for trans people, particularly trans women, this week, V and Emily take a look at a pioneering gender-nonconforming person who, literally, founded modern scifi fandom: Donald Wollheim. We look at Donald's fannish history, including hosting the very first scifi con ever; publishing Lord of the Rings in the US; and founding the Futurians, the early East Coast scifi fan club who definitely won the all-time BNF war. Then, we look at the other side of Donald's life as a landmark figure in the midcentury East Coast trans and GNC community, including penning the first first-person book about being gender-nonconforming and it not being something to shun, but something to celebrate. While certain big-name authors have decided that they want their legacy to be one of division and hate, we look this week at an individual whose legacies in both fandom and the queer community are ones of building. Of hope for the future. And of telling people that they are not alone.
Sources
American Experience: Casa Susannah
A Year Among the Girls, Darrell G. Raynor (Donald Wollheim)
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Fancyclopedia 2 (1959)
This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!
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