April 1988: Late For Breakfast Letterzine Begins Cooking
This Week In Fandom History
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 lengthy tenure, Sue Jenkins AKA The Android and Carla Selvetta. Plus, the first-ever fight between Emily and V is caught LIVE ON TAPE! (It's about whether tea tastes...
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April 21, 2008: The Open-Source Boob Project Grosses Us Out
This Week In Fandom History
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 gross. The bright side of this requested episode? It really highlights a positive culture shift that has occurred in con spaces, and in wider culture (kind of),...
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CONstruction || Episode #002: Ten Months Out
This Week In Fandom History
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, John has the knowledge and is willing to share it. This month, we're 10 months away from the next TGI Femslash in-person con, and the code words of the month are...
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April 13, 2013: A BNF of Ice & Fire, Or: Lindaaaa, GRRM, and Racism (TW Misogyny, Racism, Terrible Language)
This Week In Fandom History
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 plan to listen around other people. Of any age. She's a peach. But also, we learn about a type of fanfiction -- BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT IT IS, LINDA -- that we'd never...
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March 30, 1981: An Obsessed Jodie Foster Fan Gives Fans A Bad Name
This Week In Fandom History
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 in Star Trek zines? We look at how the demonization of "fans" played out in the dialogue of actual fans in fannish spaces, and really, we did our best to be classy....
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April 4, 2024: BiBuck on The Weewoo Show
This Week In Fandom History
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 specifically, homophobia generally, or being a dick about shipping -- but Oliver Stark seems to love BiBuck enough to make up for that. Also: V comes up with some really great...
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March 23, 2025: JonasCon Is Burnin' Up
This Week In Fandom History
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, like V, have only one possession to your name in 2009 and that possession was a Jonas Brothers poster? Let us know in the comments on Tumblr, Instagram, or Spotify!...
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CONstruction || Episode #001: Eleven Months Out
This Week In Fandom History
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 start, John has the knowledge and is willing to share it. This month, we're 11 months away from the next TGI Femslash in-person con, and V wants to start from the...
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March 18, 1975: M*A*S*H Says "Abyssinia Henry" with @dearmash1975project
This Week In Fandom History
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, shocking character deaths, fan entitlement and how it's changed over the decades, the lawlessness of the 1970s, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Alan Alda fangirls,...
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March 12, 2006: The Yunjae Yaoi Inferno
This Week In Fandom History
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 rival fansites at war. There's a tramp stamp. There's a meet-cute-via-street-fight. There's exploitative contracts and industry blacklisting. This story has all the...
info_outlineNo, not THAT historical event from November 1963! This week, V and Emily take a trip back in time to a notorious week to explore how a real-life major event in history-history almost caused a major event in fandom history to die at the starting line! We're talking about how Doctor Who, the juggernaut fandom that's been on the air for over 50 years, almost never became a thing just because someone (not named Bucky Barnes...) assassinated JFK a mere 12 hours before the first episode debuted. Rude. It was hard for the little scifi show that could to pick up steam after being overshadowed in such a major way, but look at them go! They're still around and we love 'em!
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LIVE SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT!
We’ll be attending TGIF/F aka TGI Femslash, which is a small femslash fan con in southern California over Valentine’s Day weekend in February. It’ll be the con’s ten-year anniversary, and they’ve asked us to do a special, live podcast episode about the history of the con as their special highlighted programming. If you love femslash and want to come meet us and be a part of this wonderful, small event, you should register! A 3-day pass starts at $120. You can register for the con and find lots more details at tgifemslash.com!
Promo Codes
Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.
This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!
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