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Abstract

In recent years, numerous cult franchises – once the purview of small communities of devotees – have been revived and adapted in order to draw mass audiences. Fans of these texts are left to puzzle out the question of communal and personal fan identity as fandom rapidly expands. This article focuses on the fandom of the science fiction classic Doctor Who, relaunched in 2005 as a ‘mainstreamed’ version, and examines how the introduction of genre hybridity into the text becomes for fans a crucial point in a struggle over the meaning of fandom. Using grounded analysis, the article demonstrates how members of LiveJournal community doctorwho construct their identities by othering two imagined communities: the romance-hating ‘anoraks’ and the romance-obsessed ‘shippers’. Navigating a minefield of undesired positions, these fans are characterised by a discourse of genre and community uniqueness that poses a challenge to the view of fandom as the blueprint for participatory culture.

Keywords

Cult media genre media fandom participation culture

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Resisting the romance: ‘Shipping’ and the discourse of genre uniqueness in Doctor Who fandom

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