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Fan activism is the efforts of a fan community to raise awareness of social concerns or otherwise support the ideals expressed by objects of the
fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of Fan (person), fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significan ...
. The rise of fan activism has been attributed to the emergence of new media.Jenkins H. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. NYU Press. 2006.Earl J and Kimport K. Movement societies and digital protest: Fan activism and other nonpolitical protest online. American Sociological Association. 2009. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9558.2009.01346.x A 2012 quantitative study by Kahne, Feezell, and Lee suggests that there may be a statistically significant relationship between youths' participation in interest-driven activities online and their civic engagement later on in life. A report compiled by fan campaign organizers in 2021 and 2022 identified the four key values of fan activism as being intentionality, imagination, accountability and community care. Fan activism has become more politically and societally focused, and fandoms take up collective action often for issues that are not inter-fandom. Scholars share that "Fan and consumer activism are more visible than ever before, and the lines between these and traditional civic and political activities are blurring in today's increasingly "participatory" media and entertainment landscape". Examples of fan activism include campaigns for
social equality Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and social servi ...
, representation of
minorities The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...
in entertainment media,Lopez L. K. Fan activists and the politics of race in The Last Airbender. Sage. 2012. fundraising for organizations with common values, campaigning for the continuation of a television program or sporting team and defending fan works from commercial exploitation and allegations of
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...
. Fans may be mobilized to support such causes in response to celebrity endorsements; however, activists may also leverage content worlds and fan-like activities as resources to be reconfigured for political engagement, as in the cases where real-life rights groups have used imagery and tropes from
Avatar (2009 film) ''Avatar'' is a 2009 Epic film, epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, written, and directed by James Cameron. It features an ensemble cast including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, an ...
to attract mainstream media attention in the West Bank village of Bil'in and Orissa, India. Notable groups that are historically associated with fan activism include
Fandom Forward Fandom Forward (formerly The Harry Potter Alliance) was a nonprofit organization that was initially run by Harry Potter fandom, ''Harry Potter'' fans but subsequently expanded to include members of various fandoms. It was founded by Andrew Slack ...
(formerly the Harry Potter Alliance), Fans4Writers,
Nerdfighteria Nerdfighteria ( ) is a mainly online-based community subculture that originated on YouTube in 2007, when the VlogBrothers (John Green, John and Hank Green) rose to prominence in the YouTube community. As their popularity grew, so did coverage on ...
and the Organization for Transformative Works. More recently,
K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...
fans have organized for a variety of political causes.


History

Fan activism was originally geared toward fans wanting to save their favorite television shows. For example, in 1969, Bjo and John Trimble led a letter-writing campaign to "save Star Trek" to guarantee the show survived more series. More recently,
Stargate SG-1 ''Stargate SG-1'' (often stylized in all caps, or abbreviated ''SG-1'') is a military science fiction Adventure fiction, adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate, ''Stargate'' franchise. The show, created by Brad Wrig ...
fans quickly responded on the Internet to rumor of the show's cancellation. In this case, they were able to use information found on various websites to figure out how networks made decisions regarding TV shows and argued for its continuation. There is some debate whether or not this fan activism represents traditional
activism Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...
. While fan activism is considered to be a form of cultural activism by fans and some political scientists, it is often overlooked in literature, "suggesting a residual distinction between high and low culture".
Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter and producer who created the science fiction series and fictional universe ''Star Trek.'' Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up ...
provided a strong base for fan activists when he connected a utopian and humanist philosophy with science fiction and further used science fiction to support gender and racial equality. The rise of fan activism has been attributed to the emergence of new media, and is described as "not about the mix between political concerns and culture but rather action that looks like political activism but is used toward nonpolitical ends." Nevertheless, a 2012 quantitative study by Kahne, Feezell, and Lee suggests that there may be a statistically significant relationship between youths' participation in interest-driven activities online and their civic engagement later on in life."


Fan activist groups

Fans throughout the years have mobilized to create platforms, groups, and movements to promote social change. Groups like Harry Potter Alliance, The Racebending Movement, and the Nerdfighters have historically attracted a significant amount of attention and research. In recent years,
K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...
fans have also made headlines.


Fandom Forward

Fandom Forward Fandom Forward (formerly The Harry Potter Alliance) was a nonprofit organization that was initially run by Harry Potter fandom, ''Harry Potter'' fans but subsequently expanded to include members of various fandoms. It was founded by Andrew Slack ...
(Formerly known as The Harry Potter Alliance) is a nonprofit organization that was initially run by Harry Potter fans but that has since expanded to include members of various fandoms. It was founded by Andrew Slack in 2005 to draw attention to human rights violations in Sudan. Since then, the organization's campaigns have focused on topics such as literacy, United States immigration reform, economic justice, gay rights, sexism, labor rights, mental health, body image, and climate change. They have received recognition from many popular figures in the Harry Potter community and have been the subject of multiple academic studies on fan activism and civic engagement among youth. It consists of more than 100,000 members who support several causes including Doctors for Health, Free Press, and The Gay-Straight Alliance. This movement, which was established in 2005 by its non-profit leader Andrew Slack, parallels Harry Potter's endeavors to combat
Voldemort Lord Voldemort ( , in the films) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the ''Harry Potter'' series of novels by J. K. Rowling. He first appears in '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (1997) and returns either in pe ...
to the broader society's goals to challenge dominant power structures that oppress marginalized groups. The HPA has been active in its strides toward providing financial relief toward populations in need. For example, following the
2010 Haiti Earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (departm ...
, the HPA assembled to raise approximately $123,000 to provide five cargo planes that supplied medical resources to the country following this momentous event. The HPA also organizes its members into four Hogwarts houses to strengthen group solidarity and encourage members to spread awareness about social and political issues. Like in ''
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'', these houses compete to earn points based on their abilities to inspire change and encourage direct action.


The Racebending Movement

Following the release of the 2010 live-action film, '' The Last Airbender,'' the Racebending Movement emerged to promote racial diversity in the Hollywood film industry. The film received criticism for casting white actors as the main characters who came from predominately East Asian heritage. As a form of protest against the whitewashing of non-white characters, a community of fans created the Racebending.com website to advocate the fair representation of minority groups. On this site, a large number of users post comments that instigate debates among active community members. This movement also has a strong presence on
Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...
where users cast people of color as traditionally white characters such as Bruce Wayne,
Hermione Granger Hermione Jean Granger ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Harry Potter'' series of novels by J. K. Rowling. She first appeared in '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (1997), as a first-year student on her way to Hogwarts. She becom ...
, and
Luke Skywalker Luke Skywalker is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was introduced in the original film trilogy as the main protagonist and also appears in the sequel trilogy. Raised as a poor moisture farmer on the desert planet Tat ...
.


Nerdfighters

Hank and
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...
created the Nerdfighters community in 2007 after gaining popularity from their Brotherhood 2.0 project where each brother posted a video to YouTube every other day for a year. Unlike fan activist groups such as the Harry Potter Alliance and the Racebending movement, the Nerdfighters community does not dedicate its efforts only toward promoting change. Rather, this community has a multifaceted creative output that incorporates music, fiction, and other forms of media with challenges, pranks, and games. The activities of the Nerdfighters community derive themselves from the work and interests of Hank and John Green; for example, the community's Positive Pranking Project consists of pranks that are similar to those found in John Green's novels '' Paper Towns'' and ''
Looking for Alaska ''Looking for Alaska'' is a 2005 Young adult literature, young adult novel by American author John Green. Based on his time at the private Indian Springs School, Green wrote the novel in order to create meaningful young adult fiction. While he d ...
.'' The commonalities that appear between Green's books and the Nerdfighters include the objectives of establishing an environment that reinforces respect for others, intellectual and philosophical beliefs, linguistic play, and the goal to make world a better place for everyone.


K-pop fans

Korean pop music—or
K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...
—fans, are known for mobilizing in political spaces. Originally finding community online due to their shared love of K-pop and the idols who create the music, they later "became celebrated online vigilantes". K-pop fans are cited as participating in everything from human rights campaigns to education programs throughout the years, often in tribute or honor of the idols they love. In 2020, large subsets of the K-pop community began a movement to disrupt a rally being held by
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
as part of his reelection campaign. The rally was held at Tulsa, Oklahoma's
BOK Center BOK Center, or Bank of Oklahoma Center, is a 19,199-seat multi-purpose arena and a primary indoor sports and event venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. The two current permanent tenants are the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL and the Tulsa Oiler ...
, with a 19,000-seat capacity. The Trump campaign in 2016 reported receiving one million ticket requests for the event. Despite the capacity and requests, the Tulsa Fire Department reported that the fire marshal counted 6,200 scanned tickets of attendees. Many believe this to be the work of the K-pop fans who began requesting tickets in large quantities following a tweet by the Trump campaign inviting supporters to register for free tickets. They did this knowing they would not attend and shared the instruction for others to do so on their social media platforms. The social media posts, especially on
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
, garnered millions of views as the idea spread and the movement found "Alt" or "Elite" TikTok, "on the quiet side where people do pranks and a lot of activism". As social posts gained more views and more people created their own content, many young internet users outside these two subsets began to participate. Although K-pop and young social media users take credit themselves for the largely empty venue, and media attributed the event to these subsets, it is difficult to fully prove that they were responsible. The social posts made ahead of the rally to encourage reserving tickets "were strategically deleted to ensure the guerrilla nature of the campaign, and concerns about
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
may have further reduced ticket holder desire to show up". Also in 2020, K-pop fans became active in the
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
movement, raising money and infiltrating hashtags originated by those opposing the movement. In a specific instance during the protests following George Floyd's murder, K-pop fans caused technical difficulties for the
Dallas Police Department The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas. Organization The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hir ...
. The department sent a Tweet requesting people share videos of "illegal activity protests" through the iWatch Dallas app. Soon after,
different tweet
urged K-pop fans to send fancams to the app instead. Two hours after the tweet encouraging the spam, Dallas police tweeted "Due to technical difficulties iWatch Dallas app will be down temporarily." The app also garnered more than 4,000 ratings and reviews, the majority negative. In a press release regarding the event, Dallas police did not name a cause for the app being temporarily down, stating that a cause was "still being determined." The app was active again shortly.


References

{{reflist Cultural activism Fandom K-pop Politics Stans