What the thing is
Fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterised by camaraderie and deep engagement with a shared interest.
Where it came from
It began with sports enthusiasts in 1903, but earlier forms include Jane Austen devotees from 1870, Sherlock Holmes mourners in 1893, railway enthusiasts in the late 19th century, and science fiction fandom in the 1930s.
Scholar Adrianne Wadewitz names the Janeites as the earliest example, and Sherlock Holmes fans created some of the first fan fiction at about 1897 to 1902. Fans have held the World Science Fiction Convention annually since 1939. Media fandom split from it in the early 1970s, with a focus on relationships between characters in franchises such as Star Trek. Its fans made fan art and fan fiction at a time when typical science fiction fandom was focused on critical discussion. The MediaWest convention provided a video room and was instrumental in the emergence of fan vids in the late 1970s. Anime fans who wanted Japanese films before licensing in the US leaked copies and subtitled them to swap with friends, which marked the start of fansubs.
What it gets right
It treats fandom as a subculture defined by camaraderie and shared interest—not just consumption, but sustained investment in minor details within structured social networks.
Members publish and exchange fanzines and newsletters, attend conventions, and write fan fiction, make fan vids and fan art, or take part in cosplay. Such activities are sometimes called “fan labor” or “fanac”.
What it gets wrong
It conflates all fan practices under one term without distinguishing between railway enthusiasts organising locally in the 1920s and brony fandom coordinating globally via Tumblr in 2011.
Unpaid work is a point of contention. Gaming companies use fans to alpha and beta test games in exchange for early access or promotional merchandise, and the TV show Glee used fans to create promotional materials without compensating them. E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey began as Twilight fan fiction, was rewritten without references to the original and self-published in May 2011, then published by Random House in 2012, and many fans felt that using fan fiction to make money was not in the spirit of the community. Fandoms can also lead to toxic behaviour, including harassment of other fans or media creators.
Why it matters now
Because fan labour—fan fiction, vids, cosplay, conventions—has become infrastructure for cultural production, yet remains legally precarious, economically invisible, and socially misunderstood.
Media fans have organised on behalf of cancelled series, including Star Trek in 1968, Cagney & Lacey in 1983 and Farscape in 2002; in the case of Firefly the result was the film Serenity, not another season. Fans also helped push a Veronica Mars film through a Kickstarter campaign.
Is it worth your time
Yes—if you want to understand how collective attention organises itself outside institutions, and why that matters for culture, labour, and power.
