Articles - Fansplaining

Production still from The Pitt featuring Drs Abbott and Robby standing in front of the red emergency entrance (in the evening), looking meaningfully at each other.

Features

The Pitt Fandom Phenomenon

The hit medical drama showcases three things you need to build a juggernaut fanfic community: popularity, modularity, and intimacy.

Announcements

(Re)Introducing Fansplaining

Reporting, analysis, criticism, and more—all by, for, and about fandom.

Production still from Heated Rivalry featuring Ilya and Shane laying together naked in bed.

Criticism

The Success of Heated Rivalry Should Not Be a Surprise

Romancelandia understands why the show is a hit. Why is it so hard for Hollywood to get the message?

Black and white image from the 1930s of a woman sitting at a desk holding a paper and pen, smiling.

Announcements

Fansplaining’s Next Chapter

We’re relaunching as a weekly publication featuring reporting, analysis, criticism, personal essays, and more—all by, for, and about fandom.

Photograph of Oh Hyun-ji playing gayageum in front of an audience, backdropped by green trees and bushes through floor to ceiling windows.

Features

Can Fandom Make Us Better Tourists?

In an era of overtourism, South Korea’s Jeju Island and international BTS fans are building bridges of mutual respect.

Illustration featuring a computer desktop with chat windows and images of popular ships kissing, with a figure in the corner climbing through the screen.

Features

Alternate Universes

Through text-based roleplaying, I’ve lived so many other lives—and experienced so many other bodies.

Image from the back of issue one of Mary Sue, featuring Jessica the blonde vampire riding a bicycle, with Cassie (glasses, long brown hair) hanging on to the back, looking panicked.

Features

Reclaiming the Mary Sue

My new comic interrogates the continued bias against Mary Sues—and brings one life.

Photograph of three people (Alyssa Wong, Lydia Kang, Tessa Gratton) walking onto a stage with a Star Wars-themed backdrop. All three smile and Tessa waves at the camera.

Features

The Fan, the Pro, and the Spaces In Between

Writing for Star Wars challenges me to interrogate fandom power dynamics—and figure out where I fall in a rapidly shifting landscape.

Photograph of the panelists standing on the stage: Meghan, Tessa, Elizabeth, Lin, Brent, Javi, Daphne.

Panels

The Fandom Advantage: How Fan Creativity Fuels Pro Entertainment Careers

Fansplaining’s panel from San Diego Comic-Con 2025, featuring fannish creators who work on television, comics, novels, and more.

Photograph of Hutch and Starsky sitting together against a collection of stacked fruit crates.

Features

How Friendships Onscreen and Off Fueled Half a Century of Fandom

For the admins of the Starsky & Hutch Fiction Archive, preserving fanworks and fannish community go hand in hand.

Photograph of actors Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd with their arms over each others' shoulders, posing for a photo.

Features

The RPF Question

Amid blurry boundaries between fic, celebrity fandom, and conspiracy theories, how real person fiction evolved from forbidden to mainstream and back again.

Promotional still from Bridgerton featuring Kate in a blue Empire-waist gown standing at the base of a set of carpeted stairs, a corgi sitting on one of the stairs near her feet.

Features

Bridgerton and Period Drama Fandom’s Enduring Racism Problem

Complaints about historical accuracy and acting quality are often dog-whistles: some fans only want to see white actors—and white history—on screen.