Metathought on Gender and Buffy Fanfic Writers

[jetpack_monkey]

This is something of an embarrassing confession, being male and a Buffy fanfic writer. I've had a few recent additions to my fanfic awareness bubble and I've taken to perusing their profiles. It's come to my attention that I automatically assume that a Buffy fanfic writer is female unless I'm otherwise informed.

How ridiculous is that? There's nothing about "Buffy" that makes it more orientated to the female writer than the male. Indeed, there's nothing about men that makes them less likely than women to key into the "Buffy" fanfic world. Hell, I write fanfic (I just don't finish it), and I'm male.

Maybe it comes from experience. I've been involved in a couple of LJ RPs in my time, and I'm usually one only a few males. Once I was the only one. In the one major fanfiction group writing project I've done, I was the only guy (and also, incidentally, the youngest by a few years).

So, I guess the real question is - where are the good male Buffy fanfic writers? I know they exist. I've read their work. But why is it such a minority that I actually find myself shocked when I discover one?

So, here's a little survey for the guys out there:

1) Do you write "Buffy" and "Angel" fanfiction?
2) Do you feel that you're in a gender minority in the Jossian fanfic circles?
3) How would you describe your fanfiction? What genres, 'ships, etc. do you write in?
4) What genres, 'ships, etc. would you absolutely avoid?

And for everybody:

5) Why do you think there's a gender imbalance in "Buffy" and "Angel" fanfiction writing?
6) Does this trend extend to all fanfiction?
7) Do you find it's more difficult for a writer to win your readership, based on their gender? Why?

Please pimp this out, start a dialogue. I'm interested in the answers and the discussion resulting from those answers.

Comments

[lizbetann]

In my experience (for the record, 10 years now of Internet fandom with varying levels of involvement through 10+ shows), the vast majority (80% - 99%) of the fans involved in online fandom (not just fic writing) are female. (To wit: One convention that I went to was conviently limited to 100 members. Four attendees were male. At least one was there because his wife wanted him to come.)

Since the stereotype of "fan of sci fi movies and tv shows" is predominantly male, I've wondered... where are they?

I don't have a good answer, so the rest is just babbling. :)

The stereotype of the Internet user is male; which is not my personal experence. Now, in my 10 years, I've been a member of mailing lists, posting boards, chatrooms, LiveJournal, etc. Now, I think the stereotype of the male Internet user is passive; he looks for things to read and pictures to look at.

The stereotype (how many times can I use that word in one comment! Yay!) of females-in-general is that we communicate. Hence, all the places I've (virtually) congragated at have been interactive.

With specific regard to fanfic... many people write/imagine stories based on characters created by someone else. Most people I have encountered as newbies never dreamed anyone but them did that until they came online and saw others doing it. Generally, once they realise that fanfic is an acceptable practice and they get positive reinforcement, they Commit Fic.

So I think the question is more who admits to ficcing/makes their fic available for public consumption.