Can Fandoms Be Feminist?

We’re looking at women in fandoms through a couple of different lenses today. First, Mariquita and Renee discuss a book that took them both completely by surprise. This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something–Anything–Like your Life Depends on It by Tabitha Carvan is sort of about Benedict Cumberbatch, but it’s mostly about fandom, women’s desire, motherhood, passion, and joy. Then Renee chats with Kaitlyn Tiffany, author of Everything I Need I Get From You: How Fangirls Created the Internet As We Know It, about fandom as cultural production, subversive power, and identity discovery, particularly for girls and women in the One Direction fandom.

Support our guest and hosts:

Kaitlyn Tiffany: The Atlantic // Twitter

Follow Mariquita: Instagram 

Follow Renee: Instagram // Twitter

Beyond the Box: Our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

Renee Powers

Renee Powers websiteRenee Powers InstagramRenee Powers Facebook

Renee Powers founded Feminist Book Club in 2018 to provide a space for intersectional feminists to learn, grow, and connect. When not reading or running the biz, you can find her drinking coffee and trying unsuccessfully to teach her retired racing greyhound how to fetch. Favorite genres: feminist thrillers, contemporary literary fiction, short stories, and anything that might be described as "irreverent"