Queer and Unusual Space: White Supremacy in Slash Fanfiction

Abstract

My thesis exposes the ubiquity of white supremacy in the ostensibly queer practice of writing slash fanfiction. Slash fandom is often characterized as a queer online space that foregrounds women’s pleasure and functions as resistance to hegemonic ideas about gender and sexuality. Absent from this conceptualization is the presumption of whiteness that pervades fan imaginings. I undertake a critical discourse analysis of slash fanfiction to reveal the homonationalist and white supremacist ideologies that underpin much creative fan work. Utilizing the framework of affect theory, I then perform an intertextual analysis of comments from white fans that reveal the possessive investment in whiteness that is a powerful undercurrent in fan communities. Finally, I examine critiques from fans of colour to theorize anger and creativity as strategies of resistance that have the potential to open up fan spaces so they may better realize their radical emancipatory potential.