{"title":"Mel Stanfill","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"exploiting-fandom-book-mel-stanfill-9781609386238","title":"Exploiting Fandom","description":"As more and more fans rush online to share their thoughts on their favorite shows or video games, they might feel like the process of providing feedback is empowering. However, as fan studies scholar Mel Stanfill argues, these industry invitations for fan participation indicate not greater fan power but rather greater fan usefulness. Stanfill's argument, controversial to some in the field, compares the “domestication of fandom” to the domestication of livestock, contending that, just as livestock are bred bigger and more docile as they are domesticated, so, too, are fans as the entertainment industry seeks to cultivate a fan base that is both more useful and more controllable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy bringing industry studies and fan studies into the conversation, Stanfill looks closely at just who exactly the industry considers “proper fans” in terms of race, gender, age, and sexuality, and interrogates how digital media have influenced consumption, ultimately finding that the invitation to participate is really an incitement to consume in circumscribed, industry-useful ways.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51538546295057,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51538546426129,"sku":"GOR014320462","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/160938623X.jpg?v=1750959995"},{"product_id":"fandom-is-ugly-book-mel-stanfill-9781479824960","title":"Fandom Is Ugly","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHighlights the importance of considering contemporary public culture through the lens of fan studies\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Gamergate harassment campaign of women in video games, the \"Unite the Right\" rally where hundreds of Confederate monument supporters cried out racist and antisemitic slurs in Charlottesville, and the targeted racist and sexist harassment of \u003ci\u003eStar Wars'\u003c\/i\u003e Asian American actress Kelly Marie Tran all have one thing in common: they demonstrate the collective power and underlying ugliness of fandoms. These fans might feel victimized or betrayed by the content they've intertwined with their own identities, or they may simply feel that they're speaking truth to power. Regardless, by connecting via social media, they can unleash enormous amounts of hate, which often results in severe real-world consequences.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eFandom Is Ugly\u003c\/i\u003e argues that reactionary politics and media fandoms go hand in hand, and to understand one, we need to understand the other. Mel Stanfill pushes back on two mainstream assumptions: that media and the pleasure of consumption are frivolous and unworthy of study, and that fandoms are inherently progressive. Drawing on a corpus of angry social media posts, \u003ci\u003eFandom Is Ugly\u003c\/i\u003e finds that ugly moments happen when deep emotional attachments collide with social structures and situations that have been misunderstood. By holistically examining the forms of ugly fandom in cases that touch upon race, gender, and sexuality, \u003ci\u003eFandom Is Ugly\u003c\/i\u003e produces a comprehensive theory of the negative sides of fan attachments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51627493720337,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51627493982481,"sku":"NIN9781479824960","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51627494211857,"sku":"NGR9781479824960","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51742363648273,"sku":"CIN1479824968G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52620183568657,"sku":"NLS9781479824960","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1479824968.jpg?v=1751085565"},{"product_id":"fandom-is-ugly-book-mel-stanfill-9781479824953","title":"Fandom Is Ugly","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHighlights the importance of considering contemporary public culture through the lens of fan studies\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Gamergate harassment campaign of women in video games, the \"Unite the Right\" rally where hundreds of Confederate monument supporters cried out racist and antisemitic slurs in Charlottesville, and the targeted racist and sexist harassment of \u003ci\u003eStar Wars'\u003c\/i\u003e Asian American actress Kelly Marie Tran all have one thing in common: they demonstrate the collective power and underlying ugliness of fandoms. These fans might feel victimized or betrayed by the content they've intertwined with their own identities, or they may simply feel that they're speaking truth to power. Regardless, by connecting via social media, they can unleash enormous amounts of hate, which often results in severe real-world consequences.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eFandom Is Ugly\u003c\/i\u003e argues that reactionary politics and media fandoms go hand in hand, and to understand one, we need to understand the other. Mel Stanfill pushes back on two mainstream assumptions: that media and the pleasure of consumption are frivolous and unworthy of study, and that fandoms are inherently progressive. Drawing on a corpus of angry social media posts, \u003ci\u003eFandom Is Ugly\u003c\/i\u003e finds that ugly moments happen when deep emotional attachments collide with social structures and situations that have been misunderstood. By holistically examining the forms of ugly fandom in cases that touch upon race, gender, and sexuality, \u003ci\u003eFandom Is Ugly\u003c\/i\u003e produces a comprehensive theory of the negative sides of fan attachments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52620016255249,"sku":"NLS9781479824953","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781479824953.jpg?v=1786614693"},{"product_id":"professor-superstar-book-mel-stanfill-9780472057986","title":"Professor Superstar","description":"\u003cp\u003eExamining celebrity and fan studies together, \u003ci\u003eProfessor Superstar \u003c\/i\u003eargues that academia shares key traits with fandom, including collective emotional investment, shared interpretation of texts, and identity formation. Universities are often seen as isolated from everyday life, creating an atmosphere of both fascination and resentment. Some academics even go on to become field-specific microcelebrities. Some celebrate their influence while others resent their prominence, leading to both fandom and anti-fandom and reflecting broader social struggles as universities become battlegrounds for economic and political debates. The audiences engaging with academia extend beyond the students and faculty directly involved, creating multiple and conflicting interpretations of what academia represents. Public perceptions of academia are shaped less by its reality than by competing narratives about its role in society. By taking these dynamics seriously, we can better understand the cultural forces shaping both admiration and hostility toward higher education.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52653926318353,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52653926711569,"sku":"NGR9780472057986","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780472057986.jpg?v=1782820492"},{"product_id":"professor-superstar-book-mel-stanfill-9780472077984","title":"Professor Superstar","description":"\u003cp\u003eExamining celebrity and fan studies together, \u003ci\u003eProfessor Superstar \u003c\/i\u003eargues that academia shares key traits with fandom, including collective emotional investment, shared interpretation of texts, and identity formation. Universities are often seen as isolated from everyday life, creating an atmosphere of both fascination and resentment. Some academics even go on to become field-specific microcelebrities. Some celebrate their influence while others resent their prominence, leading to both fandom and anti-fandom and reflecting broader social struggles as universities become battlegrounds for economic and political debates. The audiences engaging with academia extend beyond the students and faculty directly involved, creating multiple and conflicting interpretations of what academia represents. Public perceptions of academia are shaped less by its reality than by competing narratives about its role in society. 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