Fangirl 101: The Fourth Wall

Fandom’s fourth wall is a term that has been thrown around a lot lately, and everyone seems confused about what is it and how and why it gets broken. In theatre the fourth wall is the imaginary wall at the front of the stage. It is the window through which the audience is allowed to glimpse the character’s lives. The fandom fourth wall is a little bit different but follows the same principles. It is the imaginary barrier that divides (and protects) fandom from everyone else.  The key word in both these concepts is imaginary, because boys and girls and everything in between, the fourth wall does not exist.

Fangirl 101: An Idiot’s Guide to Talking About Shipping

I get a lot of questions from all kinds of people outside fandom. They ask a variety of different things but more often than not they want to know about shipping. I’ve already written a basic guide to shipping, slash and fan fiction but that doesn’t seem to be enough because while they understand the general concepts, they still don’t know how to talk about them. In an effort to stop myself from having to have the same conversation over and over again I’m going to give you a simple set of rules to help outsiders navigate the tempestuous waters of the shipping fandom.

Fangirl 101: Fandom and Entitlement

So far most of my fangirl lessons have been all about doing whatever the hell you want with the characters you love; whether it’s shipping, slash or fan fiction. Generally I stand by this sentiment but there is a limit. I think we have the right to play with other people’s characters but that doesn’t mean that TPTB owe it to you to change their narrative to fit your vision. There’s a difference between really wanting something and feeling like you are entitled to it… let’s talk about that shall we.

Fangirl 101: Big Name Fan

There are very few parts of fandom that I am reluctant to talk about but the BNF (Big Name Fan) is not something I’m particularly excited to discuss. I probably would have avoided the topic if it weren’t for the number of questions I’ve received about it (from both inside and outside fandom). Despite my misgivings I’ll do my best to explain this phenomenon just for you lonely reader… don’t ever say I don’t do things for you.

Fangirl 101: Shipping, sexuality and canon

This topic of conversation comes to us from the Supernatural fandom (but it is by no means exclusive to it). For those of you that don’t know in last week’s episode Dean had a gay thing. I would love to spend the next 4 paragraphs discussing the shippie implications of this moment but unfortunately it stirred up another round of the age-old slash fandom argument about sexual orientation and shipping so we’re going to talk about that instead.

Fangirl 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Fan Fiction

Now hopefully you’ve grasped the concepts of shipping and slash… but the question is, what do we do with it? Well here’s where we leave the safety of just watching (and maybe talking about) texts and move into the depths of fandom where it isn’t just about absorbing the vision of powers-that-be but creating your own. That’s right fan fiction is a mystical, magical (and slightly terrifying) world that is usually either feared or ignored… but don’t fret because UndieGirl’s here to help guide your journey from passive to active fandom (sorry I’ll try not to refer to myself in the third person ever again).

Fangirl 101: Queer Baiting vs. Ship Teasing

I wrote a basic and very vague definition of queer baiting a couple of months ago, and while it’s a fair description of the problem it seems that people are more and more throwing the term queerbaiting around when in actual fact what they mean is ship teasing. There is some cross over between the terms of course, but it’s important to remember that ship teasing is not automatically queer baiting when it involves same sex couplings.

Fangirl 101: Queer Baiting

Ok so I’m hoping that by now you all get the general idea about slash. I guess the nicest way to put it would be looking at your fav TV show and not assuming that every character is straight, then if said character happens to have more urst with a member of the same sex you start to ship them (as in together together). That’s when the fun really begins – because in those early stages there is always the possibility that your ship might be the one that becomes (dare I say it) canon.

Fangirl 101: What is GISHWHES?

You know how I usually try to fight the urge to write about fandom as if it is some kind of mystical experience… well GISHWHES can only really be described in this way, so yay. To write it by any other means would be a disservice. Therefore I cannot guarantee that you will come out of this article with any answers – but you might have a weird desire to dance the cueca with a judge wearing a Justin Beiber t-shirt while eating kale.

Enter at your own risk.

Fangirl 101: A beginner’s guide to Slash

Over the past week, after my introduction of the series “Shipping News” I have encountered some trouble with people asking me – what the hell is slash? I mentioned it briefly in my introduction to shipping but it appears I need to add further clarification for those of you that are either not involved with or new to the world of online fandom. 

Fangirl 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Shipping.

If you have ever ventured onto any kind of fan related site – or you have a tumblr – then you might have heard the term ‘Shipping’. If you’re unfortunate enough to know me then I have probably dropped this term into a conversation more often than is healthy. But chances are you had no idea what I am talking about and no, it does not have anything to do with sending products overseas which is why I decided to write this blog because I am sick of having to explain the term to people who don’t spend their time obsessing over fictional characters.