New article published on rec.arts.anime sexism

[Shay Guy]

The journal Internet Histories has published a paper called “Do female anime fans exist?” The impact of women-exclusionary discourses on rec.arts.anime. Given that a number of people here were involved in that scene back in the day, I thought it might be of interest.

Abstract

This paper examines women-exclusionary discourses on the popular anime Usenet newsgroup, rec.arts.anime. By going back to pre-2000 online anime histories, this paper proposes to understand how women-exclusionary discursive practices on rec.arts.anime have contributed to shaping contemporary toxic technocultures’ discursive identities, as it is admitted that forum 4chan originated from online anime fandom. By using a data set of 252 messages related to gender issues posted from 1992 to 1996, I identify 7 discursive practices that I am theorizing here under the name of negative networking: 1. Blaming female anime fans for their lack of visibility; 2. Doubting the authentic interest of women in anime; 3. Mystifying the female anime fan; 4. Harassing female anime fans; 5. Criticizing the association of feminism with anime, both as interpretive practices and as scholarship; 6. Belittling female anime fans’ concerns; and 7. Denying or ignoring the challenges faced by female anime fans. I argue that the impact of these discourses must be understood as determinant in the establishment of the online anime hegemonic fan identity and its prediscourses, especially as they relate to the long-lasting marginalization of women and gender diverse anime fans.

If you don't have a means of accessing the journal, the author, a PhD candidate in film studies named Aurélie Petit, mentioned on Twitter that she'd be willing to hit anyone who wants up with a copy.

[robkelk]

Hoo, boy. Jeanne Hedge must be turning over in her grave.

[hazard]

What do you mean Rob?

[robkelk]

"women-exclusionary discursive practices on rec.arts.anime" -- there weren't any when she and I were regulars there. Nobody cared what your gender or sex was.

[Bob Schroeck]

If she's looking at recent rec.arts.anime, well... UseNet these days is a cesspool. <mourn>

[classicdrogn]

It does say in the quote that the paer is specifically examining pre- turn of the century material. I don't think I'm qualified to comment even though the early to mid 90s were when I was most active in those circles; the closest I generally got to r.a.a.c was alt.toys.transformers and the Superguy mailing list, which had pretty much moved off USENET entirely even then. The strongest memories I have WRT female fans online was Raksha being a BNF, with more pull than was probably objectively warranted given her decided tendency to treating fanfiction and stuff that happened in MUSH RP as if it was canon.

[Bob Schroeck]

It does say in the quote that the paer is specifically examining pre- turn of the century material

Ah, so it does. And I will admit that to the best of my recollection, I only entered online anime fandom circa 1995-6, and went almost directly into the FFML for most of my fan activity.

[robkelk]

Hang on. Hold the phone. I just noticed:

rec.arts.anime , not
rec.arts.anime.misc

Everybody on r.a.a.m stayed away from r.a.a

Never mind.

[Bob Schroeck]

Ooh, good catch. I missed that myself.

[Shay Guy]

Whoops, missed in the author's Twitter thread that she's made the full preprint available.

I notice Helen McCarthy was very pleased with the paper, if her opinion carries any weight.

Hang on. Hold the phone. I just noticed:

rec.arts.anime , not
rec.arts.anime.misc

Everybody on r.a.a.m stayed away from r.a.a

Never mind.

This is mostly from before rec.arts.anime.misc existed. Its creation is discussed at length, and in particular how users treated Stephanie da Silva.