Shipping Disability/Fanfiction: Disrupting Narratives of Fanfiction as Inclusive

Abstract

In this essay I will first give a definition of what fanfiction is within the wider online environment of online participatory cultures, as well examine whether inclusiveness holds up as a defining characteristic when disability is taken into consideration. I then examine how the development of fanfiction as a creative practice and of fanfiction-specific genres, have contributed to the queering of fanfiction spaces and practices Finally I argue that subversion and transgression are not best suited to conceptualize fanfiction, and that instead disruption can generate more apt interrogations. Specifically, disruption allows for us to explore fanfiction as both disrupting heteronormative narratives, gendered and fan behaviour expectations, and as disrupting the notion of the fan as a somehow homogenous construction. This affords disability the possibility of being disruptive in turn.