I argue that cyberspace creates a new space for lesbian fans to re-imagine characters of their favorite television shows as lesbians. Such a space did not exist before cyberspace, where at the click of a button those who are interested in the same shows, characters, on-air relationships; could interact, share media and their thoughts. I have chosen to analyze the television show of Glee because it has a large fan base online that are apart of the GLBT community. It is also a show that is mainstream, it airs during "family viewing hours" (before 9pm) and contains controversial story lines often involving the sexuality of their characters. I argue that women who identify as lesbians often use cyberspace as a means to create a safe space in which they can choose to project their sexuality into their favorite characters. This argument is based on my analysis of the official Glee on FOX website, Fanfiction.net and the BFUniversity tumblr page. I chose these websites by googling 'glee on fox', 'fanfiction' and 'brittana tumblr' respectively. The sites I have chosen were either top results--in the case of fanfiction.net and fox.com/glee--or was the only fan page related to my topic as a result--
BFUniversity's tumblr page. This analysis is intended to argue that cyberspace allows lesbian fans a way to create a space in which they can freely re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbians, such a fan-space did not exist before recently.
On my site, each tab (located on the left of the screen) will allow you to move through my research of cyberspace and it's use to lesbian fans in the creation of a fan space that has never been seen before. The first tab or home tab contains a segment about myself and introduction of the class and this project. It also contains a contact form for users to be able to send emails to the editor (myself) and a button to follow my twitter designated for this class.
Beneath the home tab is the proposal tab. Within the proposal tab I better explain what this website is going to explain and the reasoning behind my choice of topic. I will argue that through the use of cyberspace, we are able to create a place to re-imagine our favorite characters on television and that such a place did not exist before recently. I think this is important because there becomes a need for those fans to create their own space containing media that they can better relate to. Many young adults can identify with basic ethinicity, character traits and personality of characters on television, but they often struggle to find one that is of their own sexuality, which is just as important as any other trait that one may possess.
The Introduction tab is third, which will explain the function of each tab and the information that can be found when clicking it.
Next will be the Literature Review tab. I will use the text from class to read about the various theories behind female fan culture, cyberspace, and will review scholarly articles that I will find through the UH Manoa EBSCOhost search engine. I will also research and talk about sexuality, lesbianism and fandom culture within this tab. For this research I will focus on the studies of cyberspace and fan cultures, talked about in the text, LGBT Identity and Online New Media.
The fifth tab will consist of the Background Info and Historical content of all the websites I will use. For this project, I will incorporate the background information of the television show Glee, the history of sexuality and lesbianism and the history of fan culture. They will help me provide the context for my argument that cyberspace allows lesbian women the chance to create a space where they can re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbians. I plan to include books such as The Cybercultures Reader and articles from the Glee on FOX website.
There will be three tabs next, which will cover the Website Analysis-Evidence portion of my project. There will be a tab for fanfiction.net. I found fanfiction.net through a google search on 'fanfiction', it is the top hit on the google search engine and was chosen for that reason. When navigating fanfiction.net, it has it's own search bar wherein a person can type the television show/movie/book of their choosing and writers who use characters from such specific places will have them tagged, a system similar to that of tumblr and twitter. These works of online literary fiction seeks out like-minded individuals who wish to explore their favorite characters in settings apart from the ones seen on television. The audience mostly consists of other fandom members. The second Website Analysis Tab will be dedicated to bfuniversity.tumblr.com. This website can be found by googling 'brittana tumblr', it is one of the top ten hits on the search engine, and only listed fan page. Tumblr, like fanfiction.net, has a tagging system, by which users can search specific tags that fit their liking. The bfuniversity tumblr page is a large part of the brittana fanbase containing reflections about episodes, news about character story lines and includes a place for those of the fandom to submit/ask questions or other works related to the character pairing brittana of Glee. The last tab for Website Analysis is the fox.com/glee website, which is the official Glee webpage created on their network site fox.com. I chose this website because it is a Glee on Fox affiliated webpage and those who watch Glee would most likely filter through this page for information regarding the show. I found this website by googling 'glee on fox' and it is the first link to show on the results page. I plan to use images such as Brittany & Santana's valentine's day kiss from BFUniversity's site as well as the season 3 promotional slushie image from the Glee on FOX page. This will support my argument that cyberspace allows lesbian women the chance to re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbian. I also plan to use the quote from Naya Rivera on "supportive fan base" to support my argument that lesbian women use cyberspace like never before to re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbian. I plan to use MLA citation format.
Last tab of all will be the Conclusion page. In this section I plan to summarize my findings and (if necessary) my recommendation of further research into the study. I will include here all necessary citations used throughout this website in MLA format. I will reintroduce my argument about how there has never been a way for lesbian fans to create a place in cyberspace for them to re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbian, before recently.
BFUniversity's tumblr page. This analysis is intended to argue that cyberspace allows lesbian fans a way to create a space in which they can freely re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbians, such a fan-space did not exist before recently.
On my site, each tab (located on the left of the screen) will allow you to move through my research of cyberspace and it's use to lesbian fans in the creation of a fan space that has never been seen before. The first tab or home tab contains a segment about myself and introduction of the class and this project. It also contains a contact form for users to be able to send emails to the editor (myself) and a button to follow my twitter designated for this class.
Beneath the home tab is the proposal tab. Within the proposal tab I better explain what this website is going to explain and the reasoning behind my choice of topic. I will argue that through the use of cyberspace, we are able to create a place to re-imagine our favorite characters on television and that such a place did not exist before recently. I think this is important because there becomes a need for those fans to create their own space containing media that they can better relate to. Many young adults can identify with basic ethinicity, character traits and personality of characters on television, but they often struggle to find one that is of their own sexuality, which is just as important as any other trait that one may possess.
The Introduction tab is third, which will explain the function of each tab and the information that can be found when clicking it.
Next will be the Literature Review tab. I will use the text from class to read about the various theories behind female fan culture, cyberspace, and will review scholarly articles that I will find through the UH Manoa EBSCOhost search engine. I will also research and talk about sexuality, lesbianism and fandom culture within this tab. For this research I will focus on the studies of cyberspace and fan cultures, talked about in the text, LGBT Identity and Online New Media.
The fifth tab will consist of the Background Info and Historical content of all the websites I will use. For this project, I will incorporate the background information of the television show Glee, the history of sexuality and lesbianism and the history of fan culture. They will help me provide the context for my argument that cyberspace allows lesbian women the chance to create a space where they can re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbians. I plan to include books such as The Cybercultures Reader and articles from the Glee on FOX website.
There will be three tabs next, which will cover the Website Analysis-Evidence portion of my project. There will be a tab for fanfiction.net. I found fanfiction.net through a google search on 'fanfiction', it is the top hit on the google search engine and was chosen for that reason. When navigating fanfiction.net, it has it's own search bar wherein a person can type the television show/movie/book of their choosing and writers who use characters from such specific places will have them tagged, a system similar to that of tumblr and twitter. These works of online literary fiction seeks out like-minded individuals who wish to explore their favorite characters in settings apart from the ones seen on television. The audience mostly consists of other fandom members. The second Website Analysis Tab will be dedicated to bfuniversity.tumblr.com. This website can be found by googling 'brittana tumblr', it is one of the top ten hits on the search engine, and only listed fan page. Tumblr, like fanfiction.net, has a tagging system, by which users can search specific tags that fit their liking. The bfuniversity tumblr page is a large part of the brittana fanbase containing reflections about episodes, news about character story lines and includes a place for those of the fandom to submit/ask questions or other works related to the character pairing brittana of Glee. The last tab for Website Analysis is the fox.com/glee website, which is the official Glee webpage created on their network site fox.com. I chose this website because it is a Glee on Fox affiliated webpage and those who watch Glee would most likely filter through this page for information regarding the show. I found this website by googling 'glee on fox' and it is the first link to show on the results page. I plan to use images such as Brittany & Santana's valentine's day kiss from BFUniversity's site as well as the season 3 promotional slushie image from the Glee on FOX page. This will support my argument that cyberspace allows lesbian women the chance to re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbian. I also plan to use the quote from Naya Rivera on "supportive fan base" to support my argument that lesbian women use cyberspace like never before to re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbian. I plan to use MLA citation format.
Last tab of all will be the Conclusion page. In this section I plan to summarize my findings and (if necessary) my recommendation of further research into the study. I will include here all necessary citations used throughout this website in MLA format. I will reintroduce my argument about how there has never been a way for lesbian fans to create a place in cyberspace for them to re-imagine their favorite characters as lesbian, before recently.