Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Heather Crandall

Abstract

This study takes an autoethnographic approach that uses a piece of fanfiction and the author’s experience as both a fanfiction writer and a professional writer for television, to demonstrate how writing fanfiction and participating in the fanfiction community empowers women to express identity on their own terms and to resist the patriarchal impositions of mainstream media culture. Martin Buber’s dialogic ethics serve as an ethical foundation for comparing and contrasting the fanfiction and mainstream media systems for female writers. Fisher’s (1987) narrative paradigm and Hecht, Warren, Jung, and Krieger’s (2005) communication theory of identity provide a theoretical framework for investigating the benefits of fanfiction as a way for female storytellers to explore themes and issues that are important to them through their creative work and through communicating within the female-driven fanfiction community. This study finds that writing fanfiction is a more effective means of creative freedom and empowerment for women than working within the parameters of the mainstream media’s profit-based economy. Furthermore, though it has traditionally been derided by the mainstream and fanfiction communities alike, writing Mary Sue fanfiction, in which the main character is an idealized version of the author, is an especially effective way for women to use fanfiction to empower themselves creatively, build identity, and resist the stereotypes and patriarchal limitations of the mainstream media.

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