Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

'Fans are Going to See it Any Way They Want': The Rhetorics of the Voltron: Legendary Defender Fandom

Drouin, Renee Ann
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1616713288586229

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD.
The following dissertation explores the rhetorics of a contentious online fan community, the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom. The fandom is known for its diversity, as most in the fandom were either queer and/or female. Primarily, however, the fandom was infamous for a subsection of fans, antis, who performed online harassment, including blackmailing, stalking, sending death threats and child porn to other fans, and abusing the cast and crew. Their motivation was primarily shipping, the act of wanting two characters to enter a romantic relationship. Those who opposed their chosen ship were targets of harassment, despite their shared identity markers of female and/or queer. Inspired by ethnographically and autoethnography informed methods, I performed a survey of the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom about their experiences with harassment and their feelings over the show’s universally panned conclusion. In implementing my research, I prioritized only using data given to me, a form of ethical consideration on how to best represent the trauma of others. Unfortunately, in performing this research, I became a target of harassment and altered my research trajectory. In response, I collected the various threats against me and used them to analyze online fandom harassment and the motivations of antis. The primary patterns from the participants in my survey demonstrate a community that was heavily influenced by online harassment from a vocal minority and attacked in both physical and digital spaces, facing slurs, doxxing, death threats, and, primarily, accusations of supporting child pedophilia and incest, as antis falsely claimed characters non-antis favored were related or underage. Further complicating fans’ trauma was the show’s ending, in which the woman of color lead was killed, and the queer character marginalized, resulting in a community left questioning if their harassment was worth the levels of trauma from both antis and the show itself. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of what online harassment looks like, how identity markers shape the rhetorics behind harassment, and what future studies are necessary to better address such harassment. Additionally, through my experiences with harassment, I option several steps future researchers should consider when performing, teaching, and planning research methodologies.
Lee Nickoson, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Baird Neil, Dr. (Committee Member)
Miller Montana, Dr. (Committee Member)
Elwazani Salim, Dr. (Other)
207 p.
Rhetoric
online harassment; Voltron Legendary Defender; rhetoric and gender; anti fans; fandom; fandom harassment

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Drouin, R. A. (2021). 'Fans are Going to See it Any Way They Want': The Rhetorics of the Voltron: Legendary Defender Fandom [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1616713288586229

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Drouin, Renee. 'Fans are Going to See it Any Way They Want': The Rhetorics of the Voltron: Legendary Defender Fandom. 2021. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1616713288586229.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Drouin, Renee. "'Fans are Going to See it Any Way They Want': The Rhetorics of the Voltron: Legendary Defender Fandom." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1616713288586229

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1616713288586229
4,394
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.