Border to Reality: The Fan Identity at Film and Comic Conventions

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The Fan Identity at Film and Comic Conventions

Eline Homburg 10761055

September 3rd_{, 2018}

University of Amsterdam MA Thesis Media Studies Emiel Martens, Erik Laeven

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Abstract

Warner Bros. recently banished fan conventions, fearing ‘unauthorized commercial use’ of their characters. In this thesis I argue that fans attend the convention in order to connect the imagined with the real, mainly through the perspective of film tourism by analysing the motivation of fans and their psychology, as previously done by Waysdorf. Jenkins stated fans can be actively engaging with their favourite franchises. These participatory fans actively show their fan identity through cosplay, much like Butler’s gender performativity, where a hidden aspect of a personality can be inscribed on the body. Cosplay as a performance of fan identity functions as a statement to other fans, allowing the imagined fan community, as defined by Anderson, to change into a temporary physical

community, since fans are able to meet other fans, signified through costume. These concepts lie at the core of the experience of the convention, used by fans to get closer to the fictional narrative worlds, blurring the border between fiction and reality. In order to prove this, participatory observation was combined with an online survey aimed at Dutch convention attendees and

cosplayers worldwide. Analysing this survey and the convention attendance through the perspective of ethnography, I found three modes of participating fans: consuming fans, social fans, and

performative fans, although these categories are interchangeable, since the experience of the convention is unique and based on the personal fan identity.

Keywords: Participatory culture, imagined communities, film and comic convention, performance of identity, fan cultures, cosplay, film tourism, ethnography

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Introduction

It was mid-June 2018 when I read in a news article that producing studio Warner Bros. sent out several letters to organizers of Harry Potter fan events in America. Not just any encouraging letter, quite the contrary: Warner Bros. indirectly declared the fictional world of the famous wizard their intellectual property by forbidding the organization of several unofficial fan events throughout the country. Any use of the name Harry Potter, its characters, locations, and even narrative practices (such as ceremonies and diegetic games) in any fan event, ranging from themed birthday parties to organized festivals, has been prohibited. This new measurement, aimed to control unauthorized commercial activity, will directly affect any fan gathering providing a platform for Harry Potter fans to immerse themselves in the narrative wizarding world, while simultaneously creating a social space where fans are able to meet each other. Even though there are ‘official’ locations linked to the Potter-franchise, like the Studio Tour in London, and Universal Studios’ theme park in Florida, it must be taken into account that the fan gathering is a local event, with a higher accessibility and generally cheaper than its official counterpart. The aforementioned news article reported that a Philadelphia fan event, attracting 50,000 visitors last year, was summoned to shut down. Activities offered by the festival included classes on subjects from Hogwarts, and a meet-and-greet with characters

Dumbledore and Harry. Fans were able to attend the festival in their Hogwarts robes and other Harry Potter related clothing. Another festival that was cancelled offered a Quidditch tournament in which fans were able to participate and compete, also while being dressed in the style of the franchise.

Fan practices such as the above regularly raise questions by outsiders. The public opinion frowns upon these fanatic film fans, questioning not only their choice of dress, but also their fanatism in attending fan events. More than once I have heard the question: “Why on Earth would you pretend to be someone who does not exist?” This specific question made me curious to further investigate the motives of individual fans to actively participate in fan cultures through attending fan events. I have decided to study the fan convention, because this is a relatively ignored phenomenon within fan studies. Early studies seem to focus on the digital expression of fan cultures, mainly through fan-fiction, even though more recently the field of film tourism has emerged to study film fans who travel to specific film related locations. Even though the fan event and its costumes have been studied before, it has mainly been through an Asian perspective. With this thesis I intend to expand the field of ‘offline’ fan cultures, and create an interdisciplinary study connecting fan studies with film studies, fashion studies, gender studies and even tourism studies.

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Since there are many conventions organized each year, with names varying from Comic Con, Film and Comic Con, Entertainment Expo and several franchise-specific conventions, I will refer to the event in general as ‘the convention’. As might be visible from the different names, the target audience of the convention is a rather broad one, including all visual media entertainment, ranging from comic books to Japanese anime series. To limit the scope of my research, I want to focus on participatory fans who attend the convention in cosplays based on western pop culture. I was able to reach a worldwide audience with a case survey, and I chose to perform an additional participatory observation at two Dutch conventions, compared to a description of San Diego Comic Con. The Dutch convention is both relatively new and yet unstudied, and the American convention proved to be the blueprint for conventions worldwide. The data from the survey showed the convention is not just a film-related event attended by great numbers of people in costumes, even more so, it is an event that is used by the active fan by acting upon the three cornerstones of the fan’s motivation: interaction,

consumption and performativity. By providing the possibility for fans to actively engage with their favourite fan cultures, I found the convention is a product of a counter-spatial turn, used to blur the border between fiction and reality, the imagined and the real. The unreachable stars from worldwide franchises can be met as real persons, fictional worlds can be brought to reality through the

popularity of merchandise and above all, the convention allows the fan to fully immerse themselves in the fictional world by pretending to be a fictional character through cosplay. However, the convention only provides the environment for these activities, it is the active fan who is the core of the convention; the border to reality cannot be blurred without their participation, the imagined cannot become physical and the fan identity will remain invisible. According to fans, the convention is an experience, and every experience is different. The modes through which they experience the convention and its possibilities are equal to the cornerstones of the fan’s desires, but they are interchangeable and overlapping. In this thesis I will try to uncover the process of the performance of the fan identity at conventions by questioning the motives of fans who choose to actively attend conventions.

Positioning this research in a single scientific field would be complicated. The idea that fans actively participate in fan culture refers back to the participatory fan culture as described by Henry Jenkins (1992, 2006). In his work, the active fan behaves as a poacher, using elements from a media text to create a new media text based on the original. While I have read several other scholars, Jenkins’ perspective on the participatory culture is the starting point of my research, much like being a participatory or active fan is almost a prerequisite of becoming a convention attendee; it functions as a basis for all other practices mentioned in this research. By stating one can ‘be an active fan’, I want to argue that fans have a fan identity. This identity is a part of their being, which they can visibly show on different levels, ranging from home décor to costumes at a convention. This phenomenon

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can be labelled as a performance of identity, much like gender is constructed and performed according to Judith Butler (1988, 2011). Cosplayers have been the subject of scientific research before, mainly in the fields of gender studies and fashion studies, emphasizing how cosplay shows the gender queer (Gn, 2011) and how cosplay signifies a temporal escape from reality, as studied in Hong Kong (Rahman et al., 2012). Cosplayers have even been studied through the perspective of

performance of identity (Lamerichs, 2011). However, the focus has mainly been on cosplay as an Asian subculture, where the studies focus either on cosplayers located in Asia, or on cosplayers of Asian media such as anime and manga. Furthermore, I would argue that the fan practice of cosplaying is partially related to film tourism because of the financial component, but the practice would not properly connect to actual tourism. The convention as an event itself can be seen as proper film tourism or film induced tourism. As Tomala and Faber (2011), and more recently

Waysdorf and Reijnders (2016), have argued, film tourism is the way audiences actively and physically engage with the imagined world of specific film franchises, through visiting locations which are of importance to said franchise. In this context can be thought of filming locations, but also film associated locations such as film festivals and theme parks (Connell, 2012:1010). I want to apply the same perspective to the convention, examining this event as an exclusive, film-related location, of which the connection with different films and series triggers fans to attend the convention. The three theories as described above are the cornerstones of the presence of the active fan at the convention, in which film tourism equals the consumption of fan culture through visiting the convention and the practice of buying film-related merchandise, both actions of the active fan. Claiming this would produce a counter-spatial turn requires an understanding of the spatial turn, an interdisciplinary concept, but thoroughly studied in cinema studies. The spatial turn of cinema covers the loss of the physical experience of cinema-going, including social aspects (Allen 2011), with cinema evolving into the digital age with a constructed social site of cinema-going (Van de Vijver 2017).

If the active fan is always aiming to connect the real with the imagined, social interaction cannot be ignored. When the fan chooses to perform their fan identity through costume, this inevitably has a consequence. Walking around like Darth Vader will most certainly attract numerous Star Wars fans for photos and small talk, which underlines the interactive nature of the participatory culture. This social aspect ties in with another interdisciplinary concept: the imagined community by Benedict Anderson (1983). The imagined community can be defined as a group that shares a

common interest, and thus feel connected, sometimes surpassing national borders. Even though the concept has been mainly discussed through its original geographical context, there have been several adaptations of the concept concerning fan studies. Lechner (2007) has analysed the Dutch soccer supporters in relation to the existence of an imagined community. In addition to this, I encountered the concept of the imagined community for the first time in a book discussing the development of fan

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cultures and its studies by Grey, Sandvoss and Harrington (2017). A worldwide fan culture of a film franchise such as Game of Thrones can also be called an imagined community, since the fans share their interest with other fans, without knowing who they are and where they might be located. The convention, however, is able to facilitate a change from this imagined fan community into a

(temporal) physical fan community, by allowing fans to meet up with others and creating space in their floor plan and schedule to allow for the performance of the fan identity. I will further explore the aforementioned concepts and their relationships in the first chapter.

In the second chapter I will reinforce my claim of fans using the convention to connect the fictional with the actual, by exploring the motivations and thoughts of fans who attend fan

conventions in costume. I started with performing a participatory observation of cosplayers at the two largest Dutch conventions: Comic Con Ahoy and Dutch Comic Con. In order to test the credibility of seeing the convention as a border to reality, where fan identity is displayed through costume, I created an online case survey, aimed at cosplayers who attend conventions worldwide. I specifically chose to involve a worldwide audience, since the Dutch convention is based on an American example, and based on the idea of the imagined community, hypothetically the cosplay community should have shared values and expectations. Next to that, I wanted to paint a broad and diverse image of ‘the cosplayer’. I spread the survey through Facebook groups, dedicated to the costumes of Western pop culture franchises (Lord of the Rings, Disney, Broadway theatre, Crimson Peak, Outlander) and its cosplayers, and through Instagram. The Facebook group CosplayNL provided me with many Dutch respondents with vastly different fandoms, including anime series and several game franchises. I also asked respondents to spread the survey to others that might be out of my reach, in order to create a set of data that would define the Western cosplayer through their motivations and their desires. In the questionnaire I included questions about each of the topics discussed in the prior chapter. 440 individuals filled in this survey, which was divided into three parts: Fan Cultures and Fan Identity, Cosplaying, and Conventions. To extract this data in a suitable way for this survey, I decided upon performing a repertoire analysis, as previously done by Hermes (1995) and Wetherell and Potter (1988). The latter described their method as follows:

Our coding policy at this stage of discourse analysis is usually an inclusive one, accepting all borderline and anomalous cases, and the end product is a file of photocopies of the original transcript. It is at this point that analysis proper begins, with careful repeated readings of the materials in a search for patterns and recurring organizations. This process is not a matter of following rules and recipes; it often involves following up hunches and the development of tentative interpretative schemes which may need to be abandoned and revised over and over again. Discourse analysis is a time consuming and laborious business, with the search for

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regular pattern giving way to the formation of hypotheses about that pattern of repertoire use. (177-178)

Even though I used the analytic method of a discourse analysis, this method did not reveal separate discourses. The search for patterns in given answers lead to a confirmation of the cornerstones of the cosplaying fans’ identity – social, consumption and performance. The three cornerstones cooperate in creating possibilities for fans to let the fictional connect with the real, and the survey provided me with patterns that prove the co-existence of these core activities. In her research, Waysdorf calls these ‘modes’, since they are ‘different mindsets the participant can move between’ (2017: 85). Since I had done a participatory observation attending both Dutch conventions, I opted for an ethnographic description of the cosplay community, when needed amplified with the patterns I found when initially searching for the different repertoires. Willis and Trondman describe the importance of ethnography as follows:

“Ethnography will insist on the ethnographic recording of lived experience within the social but also explore and present cultural questions around how it comes to be that many of the social agents act finally, against their own interests, at least understood as future objective life chances: the study of how the autonomy of culture is practically engaged, as well as eroded or disengaged, in concrete sites of human endeavour.” (2000: 10)

As mentioned before, through all 440 survey respondents the three different core activities of the participatory fan could be distinguished. These desires and activities shape fans’ motivations and reasoning behind their choice to cosplay at conventions. It indicates the preferred method of

connecting the fictional with the real, or transforming the imagined into the physical. The most visible distinction can be seen between performative fans, social fans, and consuming fans, which equates to cosplaying, interacting with fans and actors, and engaging with merchandise. These trends, however, are not strictly separated. In this field of participatory fan cultures, I found motivations to be

influenced by all three modes. This means an individual could have a social fan identity at the convention, but at the same time could be placed amongst performative fans regarding their cosplay choices. Almost the same as how one can be sorted in both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff on Pottermore (an official fan site based on the writings of J.K. Rowling).

Amongst all scholars who wrote about either active fan cultures, conventions or cosplayers, it is noticeable how a majority of them are writing from an insider’s perspective. Lamerichs (2011) wrote about the anime convention in The Netherlands, and completed her work with a set of pictures of herself at the convention. Gunnels (2009) experienced an edition of New York Comic Con and very clearly wrote about how she engaged with the Star Wars fan culture the convention was able to offer

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her, and how she experienced the amount of different cosplayers. Rahman et al. (2012) participated in a local convention in costume in order to complete their research with interviews, but they only did so, because one member of the research team had attended conventions before and thus was familiar with the scene and the community. Even the field of active fan studies itself has been structured and researched by scholars who claim to be fans themselves; the first line in the book of Jenkins (2012) is “My name is Henry, and I am a fan”. It is a debatable claim, acknowledged by Jenkins himself, and further analysed by Hills (2002), who also clearly identifies as a fan. In the early 1990s Jenkins named these scholars Aca/Fen, a subtraction of ‘academic’ and ‘fen’, the plural of ‘fan’, and fan researchers. In the early 2000s Hills renamed them ‘scholar-fan’, or ‘scholar’. Being a fan-scholar brings both pros and cons. In his analysis of the identity and position of the fan-fan-scholar, Jenkins focuses on the major advantage of this position:

“[…] aca-fen, as I like to call them; that is, people who are both academics and fans, for whom those identities are not problematic to mix and combine, and who are able then to write in a more open way about their experience of fandom without the “obligation of defensiveness”, without the need to defend the community. Therefore they can take up things like

contradictions within it, disputes within it, re-raise awkward subjects that we papered over in our earlier accounts, and now there’s a freedom to have real debate among ourselves about some of these core issues.” (Jenkins 2006: 12)

Applying this advantage of the scholar-fan to the active fan community, it seems apparent that the ones writing with the insider’s perspective as a starting point, are able to analyse these fan practices in such a unique way, that it can make for new theories and connections. Fans who write articles on their part of their fan culture, whether it is costuming or writing fan-fiction, they usually do so in order to gain attention in a positive way, by providing insight into the functioning of that aspect of the fan culture. Although the fan might gain attention through this insight, there is no guarantee that this fan will also gain understanding in the functioning of the fan culture. It is not uncommon for

academic writers to state a certain connection to the research topic, which may be accompanied by a participatory research method to underline this connection. It then becomes easier for the academic writer to analyse one’s own thought process, to step back and see how it all connects, where it falters and which theories might apply to their practices. This is particularly visible in how Rahman et al., Gunnels and Lamerichs wrote their articles on the convention. Their experiences lead their

researches, however, at times I feel like these experiences overshadow the actual research, as if the scholar as a fan is overall more important than the analysis and new theory they present.

This is exactly what Hills names as the major disadvantage of claiming to be both a scholar and a fan. His work herein follows the notion of Jenkins’ aca-fan, but creates a much more complex

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context of these fan-scholars by acknowledging the advantages Jenkins mentioned, but responding with a negative connotation. Hills agrees that the academic and the fan have a special relationship in which the academic rarely equals the fan in terms of status. Whereas Jenkins sees this as an

advantage for the academic world, where the fan identity can elevate the status of the academic by providing a new angle, Hills fears a downfall of the academic status when this is linked to the fan identity in terms of intelligence. If an academic claims to be a fan, their reliability is immediately questioned, positioning the fan on a lower intelligence level than the academic. Hills references Frith:

“[M]y conclusion is that ‘popular culture’ just isn’t a political site. It is, indeed, a fantasy land, but the fantasies are those projected onto it by (male) intellectuals themselves: intellectuals longing, daring, fearing to transgress; intellectuals wondering what it would be not to be an intellectual.” (Frith, quoted in Hills 2002: introduction).

Popular culture is seen as a fantasy world, where anyone can be whoever they want, and Frith seems to emphasize the loss of intelligence as a thriving factor of this fantasy world. In fact, I would say this specific notion of escapism in popular culture is the one that lies at the very core of cosplaying fans. However, this loss of intelligence, and thus indirectly reliability, causes Jenkins to clarify both that he identifies as a fan, and that he clearly writes his books from the perspective of the academic. As do all scholars, Jenkins needs to maintain his academic reliability by keeping to his ‘academic subjectivity’, as Hills names it.

“The scholar-fan must still conform to the regulative ideal of the rational academic subject, being careful not to present too much of their enthusiasm while tailoring their accounts of fan interest and investment to the norms of ‘confessional’ (but not overly confessional) academic writing.” (Hills 2002: introduction)

In this he questions the notion of ‘imagined subjectivity’, which covers the attitude of the academic in regard to the research object. Even though the scholar has researched the object through to the tiniest detail, he is supposed to describe this research from a certain distance, almost hovering above it. He should be able to point out flaws, much like Jenkins said the fan-scholar is able to dissociate from their passion to critically analyse the practices. However, Hills sees this as a negative aspect, critically analysing where the scholar should show their fan identity and how that should differ from the scholarly perspective of academic practice. In this he mainly points at the use of speech:

“Do we ever think of our everyday speech and writing as some homogeneous thing called ‘ordinary language’, against which heroically transcendent ‘theory’ can be positioned? ‘Ordinary language’ constructs a moral dualism between forms of knowledge so that the

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‘ordinary expertise’ of fans can never be the same as the ‘theoretical expertise’ of academics.” (Hills 2002: introduction)

For the fan-scholar, it seems easy to be led by this ordinary expertise. It can be disguised as

participatory research, but in the end the scholar is making a thorough analysis of this ordinary fan expertise. This affects, as Hills argues, the speech pattern of the scholar, degrading the theoretical expertise by losing the intellect that should guarantee the imagined subjectivity of the scholar.

“Any and all attempts at hybridising and combining ‘fan’ and ‘academic’ identities/subjectivities must therefore remain sensitive to those institutional contexts which disqualify certain ways of speaking and certain ways of presenting the self.” (Hills 2002: introduction)

This further emphasizes the distinction between the fan and the academic, and by labelling the two as ‘identities’, this directly leads back to the topic of this research. Much in the way the fan identity can be presented through costume, both of these identities can be presented through speech. The scholar will adapt the style appropriate for the occasion, in academic books and papers framed through ‘imagined subjectivity’. Subjectivity in the context of the academic might sound

contradictory, but as Hills defines, imagined subjectivity is simply a type of subjectivity, and amongst scholars widely accepted as objectivity, basically the subjectivity of the academic. This means

showing the fan identity is not approved of in academic work, since it will colour the work in favour of the fan instead of the scholar. The fan identity might have advantages in discovering new angles for the research, as previously argued by Jenkins, but the loss of academic integrity will overshadow these advantages.

Where do I position myself then? I will not deny the personal importance of Jenkins and Hills openly stating their fan identity, nor will I deny I have chosen this particular subject because of a personal experience. Just like Hills, I felt a sense of belonging when Jenkins claimed to write from an academic perspective with a fan background. I recognized myself in the work of Hills when he said he had ended up in the field of film studies because he had always actively been part of his fan cultures, despite not yet knowing it had an academic label. However, I also recognized my own experience in reading other subjects on the topic, especially the articles concerning the participatory observation at conventions, which became more like personal reports of the event linked with an academic theory, solely because the writers had made it very clear they went to the event. Although I do have prior experience in the field of my research, namely the convention, I would like to make a very clear statement that I am in fact writing this thesis from the perspective of the academic. I do admit to have been led by my own fan identity in choosing this particular research object, since I believe one should know and understand the convention and its surrounding fan cultures in order to study the

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phenomenon. This is in line with the definition of ethnography, where the researcher has taken part in the community before processing this in an academic research paper. However, my prior

experience of attending the convention has nothing to do with this particular research, and although I have performed a participatory research of the Dutch convention, I would like to stress that I have analysed this event more like a ‘fly on the wall’ rather than having constructed a personal report of the event. My personal opinion on the event and the participatory fan has been left out of this analysis, in order to enable me to create an objective and academic analysis of the convention and its attendees, as would be expected from the scholar.

In short, I have embraced the identity of fan-scholar before performing the research, but I abandoned the duality of this identity during the research. Most interestingly I received similar feedback from a significant number of the respondents, who thanked me for sending them the survey, because it allowed them to step back from their fan identity, in order to analyse their own thinking patterns and habits in their participatory fan cultures.

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Chapter 1 – A Theory of Everything

Fans are not unknown to our modern society. I daresay every human being spends time doing something they love. Whether it is football, royalty, a certain band or a film, fans are everywhere. Yet it is socially accepted (not necessarily approved) for one attend a metal concert in black band shirts, to transform oneself with face paint and specific clothing to represent nationalism during

international football games or the birth of a new English prince, but it is frowned upon when a film fan dresses according to their favourites. These practices are located in a socially grey area, where fans are called weird, nerds and geeks, yet the practices of the Marvel fan are no different from the rugby fan. In a song from 1965 Dutch comedian Corry Vonk sang about fans of the royal family (“Met Mijn Vlaggetje, Mijn Hoedje, en Mijn Toeter”). She performed the song in an orange dress, the colour associated with Dutch royalty, and sang in a first-person perspective about the practices of these fans. In the song Vonk described how fans are ever present, visually and verbally, addressed their supposed madness in relation to their dress and active engagement, and stated the royal family would have no future if it were not for their fans (Dutch lyrics added in appendix 2.1; translated lyrics added in appendix 2.2). Striking about this song is the actuality in the description of the active fan, especially since the lyrics were written five years before the first convention was organized in America. If this is a question and a practice that has been around for over fifty years, it is time to gain some insight into the workings of the active fan culture.

1.1 Film fans

In order to gain this insight, the first question that could be asked might be “what is a (film) fan?" Simply put, a person who identifies as a fan, generally likes the films and series they watch. Jenkins (2012) gives a thorough definition of ‘fan’:

“Fan” is an abbreviated form of the word “fanatic”, which has its roots in the Latin word “fanaticus”. In its most literal sense, “fanaticus” simply meant “of or belonging to the temple, a temple servant, a devotee”, but it quickly assumed more negative connotations, “of persons inspired by orgiastic rites and enthusiastic frenzy” (Oxford Latin Dictionary). As it evolved, the term “fanatic” moved from a reference to certain excessive forms of religious belief and worship to any “excessive and mistaken enthusiasm”, often evoked in criticism to opposing political beliefs, and then, more generally, to madness “such as might result from possession by a deity or demon” (Oxford English Dictionary). Its abbreviated form, “fan”, first appeared in the late 19th_{century in journalistic accounts describing followers of professional sports teams}

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[…] at a time when sport moved from a predominantly participant activity to a spectator event, but soon was expanded to incorporate any faithful “devotee” of sports or commercial entertainment. (Jenkins 2012: 12)

A contemporary stereotypical discourse of fans can be sketched based on a convention appearance of Star Trek star William Shatner. Jenkins comprised a list of stereotypical behaviour, amongst which he lists them as being “brainless consumers who will buy anything associated with the program or its cast”, “devoting their lives to the cultivation of worthless knowledge”, being “social misfits who have become so obsessed with a show that it forecloses other types of social experience”, being

“feminized and/or desexualized through their intimate engagement with mass culture”, being “infantile, emotionally and intellectually immature”, and being “unable to separate fantasy from reality” (Jenkins 2012: 10). However, over time, the film industry seems to have learned that the fan, despite its negative connotations, is merely necessary for the success of the current industry (see Shefrin 2004). Fans are a specific audience, armed with knowledge about the franchise that does not only make them personally invested in that franchise, but might also turn them into the harshest critics. Shrefrin describes how Peter Jackson closely collaborated with fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien when adapting the story for his film trilogy. This did not only make sure fans’ expectations were met, it also guaranteed an invested audience when the film premiered. An invested audience generally equals fans of a franchise, which have become irreplaceable in

Hollywood marketing. On the one hand, there is an economic necessity for fans, which could mean fans buy copies of films and series to re-watch them if they feel like it; this might evolve into the ‘brainless consumer’, who would buy special editions of films, simply because that version includes audio commentary the first version did not include. On the other hand, fans can become more actively engaged in their fan culture. Jenkins has called this ‘participatory culture’ in his works:

“Like cultural scavenger, fans reclaim works that others regard as “worthless” trash, finding them a source of popular capital. Like rebellious children, fans refuse to read by the rules imposed upon them by the schoolmasters. For the fan, reading becomes a kind of play, responsive only to its own loosely structured rules and generating its own kinds of pleasure.” (Jenkins 2012: 39).

When this book was published, active, “poaching” fans were acknowledged as a different type of fan. In this active, participatory fan culture, fans create new content within the framework of existing material. Researchers have until now mainly focused on the creation of fan fiction and fan art, and more recently on the role of social media in participatory fan cultures (Jenkins 2006; Barton and Lampley 2013; Hellekson and Busse 2006). Another layer of fan culture can be found in the fact that

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these writers and artists gain a fanbase of their own. The cosplaying fans being fans of a certain franchise can thus result in another dimension of fans, even resulting in fan art being created based on other fan art. Participatory culture, however, can not only be found in fan fiction and fan art, which literally contain the word ‘fan’ to underline the importance of the participating fan, but also in creators of soundtrack medleys, covers and remixes, or in fans engaging in fandom specific pages and profiles on social media, or the creators and participants of entire fan made movies. Even more so, active fans can be found at any local comic convention.

1.2 Convention

The one place where theories and fans all come together is the fan convention; the convention or con in short. Worldwide conventions have so many names, ranging from Entertainment Expo to Film and Comic Con, that I will refer to the convention as a general event. This is because all conventions seem to follow a certain unwritten guideline in its floorplan and offered activities.

The convention came into existence in 1970 as a small comic book (and other popular culture objects) convention in San Diego, California. There have been little to no records of fan gatherings or active fandom before the 1970s. Since then, this particular convention has substantially grown and now aims to be a place where fans can come together, featuring “a dealers’ room, programs and panels, film screenings, and more, essentially, the model for every comic book convention to follow.” (website SDCC). Additionally, Dutch Comic Con even features a ‘Game Floor’, where convention attendees are able to get sneak peaks of upcoming games and have the possibility of participating in gaming tournaments.

Currently the largest convention focusing on contemporary pop-culture, the website of SDCC elaborates on the size of the convention and how the convention can be classified as a film festival. This convention does not only focus on providing a platform for active fans, but also hosts workshops, film screenings and several competitions. The website also gives a short description of their target audience, proving it is a rather broad one:

“Comic-Con has presented literally thousands of special guests at its conventions over the years, bringing comics creators, science fiction and fantasy authors, film and television directors, producers, and writers, and creators from all aspects of the popular arts together with their fans for a fun and often times candid discussion of various art forms. The event has seen an amazing array of comics and book publishers in its Exhibit Hall over the years. Over its four-and-a-half decade-plus history, Comic-Con International has continually presented comic books and comic art to a growing audience. That love of the comics medium continues

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to be its guiding factor as the event moves toward its second half-century as the premier comic book and popular arts style convention in the world.” (website SDCC)

Even though SDCC claims the medium of the comic book is the guiding factor in the event, the importance of television and film pop culture cannot be underestimated. Special guests attending the convention are often, if not always, known for their roles in contemporary pop culture. Examples of this pop culture include Game of Thrones, Vikings, Harry Potter, Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The presence of the latter and its counterpart DC embody the comics in this current cinema oriented pop culture.

The statements on the website of SDCC imply the convention is resting on three pillars: special guests, merchandise, and participatory (cosplaying) fans. These pillars have become the model on which nearly all conventions have been shaped like. These aspects are even more visible in the smaller conventions organized in The Netherlands, DCC and ACC, organized respectively by Heroes and Comic Con Europe GmbH. In my participatory observation regarding the convention, I found these conventions have a large room with dealers of licensed and unlicensed merchandise, collectibles and replicas, space for their special guests, and a stage for both interviews with the special guests and contests for the cosplaying fans. Guest actors are available all day for autographs, and fans have the opportunity to purchase a photo with their favourite celebrity. Complimentary to these core aspects, DCC also offers lectures and small talks with the guesting comic artists in addition to the interviews with the guest actors. The validity of the three core factors (fans, merchandise and special guests) can be discussed through three theoretical concepts: performance of (fan) identity, imagined communities and film tourism.

1.3 Fan Identity through costume

As described above, fans can be defined as film fanatics, people who might be social misfits (Jenkins 2012). But where Jenkins categorizes fans based on their practices, Hills sees them as a group with a specific social identity:

“Fandom, then, is never a neutral ‘expression’ or a singular ‘referent’; its status and its performance shift across cultural sites. What different ‘performances’ of fandom share, however, is a sense of contesting cultural norms. To claim the identity of a ‘fan’ remains, in some sense, to claim an ‘improper’ identity, a cultural identity based on one’s commitment to something as seemingly unimportant and ‘trivial’ as a film or TV series.” (Hills 2003: preface)

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A fan thus assumes an identity by committing to and actively engaging with a franchise. Whenever the fan engages with their favourite franchises, that fan identity is performed, much like Butler argued gender is a performance: “Consider gender, for instance, as a corporeal style, an “act,” as it were, which is both intentional and performative, where “performative” suggests a dramatic and contingent construction of meaning.” (1988: 190). Considering gender as a performance, I would argue the fan identity can be performed in the same way gender can be inscribed on a body (Butler 1988: 184). It suggests a distinction between the inner and the outer, where the fan identity lies within the body, but can be exposed if the fan chooses. The performance of the fan identity is generally a temporal one, visualised through home décor and clothing. Even though the fan can show their passions through posters, mugs and blankets, I want to focus on the performance of fan identity through costume. If one can dress according to gender, they can dress equally according to their fan identity. One could think of shirts, caps and bags based on a franchise, suitable for daily life, but at a convention, the fan identity can be fully performed through cosplay.

Cosplay, defined by The Cambridge Dictionary as “the hobby of dressing as and pretending to be a character from a film, TV programme, comicbook, etc.”, is often confused with other hobbies involving costumes. The first one is historical re-enactment, where the wearer of the costume tries to achieve the highest level of historical accuracy and is likely to wear the garment to a re-enactment event. As a counterpart, LARPing exists. This is an abbreviation of Live Action Role Playing, which means the wearer of the costume pretends to be an original fictional fantasy character to participate in events where fantastical battles are fought, even using special foam weapons to minimalize actual physical damage. In addition to this, one can become a furry, where the wearer of a home-made mascot-like suit role-plays as an original character, which is usually a furry animal. Amongst furries animals such as dogs, wolves and felines are popular. Cosplay can be a combination of the above, but most importantly, it means the wearer of the costume, more commonly called the cosplayer, wears a costume that is replicated based on an existing fictional character from a popular film, series or game. There are no strict rules about the limitations of cosplay; some change the gender of either the character (“genderbend”) or their own gender (“crossplay”) or adapt the costume in another style for a unique look. ‘You can do anything you want’ is a much heard saying in the community.

The concept of cosplaying itself originated in Japan, as a means of tribute to anime and manga. Anime fans started wearing their costumes to events and conventions. The first mention of cosplay in a magazine was in 1984, when Japanese writer Takahaski wrote about ‘kosupure’, a phenomenon he encountered when attending an event in Los Angeles. It was not until the 1990s that the ‘subcultural phenomenon’ gained popularity outside Japan in other parts of Asia, and

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character for events can be traced back to Halloween in 1920s America. The tradition of Halloween, and its earlier European counterpart Samhain, had always included adults dressing up as mythical creatures to scare off wandering spirits on All Hallows Eve. Records for this have been found in the early Middle Ages (Halloween Web; Wikipedia). The tradition of dressing up evolved throughout the centuries to match contemporary practices. For example, in the 19th_{century costumed balls were}

organized, when the trend was to wear themed evening gowns as a costume (operafantomet). When the Irish immigrated to America, they brought their traditions with them, and as the new tradition of Halloween took shape, costuming found its place in the festivities. In the 1920s trick or treating during Halloween became commercialized, and children started to wear costumes based on superhero movies. Soon this trend became adapted by adults as well, who started answering the trick-or-treaters in costumes. Nowadays, Halloween is the largest event where it is generally acceptable to dress up in costumes, with the convention being the largest event where it is widely acceptable amongst fans to dress up. The difference between the two lies in the performativity of the costume; whereas the Halloween costume is a funny decoration, the cosplay costume represents the desire to be distinguished from reality. Butler compares this performativity with theatre:

“In the theatre, one can say, 'this is just an act,' and de-realize the act, make acting into something quite distinct from what is real. Because of this distinction, one can maintain one's sense of reality in the face of this temporary challenge to our existing ontological

assumptions about gender arrangements; the various conventions which announce that 'this is only a play' allows strict lines to be drawn between the performance and life. On the street or in the bus, the act becomes dangerous, if it does, precisely because there are no theatrical conventions to delimit the purely imaginary character of the act, indeed, on the street or in the bus, there is no presumption that the act is distinct from a reality; the disquieting effect of the act is that there are no conventions that facilitate making this separation.” (2011: 527) The convention provides the platform for cosplayers to perform their fan identity in the same way that the theatre is the place for actors to act. This is further emphasized by the cosplay competitions which are hosted by the convention, where competing cosplayers are not only judged by their accuracy of costume, but also by the credibility and creativity of their performance. The

performativity of cosplay is of high importance in Asian cultures: “Cosplayers must fervently believe in the role that they are playing. Otherwise, their act or performance will become a form of self-deception and be considered inauthentic or non-genuine.” (Rahman et al. 2012: 325).

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1.4 Imagined Communities

Even though the performance can be considered inauthentic, it must be said costume has been an act of identity since royal practices in the medieval period. Ever since Henry I of the Tudor dynasty, the royal family that ruled the United Kingdom from 1485 until 1603, dress could be read as a

statement. Since the King had to show his status, his wealth was reflected in his dress through the use of rare coloured fabrics and elaborate jewellery. Early English royalty did not hesitate to literally dress to impress, a motive that has never fully disappeared from royal dress patterns. International brides marrying into the English family from France or Spain used accessories in slightly different styles to reflect both their new homeland and their own cultural origins. In that sense, even royalty performs their identity through dress. Whether it was wealth and status, or nationality, dress reflected and represented the individual, most importantly the performance of the identity of the King, although dress could also subtly be used to perform political statements.

In the 18th_{century, court dress became the ultimate performance of social identity. Through}

dress one would be allowed in court and through dress one could come into contact with the sovereign. Court dress did not only perform identity based social and financial status, but was deliberately chosen and worn with the purpose of social interaction. This idea is being elaborated on by Tuckett (2018), emphasizing the purpose of court dress in the British monarchy. The way in which the court dress evolved to become a social garment, can be equally applied to the evolution of the fan costume. Royal costumes used to signify a certain loyalty and identity, just as the fan costume signifies loyalty to a certain franchise. Both the royal costume and the fan costume are worn at specific events, and evolved into a garment with a social connotation. Worn at court or worn at a convention, costume could make for social interactions between different fans. After all, the fan costume is no different from the Georgian costume, sometimes even literally. However, the fan costume does not even exclusively apply to film fans, as explained by Norris and Bainbridge:

“From Star Trek fans in replica Starfleet uniforms to rugby league supporters in team jerseys, dressing up is part of the ritual of identification with a particular character, a way of marking out a fan’s alignment. It displays how heavily an audience member is invested in the ideals of the show or identifies with a particular character and shows others how ‘serious’ a fan they are. It is an act of belonging to a greater community of like-minded fans. [It is] a practice of identification, alignment and belonging.” (2009: 7)

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All those ‘social outcasts’ Jenkins talked about, share a common passion. That passion could be making costumes, or it could simply be the franchise itself. The performance of fan identity through costume does not only turn the fan identity into a temporal performance, it also makes a statement. Through their costume the fan signals (one of) their favourite franchise(s), turning this performance not only into an expression of the self, but also into an invitation to other fans. The underlying thought process of the cosplayer enables the convention itself to become a social event, where the core activity is meeting other fans. This is also where the imagined community comes into play. Originally a geographical concept by Anderson, the imagined community is a group of people with a shared interest that feel connected, possibly disregarding national borders:

“It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion. […] Finally, it is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship.” (Anderson 2006: 6-7)

The connection with fan communities is easily made: a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will know he is not alone in his fandom, despite the possibility of never having met another fan. The convention is the perfect place to come into contact with other fans, thus changing the imagined community into a physical fan community; whoever approaches each other, they do so because of that shared interest. Many convention attendees make new friends based on their shared fandoms, almost instantly bonding because of their shared interest.

“In other words, what brought together, on the same page, this marriage with that ship, this price with that bishop, was the very structure of the colonial administration and market-system itself in this way, the newspaper of Caracas quite naturally, and even apolitically, created an imagined community among a specific assemblage of fellow-readers, to whom these ships, brides, bishops and prices belonged.” (Anderson 2006: 62)

Why then do fans meet each other at conventions, instead of socially engaging with other cinema-goers, for example? The answer to this lies in the nature of the event in combination with the nature of the fan object. The cinema does not guarantee the presence of other active fans, merely that of consumers and passive fans. Considering the public opinion of fans as ‘misfits and social outcasts’, it can be concluded identifying as a fan is not a common, mainstream practice. In public, the fan could go as far as wearing franchise related clothing, without being labelled as ‘weird’. It might even

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happen that other cinema-goers watched the film out of curiosity, but ended up disliking the film as a whole. Next to that, most cinemas focus on actual pop culture, whereas the convention welcomes performances of all pop culture of all time. In contrast to the cinema, the convention guarantees the presence of fans who share the same intense level of fandom. The passion for a franchise connects them all, even if the franchise is different for every individual. Participatory fans might recognize themselves in one another, which makes it easier to break through the wall of the imagined community and turn it into a physical one.

1.5 Film Tourism

Why then do fans meet at conventions? The first answer is a simple one: the convention is a social event, no matter its target audience. The name derives from the Latin convenire, which means to gather, or to come together. Why do fans need to gather at a convention? This question is regularly asked in the field of film tourism, although the tendency in the field is to ask about the practice of travelling to specific, actual locations that have served as a décor for fictional series and films.

Film tourism is a research field that has emerged in the late 1980s, “multi-dimensional and informed by a number of cross-disciplinary perspectives” (Connell 2012: 1008). She states the field predominantly has two discourses that can be studied, firstly a practical discourse where the impact of film tourism is studied on the level of management and marketing, and secondly a theoretical discourse in which the motivations and psychology of fans is researched (Connell 2012: 1008). Originally film tourism meant fans visiting actual locations and sets used in franchises such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but the field has expanded to include theme parks, film themed

attractions, organized tours of film locations, film festivals and film premieres (Connell 2012: 1009; Beeton 2001; Christopherson and Rightor 2010; Lin and Huang 2007; Waysdorf and Reijnders 2016). Film tourism is a highly cross-disciplinary field, including film theory and film studies. Striking is how the film convention, comic convention or fan convention is yet unstudied within this field.

Considering the list of activities named as film tourism, the act of visiting a convention where actors are guesting, merchandise is sold and screenings are held would classify as film tourism. However, the event would fit nowhere in the list Connell summarized, of which the closest match would be either ‘visits to a location marketed as a filmic location, where the film may not have been experienced by the tourist but attractive marketing imagery induces interest’ or ‘visits to film festivals’. To validate placing the convention within film touristic activities, I would argue to define the event as ‘an event organized to celebrate fan culture without being associated with a film related location’, which can be analysed and studied through fans’ motives.

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the field: the dissertation of Waysdorf (2017). She studied fans who visited film locations and theme parks and analysed their motivations, mainly focussing on their experience of the fantastical and its connection with the real. However, where she focused on the actual film location, I will add to this theory by stating the convention hall is a non-film-related place where fans aim to connect the fictional with the actual. They do not just attend the event, as an active fan would just visit a film location and experience that; their imagination would fill in the gaps and make them believe they would actually be standing in the fictional location instead of the real location. Thus, as opposed to the perspective of Waysdorf, I am studying how fans use other fans, actors and merchandise to experience the same connection to the fictional as one would when visiting a film location.

The first parallel in this reasoning can be seen in the possibility fans have to socially engage with actors from different pop culture franchises (Connell 2012: 1008). Even though the photograph, the autograph, or even the social meeting itself features the actual actor, the imagination of the fan might turn the actor into its fictional counterpart, the character. Actors are generally announced with a short description stating their best known roles. It is thus not uncommon for fans to exclaim their enthusiasm of a certain character attending the convention, instead of the actor. However, it is very unlikely for the actor to attend as their character. To them, the convention hall is not the theatrical stage it is to the fans. In panels or Q&A sessions actors might reference their character, or respond in a way the character might have done, but there are only a handful of instances where the character attended the convention. The most famous one was at San Diego Comic Con in 2013, where Tom Hiddleston interrupted the panel of his newest film, Thor: The Dark World, and presented the first release of the trailer by delivering a speech from the script, actively engaging the gathered fans in his performance. He was not only completely in character, but also completely in costume. The stunt went viral, and many fans still envy those who ‘were there’.

The idea of ‘being there’ does not only refer to experiencing a fictional situation, like Waysdorf argues about film locations, it also references a certain exclusivity, much like the

Benjaminian aura (1938). The fact that the convention is an unrecorded event, bound to a specific time and place, makes it according to Benjamin preferable over mechanically reproduced media. Attending a limited event in person will always be different from experiencing the same event through digital media. Seeing footage of the convention through a screen does not equal the

experience of ‘being there’, as there is still a screen in between. The convention thus offers a counter-spatial turn, even though every single element of the convention is accessible outside the event. Trailers can be watched afterwards on YouTube, cosplayers will spread photos of their outfits online, and panels with actors are often filmed and posted online as well. In its latest edition in March 2018, DCC followed the American example and premiered the trailer of Redbad (Reiné, 2018) during the convention, a day prior to its public digital release. However, the counter movement is about the

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experience of the entire event: the whole possibility of engaging with the fictional in an actual place creates a specific aura that has to be experienced in person. Much like the ‘traditional’ experience of cinema-going values not only physical attendance (Allen 2011), but also the ‘immersiveness’ of the experience (Van de Vijver 2017: 136).

Even though the blueprint of the convention, as described earlier in paragraph 1.2, stays consistent throughout different editions of the convention, the variable details of the convention emphasize the exclusive aspect of the event. Guests are interchangeable and even the fans themselves will bring a different experience through the varying performance of their fan identity. Often the choice to wear a specific costume is influenced by either actual pop culture or guests attending the convention. Even though the fan is dressed from another franchise, that does not mean the fan can only act upon that aspect of their fan identity. “In cosplay, the image and identity of an individual is never stagnant. It is not uncommon to see many cosplayers move frequently and fluidly between different characters and tribes according to their changing interests and passions.” (Rahman et al. 2012: 319). Even though a fan could meet an actor while dressed as their character, it also regularly happens a fan takes a photograph with an actor while being dressed according to a

completely different franchise. The performance of the fan identity extends further than the costume and includes several film touristic, or film consuming aspects, amongst which the meeting of actors.

Yet undiscussed is the availability of merchandise at conventions, which can provide a permanent reminder of the beloved fictional world(s) the fan is invested in. Merchandise includes different categories of items, ranging from themed T-shirts, phone covers, and film posters to

decorative statues, full scale replicas of props and even fan art. Clothing referring to the franchise can be used to extend the fan identity to daily life outside the convention, continuing to reach the

imagined community of the franchise. Fan art can serve as a reminder of the existence of an imagined community, for the fan to know that there are others who enjoy the same franchise, or serve as a substitute for the lack of officially licenced merchandise for a character or an entire

franchise. Lastly, merchandise that can be used as home décor provide a more permanent connection to the fictional and the imagined than clothing and costumes. Prop replicas trigger the same cognitive imaginative process as a film location can do: “In re-enacting, the tourist gets to connect him or herself to the location, and become part of the show and its world. It heightens their imaginative experience by incorporating an embodied, physical action, one that suggests a “feeling-as” part of the narrative.” (Waysdorf 2017: 88). Thus, holding a replica of a fictional weapon can establish the same imaginative experience of being inside the narrative world, like owning a piece of the film and its world, once again blurring the line between the imagined and the real. Wearing a costume and engaging socially with other fans and actors can achieve the same effect.

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Chapter 2 – A Beautiful Mind

Much as the field of film tourism can be divided into a theoretical discourse and a psychological discourse, in the same way this thesis has been separated into a theoretical and practical part. After theoretically establishing how active fans engage with their fandoms at conventions and the way the convention is structured and built, a practical overview of the practice of cosplay might be in order. In this chapter, I will test the statement that the fans are the thriving factor of the convention, by using the event in three ways to connect the ‘real’ environment of the convention with the fictional or imagined world of the franchise. In order to do so, I will rely on the observations I made while attending two Dutch conventions, and the collectively received feedback on forms from 440 survey respondents, while simultaneously referring back to the theories as established in the previous chapter. Since the survey was sent out digitally and spread through a number of groups, I was able to reach a worldwide audience, of which 208 came from The Netherlands, 156 from America, 61 from the rest of Europe, and 14 from the other continents. I chose to include all of these, on the one hand to prove the worldwide influence of the American blueprint of the event and the practice of cosplay, on the other hand to gain as many perspectives as possible on the connection between the real and the imagined. On top of that, the worldwide reach proves the existence of a transnational fan culture surrounding the practice of cosplay and attending conventions. This chapter is structured in the same way the survey was set up: starting broad by analysing the fan identity, then stepping down to thoroughly analyse the practice of performing the fan identity at conventions and finally zooming in on the person behind the costume, in order to gain more insight into the practice and meaning of cosplay.

2.1 Fan cultures and the fan identity

The survey was filled in by 440 individuals, of which 84.3% women, 12% men and 3.6% ‘other-gendered’. This corresponds to the notion that active fan culture is predominantly a female culture (Jenkins 2012). The majority can be categorized as young adults, with 87 aged 16-20, 158 aged 21-25, and 81 aged 26-30, equalling to 74.1% of the total number of respondents. Only 1.4% is aged 10-15, whereas 9.5% is aged 31-35, 5.2% is aged 36-40 and 9.8% aged 41 and older. 50% of all respondents have been cosplaying for 6 years or under, which can be explained through the general age of the cosplaying fan. When analysing Dutch cosplayers it becomes apparent the majority started cosplaying roughly 3-4 years ago. This correlates with the introduction of Dutch Comic Con, which

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had its first edition in 2015. Other major worldwide events between 2012 and 2018 include the premieres of the new Hobbit films by Peter Jackson in the Tolkien universe, the revisiting of other, older, franchises such as Star Wars and Doctor Who, Marvel’s resurrection of the superhero film genre since 2008, and the airing and gaining popularity of Game of Thrones.

It is most interesting to see how this survey was set out in mainly fantasy and science-fiction fan groups, amongst others focussing on Disney and the Tolkien universe, yet Harry Potter, Marvel and anime series are listed as favourite franchises/genres the most (question 2.1 in appendix 1). This is a trend that Waysdorf too noticed in popular franchises within her film tourism study: “The cases in this dissertation therefore deal with such fantastic audio-visual places: ones that do not and cannot exist in our reality, but are portrayed in film or television.” (2017: 50). The fantastical unavailability of the narrative world amplifies the escapist attraction to those particular franchises. As a result, it can be noticed that series like NCIS made it to the list only once, whereas Doctor Who was mentioned at least fifty times with Harry Potter leading the list, being mentioned over 125 times. Considering the demographics of the respondents, the popularity of the latter can be connected with the premieres of the eight corresponding films (2001-2011). The identification of the fan with the franchise is influenced not only by the fantastical aspect, but also by the surrounding fan community. This means the active fan is less likely to participate in the surrounding fan culture if they fail to identify with the community.

Before analysing this identification problem, it is necessary to understand this participation in fan communities is always multifaceted (question 2.2 in appendix 1). Only a single respondent stated cosplaying is the only way they are engaging with their fandoms. A much made combination of different participatory activities include re-watching the franchise (74%), buying merchandise and memorabilia (88%), and meeting people in the fandom (73%). Since the survey was spread amongst cosplayers, this ended up as the most popular fan practice with 96%. On average, an active fan would take part in 6-7 fan activities. Most interesting about this particular question is the involvement in creating fan fiction, the most studied participatory fan practice. Only 22% is creating fan fiction with existing characters within the narrative world, and no more than 16% creates fan fiction with original characters within the narrative world. In total 117 respondents create any sort of fan fiction, which means 74% of all respondents do not engage in creating these stories. This underlines the importance of the experience of the fictional for cosplayers. Physically embodying a character provides a different experience than mentally embodying the same character. Both practices allow the fan to immerse themselves in the narrative world, but the difference lies in the aforementioned temporal nature of the cosplay, which challenges the cosplayer to push the line between the imagined and the real. The absence of a screen while cosplaying intensifies the experience of embodying the character, much in line with the counter-spatial turn of the convention.

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Listing one’s fan practices does not automatically mean each fan interacts with their favourite franchises in the same way. Amongst respondents who said they have different engagement levels for their fandoms, a slight majority of the total, two modes can be extracted (question 2.3 and 2.4 in appendix 1). A third of the respondents explained their engagement levels can differ because of personal interest in the franchise, while another third motivated this through the availability of the surrounding community and identification with this community. Some directly addressed having left a fandom because other fans were rude and they could not sympathize with that behaviour. It is also plausible for a genre or a series to have a particular fan community. For example, I found a majority of the fans engaging with the popular historical series Outlander (2014-) to be American women aged 35+, which makes it harder for European women in their twenties to connect and identify with this fan community. This identification problem can also be illustrated through a move Comic Con Ahoy made in their March 2018 edition. They invited Ronn Moss, known from his role in The Bold and the Beautiful (1987-2012), as a special guest. With the majority of Dutch cosplayers aged 21-25, his attendance was not a big success for most fans, considering their personal interest, and identification with the surrounding fan culture. The Bold and the Beautiful is an American soap series, situated in daily life, and precisely the lack of fantastical elements that can be found in the fantasy and science-fiction genres (Waysdorf 2017) made the appearance of Moss rather unsuccessful. However, the success stories outnumber these ‘mismatches’, and after all, it is completely up to the fan to experience the event in their preferred way.

The fan identity is not only presented through a complete costume worn at the convention (question 2.5 in appendix 1). The fan identity is purposefully shown in daily life by 98.5% of all respondents. The most popular practices are outdoor usable merchandise, such as clothing and phone covers, used by 84.3%, and indoor usable merchandise, such as house decoration and fan art, also used by 84.3%. Usable merchandise proves to be slightly more preferred, as 73% displays their merchandise, often props and replicas. Even more interesting are fans’ motivations to show their affection for certain franchises. While 23.4% claims it to be an open statement of love for the shown franchise, 28% contributed happy feelings or inspiration to it. 21% sees the use of merchandise as a performance of their fan identity, albeit slightly differently worded, and 18.5% uses merchandise with social

intentions, such as conversation starters. What I found really interesting was how 5.5% of the respondents came up with a variation of ‘the merchandise aims to connect the real with another world’. Already in these answers the three modes of participatory fans can be distinguished, the performative mode uses the merchandise to reflect the fan identity, the social mode uses the same items to connect with other fans, and the consuming mode uses merchandise for personal and emotional gain.

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Even though the fan can use multiple categories of merchandise with multiple meanings, that does not guarantee their direct environment of family and friends are equally invested in their practices. Even though the public discourse of fans labels them as social misfits and unable to separate fantasy from reality (Jenkins 2012: 10), the experiences of the fans themselves prove the opposite. 79.5% of the respondents feel their fan identity is often or always accepted by their families and friends. In all explanations I found a rather generic tendency of attributing the acceptance of their identity to support, understanding and even criticism, found in 66.4% of the surveys. While 24.3% stated their friends and family also identify as fans, even of the same franchises, I also found two opposite claims in the surveys. 11.8% stated their fandoms were part of their actual personality, and they would not care about the negative opinions of others, whereas 6.1% stated their being fans was not any permanent part of their being, but more a hobby, which they can avoid in social situations if their social companion is not into the topic.

To conclude, the fan identity is usually present, and can be explored through different activities. Aside from being explored, the fan identity can also be shown, and thus performed. It provides a connection with the fictional and with the emotional. Most fans feel accepted as being a fan and attribute that to understanding. But how far does that understanding go?

2.2 The process of cosplaying

Especially in my participatory observations I learned how intensively fans are engaging with their fandoms in order to create an authentic performance of their fan identity. It is rather hard to pin down how this is decided, but somehow the fan concludes the best way to pay homage to their favourite franchises is to replicate the costume, wear it, and thus to fully embody the character. This lack of thought is much in line with how Hills argues about the way a fan can enter a new fandom:

“In each case, the fan’s accounts can be described as strikingly self-absent. Exactly at the point where we might—in the terms of an academic imagined subjectivity—expect a rational explanation of the self’s devotion and fandom, we are instead presented with a moment of self-suspension and radical hesitation. We are confronted by a moment where the subject cannot discursively and ‘rationally’ account for its own fan experience, and where no

discourse seems to be available which can meaningfully capture the fan’s ‘opening of oneself to another’s experience’, or, indeed, to a mediated text.” (2002: introduction)

Using the survey I tried to visualize the thought process of the fan who has already entered the fandom and is on the verge of becoming a cosplayer, by asking them what inspired them to actively