The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media

257 Pages·1992·2.18 MB·English

by  Lisa A. Lewis

The Adoring
Audience
FAN CULTURE
AND POPULAR MEDIA
edited by
LISA A. LEWIS
London and New York
To the memory of
Delbert E. Lewis,
my greatest fan
First published in 1992
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
© 1992 Lisa A. Lewis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Lewis, Lisa A.
The adoring audience: fan culture and popular media.
I. Title
302.2308
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Adoring audience: fan culture and popular media / edited by Lisa A. Lewis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Fans (Persons) – United States – Psychology. 2. Television viewers – United
States – Psychology. 3. Groupies – United States – Psychology. 4. United
States – Popular culture. I. Lewis, Lisa A.
HM291.A343 1992
302.23 – dc20 91–37332
ISBN 0–415–07820–2 (Print Edition)
ISBN 0–4515–07821–0 pbk
ISBN 0-203-18153-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-18156-5 (Glassbook Format)
The Adoring Audience
Fans get a bad press. The familiar images of fandom are loaded with negative
stereotypes and labels of deviancy. Yet in many ways we are all ‘fans’, and
fans remain the most visible and dedicated of any audience. What defines
and motivates this intense admiration? And why is it so maligned and
stigmatized?
The Adoring Audience considers the relationship between fans, stars,
media texts and media industries. From Beatlemania to Elvis worship, from
science fiction fans and ‘Trekkies’ to Hollywood films about fans, this
fascinating collection of essays examines the way in which fandom relates
to identity, sexuality and textual production. Its contributors argue for
fandom as a complex and contradictory arena for critical enquiry, rather
than a subject to be trivialized and dismissed. They also recognize fans as
creative and energetic resondents to their often repressive social milieux,
and cultural producers in their own right.
The editor: Lisa A. Lewis is a commercial TV producer in Tucson, Arizona,
and author of Gender Politics and MTV: Voicing the Difference.
The contributors: Sue Brower, Cheryl Cline, Barbara Ehrenreich (with
Elizabeth Hess and Gloria Jacobs), John Fiske, Lawrence Grossberg, Steve
Hinerman, Henry Jenkins, Joli Jensen, Lisa A. Lewis, Robert Sabal, Fred
and Judy Vermorel.

Contents
Notes on Contributors vii
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
PART I Defining Fandom
1 Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of
Characterization JOLI JENSON 9
2 The Cultural Economy of Fandom JOHN FISKE 30
3 Is There a Fan in the House?: The Affective
Sensibility of Fandom LAWRENCE GROSSBERG 50
PART II Fandom and Gender
4 Essays from Bitch: The Women’s Rock Newsletter
with Bite CHERYL CLINE 69
5 Beatlemania: Girls Just Want to Have Fun
BARBARA EHRENREICH, ELIZABETH HESS, GLORIA JACOBS 84
6 ‘I’ll Be Here With You’: Fans, Fantasy and the
Figure of Elvis STEPHEN HINERMAN 107
7 ‘Something More Than Love’: Fan Stories on
Film LISA A. LEWIS 135
v
CONTENTS
PART III Fans and Industry
8 Fans as Tastemakers: Viewers for Quality
Television SUE BROWER 163
9 Television Executives Speak about Fan Letters
to the Networks ROBERT SABAL 185
PART IV Production by Fans
10 A Glimpse of the Fan Factory FRED AND
JUDY VERMOREL 191
11 ‘Strangers No More, We Sing’: Filking and the
Social Construction of the Science Fiction
Fan Community HENRY JENKINS 208
Index 237
vi
Notes on Contributors
Sue Brower completed her doctorate in Radio–Tele vision–Film at the
University of Texas at Austin. Her work has focused on the relationships
among promotion, television fiction, and viewer practices. She has written
about tabloids, ‘Dallas’ viewers, promotional strategies of ‘Cagney &
Lacey,’ star biography in ‘Moonlighting’ and seriality in television of the
1980s.
Cheryl Cline writes for Bitch: The Women’s Rock Newsletter with Bite
and is at work on an encyclopedia of rock musicians.
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of the book, The Hearts of Men. Her
articles have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times,
Vogue, The Atlantic, and the Wall Street Journal.
John Fiske teaches in the Department of Communication Arts at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison and has held appointments in the UK
and Australia. He is author or co-author of Reading Television,
Introduction to Communication Studies, Key Concepts in
Communication, Myths of Oz, and Television Culture.
Lawrence Grossberg is a Professor of Speech Communication and
Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana. His newest
book, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Rock Politics and Postmodernity
is a study of relationships between popular culture and the new
conservativism. He is co-editor of Marxism and the Interpretation of
vii
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Culture, Rethinking Communication, and Cultural Studies: Now and In
the Future.
Elizabeth Hess is a free-lance writer who has written for the Washington
Post, the Village Voice, Art in America, and Ms., among other publications.
Stephen Hinerman is a Lecturer in the Departments of Communication
Studies and Humanities at San Jose State University. He wrote extensively
on popular music as a rock critic at the Colorado Daily and Denver’s
Westword between 1979 and 1984. In addition, he has written academically
about both mass culture and rhetoric, presenting a number of papers
discussing the political dimensions of popular culture. He is working to
produce his play about Elvis fans entitled Burnin’ Love.
Gloria Jacobs has served as an editor at Ms. and written for publications
such as Mother Jones, Women’s World, and Daily News.
Henry Jenkins is an Assistant Professor of Literature at MIT. He has
published a number of journal articles on media audiences and is the
author of the forthcoming book entitled Textual Poachers: Television
Fans and Participatory Culture, to be published by Routledge.
Joli Jensen is interested in twentieth-century culture and society. She has
published articles on country music production, and on the typewriter as
a communication technology. Her recent book, Redeeming Modernity:
Contradictions in Media Criticism, analyzes media criticism as displaced
social criticism. She is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of
Communication at the University of Tulsa.
Lisa A. Lewis has published widely on the subject of female musicians,
music video, and female fans culminating in Gender Politics and MTV:
Voicing the Difference (Temple University Press, 1990). She holds a PhD
and graduated from the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced
Film and Television Studies. She works as a video and film producer in
Tucson, Arizona.
viii
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Robert Sabal teaches film-making in the Department of Media Arts at the
University of Arizona. He has written, produced and directed the feature
film, Indian Summer.
Fred and Judy Vermorel are conducting research with fans in the USA
and Britain for an updated version of their previously published book,
Starlust: The Secret Fantasies of Fans, which is now out of print.
ix