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Abstract
Media portrayals of comic book fandom routinely depict the comics community as a masculine space, one in which the female fan is an anomaly. Yet, women reportedly represent a growing number of comic book purchasers and convention attendees. If women are, in fact, such a large contingent of the comic book fan community, then why do these gendered stereotypes of female fans persist? Moreover, why do we continually see narratives about the ‘exotic’ female comics fan if women are such a large population within comics culture? I theorise that many female comic book fans render themselves invisible in the comics community out of fear of stigmatisation, from both non-comics fans as well as male members of comics fandom. Drawing on the work of Erving Goffman, I use semi-structured interviews to explore how female comics fans in the United States experience fandom as members of a culture that is coded as masculine.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Although 17-year-olds are part of the fastest-growing demographic of comic book readers, participants 18 years and older were recruited due to institutional research protocol.
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Notes on contributors
Stephanie Orme
Stephanie Orme is a doctoral student in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University where she focuses on “geek” media culture. Her research examines how gender, race, sexuality, and other identity markers intersect with production and consumption within the comic book and video game industries.