Acafen
From Fan History Wiki
Acafen (also referred to as aca-fen or aca-fans are fans who participate in fandom as professionals and fans. Many of them have published or written academically on fandom or are in some way involved in teaching about fandom.
There has also been some discussion of and use of the term to refer to fans who actively and regularly engage in meta-oriented analysis of fandom.
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[edit] Historical Definitions
This section needs more information.
[edit] History
The use of this term predates April 1998 as it is referenced in a post from April 19, 1998, which says:
Newsgroups: ont.sf-lovers, rec.arts.sf.fandom From: Morgan Gallagher <Mor...@sidhen.demon.co.uk> Date: 1998/04/18 Subject: Re: Lesbian in SF/Fantasy (was Re: Toronto Fans: SF Book Shop?)
- there's also Acafen, the mailing list for academics and fen. Mostly
- filled by people who are both. Someone there is working on Xena, and
- wrested from myself, in a discussion, the immortal phrase "Female heroes
- don't get laid." [1]
The term gained greater usage in common fandom by 2006 as academics and non-academics who were participants in fandom began to interact more and as there was a greater amount of scholarship being done regarding fandom.
In October 2008, another backlash against acafen took place in science fiction and media fandom. [2][3] The discussion was spawned by a panel at Albacon. [4][5]
In January 2009, after another round of race wank, there was additional backlash against acafen because they were percieved as attacking people just to prove how smart they were. [6]
In September 2009, there was ongoing discussion of the use of the term and how it may be expanding to refer to fans who engage regularly in meta, and not just those who publish or engage in professional scholarship on fandom.[7]
[edit] Examples
[edit] External Links
- Acafen: FanWorksFinder
- That word might not mean what we think it means.: logovo on September 11, 2009
