The Galaxy is a Big, Big Place

As I read The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy, I began to wonder who the intended audience for the book really is. The subtitle states that it is a “handbook for girl geeks,” but much of the information, at least in the first chapter, was very basic information that most girl geeks would know by the time they wanted a handbook. The descriptions of each fandom, while amusing, don’t offer me any real information about being a fangirl. I do have to recognize my background: I’ve been involved in fandom since 2011 and have studied fandom history as a hobby and as a volunteer for the Organization of Transformative Works, so I knew majority of the information in the book. As a younger reader, I certainly would have been interested in the information on where to find more fandom friends or guidelines for cons, but I also think I would have picked up the book looking for ways to respond to the men at my local comic shop telling me I wasn’t welcome. While Maggs does address harassment, majority of her action plans would only be effective online, and as Ariana pointed out, they don’t touch on the added difficulty of being a woman of color or even a woman in one of the more male-dominated sectors of fandom, like video gaming or D&D. Only Jamie Broadnaux’s interview really addressed either of those topics, and her answer is less than a page. Looking ahead, the section on geek feminism only mentions intersectionality once and doesn’t go into much detail. The Fangirl’s Guide is very sweet, encouraging, and non-judgmental, but I don’t know how much use it would really be, especially when fandom and the internet itself changes constantly so even the information on major fandoms is now outdated.

 

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