As someone whose love for Scrooge McDuck and golden age DC comics were always generally private affairs, I never found myself drawn into communities where there was much discussion about a certain fandom topic. The only one that I can really think of was the online game, League of Legends, that I used to play. I think at the time I was playing, most of the player base I encountered was male (although that seems to have changed, as I have seen an article listing females as 55% of the playerbase). I remember the community as a particularly toxic one, especially towards females. One common occurrence was that one player would mention that they were female and the rest of the players would say that they were lying, or make some comment about why they would have brought it up, which is hardly a welcoming environment.
One passage that really struck me from the book was, “Because geek girls deserve to leave their mark on the internet- and on the occasional troll, too (93).” We’ve talked a lot in class about the legacy of those who partake in somethings creation, like the Navajo Women who worked on the circuit boards, and who get left out from being remembered. I see the attempted barring from entry into fandom communities by males as trying to dictate who gets a say in what happens in a community. This is probably especially prevalent in fandom communities, where participants are extra passionate about the seriousness of their craft, as well as the guidelines for what is canon.
The last kind of troll, the one who harasses female users by stalking them and posting their private information online is an incredibly scary reality. I think it brings up this public/private dichotomy problem that the internet has. So much of what we put on the internet is data that can be used to turn our private identities into public ones (see Don’t F*** With Cats), even when don’t mean to release such information. It is truly incredible what people on the internet are willing to do. Creating barriers for entry, and then abusing women for entering a space on the internet, which has almost an infinite amount of space to inhabit, seems so ridiculous.
But I feel that there must be a bright side. I sent a photo of the YA Book Nerds page, asking her if she had read any of the books listed (as she is a big fan of the YA genre), and she said that she had, although the ones that she tends to read are newer. The she said, tend to be more diverse and of higher quality, which hopefully will help create a more inclusive space in which to celebrate one’s passion. Although I wonder if the trend happens in other fandoms.