Fall Research Expo 2023

How does queerness intersect with fandom bonding in a Discord youth writing community?

Discord was launched in 2015, making it a relatively new platform. Little research has yet been conducted on the intersection of queerness and fandom bonding among youth in Discord communities, though Discord is an online location in which both queerness and fandom discussion commonly appear. This research aimed to explore the intersection between these in a relatively small Discord youth writing community, the Write4Change Discord, associated with the Penn Graduate School of Education. Through textual scraping, field notes, and artifactual data collection of conversations between queer youth about various fandoms, we dove into how young queer people bond over fandoms on Discord. We found that queer youth tend to utilize fanart, official art, gifs, memes, "keyboard smashing", and all-caps typing to bond and express passion over fandoms. They bond most over canon and non-canon queer ships, angst-heavy character backstories, and attractive characters, whether personality-wise or appearance-wise. More research needs to be done into how non canon queer ships form and become nearly canon in fandoms among queer fans.

PRESENTED BY
PURM - Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program
College of Arts & Sciences 2026
Advised By
Amy Stornaiuolo
PRESENTED BY
PURM - Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program
College of Arts & Sciences 2026
Advised By
Amy Stornaiuolo

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