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Journal Papers by Milena Popova

In November 2015, we held a symposium on the theme of Sex & Sexualities in Popular Culture at the... more In November 2015, we held a symposium on the theme of Sex & Sexualities in Popular Culture at the Watershed, Bristol. Having met at a conference on popular music fandom and the public sphere, earlier that year, the symposium was a result of our shared interest in, and work on, sex and sexualities in popular culture. Bethan has worked extensively on antifandom of Fifty Shades of Grey and the moral panics surrounding the ‘irrational’ behavior of One Direction and Twilight fans. Milena’s research focuses on sexual consent in erotic fan fiction, and they have a keen interest in how media and culture interact with the discursive construction of sex, sexualities, and consent. Through the symposium, then, we wanted to afford a platform for postgraduate researchers and creative practitioners exploring the nuances of sex and sexualities within popular culture to meet and share ideas. Of course, the terms ‘sex’, ‘sexualities’ and ‘popular culture’ are not fixed or immutable and while we included suggestions for what papers might examine, the abstracts we received covered a range of topics, from literature and computer games to social media and fan fiction, and advertising to social activism. The symposium was well received both in person and online. We encouraged attendees to live tweet using the hashtag #popsex15, and discussions took place both at the Watershed and on Twitter about consent, the normative depictions of sex and relationships in popular culture, misogynistic hate speech and intersex characters in literature. The amount of engagement with the ideas and themes coming out of the symposium suggested that a deeper analysis was needed, and this special issue of Networking Knowledge - Journal of the MeCCSA-PGN attempts to engage in more detail with some of these.

Journal of Bisexuality, 2017

In this article I argue that inclusion of bisexual employees in workplace contexts is hindered by... more In this article I argue that inclusion of bisexual employees in workplace contexts is hindered by the interaction of two key factors. On the one hand, bisexuality is frequently “invisible” diversity based predominantly around identity, whereas workplaces are action-oriented environments. On the other hand, where bisexuality becomes “actionable” in a workplace context (e.g., in its intersections with polyamory), it is insufficiently conformist or respectable for most employers to be able to account for and be inclusive of it in their institutional structures. The author bases her findings on interviews conducted for an activist book on bisexuality in the United Kingdom as well as autoethnographic reflection of her decade-long employment in the private sector, which included roles in LGBT diversity and inclusion in a multinational corporation.

Transformative Works and Cultures, 2017

This article uses a case study from the hockey RPF community to explore textual processes in real... more This article uses a case study from the hockey RPF community to explore textual processes in real person(a) fiction, and particularly the intertextual relationship between different facets of the star image and the RPF character. I argue that the crisis in legitimacy faced by the fandom revealed a dense of web of intertextuality between the celebrity's public and official private personas, the imagined real person behind them, and the RPF character, all involved in a side-by-side reading of the similarities and differences between the celebrity fan object and the fan work. I highlight the complex relationship between celebrity persona, RPF character, and other seemingly unrelated elements that may be drawn into an archive by RPF readers and writers and show the collectively created RPF character was overwhelmed by these other elements.

Conference Presentations by Milena Popova

Presented at Echoes of Fascism, University of Sussex, May 2017

In this paper I use data from interviews with fan fiction readers and writers to examine the fan ... more In this paper I use data from interviews with fan fiction readers and writers to examine the fan practice of tagging other fannish paratexts in relation to issues of sexual consent, and argue that if forms part of a wider fannish "praxis of consent".

Fan fiction texts are frequently accompanied by additional material such as author's notes, disclaimers, readers' comments, and tags - metadata intended to facilitate archiving and searchability - which sit alongside but do not form a part of the text. Such paratexts, however, have multiple different functions within the fan fiction community. In this research, I argue that one such function is as an extratextual communication channel between reader and writer, signalling authorial intent around issues of sexual consent. Based on interviews with fan fiction readers and writers, I examine the importance placed by many members of this community on "appropriate" handling of issues of sexual consent in both fan fiction itself but also in mainstream media and "canon" works. A common complaint is that consent is frequently mishandled in canon and coercive or outright non-consensual sexual interactions are uncritically portrayed as romantic. As many fan fiction works themselves explore issues of rape, sexual violence and "dubcon" (dubious consent), it becomes important to both readers and writers to distinguish between such deliberate explorations and an accidental or uncritical representation. Metadata and other paratexts play an important role in such distinctions. By allowing readers and writers to signal an awareness of consent issues, they create a space for a deliberate, critical engagement with the grey areas of sexual consent. Secondarily, they also allow readers to make an informed choice about whether and how to engage with this kind of material. In these ways, I argue, metadata and fannish paratexts form the infrastructure for a fannish praxis of consent.

Presented at Fan Studies Network Conference 2017, University of Huddersfield, June 2017

In this paper, I explore dominant and competing discourses on consent within rape culture. I use ... more In this paper, I explore dominant and competing discourses on consent within rape culture. I use textual and discourse analysis to show how sexually explicit fanfiction can contribute to a new competing discourse in the ongoing renegotiation of the cultural construction of consent.

While discourses around rape and sexual assault are well theorised within feminism, consent in its own right is a relatively underexplored concept, both in research and in popular culture. There are theoretical and methodological limitations to the current work in the field. Key feminist models and empirical studies are underpinned by highly gendered and heteronormative assumptions. In line with dominant societal discourses, consent is often represented as demanded by men and given or denied by women. Additionally, vaginal-penile intercourse occupies a privileged position in current work as the sexual act most often defined as requiring consent. Finally, while connections have been drawn between the discourses of rape and romance, the cultural construction of consent remains a little-examined phenomenon.

Fanfiction is non-commercial, amateur-produced fiction based on existing media. It is predominantly written by women and non-binary people and often sexually explicit. In my paper I show how existing feminist models of consent are explored and represented in such fanfiction. I examine the specific tactics fans use to challenge and subvert dominant discourses of consent, including challenging cis- and heteronormative defaults, exploring inequalities in relationships beyond gender, and using sexually explicit material to address the grey areas of consent. I discuss how such cultural representation and (re)construction of consent can both illuminate theoretical understandings of consent and be used as an effective intervention against rape culture.

Presented at MeCCSA 2016, Canterbury Christchurch, January 2016

Presented at Sexual Violence, Virginia Tech, April 2016

Presented at Sexual Cultures 2, University of Sunderland, April 2015

In this presentation I will explore how online erotic fanfiction opens up a space for the cultura... more In this presentation I will explore how online erotic fanfiction opens up a space for the cultural construction of consent, which is lacking in mainstream media and public discourse.

In the UK alone, 200 women are raped every day. The vast majority of those crimes are not reported to the police; and of those that are, only around 5% end in a criminal conviction. Feminist scholars and activists speak of a rape culture, manifested for instance in the ways rape is minimised and excused in public discourse - from the criminal justice system to mainstream media, fiction and public debate. Implied in these discourses are a range of assumptions about consent, yet both in academia and in the public sphere, consent is a surprisingly underexplored and undertheorized concept. Particularly in mainstream culture, consent is rarely represented, partly due to restrictions on sexually explicit material.

Fanfiction is amateur-produced fiction based on existing media and cultural products. It is predominantly written by women and non-binary people and often sexually explicit. Because fanfiction builds on existing copyrighted works and trademarked characters, its production and circulation happens in a niche and non-commercial environment, meaning that its content is free from commercial considerations. While fanfiction as we know it today originated in paper fanzines, the Internet has dramatically lowered barriers to entry into the fandom community, both by driving cost down to virtually zero and making fanfiction a lot easier to find for the uninitiated.

In my presentation, I will explore how the niche and non-commercial nature of the fandom community, together with the relative anonymity provided by interaction online, enable fans to explore issues of female and queer sexuality in their fiction and practices. I will use textual and discourse analysis of fanfiction texts as well as ethnographic data from fans' online interactions. I will argue that fandom provides a safe space where a rich and nuanced representation of and discourse on consent can thrive, and that while fannish approaches to consent are varied and can still often be problematic, online fandom can play an important role in the cultural (re)construction of consent that is currently absent from mainstream culture.

Presented at Theorizing the Web 2015, New York City

In this paper I reflect on the challenges I am facing in my current research on representations o... more In this paper I reflect on the challenges I am facing in my current research on representations of consent in erotic fanfiction.

Compared to rape and sexual assault, consent is a surprisingly understudied and undertheorised topic. There are theoretical and methodological limitations to the current work in the field. Key feminist models and empirical studies are underpinned by highly gendered and heteronormative assumptions. In line with dominant societal discourses, consent is often represented as demanded by men and given or denied by women. Additionally, vaginal-penile intercourse occupies a privileged position in current work as the sexual act most often defined as requiring consent. Finally, while connections have been drawn between the discourses of rape and romance, the cultural construction of consent remains a little-examined phenomenon.

In my research I investigate representations of consent in erotic fanfiction - amateur transformative work based on existing, commercial cultural material - and how they fit, or in some cases extend, current feminist models of consent. In this paper I outline the challenges I am facing in relation to current theoretical and empirical work on consent and discuss how the study of fanfiction can contribute to the understanding of the cultural construction of consent.

Book chapters by Milena Popova