United in grief and collective memory, fans have spent recent weeks remembering and commemorating Dolly Parton for her decades of contribution to music and culture after her death on Tuesday, Aug. 25. San Francisco has several upcoming tribute events, including the “Dolly Day” celebration of life in Union Square, and a drag tribute and screening of her film, “9 to 5” at the Castro Theater, in addition to the multitude that have taken place in the weeks since her passing. As an eccentric female country music artist, she resonated with and was beloved by a variety of communities that transcend political lines and typical social boundaries. This week, the LGBTQ+ community, country music fans, Catholics and artists alike share an emotional experience as they discuss and honor a national icon.
Fandom can serve as a bridge between alienated social groups, as they lead people to discover and bond over a shared aspect of identity that may not have been otherwise visible. They can have transformative impacts on our social experience, promoting self-realization and a sense of connectedness in our increasingly isolated world. Art, media and franchises allow people to find and relate to others about shared interests and ideas, and, through the formation of fandoms, a shared sense of identity. PubMed conducted a study of K-pop fandoms and found that fandoms provide emotional support and social bonding, which increase well-being and allow people a space to express themselves.
Although the idea of fandoms is often associated with online communities, they have been an important part of culture since long before the birth of the internet. They do the important work of drawing people together in third spaces like theaters, music venues and sports arenas. Sports fandoms have long been a core pillar of social connection, bringing people together in appreciation of a shared interest. It’s been shown that sporting events can diffuse divides between polarized social groups. An affiliation to a sports team can express connection to a place-based community, while physical demonstrations of fandom through clothing or symbols help people identify their community and engage in a shared interest with strangers.
The New York Knicks’ recent NBA championship victory sparked an overwhelming display of community as fans poured into the streets of New York City, celebrating and demonstrating pride in their identity as New Yorkers. Psychotherapist Teri Cole told CBS that this was a demonstration of the “emotional connection that people feel when they have this collective experience.”
Fandoms attached to media franchises allow those who are alienated from hegemonic society to find community and representation, which help them build confidence in their sense of self. This can provide a lifeline to marginalized, isolated youth struggling with hegemonic societal structure.
As Lana Wachowski, director of “The Matrix” franchise, shared in her acceptance speech for the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award, representation and access to media that reflects diverse identities can be a lifeline for trans and queer youth, like herself at the time. “Invisibility is indivisible from visibility. For the transgender this is not simply a philosophical conundrum. It can be the difference between life and death,” she said. “When I was young, I wanted very badly to be a writer—I wanted to be a filmmaker—but I couldn’t find anyone like me in the world and it felt like my dreams were foreclosed simply because my gender was less typical than others.”
The thematic content of “The Matrix” franchise challenges society’s rigid ideas of gender and social structure, creating space for queer youth to find their experience represented in popular media and to connect with others who share similar experiences.
A study published in Leisure Sciences found that online communities dedicated to shared interests construct and reconstruct identities based on “the shared sense of self with others in online communities and groups.” This would decrease feelings of loneliness and isolation, making digital platforms into spaces that foster social connection for communities excluded from mainstream society.
Through fandoms, people network and collaborate to create new art and ideas which in turn shape pop-culture and society. As fans interact and bond over shared media interests, they create a participatory culture, where they reactively create and distribute media that interacts with both the original subject and fandom community, contributing creativity and new ideas to society. We see this in things like fan fiction and fan “edits” of television and movie media. This allows fans to discuss ideas that resonate with them and create reactive art that subverts traditional and cultural ideas that play out in media and society.
Iconic figures like Dolly Parton, K-pop groups and film franchises impact society past the making of their art itself; the fanbases born from their work bridge gaps in societal connection, inspire artistic production, allow space for self-expression and create space for important discussions of nonconformist ideas.
