Popular Culture Review 30.2
potential dialog and reflection my fandom students can have regarding the content they consume and the communities in which they engage . Scholarship such as Pande ’ s work speaks to my students ’ ongoing struggles to find themselves represented and supported in their fan communities . Predominantly white institutions ’ fandom or media studies courses could use the text to question the extent to which the stereotypes that give us pleasure sustain other forms of inequality .
Pande ’ s attention to fandom studies ’ inequalities is not focused on U . S . racial constructs , rather , Pande wants fandom studies scholars to consider the limitations of U . S . -centric research . She argues that fandom studies presume , unless otherwise stated , that the average “ internet user is still presumed to be straight , white , and male , as well as located in the Global North ,” which frames how those who do not fit into those categories as “ a niche to be considered ,” and tokenized in scholarship on fandom studies ( 51 ). The neutralizing of the Internet user as a Global North white , straight , cis-man who is most likely able-bodied limits the layered interactions and political economic interventions participating in fan communities provides us .
The breadth of Pande ’ s text can invite any scholar to use any single chapter as a case study that would warrant more critical examination of fan activism , fans ’ understanding of the role of writing and reading sex , as well as the racialized and gendered disparities of citations within fandom studies . This book successfully explores intersectionality and globalization as they need to be better integrated in fandom studies . Its survey approach , where each chapter has a literature review grounded in case studies that highlight the needs , touches on a wide variety of topics that will need to be complemented by in-depth scholarship or even curated social media content to
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