Fanfiction can often overlook male writers in the community and frequently even undermines their work on social media platforms. Prevalent fanfiction content creator, @c4ptnlee on TikTok, who has 12,000 followers, posted a video captioned ‘I just saw a man say he was writing fanfiction and I had a realisation men write fanfiction too’. Comments such as ‘Like I can’t even think of it. It’s so weird to me,’ and ‘no, no I don’t like that’ were apparent throughout the entire comment section, showing a clear alienation towards male authors.
Fanfiction is generally associated with women and the LGBTQ+ community, with 70% of writers being female and 15% nonbinary/genderqueer. Therefore, it is unsurprising, as with most circles in life, that the minority, which in this rare case is straight men, can be picked on and overlooked. However, men are also active participants in online fandoms, often keeping their identity anonymous, as it can be perceived as ‘uncool’. So why are men so reluctant to admit that they dabble in this space?
Max Adams, 20, is a chef in Wells, Somerset. As a teenager, Max was an avid fanfiction author, particularly in the Harry Potter fandom. Max’s work includes the start of a sequel to Harry Potter, centring around Teddy Lupin and his journey from being a rebellious young wizard to joining Hogwarts. Teddy enters a love triangle with both Voldemort and Malfoy’s daughters, whereas Albus Potter provides normalcy similar to Hermione in the original books. Max revealed that his inspiration for writing fanfiction stemmed from Roblox role-play communities, which have huge Harry Potter scenes.
Max says: “I have no fear of judgement if I am writing something I feel personally attached to, I would want people to read it.
“However I think the term fanfiction has become weaponised outside of the community, the association I and many others have with the term is some form of inevitable sex.”
This association is a factor in why Max would not openly say he writes fanfiction.
He says: “If someone asked what I’m writing, I would never say fanfiction, I would say it’s something personal, and I’m playing around with a universe.”
However, Max admits that this is not solely due to the fear of judgment; there is also a selfish aspect to it.
He says: “Self-admittedly, there’s a bit of a narcissistic aspect to it. I think I’m not associated with fans and instead I am just a writer who found a piece interesting and wants to build on it.”
This reluctance by men to identify with fanfiction is explored in an article by Sam Maggs in The Mary Sue. She argues that when women engage in transformative writing, it is often dismissed as fanfiction. In contrast, when men write similar works, they are likely to be considered academic or described as ‘world-building’. The article argues that the term ‘fanfiction’ has been trivialised, leading some male writers to distance themselves from it.
Max’s emphasis on the fact that he is ‘just a writer that found a piece interesting and wants to build on it’ reflects Sam’s idea, positioning his work as an expansion on a creation rather than a fan participating in fanfiction.
However, Ollie Hurd, 20, provides different reasoning for why women are the majority in fanfiction and why men may want to keep their anonymity when it comes to this space. Ollie has dabbled in fanfiction; his main creation was thought up with his friend, in which they constructed their own fantasy world called Sunfire.
He says: “We kind of just wanted to create a blend of a fantasy world that is also reflected in global realism. It’s essentially a world where structures we know from history, such as communism and monarchies, are reflected, but within a fantasy setting, and that’s what I’m most interested in doing.”
Ollie, like many men, is wary of publishing his work under his own name as he believes subjecting yourself to the view of others is a scary thing.
He says: “I view fanfiction as a quite raw look at your inner feelings, and to publish that is to make yourself quite vulnerable, and to be honest, that’s probably something I was never really willing to open myself up to.
“You can submit a uni essay, and you’re being judged by professionals where it’s nothing personal, but if you’re writing fanfiction, you are very open to criticism, and that’s something I never really wanted to subject myself to.”
Ollie believes the stigma surrounding fanfiction, however, is not localised to fanfiction and instead is part of a wider issue of men expressing themselves online.
He says: “I don’t think it’s specific to fanfiction that men are less willing to express themselves artistically. It’s a trend in society where men are unwilling to speak out about their true feelings due to toxic masculinity and the fear of how other men will respond.
“You see it with online spaces, X, TikTok, people get rinsed for doing the most normal things, and I think it’s a shame that fanfiction is viewed in such a way, but that’s probably what holds me back from going for it.”
Researchers have frequently linked men maintaining anonymity in creative spaces to wider societal expectations of masculinity. Studies into masculinity conclude that men are often put off from expressing vulnerability or personal emotion due to the fear of judgment from other men or wider society.
Although fanfiction is stereotyped as and largely is a female space, both Max and Ollie’s experiences suggest that straight men, whom you would have no assumption are fanfiction authors, are participants in this space. That male participation may be far more common than online discussions would imply.
Rather than not being participants in the space at all, both men describe distancing themselves from the label surrounding it. For Max, this comes from the negative connotation that fanfiction revolves around sexual fantasies and that he doesn’t want to associate himself with this label. For Ollie, the issue lies more deeply in the vulnerability of expressing yourself online and the potential judgment from other men.
As online spaces are increasingly becoming more toxic, it seems the biggest barrier preventing straight men from engaging in fanfiction may not be the writing itself, but the judgment that comes with expressing yourself through art and caring too much.