Abstract
This project was originally motivated by a lifelong love of the Harry Potter series and a teenage love for fan fiction and other fancreated works. I was motivated to do research when I stumbled upon the lack of inclusivity in many fan communities, which I found to be shocking. In attempting to learn more about the harmful homonormativity, gender roles, and sexism that I had come across within works of queer fan fiction, I analyzed the website Archive of Our Own, a large fan fiction host site, to develop statistics on representation of gay and lesbian relationships within popular fandoms. I read through several works to learn about how these relationships are depicted within fan work, and did close readings to parse usage of words, themes, and stereotypes. I plan on continuing my research in this area, examining other hubs of fan fiction and doing close readings of popular pieces in order to examine the prevalence of homonormativity, gender roles, and sexism. My research so far agrees with and expands on previous work done on how fan fiction portrays queer relationships. In her article “The Sex Lives of Cult Television Characters,” Sara Gwenllian Jones discusses whether fan fiction depicting gay male couples successfully subverts conventional constructs of gender and sexuality, and my continued research provides more information on this, as well as expanding the argument to include queer female couples.