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Used in a general sense, fandom is that vast, amorphous body of overweight, basement-dwelling nerds that worship canonical works. On a more specific basis, however, "fandom" is a collective term applied to the fans of a particular canon work. Thus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer possesses its own fandom, as does Star Trek and the Lord of the Rings; taken together, these individual fandoms constitute the universal "fandom."
A History of Fandom
Fandom has existed for at least a hundred years, though prior to the advent of the Internets it was popularly referred to as "religion" or "mental retardation".
The word fandom is a combination of the word fan fan and the affix -dom. The word fan is an abbreviation of the word "fanatic" (seriously), meaning A person marked or motivated by an extreme, irrational exuberance, as for a cause. The affix -dom is primarily used in a general sense to refer to an entire body of something or some abstract entity, typically one that relates to a a population (kingdom, , serfdom, freedom, dominion). -dom is from Middle English and is also the root for the word 'doom'. Interpret as you will.
The oldest fandom still existing in the modern world is, of course, Judaism, whose members, called "Jews," are obsessed with one of the first known pieces of fanfic, called the Tanakh, which was primarily about eating Aryan babies. The primary author of this canon work, "Moses," rapidly became the unquestioned moderator of the Jewish fandom community, attaining something akin to Internet celebrity status. Proof: the word 'fan'atic is originally from the Latin fānum, meaning 'temple'. And they almost got away with it.
Later, a Jew named Jesus started promulgating fanfic that broke with established canon. He managed to attract some followers, and after the Jews nailed him to a piece of wood in the desert, these individuals split off into their own branch of God-fandom. Calling themselves Christians, they wrote their own definitive piece of fanfic, stapled it together with some of the older Jewish fanfic, and called it the Bible. They later went on to conquer Europe, convert the native fans to their cult-like following, and oppress those other fandoms which harbored differing opinions on how best to obsess over God.
This process repeated itself again, some time later, when a Suethor named Mohammed wrote up yet another piece of fanfic (this one called the Koran), that ran contrary to both Jewish and Christian canon. He attracted fanboys and fangirls from throughout the Middle East, who promptly began calling themselves Muslims. They took issue with the Christians, and the relations between the two quickly devolved into one of history's first flame wars.
But primitive fandom was not restricted to these three groups alone. Back in the dark ages before the Internets, fandoms were spawned from all sorts of things: philosophies, political leaders, old media programs, types of government. Conflict between these sundry fandoms typically resulted in war and other lulz (such as the Holocaust), particularly between members of the same fandom who disagreed over the treatment of a canon character, OTP or whatever in a piece of fan- or slashfic.
Fortunately, the Internets put a brake on the amount of blood shed over riffs between fandoms and their associative slashfic, fanfic and Mary Sue authors. Thanks to the anonymity and distance afforded by e-dentities, message boards, LiveJournal and chat rooms, bickering between members of particular fandoms now cause flame wars, drama and, of course, much lolz (as opposed to carpet-bombing).
(Well, that's not entirely true.)
A History of the word Fandom
First, one must understand the origin of the word fan. From the Online Etymology Dictionary: Fan (fæn) - 1889, Amer.Eng., originally of baseball enthusiasts, probably a shortening of fanatic, but may be influenced by the Fancy (1807), a collective term for followers of a certain hobby or sport (especially boxing). There is an isolated use from 1682, but the modern word is likely a new formation.
Now, we should also consider the word dom. Dom (dam) - Unk. Year, BDSM community shortening of the word dominant and/or domination. (※Sodomy)
Finally, we can discuss the meaning of the word Fandom. Fandom (fænˈdam) - Derived in an Unk. Year from a combination of the words Fan and dom, labeling a fetish where a celebrity is dominated, possibly enslaved, by a ravenous fan. (Derivation similar to femdom)
Fandom Character Traits
Placing an exclamation mark between an adjective and a name is common practice in the fandom world. It is used to show the traits of a character, often relating to a specific story.
Example: Redeemed!Draco falls for Dark!Harry in my Harry Potter fanfiction! Teh hawtness!!!!1!1!
Also used commonly by Sueologists to describe the many types of Mary Sue: Happy!Sue, Bitchy!Sue, Evil!Sue, etc.
This is, of course, a sure sign of a Retarded!Writer.
Prominent Fandoms
Fandoms are related Fantasy or Science Fiction 99% of the time with the other 1% dedicated to religion/politics:
- Adventure Time and Regular Show
- Anime
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Firefly
- Furry
- God
- Harry Potter
- Lord of the Rings
- My Little Pony
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- Twilight
See also
- Fantards
- Haters - The opposite of fantards.
- Shippers
- Fundamentalists
- Fandom Wank
- Fandom Secrets
- The Great Livejournal Strikethrough of 2007
- Fan History Wiki - A Guide to Fandom Wank
- Shining Force Central - Aspie fandom.
- Subcultures
