Speaker: Emily D’Antonio @ed00065
Affiliation: West Virginia University
Co-authors: Hailey Scherer (West Virginia University), Ashley Bontempo (Fordham University), Elizabeth Cohen (West Virginia University)
Title: Sex Education of Our Own: A Content Analysis of Erotic Fanfiction
Short Abstract: Erotic fanfiction content posted in online forums can operate as a form of secondary sex education (Albury, 2014; Döring, 2021). Yet, despite the popularity of erotic fanfiction in publishing and movie industries (evidenced by the success of 50 Shades of Grey), little research has examined the types of messages that this fan-generated literature communicates about sex. In a content analysis of the fanfiction website ArchiveofOurOwn, we will investigate the prevalence of various healthy and safe sex practices.
IGEL 2025 Poster_EDA.pdf (2.4 MB)
Long abstract
As evidenced, by popular works such as 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James and The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, fan fiction is no stranger to explicit, erotic sexual content. Among the over 13 million works of fanfiction hosted on the ArchiveofOurOwn (AO3) platform, roughly 15% of these works are rated as "Explicit” (AO3, 2024). Since the inception of fan studies, scholars have recognized that one of the reasons that fanfiction can be so transformative to those who create and consume it is because these stories often explore, interrogate, and rewrite sexual scripts in more mainstream narratives that provide fanfiction source material (Döring, 2021). Yet, surprisingly, despite the popularity of erotic content in fanfiction, there have been no systematic analyses that describe this content and the explicit and implicit messages it communicates about sexual health and safety. The goal of this study will be to analyze sexually explicit fanfiction to better what this content communicates about sexual health and safety.
There have been many content analyses of sexual content in various media that inform people’s sexual socialization, including entertainment media such as television (e.g., Dillman Carpentier, 2017), romance novels (e.g., Cabrera, & Ménard, 2013), and even pornography (Willis et al., 2020). However, as fanfiction is user-created, these works could communicate vastly different messages about sex than more mainstream texts. A better understanding of how prevalent certain messages about sex are in fan-created fiction is important because these works act as vehicles of health communication and sexual socialization, both for the readers and the creators. Much like visual pornography provides a relatively private and accessible form of secondary sex education (Albury, 2014), It stands to reason that erotic fanfiction may be instructive as well. As fanfiction researcher Ruby Parker (2018) writes, “For many teens, fanfiction is their first introduction to erotic fiction. Hungry for stories about their favorite characters, they stumble across these sexually explicit fantasies,” (p . 24). Likewise, Döring (2021) found that erotic fanfiction functioned as a site for readers to engage in personal discovery, to experiment with sexual identities, and to sexual and boost their sexual confidence.
However, although fanfiction operates as a sex educator for many, there has been little to no research investigating the accuracy of sexual content or depictions of safe sexual practices in Explicit fanfiction.
The present study seeks to address this gap in the literature through a content analysis of explicit content on the fanfiction website, ArchiveofOurOwn. Created as a nonprofit organization in 2007, AO3 works to “serve the interest of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fan works and fan culture in its myriad forms” (AO3). With their mission of preserving and cataloging fan works, AO3 has implemented an extensive tagging and filtering system for fans to organize and search for specific content and exclude or include specific tags. Tags are used to describe a variety of content, such as characters, relationship types, and sexual content. This tagging system not only benefits users of the site but is also an invaluable resource for researchers to utilize when investigating fanfiction and fandom. ArchiveofOurOwn self-categorizes fandoms into wider categories (11 categories total), such as Anime/Manga, Movies, TV Shows, Literature, etc. We will select the five most popular fandoms (around 80,000 - 500,000+ works) from each category for 55 total fandoms. For fandoms that include multiple media representations (e.g., the original Star Wars Trilogy, Star Wars video games, and Star Wars TV shows), these fandoms will be combined into one large “meta-fandom” category, and we will select the next most popular unique fandom will be selected. Within each fandom, we will sort each fandom by the Explicit rating and sort the list by the most popular fanfiction (McCullough, 2020), then randomly select a percentage of fanfictions . This analysis specifically examines the prevalence of several different sexual practices and scripts across these works. Besides collecting some demographic information on the types of characters who are depicted in different sexual situations, some content we will examine include the use or discussion of safe sex practices, the depiction (or lack thereof) of rape and sexual consent, and the presentation of accurate or inaccurate information about sexual health such as STIs, pregnancy, and orgasms. T he findings will be discussed in light of how explicit fanfiction content compares to mainstream media content about sexual health and safety. The codebook for this project is currently in development. Coding is scheduled for January and February. The results of the analysis are anticipated to be completed by May 2024.
References
Albury, K. (2014). Porn and sex education, porn as sex education. Porn Studies, 1(1–2),
172–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2013.863654
Cabrera, C., & Ménard, A.D. (2013). “She exploded into a million pieces”: A Qualitative and
quantitative analysis of orgasms in contemporary romance novels. Sexuality & Culture, 17, 193–212. “She Exploded into a Million Pieces”: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Orgasms in Contemporary Romance Novels | Sexuality & Culture
Dillman Carpentier, F. R., Stevens, E. M., Wu, L., & Seely, N. (2017). Sex love and risk-n-
responsibility: A content analysis of entertainment television. Mass Communication and Society, 20(5), 686-709. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2017.1298807
Döring, N. (2021). Erotic fan fiction. In A. D. Lykins (ed.) Encyclopedia of Sexuality and Gender
(pp. 1-8). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59531-3_65-1
McCullough, H. (2020). The diamonds and the dross: A quantitative exploration of integrative
complexity in fanfiction. Psychology of Popular Media, 9 (1), 59. Educational Publishing
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Parker, R. (2018). Seven ways of looking at fan fiction. WritingThreeSixty: Journal of Research
and Creative Texts, 4(2), 18–27.
Willis, M., Canan, S. N., Jozkowski, K. N., & Bridges, A. J. (2020). Sexual consent
communication in pornography films: A content analysis. The Journal of Sex Research, 57(1). 52-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1655522