#you'd probably have more luck modernly looking at specific areas

[bookwyrminspiration]

!! This is a thing--media fandom, as long as it's been studied, has been largely a white cis woman space. It's one of those things in acafan (academic fan, fans who study fandom professionally) spaces that's so widely known and accepted it's hard to find a recent source directly talking about/studying it.

Instead, you see it mentioned as a given everywhere else, like: "Whether the first media fandom was U.N.C.L.E. or Star Trek, the women who built those fandoms tended to fit the profile of science fiction fans" (source)," "An offshoot of organized science-fiction fandom, media fandom formed around (mostly female) creative engagements with StarTrek in the late 1960s" (source), and"Media fandom as most of us know it is often largely a female space, by which I mean that many of the circles we run in are made up mostly of women" (source).

There is this Demographic study of AO3 users from Feb 2023 I found though, if you want something more direct and recent.

Of course this barely scratches the surface--there's much discussion of how race impacts gendered spaces (e.g. critique of fandom as white women's space, not as a women's space), the limited gender binary in studies (how does queerness and queer gender factor in), and more. And of course this doesn't mean only women participate in fandom spaces either. But that's more of the rabbit hole and this is long enough.

Also--not an expert, just took a class on fandom once :)

i realise almost everyone who shares their name on kotlc AND i see regularly is a girl. like, is that supposed to mean anything? or is it more coincidental that there are a lot of girls on here? not that it matters but im a girl too