Anti-fan Information & Anti-fan Links at HealthHaven.com

While fan studies, as part of media audience research has traditionally positioned the fan as one who engages with their text of choice to the extent of actively 'participating' in activities outside of classical consumption patterns, little research has been undertaken about those who engage just as obsessively with media texts they claim to loathe or find distasteful.

From laboriously constructed flash animations to extensive websites that extend beyond the limited scope of the work in question, Anti-fans spend a great deal of time, effort and considerable resources defiling, rallying against or applying methods of detournement to popular culture texts and celebrities.

To date research into this phenomenon has been very limited, but can be said to intersect with the work of Henry Jenkins of MIT fame (often cited as the source of the term participatory culture) and Matt Hills of the University of Cardiff.

[edit] Further reading

Henry Jenkins - the original champion of fan culture

[edit] Sports

A sports fan dedicated to cheering against a specific team. The concept is derived off of the sports-fan subculture and rivalries that exist amongst them. An "Anti-Fan" is said to cheer for whomever the opponent of their team is playing. This happens often in the set college sports as most colleges have defined or traditional rivals of whom they will never cheer for. This concept was built upon in a set of ESPN commercials tagged "Never Graduate" and "Long Live Rivalry" where graduates of popular colleges interact with graduates of rival schools in humorous agitating ways.

[edit] External links

An example of Anti-Fan communities.

FLAP - Fanatical League Against Pokémon.
Jodie Mush - Jodie Marsh Anti-Fans
TheAntiFans - The Anti Fans: best website ever