I began researching fandom after fellow professor Kathy Larson and I unexpectedly fell head over heels for the television show Supernatural. Was it okay, we wondered, for two grown women with kids and careers to be so passionate about a television show? We decided to investigate the phenomenon, a journey that took us from coast to coast, from conventions and film sets to fan gatherings at local Starbucks. Eventually, we wrote a book: Fangasm. It turns out that being a fan – in the fandom sense – is about more than having a fondness for a television show, film, book or band. It’s about finding a group of like-minded people who love the same thing you do – a community that allows you to be yourself. For some, it’s the first time they’ve felt like they’ve belonged to anything.
A recent Facebook post by Star Trek fan Dawn Swingle captured Nimoy’s profound impact:
Like so many SciFi fans, I was the kid who didn’t fit in growing up…I could identify with Mr. Spock, who was the alien, but who was also a part of the Enterprise crew…Spock showed me that it was okay to be a nerd, that even in the future not everyone fit in, or needed to; and finally, that I wasn’t alone in feeling like an outsider…Soon after, I started finding others who shared my passion.
News coverage of conventions like Comic Con tend to lean toward the sensational – fans dressed as scantily-clad Princess Leias, or as Klingons who actually speak Klingon. But the creative costumes are only part of the story. While researching Fangasm, we attended a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. As we interviewed fan after fan, a theme emerged: family. Sometimes it was expressed literally (grandparents in cosplay pushing their grandchildren in strollers); other times, it existed figuratively – fans who found their best friends, their professions and their inspiration in shows like Star Trek.
So it’s no surprise that for many fans, the loss of Leonard Nimoy felt like the loss of a family member. Nimoy was happy to be known as the “geek grandpa,” and embraced his key role in history and development of fandom. Those early fans – who, so many years ago, fell in love with Kirk and Spock – proved that their passion could make a difference, that fan communities could be a force for good.
They took a page out of Star Trek and refused to apologize for being different. Just like Mr. Spock.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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