Effie was SUCH a wonderful final guest for what I'm dubbing The Flourish Era of Fansplaining. 😭 You'll note the 9,000 things I listed in the blurb—self-inserts really do connect to such a huge range of fannish (and more broadly affective) behaviors and interests, and I can't wait to follow Effie's work on this stuff in the coming years.
(Also definitely recommend clicking through to the show notes to watch those TikToks....wild to compare what young fan creators are doing today, publicly with their own faces, vs Back In My Day lol)
Episode 221: Self-Inserts
On Episode 221, “Self-Inserts,” Elizabeth and Flourish welcome fan studies scholar Effie Sapuridis to talk about the wide world of self-inserts, including Y/N and x reader fic, imagines, shifting, and classic Mary Sues. Topics discussed include differences between platforms, including AO3, Wattpad, Tumblr, and especially TikTok; ties to things like roleplaying, LARPing, and theme parks; and whether self-insert forms are leading us towards a future of ~personalized AI storytelling~. Plus: they talk about why there’s so little academic work on self-inserts, and the ethical issues around continuing to study the Harry Potter fandom.
Click through to our site to listen or read a full transcript!
I'm not a prayin' man, but the night I found out my at-the-time-fiancé had been sending sex horny nasty horny sex asks to my friend on THIS VERY WEBSITE, I sat in the car in the parking lot of an abandoned church and watched a family of deer play in the snow, and it didn't quite feel like a sign because that part of Pennsylvania was mostly deer and abandoned buildings and snow, but it felt nice, and once the tears stopped, I looked down at my phone and my other friend had sent me a text that said, "HE'S TRYING TO CHEAT ON YOU ON THE ONE DIRECTION IMAGINES WEBSITE?" and I realized that life is all about your curated experience. A real choose-your-own-adventure deal. I have never seen someone post about One Direction on here in my life.