4 Times In 2023 Fans Were As Influential As The Things They Loved

Fandom may be something people participate in on their own time, perhaps in the privacy of online communities or convention halls, but it undoubtedly has an impact across the world. In recent years, the strategies used by politicians and leading social movements have increasingly resembled those of fandom. This is particularly true for tactics developed in the digital and physical fan space to increase visibility and impact. At the same time, the fandom is changing and evolving.

Driven by passion, fans make things happen. Sometimes these accomplishments only matter within each individual fandom—producing a zine, creating a character or celebrity trend, starting a new meme. But sometimes they reach further than expected, beyond the fan realms, and really get things moving.

Looking at the achievements of fandom communities this year is a great way to get a bird’s eye view of fandom Is, at a time when more people are engaging in fandom than ever before. In 2023, the fans came and made their voices heard. They started projects, saved shows, supported strikes and even rescued historical figures from obscurity. Here are just a few of the fandom’s most impressive achievements from this year.

Fans go on strike

When the Writers Guild of America announced that its members would go on strike this May, fans took the news in stride. Of course, it was disappointing to hear this production on many fan-favorite shows Stranger Things, would pause thanks to the strike action. More importantly, fans supported the actions of the WGA and later SAG-AFTRA, which were necessary for writers and actors to earn protection and fair wages in their industries.

Although some troll posts led people to believe that fans were against the strike, that couldn’t have been more untrue. It was quite the opposite: fans worked hard to spread information about how best to support the striking writers and actors. Independent, fan-run blogs like sagwgastrikeupdates And fans4wga regularly communicated the latest news on the strikes and answered questions about how best to avoid fan activity crossing the picket lines.

And while some fans were sad, the shows that came out during the strike were like fan favorites Good omens And Our flag means death, Although there have never been traditional, actor- and writer-focused press tours for fans to obsess over alongside new episodes, fans are putting their feelings aside to advocate for fairness. OFMD fans appeared in person at the picket lines and, when the strike ended, were rewarded with a deluge of behind-the-scenes content enjoyed by the stars Vico Ortiz And Leslie Jones shared on TikTok.

A memorial plaque for Hester Leggatt

West End comedy musical Operation Mincemeat has built a following of mincefluencers since his Off-West End days at Riverside Studios. It’s a strange show that closely resembles the Broadway hit Six, was written and developed by a company of Fringe Festival artists. And how Six it was also inspired by true story. Like Colin Firth’s film of the same name (with which he otherwise has no connection) Operation Mincemeat was inspired by real events during World War II, when a group of MI5 agents managed to distract the Nazis by planting false information on a corpse.

The musical’s main characters are based on real historical figures, including Hester Leggatt, a secretary at MI5. She participated in the war operation by helping to establish the false identity of the corpse by writing love letters to “Bill Martin” which were placed on the corpse. In the musical, this work is immortalized in the tearful song “Dear Bill”. In the song “Useful,” Hester thinks that instead of a statue, she would rather be recognized by “just a little plaque / Something tasteful and small.”

Unlike the story’s male protagonists, about whom biographical details abound, little was known about the real Hester Leggatt – just enough to create her character in the musical. But fans went much, much further, digging up biographical records in the National Archives and London’s Imperial War Museum to shed light on details of Leggatt’s life. Fans found census records, test results and handwriting samples that matched the real letter to “Bill.”

Eventually their research culminated in this a letter from MI5 confirming Legatt’s employment, which until then were considered classified information. A plaque honoring Leggatt is to be unveiled outside the Fortune Theater Operation Mincemeat plays December 11th. Thanks to fans’ hard work uncovering her story, Hester Leggatt is finally getting the recognition she has long deserved.

Save the sapphic show

Fan campaigns are nothing new, but their persistence year after year is a testament not only to fans’ ability to self-organize and persevere, but also to the continued divergence of studios, networks, and streaming platforms’ priorities from what they want passionate fan communities. In 2023, the shows that fans rallied behind included animated show Star Trek: Prodigy And the CWs Supernatural Prequel The Winchesters. However, behind the canceled shows were the most notable fan campaigns A league of its own And Warrior nun.

Passionate fans craving queer representation have helped save shows like this Sense8; Fans have also come together to start a campaign The 100 changing certain storylines. A league of its own was renewed, only to be un-renewed by Amazon in August of this year, and fans immediately began organizing, seeing that it was worth fighting back against this condescending treatment. Fan activists behind accounts like @ALOTOHomeRun have kept the series trending and are hoping for a second season that continues to explore the queer and black characters that made the series a powerful adaptation of the original 1992 film. They kept the show trending on X (formerly Twitter) and in return, they kept it trending The showrunners promised that they are still trying to find a way forward for the show.

The fans’ impressive show of support for Warrior nun began late last year when Netflix confirmed that the popular drama about an ass-kicking nun (played by Alba Baptista) would not be returning for a third season. After creating a Discord server called Sapphics in Pain, fans started organizing – and didn’t stop. They were until well into 2023 Spend hours of volunteer work on analytical research and strategic analysis at a professional level, The goal was to conclusively prove to network stakeholders that their beloved show was worth picking up for a new season. Her hard work was rewarded as executive producer Dean English announced that the series would return as a trilogy of feature films – However, due to the lack of involvement from the original series’ writers, it’s a cautious win for the die-hard fans.

Swifties united

Photo: Daniel Knighton/Getty Images

Thanks to the start of the omnipresent Eras Tour and the constant (new) releases of Taylor’s version albums, the Swifties consolidated their power and emerged as a stalwart and unstoppable bloc in 2023. Swifties are behind trends like Friendship bracelet trading And wears sparkly bootsBut there’s more to it than just aesthetics – Taylor Swift’s huge community of die-hard fans have also used their influence to try to make visible change and make a mark on issues that matter to them.

In early November, Swifties in Argentina spoke out against right-wing political candidate Javier Milei. Formation of a group called Swifties Against Freedom Advances to try to convince other fans not to vote for him. In the end, however, it wasn’t enough to make the difference and he ended up winning.

Further Swifty fan campaigns in South America are underway. One fan, Ana Clara Benevides Machado, died at one of Swift’s Brazilian shows during an extreme heat wave. Fan outcry following this incident was widespread, but the American-language media was slow to report the incident, aside from Swift’s initial statement about the tragedy. The fans rose to the occasion to translate Brazilian news about the schedule of events and event topics, and even raised money for the family of the deceased fan. This culminated in Swift paying for the family to come from their rural home to see her concert, where she posed for a photo She wears t-shirts with Ana’s face on them.