About
Geek. Nerd. Fan.
When cis, het, white men engage in fandom, their activities are celebrated.
But is the same true of gender expansive people in fandom? What media is worthy of a fanbase? Is there a "right" and "wrong" way to participate in fan communities?
Those are the questions I hope to explore with Grrrl Fans.
Hi, I’m Sage (she/they)
I’m a 40-something based in Pennsylvania, USA. I really like to blog. So much so that I have multiple. You could say that I have a million and one interests and that my blogs represent that.
Grrrl Fans
This space exists because I’m fascinated by the intersection of fandom and gender identity. Particularly, how gender expansive individuals interact with fandoms they enjoy.
Over the years, I’ve observed that fan communities can be toxic spaces. Not always, of course, but often enough for me to take notice. The participation of white, cis, hetero men is often front and center, while contributions from marginalized groups can face harassment.
Yet, in my opinion, fan communities are richer when they are more diverse.
To that end, I’d like to use Grrrl Fans to highlight gender expansive people in fan communities. I hope to explore media with large followings in this demographic, as well as the contributions of creators and fans. I hope this makes sense. If it doesn’t, hopefully, it will become clear as more content goes live.
More specifically, I see Grrrl Fans as a place to learn. Meaning, I'd like to learn as much as I can about fan communities, creators, etc and share what I've learned here. Please don't treat me like an expert, I'm far from it!
A Hybrid Approach
In the long term, I see Grrrl Fans having a mix of public content and subscriber-only content.
Subscriber content
📚Book Club
Starting in Fall 2026, I plan to host readalongs of books that deal with gender expansive people in fandom. The books included here will primarily be nonfiction and will serve as a way for me to learn more about fandom spaces. I invite you, if you're interested, to join me in my journey. By subscribing to my free tier, I will Email you my thoughts about what I'm reading, questions I have, and invite your responses.
In addition, you will receive:
1️⃣ The ability to comment on all free content.
2️⃣ All new free content will automatically be Emailed to you.
3️⃣ Access to my archive of free content.
Blog (public)
Hopefully, I'll be learning stuff as I read. As I learn, I hope to be able to write periodic blog posts about what I learned.
Look out for blog posts called something like "[Topic] 101" or "A Brief History of [Topic]."
Intrigued?
Room For Even More
I'm still trying to figure things out, so please bear with me.
A PSA
I feel like this shouldn’t need to be said, but just so we’re all on the same page, I’m going to say it. I recognize that:
🏳️⚧️ Trans women are women.
🏳️⚧️ It’s possible to be feminine presenting while not identifying as a woman.
I see you. Your identities are valid and I will do my best to be as inclusive as possible. If you feel like something I wrote is not inclusive of those identities, please know that this wasn’t intentional on my part. If you have any concerns you’d like to discuss, I invite you to reach out.
Let’s Connect
I set up a Discord server to accompany this blog. If you’re on Discord, I’d love to have you.
I’m also posting occasionally on Tumblr.