Femmefans

Femmefans are the opposite of fanboys, both in gender and demeanor.

The term femmefans or femmefen for female fans dates back to the days when there weren't very many, and has been superseded by more PC, less euphonious phrases like "women in fandom," but old-time fans still use it when a distinction between genders matters.

Men so outnumbered women in early fandom that when Lee Hoffman began to correspond with other fans, everyone thought she was male. Bob Tucker wrote that, in 1951, when she and two other fans trooped into his Nolacon 1 hotel room and introduced themselves, he had just stepped out of the shower and was so flabbergasted that he dropped his towel.

More women joined fandom in their own right rather than as a companion to a boyfriend or husband beginning in the late 1960s and early '70s, when the microcosm expanded exponentially in the wake of Star Trek. However, despite being in the minority, women nevertheless made an impact on fandom before then, among them Morojo, Helen Cloukey and Virginia Kidd, who were members of First Fandom, and Anna Sinclare Moffatt, Julian May and Dirce Archer, who chaired Worldcons.

Also see fanne.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

Explaining everything is contrary to our philosophy of education.

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Fanspeak

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.