Sensitive Fannish Face

(1) Term used to describe fans, referring to the confluence of large amounts of body fat, glasses and facial hair (the latter chiefly in male fans) marking so many fans. Always seemed to be used in faanfiction as marginally self satirical, as in the assertion that fans can sometimes tell that someone else is a fan because they had a Sensitive Fannish Face.

(2) Code at one point, according to Rusty Hevelin, for gay fans – perhaps because the phrase was another of those that were either coined or popularized by Charles Burbee.

Contributors: Dr. Gafia

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

According to Burbee, a fan can be identified by his sensitive fannish face and the Strange Wild Look there-on. Extension applied the modifiers to other fannish things and characteristics.