Gay fanfiction dilemma

Gay fanfiction is one life’s simple joys — but it does pose one major problem for writers. The problem is so big, in fact, that it garnered attention from actual linguists, including social media’s resident linguistic expert human “Have you heard of the gay fanfiction problem?” human asked in a viral TikTok.

I recently came across a YouTube video about something humorously called “The Gay Fanfiction Problem,” – more commonly known as ambiguous pronouns – and I wanted to talk about it. The Gay FanFiction Problem refers to the issue of ambiguity when more than one person is referred to by the same pronoun.

This essay examines queer fanfiction, or fiction based on previous narratives, through the lens of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s theory of “reparative readings” to argue that fanfiction is the instantiation of “loving criticism,” and of grassroots queer praxis. I explain fanfiction and its common constructs, and then explore how queer reading functions to challenge and subvert.

Gretchen: One thing that happens with third-person pronouns is what I have called in a blog post The Gay Fanfiction Problem. Lauren: That very serious linguistic problem.