Living a Fascist Life? - Purging the “Abnormal” Through Anti-Fannish Behavior

Abstract

This study uses Foucault’s theory of subjectivity for a deeper understanding of how anti-fans react to the insertion of political identities in the narratives of media products. The research considers the growing insertion of representativeness in the entertainment industry and the fact that fan communities are conducive to disagreements and resistance. The study assessed how Star Wars anti-fans reacted to the introduction of characters representative of political identities in the new phase of the saga. Foucault’s archeogenealogical method was used to analyze messages posted on the franchise’s biggest fan forum from 2014 to 2020. Results pointed to two moral agencies descriptive of intolerance and amorality, which converge to a subject-form searching for “normality.” These findings have indicated a segregation behavior, which perpetuates a given social status quo and mobilizes desires to impose it, a fact that features what Foucault defined as fascist life.