ABSTRACT
The internet has exploded with communities based on discursive interaction. If online communities initially emerged from the margins of the medium, they now represent one of the great democratic achievements of recent technological development. From the growing body of research in the field, two results of great significance emerge. First, studies of the origin and function of online groups demonstrate the remarkable power of the medium to enable new forms of sociability. Second, research that enquires into the motives for joining and contributing to these groups demonstrates how online participation offers unique opportunities for pursuing identity-related projects that used to be impossible, or even inconceivable (Jones, 2002; Feenberg and Bakardjieva, 2004). In recent years, the internet has also been identified as a new and significant component of fan activity, allowing fans to overcome time and space to engage in communities, and to negotiate their relationship with their favourite celebrities or characters (Watson, 2002; Pullen, 2000, 2004). However, few of such analyses have focused on texts produced and consumed by lesbian fans, despite the fact that 'the celebrity image is especially likely to attract the authorial energies of those in marginal groups for whom recognition, legitimacy and positively evaluated identity are compelling issues' (Coombe, 1992: 378).
