ABSTRACT
UFO folklore presents a fruitful opportunity to examine how power functions within folklore generally. One way in which folklore is studied is as a form of “outsider” discourse that often challenges institutionalized narratives. This framework is explicit within UFO folklore of the United States, as it is easy to identify a “people’s UFO” narrative which counters “official” government representations. It is also fairly easy to identify the interplay of power and related tensions through historical moments in which these tensions have been revealed. Oral tradition and now social media provide a space of resistance to government and presumed neutral media representations of UFO events. This essay identifies stages of UFO folklore from the 1940s until the early 2000s and reveals how official narratives were created and contested by believers in the United States. It also integrates something that is left out of many academic treatments—the explicit strategies used by government agents to manage the UFO narrative. The complicated nature of stealth folklore presents an interesting view of intentional disinformation narratives within seemingly autonomous or grassroots movements.
