2024 CON

The past few years have been rough for all of us - A pandemic! Environmental Disasters! Politics! The WORLD is on fire! And some of us have our own personal struggles as well. It can be hard to engage with fandom when everything is a struggle. Is fandom helpful? What role does it play in helping us move through struggles and grieve what we've lost?

Fandom is different now because media is different now--far more shows are released than we could ever watch, but the vast majority get short lifespans, often before new fans can find them; media is being pulled from streaming and not released in hard copy, and so on. Parallel to all this, social media continues to evolve to new platforms and with Gen Z coming into their own. How has changing times changed our fannish habits, approach to fandom, engagement with fandom, enjoyment of fandom, etc., and where things might be headed?

Everyone has their favorites, so let's talk about 'em! What do you gravitate toward as a writer or reader/watcher and why? We've had great conversations like this before and it's always a happy good time, so why not do it again!

Is there a line to draw when you are “too old” to flail and be in a fandom? Can you still appreciate shows and ships when you skew older than the typical demographic? While there has definitely been an uptick in queer media with and for older queer people, it still feels few and far between. Why are older fans drifting further from fandom and how do we feel about it?

We're all attending this con, to some degree, because femslash brings us joy. Let's dig back into just what we love about it -- the connections, the ships, the memories, the moments, the representation, and so much more -- and share that joy with each other again.