About The Learned Fangirl

The Learned Fangirl is committed to highlighting and nurturing under-reported writing focused on media, technology, and online culture by providing access and opportunity for women and people of color to publish media and cultural critiques that are too often ignored by the mainstream media. Free from the dictates of commercial pressure, TLF is dedicated to creating an independent media space, for underrepresented writers and critics to publish challenging critiques and research focused on mass media, technology and society in general. To further its mission to supporting the future development of writers’ careers, TLF, unlike most other similar online and print publications, is committed to writers retaining copyright in their work, allowing writers to further to grow ideas first sprouted at TLF.

The Learned Fangirl is fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Contact us @ thelearnedfangirl @ gmail [.dot.] com, with inquiries and requests or any kind, or just to say hi!

We do not accept sponsored content. We define sponsored content as content marketers want placed on sites to promote their products without critical analysis.

The Learned Fangirl Editors

Keidra Chaney (Publisher/Editor In Chief)  is a writer and editor. She’s written about music and culture for Chicago Sun-Times, Paste Magazine, Time Out Chicago and Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture. She’s especially interested in online fan communities and the intersection between fan works and labor. In what little spare time she has, she’s a musician. Read more about Keidra.

Raizel Liebler (Managing Editor) frequently presents and writes about the interaction between new disruptive technologies and the law, including focusing on copyright and rights of publicity. Her work has been cited by the California Supreme Court and in the New York Times – and is prominently cited on the Ninth Circuit’s website.  She writes here about intellectual property issues, and the impact of law on online user-generated content, and Korean pop music and dramas.

Kristin Bezio (Games Editor) has been published in academic journals on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, co-edited volumes of Jane Austen’s juvenilia, and has a forthcoming chapter on Batman: Arkham Asylum in a critical anthology on the Joker. She’s spoken on misogyny and the gaming community at Social Media Club of Richmond (SMCRVA), and presented at conferences on early modern drama, medieval history, contemporary literature, and videogames – just not all of them at the same time. She has a husband and two cats, her own Xbox, two computers, and a Droid. Her blog is here.

Vivian Obarski is a Madison freelance writer. In her spare time she loves mysteries, gaming and chasing her daughter around.

The Learned Fangirl Contributing Writers

Angel Cruz is a writer and boy band scholar. You can also find her at Women Write About Comics for your books/manga/TV coverage, and at Book Riot for all things literature.

[Angel’s Previous TLF Writing]

Tai Gooden is a freelance writer, mom, wife, and dedicated Whovian. She has written for BlackGirlNerds, The Guardian, Paper Magazine, Paste Magazine, The Frisky, Geek & Sundry, MadameNoire, Upworthy, The Mary Sue, and many others. When Tai is not waiting for the TARDIS, she’s either on Twitter (@taigooden) or writing because she needs money for comics

[Tai’s Previous TLF Writing]

Inda Lauryn is a writer and freelance editor. She writes about a number of interests including pop culture, Black feminism, womanism, social justice and the intersections among them.

[Inda’s Previous TLF Writing]

Betsy Scott writes about comics and cosplay in Chicago

[Betsy’s Previous TLF Writing]

The Learned Fangirl Citations

Excluding self-citations, these are academic and academic-ish writing that cites to work published at TLF:

• Daniel R. Cahoy, Toward a Fair Social Use Framework for College and University Intellectual Property, 41 J.C. & U.L. 485 (2015) (citing Raizel’s Copyright Hall of Janus?: Harvard University’s Two- Faced Approach to Copyright)
• Debora Halbert, The State of Copyright: The Complex Relationships of Cultural Creation in a Globalized World 208 & 256 (Routledge 2014)(citing Raizel’s Lexicon of Love?: Why the Harry Potter Lexicon Lawsuit Isn’t Only About Derivative Works and Fair Use)
• Stacey Morrison and Ricardo Gomez, Pushback: The Growth of Expressions of Resistance to Constant Online Connectivity, in First Monday, 19(8) (2014) doi:10.5210/fm.v19i8.4902 (citing Laura J.’s Why I Said Goodbye to Facebook)
• Jules Wilkinson, A box of mirrors, a unicorn, and a pony, 4 Transformative Works and Cultures (2010) http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2010.0159 (citing Keidra’s Fans vs. Freaks: Media Coverage of Fandom)
• Debora Halbert, Mass Culture and the Culture of the Masses: A Manifesto for User-Generated Rights, 11 Vanderbilt J. Entertainment & Technology L. 11, 921 (2009)(citing Raizel’s Lexicon of Love?: Why the Harry Potter Lexicon Lawsuit Isn’t Only About Derivative Works and Fair Use

Intent Statement

Our writing here reflects our individual viewpoints, not those of our employers. We have different perspectives, so we don’t agree on everything, but appreciate the importance of being critical.

Copyright Statement

This site as a whole — as a complilation —  is copyrighted by The Learned Fangirl. However, each individual post belongs to the author and they can post or reuse their own words as they want.

We love fair use! We rely on fair use in our critical analysis. Though not technically a fair use factor, we very much appreciate citing back to quotes and more you find here.