![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michaeldthomasThis question has come up for the umpteenth time on Gallifrey Base. I think I can finally give everybody a definitive answer.
It's complicated.
In many ways, the book Chicks Dig Time Lords exists to answer this question (yes, I've read the manuscript. Feel free to be jealous). Many of the contributors' essays give partial answers based on personal anecdotal evidence. Combining that with the evidence I've picked up through the years from my own experiences, talking to numerous fans from both sides of the Atlantic, and reading many nonfiction pieces about Doctor Who fandom, I think I have an idea about the history of the gender splits in fandom.
First of all, Doctor Who viewership has always been split equally between males and females. This is true of both the Classic Series and the New Series. The tricky part comes when you start to use the word "fan." I'm going to define fans as the people who in one way or another participated in fan activities. This includes fan club memberships, convention attendance, and the creation or consumption of transformative works (fanzines, fanfic, fan art, etc.).
The fan gender splits are based on two significant factors: nationality and the era of fandom.
Let's start with the first Doctor Who fandom. I will mark this era as starting with the formation of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in 1976 and ending with the series cancellation in 1989 (there were fans before DWAS, but this is where fandom really grows and becomes a force). What we have is a tale of two nations (I'll let my Canadian and Australian friends talk about their splits. I simply don't have enough information about their Doctor Who fandoms). In the UK, men dominated Doctor Who fandom. The figures I've seen through the years indicate it may have been as severe as an 80/20 split. Why? One famous UK fan hypothesizes that this was due to a lack of a female media fan tradition in the UK (girls and women were much more likely to be pop star fans). Not surprisingly, men also dominated most of the prominent positions in UK fandom.
This simply wasn't the case in US fandom. When the series became popular on local PBS stations in the early 1980s, we already had a long tradition of female media fans. Star Trek fandom had a huge number female fans, and that fandom became the model for Doctor Who fandom in the US. It seems that at the very least the US Doctor Who fandom had a 50/50 gender split. If anything, there might have been more female fans than male fans. A large number of women also held prominent positions in fandom. They ran conventions, published fanzines, and created the bulk of the fan fiction.
The next era of fandom was the Wilderness Years between series from 1990-2004. In the UK, the prominent fans essentially became the series creators (the Virgin/BBC novels, BBV films and audios, Big Finish audios). This product catered to the UK fan demographic taste. Though the fan numbers dwindled, the severe split remained constant.
The cancellation of the series gutted US fandom (over 50 US conventions a year became 2). Strangely, it also shifted the gender demographics. It's difficult to get hard numbers, but I would estimate that US fandom became close to 2/3 male during this time period. It seems that many of the female Doctor Who fans moved on to new media fandoms during this period (X-Files, Babylon 5, Stargate, etc.). There was a slight bounce back after the Paul McGann movie, but the female fans disappeared again with 00s.
That brings us to the current New Series era. Suddenly, the women came back to US fandom. The interesting new twist is that UK fandom has also finally hit the 50/50 gender split. I don't feel this has anything to do with relationships or sexy Doctors. Women have always enjoyed Doctor Who. Because there is a show in production and the Internet has made it very easy to participate in fan activities, the fandom split finally reflects the viewership numbers.
We live in a glorious time. :-)
It's complicated.
In many ways, the book Chicks Dig Time Lords exists to answer this question (yes, I've read the manuscript. Feel free to be jealous). Many of the contributors' essays give partial answers based on personal anecdotal evidence. Combining that with the evidence I've picked up through the years from my own experiences, talking to numerous fans from both sides of the Atlantic, and reading many nonfiction pieces about Doctor Who fandom, I think I have an idea about the history of the gender splits in fandom.
First of all, Doctor Who viewership has always been split equally between males and females. This is true of both the Classic Series and the New Series. The tricky part comes when you start to use the word "fan." I'm going to define fans as the people who in one way or another participated in fan activities. This includes fan club memberships, convention attendance, and the creation or consumption of transformative works (fanzines, fanfic, fan art, etc.).
The fan gender splits are based on two significant factors: nationality and the era of fandom.
Let's start with the first Doctor Who fandom. I will mark this era as starting with the formation of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in 1976 and ending with the series cancellation in 1989 (there were fans before DWAS, but this is where fandom really grows and becomes a force). What we have is a tale of two nations (I'll let my Canadian and Australian friends talk about their splits. I simply don't have enough information about their Doctor Who fandoms). In the UK, men dominated Doctor Who fandom. The figures I've seen through the years indicate it may have been as severe as an 80/20 split. Why? One famous UK fan hypothesizes that this was due to a lack of a female media fan tradition in the UK (girls and women were much more likely to be pop star fans). Not surprisingly, men also dominated most of the prominent positions in UK fandom.
This simply wasn't the case in US fandom. When the series became popular on local PBS stations in the early 1980s, we already had a long tradition of female media fans. Star Trek fandom had a huge number female fans, and that fandom became the model for Doctor Who fandom in the US. It seems that at the very least the US Doctor Who fandom had a 50/50 gender split. If anything, there might have been more female fans than male fans. A large number of women also held prominent positions in fandom. They ran conventions, published fanzines, and created the bulk of the fan fiction.
The next era of fandom was the Wilderness Years between series from 1990-2004. In the UK, the prominent fans essentially became the series creators (the Virgin/BBC novels, BBV films and audios, Big Finish audios). This product catered to the UK fan demographic taste. Though the fan numbers dwindled, the severe split remained constant.
The cancellation of the series gutted US fandom (over 50 US conventions a year became 2). Strangely, it also shifted the gender demographics. It's difficult to get hard numbers, but I would estimate that US fandom became close to 2/3 male during this time period. It seems that many of the female Doctor Who fans moved on to new media fandoms during this period (X-Files, Babylon 5, Stargate, etc.). There was a slight bounce back after the Paul McGann movie, but the female fans disappeared again with 00s.
That brings us to the current New Series era. Suddenly, the women came back to US fandom. The interesting new twist is that UK fandom has also finally hit the 50/50 gender split. I don't feel this has anything to do with relationships or sexy Doctors. Women have always enjoyed Doctor Who. Because there is a show in production and the Internet has made it very easy to participate in fan activities, the fandom split finally reflects the viewership numbers.
We live in a glorious time. :-)
