Textual Poachers, by Henry Jenkins, discusses the
alternative world of media fandom. People who identify with a fandom tend to
create fiction, artwork, and other forms of expression. "Jenkins
addresses a number of fannish phenomena, including fan fiction and fan-produced
music videos."(Textual Poachers) We tend to stereotype members of
fandom as out of touch obsessive nerds, but in reality they are proactive
members of this underground culture.
A popular gathering for fan based artwork and fiction is held
on Tumblr. There fans can upload SHIP and cannon artwork depicting their
favorite characters, sometimes even two or more characters from different
shows. "He offers the most plausible academic explanation yet for the
popularity of homoerotic fan fiction. Unlike earlier theorists who viewed this
fiction as pornography, he analyzes it as a holistic narrative structure which
includes--but is not limited to--depictions of sexual activity." (Textual
Poachers) Many popular fanfictions written within the culture are erotic, and
they come in all forms; straight, gay, lesbian, beast, if you can think of it,
it exists. 
Fan fiction is one of the few traditional forms of fan
creativity that allows fans to use the copyrighted characters and universe
without the fear of receiving a Cease and Desist letter. FanFiction.com is a
safe place for fans to post their literature that contains the use of
preexisting characters.
One subculture that can be found within any fandom and is
recently highly popular on Tumblr is the Yaoi fandom. Recently there has been
an increase in Yaoi/friendship themed anime that has been highly popular with
the female fans. As a result the internet has been flooded with more Yaoi
themed artwork and fanfiction. There has even been a large increase in
genderbend cosplay, dressing as the character but as the opposite sex, and
transgender cosplay, dressing up as the character even though they are the
opposite sex.
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