Who Gets Written In? Gender, Identity, and Moderation in AO3’s Celebrity Fanfiction

Key findings from this study

This research indicates that:

Key points

• Male characters are disproportionately over-represented in Real Person Fiction on AO3 despite the platform's feminist design commitments.
• Readers are frequently portrayed as sexual figures within narratives, positioning audience members in sexualized roles alongside public figures.
• Relationship portrayals in RPF tend to mirror occupational hierarchies and reconstruct conventional gender tropes rather than disrupting them.

Overview

Archive of Our Own hosts Real Person Fiction (RPF) based on public figures rather than fictional characters. This study conducts large-scale computational analysis of RPF on AO3 to examine gender representation, thematic diversity, and occupational portrayals within the platform's stated feminist design commitments.

Methods and approach

Large-scale computational analysis of Real Person Fiction content on Archive of Our Own, examining gender representation patterns, thematic diversity, and occupational portrayals across the dataset.

Results

Analysis reveals significant gender imbalance in RPF, with male characters substantially over-represented relative to female characters. Relationship portrayals on the platform tend to mirror occupational roles and incorporate sexual elements while reconstructing conventional gender tropes. Readers themselves are frequently portrayed as sexual figures within the narratives, indicating a pattern where audience members occupy sexualized positions alongside real public figures.

Implications

The identified gender imbalances and sexual positioning patterns suggest tension between AO3's stated feminist design ethos and the actual content moderation outcomes within its RPF category. These patterns warrant interrogation regarding how platform affordances and community norms shape content creation and whether current moderation practices adequately align with institutional commitments to inclusivity and equity.

The intersection of authorship, identity, and power dynamics in RPF requires further examination to understand how platform features enable or constrain equitable representation. These findings contribute to broader conversations in feminist human-computer interaction development about designing digital ecosystems that meaningfully advance equity rather than inadvertently reproducing gender hierarchies through user-generated content.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.

Disclosure

• Research title: Who Gets Written In? Gender, Identity, and Moderation in AO3’s Celebrity Fanfiction
• Authors: Peixian Zhang, Gareth Tyson
• Publication date: 2026-04-13
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791973
• OpenAlex record: View
• Image credit: Photo by Tina Devidze on Unsplash (Source • License)
• Disclosure: This post was generated by Claude (Anthropic). The original authors did not write or review this post.