Nine Worlds Geek Fest

[jenoofer.livejournal.com]

Hi! Some of you may remember (or even have attended!) the Nine Worlds con a couple of years ago when Chris Barrie was one of the guests. I'm co-organising the LGBTQ+ track at this year's Nine Worlds, and am planning a session on LGBTQ+ representation in fandom. I'd like to include Red Dwarf as one of the fandoms to discuss because I know that the way queerness is represented in the show is very different to its representation in the fandom.

So I'm here to ask for a bit of help and some suggestions. How do you guys feel Red Dwarf fandom represents queer characters (by which I mean characters who are not heterosexual, not cis-gender or not sexual) compared to the show itself? Do you see fandom/fic as a way to deal with or 'fix' negative representations in the show? How do you deal with the show's sometimes negative representations of queerness?

At the moment I'm thinking the session is going to be a panel discussion with fic writers from different fandoms, but I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any other ideas - I have a 75 minute session to fill on the topic of LGBTQ+ representation in fanfiction/online fandom.

Any comments/suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!