I went down memory lane the other day and looked into the archive.org archives of some of my favorite fansites. These sites were a haven for me as a child. The meticulous collection of information about a game, the art, the writing, and the tutorials on how to code, draw, and write - they were tremendously inspiring.
One thing I had not realized was just how many of these sites were run by teenage girls and women. For example, The Cave of Dragonflies (still active!) was started by a 12-year-old girl. Mewtwofan's site (defunct) was run by an adult woman. Mew's Hangout was started by a teen girl. Team Rocket's Rockin' was started by an adult woman. And there were many more sites since lost to time, started by female fans.
Much of modern fan studies and fan culture that deals with gender focuses on fanfiction as the major mode through which women engaged with fandom. I've written fanfiction myself, as have many of these ladies (the Cave of Dragonflies owner has written and completed a fifty something chapter Pokemon epic). For some reason, women's technical achievements as webmasters or webmistresses have gone unnoticed. Many of these sites weren't just static html, but had Javascript, or used CGI scripts, or Perl, or ASP.net, or some other technology. Working with hosting providers, getting domains set up, coding fan games for the web - these teach and show technical competence. I find it sad that perspectives on girls and women in fandom ignore how women have been involved in cataloguing knowledge or technical performance, especially by promoting the false "curatorial versus transformative" fandom dichotomy.
The curatorial versus transformative dichotomy posits that there are two gendered ways of interacting with fandom. "Curatorial" involves cataloguing, collecting, and otherwise engaging with the "rules" of the property. "Transformative" involves imagining alternative worlds, "headcanons," and collective fan interpretation of events. Curatorial is supposedly masculine and transformative is supposedly feminine. Curatorial fandom is also viewed as stale, stagnant, uninspiring, and even oppressive, whereas transformative is viewed as liberatory and creative. The implication is clear - there is a good, progressive, "feminist" way to be a part of fandom and it's not curatorial. Women are attracted to transformative fandom because they are not represented in media. Men are attracted to curatorial fandom to shore up their status as the keepers of canon.
This history of forgotten female sites complicates that narrative substantially. These sites feature blends of curatorial and transformative content, as well as content that cannot clearly be slotted into either one. Are fan spirtes curatorial or transformative? What about fan art or cosplay that values being true to the source material?