A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of affinity with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest differentiating them from those with only a casual interest. In the episode Song 184: The Captain’s Fat Theresa Shoes by the GTOs in the podcast "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs", read more here (opens in a new window) creator, writer, researcher, host, and editor Andrew Hickey apply another layer to the subject, namely gendering. The masculine way is called curatorial fandom. This involves extreme detail-orientation, collecting, learning everything. It tends to attach to objects rather than to people. The feminine way is called transformative fandom. This involves using the original work as inspiration for creative work of one’s own — fanfiction, fan art, cosplay and the like. It tends to attach to people rather than to objects. According to Andrew Hickey (who is definitely a curatorial fan himself) neither of these two ways of doing fandom is superior or inferior to the other. However, these two ways of fandom have a problem when it comes to communicating. Imagine a male completist meeting a female music lover. He: "What, you don't have any physical media at all and cannot or will not rank your favourite albums with the artist!" She: "I don't know. I guess I like them all." The key to true understanding is active listening, keeping an open mind, and asking the right questions. It requires setting aside your own personal bias to truly see things from another perspective or context. However, the curatorial and transformative fandom will never meet or even acknowledge each other's existence.