When people get into fandom, what draws them to one particular thing? There's so much media out there. What is the secret sauce that makes some fandoms into juggernauts that can shape pop culture and sell out conventions, and leaves others in obscurity? If it were formulaic and easy, everyone would be making the next Buffy or Harry Potter. What was it, then, that led so many LGBT+ teenagers to not just enjoy Sherlock, but dedicate an enormous chunk of their free time to blogging about it? In...

In 2013, LGBT+ representation on TV wasn't what it is now. The promise of good representation, especially representation in genre fiction and popular media, was irresistable to young people outside the mainstream of gender and sexuality. That was the atmosphere into which The Johnlock Conspiracy (TJLC) was birthed. In Bait and Switch, we explore the factors that created the theory, that led so many people to believe, and that eventually created durable fan communities that lasted long past...