Why Stan Culture is Problematic, Written by a Stan

Aggressive fandoms going after each other and celebrities is killing the enjoyment of social media, as they grow more rabid and hostile by the day. And unfortunately, it’s also been taking people’s lives.

What is stan culture, anyway? Well, to answer that, it’s important to know what ‘stan’ truly means. The word ‘stan’ comes from a song named “Stan” released by Eminem and Dido back in 2000. The lyrics of the song is written from the point-of-view of Stan, a dangerously crazy, psychopathic stalker who happens to be obsessed with Eminem. And since we’re on the topic, feel free to watch the beautiful music video of this modern classic here:

To put it simply, being a stan of someone means being a dedicated fan of someone or something. You can be a stan of celebrities, idols, TV shows, TV characters, and maybe even political figures.

The word ‘stan’ has made way into our lexicon today, and is pretty standard Gen Z slang. However, it has been repurposed to mean something a bit lighter and less violent. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say that they stan someone and mean it unironically. But even so, it has always carried around a negative connotation, especially because stans have always had questionable behavior. Not only are they the first life of defense for the idols and celebrities they worship, but when you go against whomever they admire, they will relentlessly come at you like a pack of hyenas.

Stan culture is the culture online where dedicated fans come together to rain support, and discuss all the details about their favorites. Unfortunately, what’s supposed to be a good thing has devolved into an arena where stans go against each other to prove that their idol is better than the others. While there are positive ways to show their support like fancams and endless praises, toxic things like fan wars, online bullying, and cancelling someone are all encouraged in here. And in some cases, the people who are meanest to celebrities are their stans themselves.

So it’s no surprise that people who are not part of this culture look down at those who partake in these things. It seems crazy looking from the outside, but once you’re there, it’s not hard to be sucked into the whole mess. I mean, we all have that one thing we can’t shut up about, and only a handful of people also appreciate.

Listen, I am a self-proclaimed stan of certain celebrities, and I even have a stan account (a separate social media account for the sole purpose of fangirling over things you stan) that I handle. I am a pretty active reader of different subreddits that are meant for fandoms to come together. So this is not just another article villainizing being a stan, but it’s a precautionary measure to hopefully make you think twice of your actions.

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Why do we have to cancel people and keep on making #IsOver parties?

Twitter is probably where the stan culture is at full effect, and every week, it seems like there’s always a new celebrity receiving massive hate for small things. I’m not talking about racist, homophobic, or transphobic comments that could genuinely harm people, but petty drama reserved for trashy reality TV.

Of course, who could forget the #TaylorSwiftIsOver party back in 2016 that forced her into hiding for sometime? Ever since then, it seems like there’s someone finding and replacing the hashtag with the name of a celebrity. While I personally enjoyed the drama it gave us, can we just talk about how it always achieves nothing? Since then, Swift had released two albums and went on a globally successful tour. Not once did she ever become irrelevant, and the same can be said for the other people who found themselves getting “exposed” on Twitter.

Let’s reserve those hashtags for scumbags like the cops, Brock Turner, Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, and countless others — people who actually put people’s lives in harm.

Have you ever noticed how much more women celebrities get “cancelled” as opposed to their male counterparts?

A lot of people preach about feminism and female empowerment, but they don’t realize the amount of hate they give towards successful women. Often, the reasons for cancelling them are often unfounded. They could just be liking a tweet that implies they do not get along with someone, and they’d get massive backlash over it. While I’m not a fan of Demi Lovato myself, it’s crazy how much flack she’s getting for daring not to be friends with Selena Gomez.

If Justin Bieber circa 2013 were a woman, his career would be over. But because he’s an attractive young boy, he got a free pass and went on to have success in music. Hell, his bad boy persona probably sold him more records. Do we even need to talk about Chris Brown who beat up Rihanna, and is still getting hits? Or how about Dr. Luke who is publicly known to have abused Kesha, but just made a Hot 100 comeback with “Say So”?

Why are women getting all the heat for the littlest things? Fellow stans, we can do better than this. I’d like you to be a little more mindful about the gender of the people you hate, and see if the reasons you have for not liking them are justified.

Why do we need to undercut the success of other celebrities?

I don’t understand why some stans can’t be happy for other people, and keep on parading their idols around like they’re the best thing in the world since sliced bread. Okay, I am calling out myself on this. Do you all remember the Grammys this year when Billie Eilish swept the four major categories? Lana del Rey and Ariana Grande stans alike were furious as their idols lost out on to Eilish for the Best Album award.

While there was a lot of uproar over this decision, a lot of people got angry at Eilish herself even when she was not part of the selection process. Moreover, she went on stage to literally say that Ariana deserved the award. So why do we have to send out hate to her?

Why can’t we accept genuine apologies?

This one really gets under my skin. It seems like stan culture can’t accept any apologies, and once you are caught guilty of doing something irresponsible, you can’t try and mend those fences no matter what you do.

I will hold out on naming any examples, because doing so would imply that I agree with the apologizer’s actions. But my point is that we shouldn’t be accepting apologies just because they did, but it’s always good to read or listen to them without judgement beforehand. It’s not good being cynical all the time either. The lack of empathy and genuine intent to listen from stan culture is pretty alarming. It’s pretty common for celebrities to say their piece, and just be made fun of even if they got their point across. We can’t preach forgiveness and mercy when we can’t practice it ourselves.

Why can’t we be kinder?

I am still heartbroken today, weeks after the death of Terrace House and rising professional wrestling star Hana Kimura. After receiving huge backlash from her stint in Terrace House, she took her own life. As a fan of both the Netflix show and professional wrestling, I was pretty devastated, especially when I remembered that she was just my age and had a bright future ahead of her.

It was crazy because only a week prior, I had watched the scene in Terrace House that seemed to launch all the haters against her. People were sending her death threats, or wishing for her to kill herself. And even after the fact, I saw tweets that celebrated her death. Could you imagine what was going through her head when she had read those things? Probably not. All of this hate from dedicated fans of the show contributed to her death, and it is honestly sickening.

While I have been through a personal event that changed my view on cyberbullying, this just helped me even more in realizing that I need to be kinder in social media, even to celebrities. Because as Hana’s death reminds us, the people on our screens are just like us: they want to be loved. Celebrities are frustrating, but most of the time, they haven’t done anything grave that warrants being burned at the stake. We can’t keep losing people to harsh words and hate.

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So where do we go from here?

I think it’s high time that we reevaluate how we interact with each other in the stan landscape. This is a bigger issue that needs to be addressed by the social media giants who have the power to regulate the posts that we see in our feeds.

On the individual level though, there are a lot of things that we can do to encourage positivity within our own communities. As much as celebrities need to change, we also have to pick up our own weight, and practice empathy. Support the people you want, but not at the expense of others. Hold people accountable and be critical of their work all you want, but don’t be mean. If you really can’t stop hating someone, just keep your hateful thoughts to yourself. There are already too many Negative Nancy’s in the world, and we don’t need another one.

Instead, with all the turmoil in the world, why not use your platform to help out others? I already see countless stan accounts raising awareness on movements, educating others on issues, and encouraging them to sign petitions, donate, etc. The followers of your stan account are probably people whom you don’t know personally, so you could reach those who are not too familiar with global issues.

Hey, if the K-pop stans you hate so much are doing their part in the movement by overloading despicable hashtags like #WhiteLivesMatter with fancams, then maybe stan culture isn’t so bad after all. And in true stan fashion, I will now end this post by telling you to stream eight by IU and SUGA!

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Featured Image: Jon Tyson on Unsplash