Thought Piece: A discussion on Stan Culture

• Why are people so quick to undermine people who are fans? What’s the difference between a fangirl and a sports fan?

Throughout my entire life, I was always known by friends, family, other people who floated in and out of my life as the “fangirl”. I wear band t-shirts, anything that would be ANY associations with the people I ‘stan’, talk about them like they’re my friends. My friends even joke about my “One Direction Breakdown” whenever they are doing something I consider interesting. I never had any issue with the title of being a fangirl, but to others in my life, it caused them great distress.

I don’t understand why that frustrates people. Just the thought of me being a fan of something causes an eye roll or a scoff in people. When I was ten, I found a boyband called One Direction, and from that moment the “obsessive, fangirl” nickname stuck. People in my life have called it a waste of time, but it never really phased me. It just irked me to have my interests looked down upon.

It is almost eleven years since One Direction formed and still to this day I am just as much a fan of the band (despite being on a permanent hiatus since 2015) and of them as solo artists. I have become a ‘stan’ for other artists and creators as well during these years. But in my time, I have always wondered why people are always so quick to dismiss people in fandoms?

From the moment I joined a fandom, it was quickly dismissed and shoved away as something that should be looked down upon. That it was just a silly little phase and I would quickly outgrow it. Fandoms themselves have been culturally significant in the pop culture world and helped direct fans of televised or film science fiction as opposed to literary science fiction in the 1970s but is now easier to describe a large group of fans. But being in a fandom has allowed my interests and skills to grow and develop throughout the years. The grandest instinct about being in a fandom is I’m learning all new things purely because I am interested.

As a result of being a stan (derived from the 2000 Eminem song, Stan, about an overzealous fan obsessing over the artist — a word which has been introduced in the dictionary in 2017) I learnt so many skills including, website/blog building, photoshop and video editing which are incredible transferable skills for the real-life “adult world”. Those skills led me to the degree I study today.

Alongside these skills, being genuinely interested in the topic allowed for an easier interest to develop because it was about growing and developing with something I enjoyed. Being a stan is fun, I made friends from across the world and was still being productive and learning while it being a welcoming break (despite others claiming it’s a “waste of time.”)

Unfortunately, the things that young people are excited about are often pushed aside. And from what I have seen it seems to be a huge gendered issue. There is a huge difference in the way society views fans of sports (or things that stereotypically attract a male audience) and how they view people who are into artists and boybands (which are stereotypically a female audience.)

Fans of sports are often seen as “dedicated superfans” (which by definition is a Stan) but they are never dismissed are not made to feel embarrassed or ashamed for being a sports fans. In fact, a full-time sports fan can be a full-time job in the form of a commentator, a sports analyst, or any other jobs recommended for sports fans.

But as someone who supported boybands throughout my life, why was I the one who was seen as hysterical? But people who scream at Tv’s during games, is just part of their sports fan nature?

I went to a school that heavily focused on sport and I first-hand witnessed the highs and lows of high school football. Big screaming matches about the State of Origin, boxing, basketball, religiously watching reruns and best of’s of whatever sport it was I saw people yelling about it. The people at my school even came through wearing their favourite teams’ jersey (merchandise…).

Never once in my life did I think their interest in these sports was hysterical or something to feel ashamed of. I felt similar to them and saw their passion and dedication to their team/favourite player and knew it was like me. My interest in Youtube and One Direction was however put down and seen as juvenile and embarrassing.

Despite the fact that I was constantly learning valuable, attainable skills that would lead me into the university degree I study today. I run a Twitter account where I learnt (and continue to learn) how to build and attain a community. I had a Tumblr, which taught me how to blog. I read fan-fiction which taught me what good (and bad) self-published work looked like and also saw that it could lead you into mainstream book success (the fan-fiction After written by Anna Todd, became a book series and now a successful movie franchise). I learnt how to edit on almost all video editing platforms both on laptop and on mobile devices — which helped me attain an interest in video editing, but also helped my school creating, editing and directing videos to support causes and the school itself. I helped rally people together to watch parties, music video and song releases, how to break voting systems.

Never in my mind did I think that these skills were even remotely transferable until I started growing up and realising that most things I excel at today came naturally to me because of my years of being a stan.

In the year that was 2020, reliving my life as a stan was my only way of escaping the nightmare of a year. The stans were out in force to prove they meant business. With the Black Lives Matter Movement, the BTS Army demonstrated organisation and mobilising to an extreme. They organised an online campaign using the hashtag on Twitter #MatchaMillion to match BTS’s donation of one million dollars and reached that goal in over 24 hours. That’s $2 million USD between BTS and their fans, in two days.

White supremacist hashtags on Instagram and Twitter were taken over by fans from all fandoms who posted using the hashtag with fancams (short videos edited together of their favourite person — from BTS, One Direction, to Peppa Pig or the Pope). As well as users of TikTok and fans across the world sabotaging a Donald Trump rally in Tulsa by reserving hundreds of seats that they never intended to use. Making sure that Trump supporters couldn’t attend and destroying a very strong image that many Americans liked Trump.

At the end of the day, I’m aware this may come across obsessive to defend fellow fans. But as someone who used artists to find friends and discuss interests. Fans are the reason the artists have careers. Skills we self-teach are transferable for adult life, making fancams, streaming all teach us skills we can use when we are no longer a stan. Being shamed for our interests is stupid, there is no reason why we should be ashamed for being a stan. A stan is a fan, end of the day.