Draft:Stan culture

Stan culture is the a practice where fans of a certain body including celebrities, books, films, and games assembles to form a close-knit community on various online platforms. It has often been criticized for taking their obsession to the point of harassing others. However, this culture also gives rise to a community where people can freely indulge in their interests without the fear of being judged.

Background
Singer Eminem in her 2000 song Stan, deserves the credit for birthing the term 'stan culture.' The song explores the story of a fan, Stanley Mitchell, whose obsession with Eminem leads to a tragic end to his life. The word ‘stan’ had never been used before this, and several people speculate that it is a combination of the words - ‘stalker’ and ‘fan.’

Thus, the word has always had a negative connotation to it. The Stanford Daily has even highlighted the "dark side" of this culture, highlighting stories of influencers who have had multiple instances of fans overstepping their boundaries.

However, several people have come forward to defend stan culture.

Karis Kotschnig brings up the irony of reducing stan culture to –

“an archetype of a hysterical teenage girl, clad in expensive merchandise and consumed by celebrity gossip and Twitter notifications”

– while zealous sports fans can incite riots (as was the case in England after the 2020 European Football Championship ) and still be deemed less hysterical than female fans of a boyband.

While the word 'stan' still keeps intact some of the negative connotations that it has always been associated with, the culture surrounding it has evolved over the years.

Evolution
The evolution of online communities and access to the Internet has had a significant influence on the evolution of stan culture. Stans are consumers of a particular medium. Whether they are consuming music of their favorite artists, stories written by their favorite writers, or video content by their favorite online content creators, there's no denying that they are, in simple terms, consumers.

Before the advent of the Internet, these fans were passive consumers.

However, the evolution of the online space has created opportunities for fans to become active consumers, thus enricing their fan experience.

A distinction between casual fans of an artist and stans of an artist has been established in K-Pop fandoms for long. A casual fan is someone who isn’t actively participating in the stan culture. They might like one or two songs of an artist, listen to them a few times a month, and call it a day. However, a stan is someone who actively participates heavily in the creative works of their idol as well as the creative outputs that other fans put out.

Fanfictions
Fanfiction is a labor of love, where amateur writers create stories for the fandom to which they belong. This concept was popularized by the Star Trek fandom through the concept of fanzines. The first fanzine published within the fandom was Spockanalia (1967), which describes itself as “an anthology of stories, poems, articles, art and letters.” Following this, several other fandoms have released stories ranging from a few pages to actual novel-length works.

Fanarts
Fans with a flair for traditional or digital art often engage with the fandom by creating artwork. Amateur artists who begin drawing after joining a particular fandom have even gone on to being hired by professionals for their talent. After studying various fandoms, psychologist Lynn Zubernis says that the need to create fanart often arises from wanting to "make yourself part of the world that you have become engaged with.”

Japanese Dōjinshi
Dōjinshi refers to self-published works in the print media in Japan. Amateur artists engage in creating such derivative work freely in a country that does not strictly penalize artists for copyright violations. The late Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, had clearly stated that dōjinshi are shinkokuzai. Unless the original creator files a copyright claim, the dōjinshi creators cannot be legally prosecuted.

The Japanese media companies do not prosecute amateur artists because the fanworks do not harm official sales. Unnecessary litigation is frowned upon in Japan. The Japanese place a lot of emphasis on building relationships. Mangakas often consider dōjinshi creators selling their works as an unofficial promotion for the original series. Some amateur dōjinshi artists have even gone on to become professional mangakas. Shirow Masamune, the creator of Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, was an amateur artist before his dōjinshi, Black Magic, became popular and was released by a manga publishing company.

Academic Papers
Several fans have used the knowledge that they have gained while stanning artists, creators, or shows to write academic papers like case studies, dissertations, and research papers on popular artists like BTS or Taylor Swift.

Legacy
The concept of parasocial relationships has become ingrained in stan culture. This nonreciprocal connection starts forming between a fan and the object of their obsession as they keep engaging more and more with content.

The loneliness epidemic has been credited with fueling this rising stan culture. A 2021 study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that people spend less than an hour socializing with others every day, including their own family members. Doris E. Acheme, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, claims that parasocial connections can “mimic real-world relationships.” As a result, the attachment to celebrities or a particular media has become so deep that fans often forget the line that separates the public figure from the private person.

Despite the negative association, studies have shown that those with low self-esteem can enjoy self-enhancing benefits when engaging in stan culture.

Culture
Joe Coscarelli, a reporter for The New York Times, describes the pop stan culture of 2020 as “competitive, arcane, sales-obsessed, sometimes pointless, chaotic, adversarial, amusing and a little frightening.” In order to support their favorite artists, these stans would buy multiple copies and versions of the same song to chart them on the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200, and other similar charts.

Such dedication to support an artist's music has been met with mixed views. Some consider this a great step for artists to get paid fairly. Meanwhile, others consider this a form of 'chart manipulation.’

Fans have taken it upon themselves to support their favorite artists through this method ever since a business report once claimed that artists earn approximately $0.0033 per stream on Spotify. Billboard reports how pushing songs up a chart was once a label’s job, and now fans have taken up that responsibility.

The less explored part of the stan culture includes the positive with other fans within the same community and other communities. When devoted Swiftie Emily Harris planned to sell her signed guitar by Taylor Swift to fund her wedding, other Swifties were against it. They recommended Harris open a GoFundMe and Swifties from all over the world began donating to support Harris’ wedding.

Dedicated stans are also not above using their fandom power to achieve political objectives and engage in philanthropic activities.

Time Magazine has done extensive coverage of the fandom of the K-pop group BTS called ARMY. An organization of volunteers within the fandom called One In An Army (OIAA) “seek out non-profit organizations worldwide and harness the power of ARMY into giving micro-donations over a one month period.” When it was revealed that BTS and BigHit Entertainment had donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement, ARMY to band together and match the donation within 24 hours.

Controversies
Instances where critics have faced harassment at the hands of stans are quite frequent.

Chris Panella recounts his experience after his article comparing Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour went viral on the Internet. Panella was exposed to “death threats, false accusations of pedophilia, and threats against my loved ones.” He was also accused of fueling an ongoing stan war between Swifties and Beyhives.

Influencer Allissa Shin faced intense harassment because of sharing similar visuals as BLACKPINK member Rosé.

In February 2021, the radio channel Bayern 3 and its host Matthias Matuschik came under fire after Matuschik’s comments comparing the boyband BTS to the coronavirus. This incident happened during a time when anti-Asian sentiments were on a high during the COVID-19 pandemic. BTS fans took to social media to demand an apology from the host and lasting consequences for fueling racism against Asians. Bayern 3 defended Matuschik, stating that the host had every right to “express his opinion clearly, openly and unvarnished.” Eventually, the host's show was canceled, although Bayern 3 remarked that this had nothing to do with the controversy.

Singer Ariana Grande has also come forward to mention the bullying that she faced after the cover art of her debut album, Yours Truly, was released. On the 10th anniversary of the debut album, the pop star conducted a Q&A session on TikTok with her fans where she admitted that the bullying she encountered after the cover art was revealed was the reason why she changed it.

Back in 2018, Nicki Minaz stans (called 'Barbz') led a hate train against the freelance writer Wanna Thompson after she posted her desire for Minaj to drop more mature content. Ms. Thompson's comments came to light when Nicki Minaj responded to it herself, sharing a list of songs that she would consider mature. Thompson also shared direct messages from the artist calling her all sorts of names. The Barbz mirrored Minaj’s attitude and sent “thousands of vicious, derogatory missives across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, email and even her personal cellphone, calling her every variation of stupid and ugly, or worse.”