This is only tenuously related to the post, but I feel it's worth sharing with you.
A few months ago I had to teach Foucault's "Panopticism" to a college freshman class. One of the questions I presented them with ran something like: okay, so we've established that surveillance is a means of control: when somebody knows they're being monitored, they tend to behave how their audience wants or expects them to behave. So how does someone like Taylor Swift fit into this schema? We can agree that she's one of the intensely surveilled people on the planet; she can't do anything in public without her fans knowing about it, and there's occasionally intense speculation about what she does or thinks in private. So according to Foucault, what's the actual power dynamic between Swift and her followers?
It didn't click. The students had been following along up to that point and comprehended the basic idea of how watching exerts a form of control over the watched, but the whole thing broke down when they were asked to apply the same logic to a pop star. It was fascinating to see.
You're reminding me of the fans that are unable to admit that celebrities sometimes lie--whether it's for personal reasons and not wanting The Whole World to be privy to personal matters or because it's part of a bigger business decision/marketing plan etc etc etc. There is a fundamental inability to recognize the interplay and the push-pull of industry and audiences that might alter what we're seeing/being shown/sold. I guess it doesn't help that "authenticity" has been a buzzword in marketing circles for years, now...
I kind of wonder if those students would understand the reverse with the fandoms being surveilled, because with TS it's particularly pervasive with the most loyal/obedient fans being rewarded in different ways. But that might make their head implode with the implication of the feedback loops and chicken/egg dilemma of who drives who.
Isn't the problem that fans think that they know everything about Taylor Swift intimately and that they know everything that she does but in reality, her private life is separate and they don't really know what she does at all. There are probably thousands in NDAs and pay offs to ensure this. What she shares is very curated and strategised to look like it's natural . I'm thinking about the Korean idols in the same fashion.
It definitely makes sense...it sounds like people who "know there is a God because they feel it" or a people who feel that their spouse loves them and is loyal but then they cheat..or the world feels like a safe place but then you get attacked and the world is not how you thought it was ...it shatters your view of the world and yourself.
The problem isn't that fans think they know everything about their fan object, it's that they profoundly believe they know. It's hard to explain if you haven't experienced it, but "felt knowledge" is a real thing . You can feel, in your body, that you know something. In this particular case, it's that their idol was a good person and wouldn't ever do something like this. There is a noetic quality to it, wherein it feels so true that when it's challenged it's incredibly threatening.
I hope that makes sense! That's definitely what I tried to explain in this piece. I've covered the way TS fans specifically lash out because of the cognitive dissonance that comes with conflicting public information/reveals.
One thing I've also noticed re: fan denial is when news articles/fan discourse exaggerates or blows the alleged crime way out of proportion that it gives the fans of the alleged criminal "proof" that everything is fake. I have a lot of examples from K-Pop about this.
To give an easy one--there's a photo of an idol wearing a Nazi cap and there's a swastika that does appear to have been photoshopped on the cap. His fans seeing that the swastika appears photoshopped then say the entire picture is photoshopped, completely overlooking the SS skull logo on the cap that is not.
Anti-fans say it's proof he's a nazi; stans say the whole thing is photoshopped.
This desire to have everything black and white has to play into the parasocial stew at play. We can't just roll our eyes at an idol playing edgelord, for fans it's proof he has to be either evil or an innocent framed angel.
“waking up” to just how deeply invested they were in what turned out to be an illusion. Because when there’s a perceived moral duty to defend your fan object, you’re operating on deeply felt knowledge that it’s what’s right" This all reminds me of stories I've heard of devout older Catholics in tremendous pain and confusion when forced to confront the exposure of crimes by revered priests.
Yup, it's the same mechanism. It's partly one of the reasons why I think the comparisons to religion are accurate, because the emotional and personal investment is so profound that it can result in the same type of despair when things go wrong.
this is really interesting, thanks for sharing. I think “fandoms” in general are more pervasive than we like to think. like it’s a symptom of the ubiquity of social media on top of a celebrity and idol culture. it’s easy to not be aware about who and why we “worship” certain people. But it feels like anyone noteworthy anymore inevitably builds a fan-fandom relationship domain. There’s no longer teachers, mentors, thought leaders, politicians—at least in the media realm. Only fans and fandoms. Anyway. It’s noticeable more with celebrities and idols, but this psychology is important to understand. Especially when the “contract” is violated and people feel betrayed on all sides. I haven’t seen this film, is it streaming or easily accessible?
Absolutely agree--I've written on the fandoming of consumer markets, but it really is a mode of audience relation to any given topic/fan object that has been fostered for many, many years now, and we're seeing the side-effects (or consequences) are becoming impossible to turn a blind eye to. I think a lot of it is due to the online infrastructure--most platforms operate as fandom greenhouses these days, because that type of engagement is good for business.
It's available on Netflix in Asia. I think it deserves a bigger release/availability but I'm not sure if there's enough of a demand for it...
hi I was just wondering if there is a place to watch “fanatic” my friend was a fan and never seen this and thought it would be interesting to watch together
This is only tenuously related to the post, but I feel it's worth sharing with you.
A few months ago I had to teach Foucault's "Panopticism" to a college freshman class. One of the questions I presented them with ran something like: okay, so we've established that surveillance is a means of control: when somebody knows they're being monitored, they tend to behave how their audience wants or expects them to behave. So how does someone like Taylor Swift fit into this schema? We can agree that she's one of the intensely surveilled people on the planet; she can't do anything in public without her fans knowing about it, and there's occasionally intense speculation about what she does or thinks in private. So according to Foucault, what's the actual power dynamic between Swift and her followers?
It didn't click. The students had been following along up to that point and comprehended the basic idea of how watching exerts a form of control over the watched, but the whole thing broke down when they were asked to apply the same logic to a pop star. It was fascinating to see.
You're reminding me of the fans that are unable to admit that celebrities sometimes lie--whether it's for personal reasons and not wanting The Whole World to be privy to personal matters or because it's part of a bigger business decision/marketing plan etc etc etc. There is a fundamental inability to recognize the interplay and the push-pull of industry and audiences that might alter what we're seeing/being shown/sold. I guess it doesn't help that "authenticity" has been a buzzword in marketing circles for years, now...
I kind of wonder if those students would understand the reverse with the fandoms being surveilled, because with TS it's particularly pervasive with the most loyal/obedient fans being rewarded in different ways. But that might make their head implode with the implication of the feedback loops and chicken/egg dilemma of who drives who.
Isn't the problem that fans think that they know everything about Taylor Swift intimately and that they know everything that she does but in reality, her private life is separate and they don't really know what she does at all. There are probably thousands in NDAs and pay offs to ensure this. What she shares is very curated and strategised to look like it's natural . I'm thinking about the Korean idols in the same fashion.
It definitely makes sense...it sounds like people who "know there is a God because they feel it" or a people who feel that their spouse loves them and is loyal but then they cheat..or the world feels like a safe place but then you get attacked and the world is not how you thought it was ...it shatters your view of the world and yourself.
The problem isn't that fans think they know everything about their fan object, it's that they profoundly believe they know. It's hard to explain if you haven't experienced it, but "felt knowledge" is a real thing . You can feel, in your body, that you know something. In this particular case, it's that their idol was a good person and wouldn't ever do something like this. There is a noetic quality to it, wherein it feels so true that when it's challenged it's incredibly threatening.
I hope that makes sense! That's definitely what I tried to explain in this piece. I've covered the way TS fans specifically lash out because of the cognitive dissonance that comes with conflicting public information/reveals.
One thing I've also noticed re: fan denial is when news articles/fan discourse exaggerates or blows the alleged crime way out of proportion that it gives the fans of the alleged criminal "proof" that everything is fake. I have a lot of examples from K-Pop about this.
To give an easy one--there's a photo of an idol wearing a Nazi cap and there's a swastika that does appear to have been photoshopped on the cap. His fans seeing that the swastika appears photoshopped then say the entire picture is photoshopped, completely overlooking the SS skull logo on the cap that is not.
Anti-fans say it's proof he's a nazi; stans say the whole thing is photoshopped.
This desire to have everything black and white has to play into the parasocial stew at play. We can't just roll our eyes at an idol playing edgelord, for fans it's proof he has to be either evil or an innocent framed angel.
“waking up” to just how deeply invested they were in what turned out to be an illusion. Because when there’s a perceived moral duty to defend your fan object, you’re operating on deeply felt knowledge that it’s what’s right" This all reminds me of stories I've heard of devout older Catholics in tremendous pain and confusion when forced to confront the exposure of crimes by revered priests.
Yup, it's the same mechanism. It's partly one of the reasons why I think the comparisons to religion are accurate, because the emotional and personal investment is so profound that it can result in the same type of despair when things go wrong.
this is really interesting, thanks for sharing. I think “fandoms” in general are more pervasive than we like to think. like it’s a symptom of the ubiquity of social media on top of a celebrity and idol culture. it’s easy to not be aware about who and why we “worship” certain people. But it feels like anyone noteworthy anymore inevitably builds a fan-fandom relationship domain. There’s no longer teachers, mentors, thought leaders, politicians—at least in the media realm. Only fans and fandoms. Anyway. It’s noticeable more with celebrities and idols, but this psychology is important to understand. Especially when the “contract” is violated and people feel betrayed on all sides. I haven’t seen this film, is it streaming or easily accessible?
Absolutely agree--I've written on the fandoming of consumer markets, but it really is a mode of audience relation to any given topic/fan object that has been fostered for many, many years now, and we're seeing the side-effects (or consequences) are becoming impossible to turn a blind eye to. I think a lot of it is due to the online infrastructure--most platforms operate as fandom greenhouses these days, because that type of engagement is good for business.
It's available on Netflix in Asia. I think it deserves a bigger release/availability but I'm not sure if there's enough of a demand for it...
hi I was just wondering if there is a place to watch “fanatic” my friend was a fan and never seen this and thought it would be interesting to watch together