Is opting out of stan culture possible?

Stan culture is more than toxic fandom, it’s a result of standard business practices.

Usually, the consequences of overinvested fans remain on the fringes, in the nooks and crannies of individual fandoms and fan bases, specific platforms serving as the proverbial teacups that contain the tempestuous meltdowns. This makes it easy for outsiders to dismiss the encroachment of stan culture on culture at large, unable to see how far the roots extend beneath the surface.

Sometimes, coverage of troubling fan behaviour breaks through and gets attention, leaving most observers disturbed with what is going on. Earlier this year, it was Swifties gunning for Joe Alwyn, as romance & rivalry by proxy is as predictable as album cycles in today’s climate, especially in that fanbase.

Most recently, it’s Chappell Roan being hounded and speaking up about it that has inspired many a piece on the way public figures are being treated by audiences, calling out the parasitic demands of entitled strangers.

July 23, 2018. Marina Diamandis was addressing the impact of foul stan behaviour. Full thread/context.

I don’t disagree with any of the pieces I’ve read, especially not those from people who themselves have been on the receiving end of unreasonable, insatiable audience demands. What gives me pause, however, is the lack of recognition or acknowledgement that what we’re seeing, and what public figures are experiencing, is not just a result of toxic fandom: it’s a consequence of standard business practices.

Individually, we can opt out. We can embrace casual fandom and step off the carousel. But as a general dynamic, stan culture will continue to persist, and I suspect will only get worse as it’s egged on. Part of the playbook is convincing fans that they have more power than they do, which increases the sense of entitlement they feel. It’s a positive when it’s in your favour, devastating when fans oppose what you’re doing.

Individually, we can remind ourselves and each other that we are not owed anything by public figures, that our attachments are entirely one-sided. But even as we detach and step around the potholes of quicksand, the industry that relies on “customer evangelists” will continue to chug along, enabling if not outright encouraging the anti-social behaviour we’re caught up in. The search for superfans rages on, and the platforms for “verified” fandom and general fan management continue to proliferate.

While “general public” is somewhat of an insult in stan circles, we should all aspire to that (lack) of investment, and simple appreciation of the product.

A big problem is that when overstepping fans are rewarded, their behaviour is normalized and perpetuated. In practice, this can look like what happened with hockey fandom and the corner of TikTok focused on books, known and referred to as Booktok.

The Booktok pivot to hockey was due to the popularity of hockey romance novels. Predictably, real life hockey players were “fan cast” as the beloved fictional characters. This is to say, fans picked existing players to act as the embodiment of specific characters. Specifically, players on the Seattle Kraken team. As these things go, the fandom attention was transferred from the fictional book characters to the players themselves, making them fan objects to be fawned over.

As newcomers to the NHL, it makes sense that the Kraken leaned into the attention. They were still building their fan base and public profile. But the more they embraced the attention, the more lines blurred between fandom and official messaging. The official accounts participated in “thirst posting” about their players, amplifying and engaging with content that did the same, this was seen as sanctioned by the team.

One particular booktoker who was courted and caused controversy was Kierra Lewis. With over a million followers, Lewis’ social footprint was over three times larger than the Kraken’s official accounts, so naturally it made sense to engage with her and her content. Outside of socials, Lewis was also flown out to multiple games and gifted customized merch. The problem was that much of Lewis’ content was sexual in nature, and was unwelcome to some of the players on the receiving end.

Notably, Alex Wennberg and his wife spoke out against what the new normal that they were experiencing, emphasizing part of the problem was their personal accounts being flooded with unwelcome sexual comments.

Alex Wennberg’s Instagram stories, July 29, 2023.

Emily Rath, the author of one of the popular hockey romance books for which Wennberg was fan cast, also spoke out against the behaviour she was witnessing. She told ESPN that she contacted the Kraken team directly and asked them to stop amplifying fandom and enabling the worst behaviour. Whether it was her plea or the Wennbergs speaking out, the official Kraken accounts unfollowed Lewis and deleted all content that was related to Booktok.

Lewis was not happy with this development, and spoke out on TikTok and Instagram about feeling exploited and singled out by the Wennbergs.

“Yesterday I get home to find out the Seattle Kraken had unfollowed me and deleted all their 'thirst trap videos' which left me confused and upset. The Seattle Kraken not only took interest to my videos from the beginning that mention Alex Wennberg but even encouraged me to keep posting as well as them beginning to post their own ‘thirst trap of Wennberg,' it even got to the point people were calling it an Alex Wennberg fan page. As well, as them (now removed) changing their bio to ‘Mostly Booktok’. I want to also mention my Seattle Kraken reactions and vlog led to them flying me out to their playoffs game and gifting me a BookTok Jersey. This event led to them gaining over 60K followers.”  

— Kierra Lewis via Instagram, July 29 2023

Part of Lewis’ complaint was that she and other booktokers were used and discarded as soon as things became inconvenient. And, well, of course they were. That’s how it works. Piggybacking off of, enabling and perpetuating fan activity is par for the course. There is little concern for what might be inappropriate to amplify or engage in until the consequences come, after which disengaging is the go-to response.

Rath who spoke out against what the team was doing said it well, “You should not treat your employees with the same level of abstraction as the fans do.”

This is the crux of the problem. What is appropriate in fandom is not necessarily appropriate elsewhere. The people who are on the receiving end of fannish activity and attachment are referred to as “fan objects” for a reason: they are objects to the fannish community at large. But they shouldn’t be objects to the people that are supposed to have their backs and that profit off of their work.

Engaging with fan content and participating in fandom activities seems like a good idea on the surface. But there are trapfalls all over the place that can sanction bad behaviour, if not outright reward it. Of course, that means it will persist, emboldened.

I’ve said that I think things will get worse, so how much worse can they get? Well, I’m picturing the adoption of something like the truck protests that are prevalent in K-pop fandom. Digital shaming isn’t impactful enough.

via Koreaboo

I’ve mentioned truck protests before, but I haven’t delved into this particular event. In this case, there were rumours that Seventeen band member Joshua Hong was dating a model, and certain fans were not happy about it.

Trucks with electronic signage is standard for these protests, and this was no different. Thrown into the mix were Porsches as a response to rumours that Joshua gifted his new girlfriend a Porsche. There has been discussion that anti-fans may have participated as well, complicating the intent behind the protest. The vehicles were sent on a dedicated route in Seoul, targeting the offices of HYBE, SM Entertainment, and YG Entertainment. That wasn’t the end of the story, however, as other fans decided to send support trucks to counter the protest. Online fan wars also moved offline.

The protest trucks demanded that Joshua leave the group and asked for fans to be refunded. According to the truck’s signage, the fans who sent them had bought thousands of albums. The claim is impossible to confirm, but earlier this year Seventeen and their fans were blasted for dumping thousands of albums in the streets of Japan following its release. So fans purchasing thousands of albums each isn’t really out of the ordinary in this context. The excessive spending is baked into the fandom. (Stay tuned for a post on the bulk buying phenomenon, and the way it’s encouraged by official sources!)

These examples might not be enough to convince you that businesses are enabling and encouraging this type of excessive behaviours, but I’ve written about many more examples. From the normalization of stalker culture in One Direction fandom, to the fan microtargeting of a Harry Styles album campaign, to consumer markets in general leaning into fandom, to the big business of stan culture, to marketers explicitly talking about their brands being spiritually fulfilling and evoking “loyalty beyond reason” in their customers, to the exploitation of negative attachments in the form of anti-fandom profiteering, and so on.

I want to be clear that I don’t condone the fan behaviour, but I understand where it’s coming from, and why it persists. I’ve started to think of stan culture as a mint plant rather than a weed, seemingly innocuous and beneficial, but that will ultimately smother all other plant life, becoming an invasive species. There is an entire infrastructure built on optimizing fan attachment and engagement, consequences be damned, which means there is always someone there to plant some seeds. I’ve seen the way strings are being pulled, and how matters are exacerbated by an infrastructure dedicated to optimizing fan attachment and engagement. I’ve been on the receiving end.

I write about fandom because that’s the perspective I’m coming from, but if you’re interested in what the people who end up as fan objects are going through, I highly recommend Nancy K. Baym’s book, Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection. I’ve referenced Baym’s work before, and she has dedicated many years to speaking with artists and performers about how our digital world and the new norm of extreme accessibility has affected them.