Fandoms are communities where fans across all forms of media can gather, whether in-person or online, to discuss, debate and celebrate the particular work of media that they enjoy. However, what has become present in modern fandom is toxicity, whether that toxicity is towardsanother fan, an upcoming project or a creator within that community.
Toxic fandoms can be more than this; however, there’s toxic behavior from fans that can come out of love for a celebrity or project but gets lost in translation. The most common is the toxic behavior from fans that are negative, which mostly comes from criticism and a fan’s personal biases.
One of the most popular examples of a toxic fandom is Star Wars. Star Wars fans are one of, if not the most, commonly known fanbase for their toxic fans and have even been dubbed by the internet as “The Fandom Menace.” The rise of this “Fandom Menace” wasn’t prevalent until Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Star Wars back in 2012. Fans had skeptic opinions about how the family-friendly company would handle the franchise, and those opinions were sought out in 2015 with the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
Although loved by critics and general audiences, hardcore fans within the Star Wars fandom were unhappy with what Disney was doing with Star Wars, claiming that certain details weren’t accurate to previous Star Wars projects. They also argued that the female protagonist Rey was a “Mary Sue” or that having a female protagonist was a “woke” idea.
Opinions like these become more loud and unavoidable as Disney continues pumping out more projects that make superfans more and more unhappy. Most recently, the Disney+ original “The Acolyte” was a victim to the Star Wars fandom even before the premiere. Many fans were once again throwing around the word “woke” due to the show starring a female black protagonist, and when the show finally did make its debut on the service, fans were “review-bombing” the show across all platforms and saying extreme things like the franchise is dead.
These hyperbolic claims and personal biases that these particular fans throw out have gotten to the point where the stars of these projects themselves have gotten fed up with the unfair criticism. According to Variety, “The Acolyte” star, Amandla Stenberg spoke out on her Instagram story against the online “trolls” and said that she wasn’t surprised that they were receiving such harsh reactions and that she was experiencing “a rampage of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol.”
The other half of the toxic fandom is one previously mentioned where fans are toxic out of love for a project or a celebrity and end up becoming toxic due to uncomfortable behavior. This is a major case when this comes to the music scene. Fans of musical artists have been known for their toxic behavior, whether it comes from different people within the fandom, psychologically or a mixture of both.
Recently, rising pop star Chappell Roan spoke out on Instagram about many fans who have made her uncomfortable. She said that her fans have stalked her online or in-person, claimed that they knew certain things about her personal life and called her by her real name. Fans like these may not know that this type of behavior is toxic given how this type of superfan or “stan” behavior has become very popularized by social media. Women in the music industry, such as Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse, are the most targeted when it comes to this type of superfan behavior.
Not every fan is like this of course, and most people who are a part of these fandoms and engage in these types of behaviors are a vocal minority. Will toxicity among fandoms ever end? The short answer is no, but what people in fandoms need to learn is that fandom at first is meant to be a community. There is a reason why people reach out to these communities, and it’s not because they want to bash each other and the projects they engage with. Fans reach out to these communities because they want to connect with others who love the same medium that they do.