I Hate Fandoms

Yes, that is a very click bait-y title. If you’re a part of a fandom you probably read that and got mad about it and then went to read my article; and if hate fandoms you probably read the title and thought, “someone with a similar view point! I must read,” and so I’ve done my job by getting you to click and read. Congrats, you’ve just been played.

But honestly, I really do hate fandom culture, and not from one of those “holier than thou, my preferred media of choice is superior to you” ways. In fact, I’m a part of several fandoms, but I have a lot of issues with fandoms in general.

But first, let’s define what a fandom is for those of you who don’t know and clicked this link anyways. Dictionary.com defines fandom as, “1. The state or condition of being a fan of someone or something. 2. The fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc., regarded collectively as a community or subculture.” So, in a sense, most people experience fandom, but what I’m going to be focusing on is the second definition which involves communities.

Fandom communities, like most things, are not objectively bad; it can be really great what with people connecting with each other and making friends based on their shared love of something, that’s great. What isn’t great is when fandom members start lashing out at people. And they may do it for a number of reasons, perhaps a fan favorite character was killed or a beloved relationship was ended or an unwanted one was started, or whatever. And while some fandom members may get angry, I know I’ve gone through that myself several times, they don’t attack people. I’ve voiced my complaints on social media like I’m supposed to and then felt better when I’m done and left it alone. Other members, however, take these things as a personal insult and strike out at other members who are in favor of what happened or at the creators themselves.

Recently a story boarder, Lauren Zuke, for the Cartoon Network series Steven Universe, which I adore, left Twitter because she was being harassed for preferring one coupling of characters over one more popular amongst fans. She explained her reasons in a series of tweets before quitting, saying, “I decided I don’t want to be accessible to thousands of people who think because I work on a TV show that I owe them myself all the time… Remember you are tweeting a literal human being (that’s what I am btw) and life exists outside of Steven Universe.” In these and other tweets Zuke expresses her dislike of being treated as if she is some sort of Steven Universe creation machine and not an actual person with feelings.

Something similar happened after the all-female cast of the new Ghost Busters film was announced and it continued even after the film premiered. Many social media critics cried that their collective childhoods were being ruined by this lady-centric film and then went on to call those women, who are actual people, all sorts of horrible names. Again, it got so bad that star Leslie Jones left Twitter for a time because the hatred got so intense. I have not seen the new Ghost Busters yet so I cannot comment on the quality of it, but regardless that is no reason to attack people. Jones did eventually return to Twitter after an outpouring of support from fans which shows that not all fandom members are complete jerks.

Like I said before, being a part of a fandom can be really cool, I’ve made some new friends and gotten closer to old ones through our shared affection for whatever. But the issue with fandoms is that some members cannot separate the people who create the media from the media itself. Those creators or actors or story board artists or whoever are real people with feelings like everyone else, and they should be treated with respect. How their work makes you feel does not give you the right to attack and demean them. I hate fandoms because they have a bad reputation of taking something good or enjoyable and then letting it consume them to the point of obsession and not being able to separate fiction from reality. Lots of fandom members from multiple fandoms I know feel that fandoms aren’t respected as real communities or subcultures; but if people need to understand that in order to get respect they must act in a respectful manner. If you give respect you get respect.