The Toxicity of Stan Twitter and Cancel Culture

Is anybody really safe from cancel culture?

‘Stan’ culture has been around on the internet for a while now, and while some believe the word comes from the mixture of ‘stalker’ and ‘fan’, the real definition originates from Eminem’s song Stan from the year 2000. The urban dictionary, the place for any and all internet slang, defines Stan to be:

“A reference to the Eminem song Stan. The song is about an overly obsessed fan (named Stan) who writes letters to eminem and ends up driving off a bridge with his pregnant wife, because Eminem didn’t write him back.

The terms means a very very overzealous and obsessed fan of a celebrity/band/cast of a tvshow or movie.”

Much to my own surprise, the term ‘stan’ was officially added into the Oxford English Dictionary back in June of 2018 as the word had become so popular both on and off the internet. They define ‘stan’ as:

“[noun] An overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity”

“[verb] Be an overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity.”

But even now, only 3 years later, can this definition be thought of as outdated or even ridiculing.

Firstly, ‘stanning’ doesn’t just relate to being a fan of a single, particular celebrity; there are group stans like BTS’ beloved ARMY or Marvel stans, stans of whole tv series, stans of One Direction (yes even now… 6 years after their so-called ‘hiatus’) and stans of particular books or movies or even stans of groups within a group or series (my personal favourite that has recently come to light being stans of the marauders, a group containing Harry Potter’s parents and their friends). The words ‘overzealous’ and ‘obsessive’ can be thought of by those who participate in stan culture to be belittling because not everyone who is a stan of something is obsessed. Yes, there are those who take it very far and those who make their whole personality centred around stanning, but nowadays being a stan of something merely means being a fan or liking something a little more than the average person.

So now you may ask, how has stan culture evolved over the 21 years since its origin and why is it so ‘toxic’?

One simple word.

Twitter.

Stan culture has been on all forms of social media but now it tends to stick to TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. Though the majority of stan twitter are enjoyable, living their lives and simply stanning their favourite artists or series, there are always those who don’t know when to stop. Some of the obsessed stans on Twitter really display ‘toxic behaviour’ when their idols do something that they do not like, or they try to ‘cancel’ those who do not like their idols.

The toxicity of stan twitter also occurs from stan to stan. People hate on others for liking something that they think is embarrassing or ‘basic’ and then there are those who show homophobia, transphobia, biphobia and racism towards those on stan twitter. Another toxic stan to stan encounter includes K-Pop stans to other K-Pop stans and bands. When BTS were rising to fame, stans of another K-Pop group called EXO were sending BTS and their ARMY hate that included death-threats and wishes of certain member’s demise.

One example of toxic behaviour that is very recent is people thinking that Billie Eilish’s new music video for her song Lost Cause is ‘queer-baiting’. For those of you who do not know what the term means, it is essentially a marketing ploy where creators hint to but never explicitly confirm same-sex sexuality, romance, or couples. In her music video Billie Eilish is seen dancing around with a group of girls and some say she is queer-baiting by having erotic shots but others say she is simply acting like all teenage girls do at a sleepover with their friends. Now people are trying to ‘cancel’ her for the video, when only a couple of weeks before those same people were hyping her up for her song Your Power.

This is where ‘cancel’ culture comes up. The idea of being ‘cancelled’ is when someone says or does something that is offensive, questionable, or controversial and stan twitter take it upon themselves to shun them or ostracise them from the internet, often damaging or ruining their career and causing defamation of the individual. When I think of cancel culture, the first instance I remember is back in the mid-2010’s where ‘Viner’ Carter Reynolds got cancelled for sexually harassing a 16-year-old girl. Now this is a very good case in which cancel culture can do some good in the world, and there are others such as Logan Paul filming a dead body for his vlog, Donald Trump and his numerous rape allegations, as well as his opinions, Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star for being racist (and in general bad people from what I’ve heard) and J.K. Rowling and her transphobic tweets. But since 2016, when cancel culture really started to blow up on the internet, it has gotten a tad bit out of hand.

Going back to that earlier Billie Eilish example, stans of hers (for months or years, might I add) are trying to cancel her for the Lost Cause music video. Yet, Billie Eilish herself has not even publicly or explicitly stated her own sexuality and is said to be searching and finding herself, so the idea of if she really was queer-baiting is still unknown.

Other instances include my own little community on stan twitter. I stan actor Dylan O’Brien and his movies and TV shows such as The Maze Runner series and Teen Wolf. A couple weeks ago, amongst the height of the Palestine vs Israel debate online, celebrities were getting called out for not using their platform to speak up about the issue. One of these celebrities was Dylan O’Brien and yet as soon as he tweeted about where he stood on the issue, people or ‘stans’ of his were trying to cancel him for his opinion.

Cancel culture will probably never end as long as stan culture exists and while one might think this is good, there are instances in which it is damaging or simply wrong. Every other week, some new celebrity, book, movie or tv show is getting cancelled for something minor. So, is anyone really safe from cancel culture or should people just learn to be more respectful?

I, for one, think people should respects others and their opinions and that we should end toxicity on stan twitter. Just let stans live their lives supporting their favourite artists and works.