I used to claim to be a stan, but now I mostly use the term jokingly. When you take a step back from stuff like that, you realize you really just look like an idiot. I'm not saying stanning can't be fruitful. All of the time and research I put into stanning and pop culture during my teen years led me internships with E! Entertainment, Music World Entertainment & eventually at a Marketing/PR Firm before I even finished college... but out of the thousands of people I've come into contact with online who see themselves as stans, I can only think of one or two other people who have done the same.
It's not that I have a problem with stanning. My problem is with the way people use it.
The good thing about stanning is that, potentially, you have an opportunity to meet a diverse group of people online who have similar interests as you. For some it also boosts artistic creativity, because you learn more about what inspires the people that inspire you and so on and so forth... and the benefits pretty much stop there. Otherwise, stanning and stan bases are platforms for online bullying, procrastinating and my biggest pet peeve, bad language and grammar. It's almost like stanning glorifies stupidity instead or promoting progress.
Not to put Beyoncè stans on the spot, but since her pregnancy and childbirth news stories have hit the net, I've seen some of the most foolish bullshit I've ever seen in my life. They squashed rumors of her "surrogant" birth mother and defended her natural birth amid talk of a "sea-section." Then they gathered together in an effort to praise Jay-Z for being strong enough to reveal details about Beyoncè's unannounced "mixcarriage." Oh yeah, and all of this was on top of one of her biggest fan sites claiming that they chose the name Blue because it's the fourth color on the color scale. My good friend ROY G BIV disagrees. I mean, this is elementary stuff.
(Again, I don't mean to put Beyoncè fans on the spot, as it is no different among any other stan group. This just happens to be the freshest recount of this in my mind.)
You would think that 90% of stans were 10-year-olds, but it turns out, most of them are just fucking idiots. Anyone over the age of 13 who can willfully bash someone's opinion without justification, then gloat about how they are better than that person, again, without justification, is a moron.
Anyone who will use a racial slur to insult anyone because they have different tastes in music than you is an ignorant asshole.
Oh, then there's my favorite; The person who's losing an argument about who's stats build up better, so they start bashing a person based on their physical features. Classic. A while back, a Lady Gaga fan named Jamie committed suicide because he was bullied. You would think this would cause them to take a firm stance against bullying, but alas...
Of course, I'm guilty of saying things that I know will set people off just so I can argue with them, but I always make sure that the last thing I do is make someone feel like I'm debating their worth.
Another thing that really bothers me... most of them don't even take out the time to think about what they're saying. The good thing about the internet is that it doesn't have to be instant. You can take the time out to process your statements and back them up. Nope, most people just rattle off the first thing that comes to mind without thinking about how ignorant they look. I can't tell you how frustrating and embarrassing it was to see Britney stans in my last rant, "But Really... Who's the Queen of Pop," completely ignoring the purpose of the blog, which was to defend an artists credibility and icon status. Instead, they just went on about personal reasons for loving her without making any compelling arguments with evidence to back up their statements. What's with that? What's with people relying only on stats to rank the quality of music?
I could go on for days, really... and I'm sure this topic will come up in another rant in the future. I want to know, your stance on "stanning." Do you think it's just another pop culture, do you think it's eating away at our brain cells or do you ignore it completely?
What stan group is the worst? Any personal bad experiences?...
Hit up the comment section...
This is very true. I'm a Britney stan, which I'm trying to grow out of (advice would be highly appreciated!), because I already gained what I was to gain from it. Interned at VH1, used her as inspiration to start performing, and thats about it. Now it's just pointless, no matter who you stan for.
ReplyDeleteEven Beyonce said her fans sometimes go too hard; it's a bit unnerving; mostly since I recently read how a man was attacked by a Bey & Jay fan for not knowing they were married.
Personally the Beyonce stans are the most aggressive, the Britney's are the most stubborn and critical, the Xtina stans are the most in denial, and the Mariah ones are as crazy as she is.
LOL. I couldn't agree more. I think Rihanna stans can be a bit cray-cray as well.
ReplyDeleteI started moving away from being a Britney stan when I felt like the promotional efforts won't amounting the the effort her fans were putting in to support her. It almost felt like a smack in the fact, to be honest. For me, that was me realizing, I don't get paid to do this. All the time I'm wasting online "stanning" I could be picking up extra hours at working, or bringing up my GPA, which I did.
I think eventually most people will grow out of it, it just takes something to make you realize...
Agree with the Anon & Martian. I remember buying the digital and physical copy of the Circus album and then realizing how uninvolved Britney seems to be with her career, that it made me feel really stupid to pay so much money for artists, who don't even know a thing about me.
ReplyDeleteIt's really lame.
The worse stan I've ever encountered was a Brandy stan. They believe Brandy is still smoking-hot.
Which group of stans is it that says Beyonce is fake and her pregnancy is/was fake? HA. It's important for stans to remember ALL these hoes are fake in order to get an e-mail that your card went through on iTunes.
ReplyDeleteAnd, these Rihanna stans... Jesus be a block button. If your post doesn't say her TIRED ass dutty wine is the greastest move since the cow jumped over the moon their response is:
"You a HATER!! Why you writing/talking about somebody you don't like?"
Then, 50 more comment behind them saying the SAME thing. The better question is why did you come to my site and you KNOW iHave nothing nice to say about your fave? Go to RihannaDAILY and DelusionalStan.net for that shit.
I report shit because it's news. That don't necessarily mean iLike it. If Rihanna does something iLike I'll let you know. Until then, go verify the sources in your term paper and get off Wikipedia putting lies on your fave's profile. BYE.
*insert SICKENING hairflip/eye roll GIF*
Dear Christopher (Live From Mars),
ReplyDeleteClearly you're pressed whether you admit it or not & you're using you're blog to put a fan base look stupid(which you could say in GENERAL & not special mention of these Beyonce fans) & attack them sideways. Too bad this blog is a flop. So next time, take a look at yourself before you started pointing fingers... Cause you're no better than the person you criticize.
-Your BIGGEST FAN