The Guardian's Article on Stan Culture

[BUtterfield 8 41,506]

Gay male culture has always coalesced around female pop stars, from Judy Garland to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande. Academics and critics have puzzled over the source of this connection, their often misplaced theories ranging from the outlandish to the oedipal. But gay men and the women they worship are usually happy to bask in the mutual affection.

Heckling in smoky nightclubs has been replaced by “hate memes”, when stans circulate unflattering edited pictures or examples of a star’s least-becoming behaviour, while the cheering has morphed into a lexicon of superlatives and put-downs that may seem impenetrable to the uninitiated: “we stan” favoured female pop stars, they’re “iconic”, a “kween”, an “unproblematic fave”. “She outsold” describes both someone’s commercial successes and a general sense of their superiority. Anyone who fails to meet those standards? “Fat”, “flop”, “failure”.

This online community relies on a dense matrix of references and neologisms informed by everything from drag culture to reality TV. Sami Baker is 21 and a self-professed gay stan – his favourites are Grande, Beyoncé and Charli XCX. He explains that the culture reaches further than many beyond the community might realise, citing the example of the recent avalanche of memes of reality star Gemma Collins. “They originated from gay stan Twitter. The language used within this culture is taken from the same place that Drag Race gets its lexicon,: namely the underground subculture where LGBT people compete in various drag and performance categories, documented in the film Paris Is Burning, and an inspiration for Madonna and Beyoncé.

To my teenage self, women like Lady Gaga were the only light in a world where my queerness left me feeling like an outsider.

It is hard to overestimate how meaningful the fan-diva relationship is for gay men. What is so perplexing is why this pseudo-religious devotion has always been laced with spite. Earlier this year, pop singer Hayley Kiyoko criticisedRita Ora, Cardi B, Bebe Rexha, and Charli XCX for their single Girls, a song about bisexuality that she, as a lesbian, thought was appropriative. Within hours, stan Twitter had unearthed and circulated incriminating tweets by Kiyoko from nine years ago (when she was 18) in an attempt to “cancel” her – excluding a person entirely from online discourse, except as the target of hate memes – for daring to critique a song they liked.

For him, this behaviour typifies gay stan culture: female artists must obey the rules or suffer the consequences. “A sinister side emerges when their ‘fave’ isn’t giving them exactly what they want,” Byrne explains. “Often jokes made at their expense are said in fun but it’s grim to see the joy [the community] sometimes takes in seeing these women fail: ‘She’s over!’, ‘Flop!’ ‘This era is dead!’ Look at the smug tweets about Nadine Coyle cancelling her tour; the way Katy Perry became gay Twitter’s punching bag.”

Baker says: “I’ve seen stan Twitter make jokes about the Manchester attacks, Demi Lovato’s recent overdose, Beyoncé’s skin tone, Noah Cyrus’s appearance.”

One recent trend is to laud women by hailing them as “skinny” or a “skinny legend” – a trope that took off with a meme about Mariah Carey. Though it is used figuratively to imply flawlessness, it is revealing that a word historically used to police female physicality has naturally evolved in the gay male vernacular. Can it be anything other than chauvinist body-shaming?

“Because the object of a fan’s adoration becomes very important to the fan’s happiness, when there is some sort of disappointment, that brings a strong – and sometimes problematic – response. That is the dynamic behind the ‘mood swings’ you see in fandom, where fans love something one day and turn on it the next. It’s not about misogyny. It cuts across gender, sexuality, type of fandom, even time. Sports fans sometimes turn on star players in the same way. I don’t think it’s a male-female thing or a gay-straight thing. I think it’s a human thing.”

In gay stan culture, gender does not just occasionally intersect with online hatred – it defines the landscape. The abuse and objectification of these women is distinctly gendered – any man, gay or straight, tweeting “fat!” at a woman is unarguably misogynistic.

But with gay male misogyny being discussed more widely than ever, in terms of our nightlife, queer spaces, and social movements, what does it say when this relationship is often so heartless? What kind of permissiveness are we helping to cultivate around misogyny? Deep down, do we really know what it means to love these women?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/sep/04/they-just-wanted-to-silence-her-the-dark-side-of-gay-stan-culture#img-1

[Andreu 37,216]

I am not very into this but 

This article makes me very uncomfortable

[bloody g 31,746]

Literally YAWN

You can't be physically skinny to the gays, S K I N N Y  is a state of MIND. 

[BUtterfield 8 41,506]

Just now, Andreu said:

I am not very into this but 

This video makes me very important

Video?

[MaryJaneHolland 77,348]

This seems interesting. I will read later.

[Andreu 37,216]

Just now, Rainbow1 said:

Video?

Just now, Rainbow1 said:

Video?

My brain is off lol

[Madam Margolyes 7,783]

[ryanripley 86,575]

omg the GP is coming for stan culture and i LOVE

i hope this is the beginning of the end

[Earthling 3,692]

Toxic stan culture is being rightfully read in this article yet y'all are just here yawning and would rather go shame Gaga for wearing a hat in her own home

[IAmNotHere1997 25,824]

Guardian sweetie, you should've sat there and ate your food. 

IT'S. NOT. THAT. DEEP. 

I literally lost two brain cells reading this so-called "article" 

"Skinny legend" -> body shaming?! 

BYE 

People are actually paid to write crap like this? 

I have to f*cking scream 

Excuse me I'm f*cking outta here right now 

[BornSimon 4,818]

Anyone over the age of 12 who talks and acts like that is in need of serious help. Stan culture is cancer, it's an embarrassment and it's disgustingly sexist.

1 minute ago, gabrielflorin01 said:

Guardian sweetie, you should've sat there and ate your food. 

IT'S. NOT. THAT. DEEP. 

I literally lost two brain cells reading this so-called "article" 

"Skinny legend" -> body shaming?! 

BYE 

People are actually paid to write crap like this? 

I have to f*cking scream 

Excuse me I'm f*cking outta here right now 

It IS that deep. You have literally had famous female celebrities telling you that the insults are NOT funny, that some of them do NOT like them. Do you think laughing at somebody's dwindling career or drug overdose is funny? Because if you do then I am sorry but you're awful.

[Impostor 4,114]

2 minutes ago, gabrielflorin01 said:

Excuse me I'm f*cking outta here right now 

Bye

[BUtterfield 8 41,506]

4 minutes ago, gabrielflorin01 said:

Guardian sweetie, you should've sat there and ate your food. 

IT'S. NOT. THAT. DEEP. 

I literally lost two brain cells reading this so-called "article" 

"Skinny legend" -> body shaming?! 

BYE 

People are actually paid to write crap like this? 

I have to f*cking scream 

Excuse me I'm f*cking outta here right now 

Seriously how old are you this is an actual serious topic 

2 minutes ago, BornSimon said:

Anyone over the age of 12 who talks and acts like that is in need of serious help. Stan culture is cancer, it's an embarrassment and it's disgustingly sexist.

It IS that deep. You have literally had famous female celebrities telling you that the insults are NOT funny, that some of them do NOT like them. Do you think laughing at somebody's dwindling career or drug overdose is funny? Because if you do then I am sorry but you're awful.

Drag 

[ryanripley 86,575]

4 minutes ago, gabrielflorin01 said:

Guardian sweetie, you should've sat there and ate your food. 

IT'S. NOT. THAT. DEEP. 

I literally lost two brain cells reading this so-called "article" 

"Skinny legend" -> body shaming?! 

BYE 

People are actually paid to write crap like this? 

I have to f*cking scream 

Excuse me I'm f*cking outta here right now 

lol but it is that deep, you're just in deep denial because you want to keep joining in on this horrific and bullying toxic culture that contributes nothing but hate

is it funny? yeah, once in a blue moon but every other day it's at the expense of someone's weight/trauma/looks/success/insecurities etc

if millie bobby brown leaving twitter because of stan culture upsetting her didn't set off any alarm bells then honey, you got a big storm coming

[IAmNotHere1997 25,824]

8 minutes ago, BornSimon said:

I IS that deep. You have literally had famous female celebrities telling you that the insults are NOT funny, that some of them do NOT like them. Do you think laughing at somebody's dwindling career or drug overdose is funny? Because if you do then I am sorry but you're awful.

Just because some of them are like that doesn't mean we gotta label and admit that all the stans are like that.

5 minutes ago, Rainbow1 said:

Seriously how old are you this is an actual serious topic 

It is not. You're telling me stan culture is worse than sport fans? Lol.

2 minutes ago, ryanripley said:

lol but it is that deep, you're just in deep denial because you want to keep joining in on this horrific and bullying toxic culture that contributes nothing but hate

I'm in a deep what? Should I stop supporting Gaga because some of her fans make awful harmful jokes? No.