The Guardian's Article on Stan Culture

[GhettoFabulous 18,501]

Ya’ll smell that ****?  WHEEEW CHILE THE GHETTO!  

[TheMiddleGround 3,278]

1 hour 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 

How old are you?

[MonsterOfficial 11,079]

searched the writer's tweets

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ryanripley 86,575]

4 minutes ago, MonsterOfficial said:

searched the writer's tweets

 

 

 

 

 

omfg

[The BPD Monster 1,718]

Wtf

[codymonster 8,621]

It is actually disgusting how some people think they are allowed to talk about other people just because it's on the internet and its "funny". I completely agree with the article.

[BUtterfield 8 41,506]

11 minutes ago, MonsterOfficial said:

searched the writer's tweets

 

 

 

 

 

A god damn mess

[IAmNotHere1997 25,824]

12 minutes ago, MonsterOfficial said:

searched the writer's tweets

 

EXPOSE!!!!!!!

I knew it. Ugh, my mind.

[Schizophonic 7,015]

something you all should read and understand.

 

'They just wanted to silence her': the dark side of gay stan culture

For gay men, ‘stanning’ – being a super fan of – female pop stars can be a valuable part of your identity. But too often this fandom lapses into misogyny and body shaming

Ahead of Britney Spears’ record-breaking show at Brighton Pride this year, Aaron Hussey noticed a fellow fan wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a picture of Spears’ nervous breakdown: the 2007 incident when, head shaved, she attacked a photographer’s car with an umbrella. “I think he thought he was being funny,” Hussey says. “He wasn’t.”

“Brightney Pride”, as it has affectionately been nicknamed, was one of the biggest events of the gay calendar – so big that 4,000 revellers were left stranded once the city’s heaving public transport system failed under the pressure. Surely only dedicated Spears “stans” – the most dedicated kind of fan, a portmanteau of “fan” and “stalker” taken from Eminem’s hit about a crazed follower – would have braved these conditions to glimpse their idol. So why the cruel taunt?

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. This year, Spears was honoured with an award by the US’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Glaad) for promoting equality. She responded by saying the gay community had shown her “unconditional love”.

But “unconditional” is often precisely what this love is not. Scratch lightly at the surface and what flakes off is, yes, reciprocity and genuine affection, but also callous misogyny.

One theory of the gay fan-diva link is that of shared oppression – gay men and women are both ground under the wheel of hetero-patriarchy. Perhaps in that model, the Spears T-shirt could be read as a show of solidarity, a knowing acknowledgment of her pain and our understanding? But there was nothing knowing in the way another gay fan photoshopped an umbrella into his meet and greet photo with the unwitting star and later circulated it online. These actions have a distinct edge of mockery, the air of a joke that their subject is not in on.

Dr Michael Bronski, a Harvard University professor and the author of books on queer history and gay culture says “There is a long history of gay male fan culture latching onto famous women and then turning on them. Queens would come to a Judy Garland concert and then scream at her when she was too drunk to finish it. The women have changed – it’s no longer Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland. But the dynamic remains in western culture.”

.....

 

FULL article

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

 

[MonsterOfficial 11,079]

this is the writer's tweets

 

 

[Dunk96 2,526]

This is all incredible irony and poetic justice,especially seeing the writer's tweets as if some investigative stan wasn't gonna dig the dirt up.

[OMonster 14,720]

Interesting article but I do think it's a little bit too ingrained in political correctness. 

I mean, 'fat' is a term that stans use comically for someone irrespective of their weight. It is not a comment on their weight - it is a comment on, for example, their commercial success or a controversial moment. I guess that then exposes how 'fat' is used pejoratively, though. I just think the writer is reaching a bit here... 

I don't know. I think there is a lot of truth in what the article is saying, particularly about misogyny, but I do think it is looking too deep into something that is very superficial. 

I don't agree with the writer's point about hyper-femininity. Stans follow women that are prolific in pop, and it is true - because of the nature of pop - that these women are usually feminine. But artists like Gaga - who are not typically 'pretty' like, for example, Ariana Grande - still get a lot of attention. The truth is that stans follow artists that have character, attitude and can perform... it is not about only stanning women who are 'pretty'. 

Ready to get dragged for this post 

 

 

 

 

 

[StrawberryBlond 14,904]

Finally, someone says it. It needed to be said for a long time. I don't know why the gays claim to love women and then equally love tearing them down for the slightest thing, not even a big thing. I've found that the gays tend to be all over a female one minute (usually for a very mediocre album, at that) and then drop her with the follow-up and then look for an excuse to "cancel" her at the first given opportunity. Not all, of course, but a lot of online ones, at least. And here's where it gets ironic: as a woman myself and a feminist, I'm of the firm belief that I want women treated equally to men, which means that I'm willing to criticise a woman for the same things I'd criticise a man about. So it annoys me when I make a critique of a female artist and then a (usually) gay male comes in and tries to tell me that I shouldn't be criticising women as there's not enough of them in pop culture right now as it is and that I shouldn't pit women against each other or some other BS. All too happy to support women while simultaneously telling another woman what she can and cannot say about women. For the record, there are some women in the industry who need calling out. Remember that it's the public who made these celebrities, so we should be allowed to judge them accordingly if we think they've done something wrong. But only when it's worth it, that's the key. And body shaming and laughing at their personal problems is not in the "worth it" category.

That's not to say that some of stan culture can't be fun sometimes, though, when it's done intelligently and relies on facts. What I can't take is the juvenile jargon, most of all. It's just tiresome. And when the use of a phrase in the lexicon and nothing else of value is said in the post. At the end of the day, every fandom has a toxic side. What I don't get is the author of the article claiming that gay stans running in with "she's over," "she's a flop" etc. is something limited to gays. When Gaga was going through overexposure and stopping getting so many hits, these phrases were all straights would say. The public in general loves ending anyone they deem problematic and can be so fickle as to love someone one minute and then drop them and call for an end to their career the next. Why claim it to be a gay phenomenon?

6 hours ago, gabrielflorin01 said:

Can SJWS get a real job and stop ruining everything?

I'm anti SJW (pro-social justice but against the concept of SJW-ism) and I think the author is mostly right on the money.

5 hours ago, Fable said:

People here have "opinions" that aren't necessarily warnable, and I don't think they should be, but I just think some opinions are sometimes rooted in either misogyny or as some kind of reflection of a deep personal insecurity. The joy some people have over an artist not getting the #1 position on the charts, the dragging and laughing at artists who may not have sold out one stadium on their worldwide tour, the desire to constantly drag an artist they don't like and pick apart their weaknesses, jumping on bandwagons to "cancel" an artist that said something potentially shady about their idol... It's just toxic.

I do agree with most of what you're saying but I find that people only tend to do that when they have a personal beef with the artist, though. If they shaded their fave or they are even just, in their view, untalented and/or overexposed. I know that these are the only reasons I have ever delighted in seeing the mighty fall. Sometimes, when there's hate, it's justified. If these celebrities were normal people and swanned around like they were better than everyone and made subtle disses about everyone in town and made outrageous demands, they would have been out their ass a long time ago. If it can happen to civilians, why not celebrities? We made them, it's up to us to decide if they deserve to stick around. But essentially, I stop being bitter when the artist is no longer a threat. I sure did that with Katy Perry.

[ApplauseftAdele 4,730]

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

 

Tea was spilled...

[Bloodyjack 794]

I'm living for the skinny legend reference