Time to Cancel Stan Culture?

By Serena Sanchez

Following most popular musicians, actors, athletes, public figures, politicians, infuencers or content creators can often be found their legion of adoring, if not somewhat obsessed, fans—or “stans.”

While some of these stans simply admire from afar, there are many cases when they can physically follow, violate the privacy of, and become preoccupied with every personal fact about their favorite celebrities, as if they know them personally.

Originating from Eminem’s song “Stan,” which depicts an obsessive fan who, after sending letter after letter to his idol and not receiving a response, kills both himself and his pregnant girlfriend by driving off of a cliff, the term stans has become synonomous with obsessive fans of their celebrity of choice.

This stan community has always had the capability to become creepy and stalker-ish, especially when they are that attached to their favorite public figure, but the proliferation of social media has only increased the possibility. However, stan culture can also have positive connotations.

When Nicki Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, was accused of rape, his accusor revealed that she suffered also harassment from both Petty and Minaj. Fans of the rapper then put aside their support and called her out for it. Fans of Shia LaBeouf similarly withdrew their support for the actor after FKA twigs sued him for sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress during their relationship.

In these cases, stan culture held their idols accountable for their wrongdoings, showing that just because stans want to look up to and exalt their favorite celebrity doesn’t mean they know everything about their personal lives or that these celebrities are necessarily perfect people just because of their performances. But this also highlights an issue with stan culture, the belief that they do know everything about their favorite celebrity when they really don’t at all.

An example of this that played out in front of the world was the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial that began on April 11, 2022. For weeks, the world was captivated by the legal spectacle and it wasn’t long before the stan wars between their celebrity followings began. Throughout the widely televised trial, there were hashtags, memes, and clips shared across social media platforms wanting justice for both actors involved, with neither side acknowledging the faults of each party.

But the main source of support was behind Depp, with his stans sharing the most-watched and live-streamed “fan edits,” which showed him as both the hero and victim of the trial. According to Mashable, these fan edits are “fan-made videos typically set to music that slice together clips of a celebrity or character.” While these fan edits are now being made the norm by many of these celebrities’ stan followings, putting clips together of a domestic violence trial poses the question of whether or not stan culture has gone a bit too far.

This extreme iteration of stan culture has been widely shared on Tik Tok, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, and the stan accounts on these platforms are quick to share their opinions about which sides they are taking during this trial.

“That j*nny d*pp shit is genuinely the greatest misinformation campaign I have ever seen on the internet btw lol have never seen so many well-meaning people fooled by Twitter stans in my entire life,” said BrosephSZN, an account on Twitter. Mculokii, a Twitter user, created a fan edit that depicted how Depp used humor during the trial while dealing with Heard’s lawyer. But because of the nature of the trial itself, it rubbed people the wrong way, such as TheNthDoctor, who criticized the edit by tweeting, “Can we all agree that making edits about a domestic abuse court case is very weird.”

Martin Thompson, a stan community veteran who is currently a senior at California State University, Dominguez Hills, has been on stan Twitter since August 2017. Initially joining to follow his favorite artists and make new friends, Thompson has seen firsthand the negative shift in stan culture, especially with the rise of cancel culture, which is when someone is cast out of social or professional standing if their actions are deemed unacceptable.

In October 2021, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Thompson attended a concert that had strict reminders to wear a mask everywhere. The next day, Twitter stans were debating whether the concert venue actually did require attendees to wear them and, to confirm they did, Thompson posted a link to the website. In response to his tweet, many people attacked him and even blocked him for sharing the truth.

“Cancel culture became prominent and is synonymous with stan culture,” Thompson said. “I feel like one does not live without the other. Many stans get canceled for something as simple as having a difference in opinions. This is what makes the energy of stan culture so toxic.”

The age of entering stan culture becoming earlier and earlier is another negative to the community that continues to grow.

“I joined when I was 16, and that was about the minimum age at the time. Now, there are some individuals who are 12 or 13 on there, trying to befriend people who are almost twice their age. This is something that I have found weird, and do my best to stay clear of people this young,” Thompson said.

It really begs the questions: How did stan culture become so invasive and when did we, as a society, become so desensitized to it? This Depp v. Heard trial isn’t alone in causing such conversation about whether we’re too comfortable sharing so much about our lives or knowing too much about others’ but it has shown how some have gone from genuine support for those they look up to and idolize, to a sometimes creepy obsession that takes on new, detrimental lengths.

“People consuming a trial like it’s a Netflix series, live-tweeting throughout it, making fancams and reaction videos from the footage, going to the courthouse like it’s a premiere, brands trying to capitalize on it on TikTok… This is not normal behavior. It’s unhinged,” Ahmad said on Twitter.

Still, Thompson can’t fully condemn the stan community, though, as he has also experienced the benefits it can offer.

“I do enjoy my time on [stan Twitter], and will forever cherish the friends I’ve made. I love supporting my favorite artists, and try to stay away from the toxicity as much as I can because that’s what I do in my normal life!” he exclaimed.

Though stan culture can oftentimes bring positivity, it’s not always healthy nor productive to fixate on the lives of celebrities they have no connection to, besides through their music, movies, or art. Maybe, once those who take stanning a little too far consider this, it’ll allow them to begin digging deeper into how overexposure to celebrities’ lives doesn’t necessarily equate to knowing them personally, or of ever really knowing what is really real.