#slayminaj

[waterspinachdith]

IM YOUR BIGGEST FAN!!

Fandom can provide a safe haven for us to express ourselves, have fun, and participate in activism. However, fandom is not always amusing. It can also be harmful at times. One of the toxic fandom cultures that we may have heard about recently is the "duty" to stream songs or music videos by idols in order to meet particular screening targets. Of course, this is done to both respect and encourage idols' work and hard work.

This behaviour, however, can become toxic if one fan or group of fans forces other fans to stream as well. Fans who do not stream militantly have been abused and dubbed "disloyal" to their idols on countless instances. Bullying is nothing new in the fandom. According to the BBC, in 2018, Canadian writer Wanna Thompson was bullied by Barbz, as fans of rap superstar Nicky Minaj were known. Wanna, who is also a fan of Nicki Minaj, questioned Nicky's work at the moment. He believes that the performer should write more mature songs.

Wanna began receiving threats and insults from the Barbz shortly after tweeting. They even found a photo of Wanna's four-year-old son and made fun of him. Gayle S. Stever writes in his article "Parasocial and Social Interaction with Celebrities: Classification of Media Fans," which was published in the journal Psychology Theories Methods and Applications, that a person can love or like his idol based on feelings such as "celebrity idols are similar to him," "he wants to be like a celebrity," "romantic attachment," and "considering idols to be holy heroes."

It's no secret that all fandoms can be awful, and I've certainly known this, but for those who prefer to use fiction to inspire and distract themselves from reality for a while, groups within a certain fandom might feel like a safe place to create relationships and not feel alone. For the longest time, I was only interested in one fandom, which I adored. There were some negative portions, but not nearly as horrible as some other fandoms I wanted to join. I'm getting into the practise of ignoring fandoms that I find offensive or obnoxious, but it makes me feel more alone in my enjoyment of a series; also, depending on the fandom, it can cause me to see a character or series as just one big cringey meme.

From my personal record, When I was in highschool, I was part of the Beliebers (Justin Bieber's) fandom. I remember creating a twitter account just to make friends with other beliebers. I used to post edits and tagged Justin's official account on every post I made. I believe I made quite a few friends on the acc even though none of us actually know each other personally. The fact that we're all gathered under the same interest. I used to get mad at people who make stupid jokes about him. I made a mistake and allowed it to impair my enjoyment of the series, something I'm trying not to repeat. It bothers me to see something that I find uplifting and reassuring portrayed as filthy and cringeworthy. Apart from meeting friends online, I remember that I used to skip school lunches just to save my pocket money for Justin Bieber's merch. The fact that this might be seen as cringe or childish to others, I was really enjoying those moments as a fangirl.