I found this past week’s class discussion on fandoms and video games fascinating. I especially thought about the “For the Love of Fangirls” video and one of the points made by one of my classmates about how “if teenage girls aren’t screaming about you; you’re not relevant.” It made me think about my own experiences as a fan in various fandoms, the communities I’ve encountered and what it means to belong, the power of fandoms, perhaps the darker sides to it and what does it even mean; to belong and fit in?
First, let’s talk about relevancy and the power of teenage girls. I read “Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone” at the end of 2001. I read it mainly because I wanted a friend of mine to stop talking about it. Little did I know that I would become the one who wouldn’t stop talking about it. I even got my brother to read the books pretty soon, and we even built up quite a collection of Harry Potter newspaper articles we’d cut out from the Sunday Papers, which would include a newspaper magazine for kids as well. I still have these articles, which have been waiting for more than two decades to be turned into a scrapbook.
When my brother started to read the Harry Potter series, we discovered that we had a shared love for the series. So while I wasn’t a teenager when I began to read Harry Potter, I could still influence my brother to read it, perhaps with a few occasional screams of excitement about it. I do not know if most children who read Harry Potter were teenage girls at the time. Still, from my experience with my brother, I think girls can influence their siblings and others to become absorbed in pop culture they feel are great. Also, my brother was a Backstreet Boys fan, and he would even talk to our grandma about them. Which, looking back, makes me laugh.
Furthermore, I think pop culture and its association with it can play a large part in the process of grieving. For example, in 2003, about a month before my family moved to Canada, one of my brother’s friends, his mom, and his grandmother passed away in a tragic accident. My brother’s friend was also a huge Harry Potter fan. We watched “Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets” with him, and his death was devastating to both my brother and me. It’s a death that still haunts me, but my brother and I used Harry Potter to work through the grief and talk about how much his friend would have loved the final instalment of the series.
When I think about fandoms and belonging, I ask myself the question, “what does it mean to belong to a fandom”? I haven’t created fanart or attended Harry Potter conventions such as Leaky Con, but I have discussed the series at length with friends. My brother and I even introduced the series to a mutual friend, who introduced it to his parents. We ended up watching “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” with them. I even met one of my penpals because of Harry Potter. In that way, we created our little community of fans; does that still mean we belong to the fandom? Or are we sort of on the fringes of it? Or, as fans do we get to define and redefine our association to respective fandoms?
From about 2014-2016, I was part of the Kuroko No Basuke Fandom (Kuroku’s Basketball), an anime and manga about 7 Basketball players known as the “Generation of Miracles.” I can say it was the place where I learned about Basketball and got excited about the sport. Furthermore, I interacted with three people that I would consider quite popular among the fandom for their opinions/theories about the show and their fanfiction writing. I also felt I had a positive experience because one of them was also a fan of other animes that I was interested in, and I even started watching the anime “Psycho-Pass” because of them. Our discussions moved beyond anime, and discussions revolved around our personal lives too. I also had an opportunity to learn about Hockey through one of the fanfiction writers who used Kuroku No Basuke’s Characters in alternative universe fanfiction stories set in the world of professional Hockey. Even within this fandom, I wasn’t contributing to it artistically; instead, it was just in a discussion format. Does that still constitute as belonging to a fandom? Do you have to make contributions to the fandom actively? Or can you belong to the fandom purely out of your love for the property? Acts of fandom appreciation could include purchasing merchandise belonging to a specific property, supporting artists who create fanart, attending panels at conventions etc.
Manifold (2009) discusses the value of critiques fan artists receive from fellow artists. I would also say that validation plays a vital role in these communities. For example, a famous artist in her own right (who happens to be a friend of mine) shared how another renowned artist asked about an artwork she had done and if she had it in a larger size. My friend was so excited about being noticed by this specific artist, and in turn, I was also happy to hear about her getting the recognition she deserved.
In her TED Talk, Yve Blake (2020) says, “fangirls know how to love something without apology or fear.” I think in an idealistic perspective, this is true; I think the more popular something can become (like KPOP), fans are more open about loving something and are unapologetic about that love. That is something to be admired; however, there is also a responsibility not to let that love turn into something dangerous. For example, in 2001, British Boy Band A1 was in a mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, and during the event, four teenage girls were killed due to being crushed to death (ABC News, 2006). This event even led the members to become traumatized by what happened, which they discuss in this video. Perhaps people will argue that this has nothing to do with pop culture and what happened to the four teenage girls was a tragic accident. However, I think adults also have a responsibility while encouraging a love for pop culture to educate youth on some of the dangers that could happen at such events.
Furthermore, while screaming and showing enthusiasm at concerts, buying merchandise, attending fan events is completely fine, what is not okay is for fans to follow pop culture stars and invade their privacy. In KPOP terms, a fan who does this is known as a “Sasaeng” fan, and they are notorious for stalking idols from when they arrive at airports to stealing their items from their personal belongings (Tamdondong, 2021). Such behaviour tarnishes the image of fandoms, despite acts being carried out by a small minority, and plays a role in the mental health of idols/celebrities. In an interview, D.O., a member of the popular KPOP boy group EXO, stated, “Personally, I even came to develop a victim mentality because of the sasaeng fans. It’s so bad that my mood changes even when I see normal fans. Even my personality changed. I was originally shy and cautious, but because of sasaengs, I became even more like that.” (Soompi, 2013).
In class, I believe we discussed who decides what is considered extreme, especially in the age of social media. I do think that collectively we can agree that stalking and invading people’s privacy in the name of pop culture is unacceptable. As I was thinking about fans and various fandoms, I came across the word “fansumer” in an article, which combines the words “fan” and “consumer.” According to Choi (2021), it “highlights how fans can bring massive profits to artists and agencies – if they feel like it. K-pop fans apparently have enough spending power to get an old song charting again to mark an idol’s birthday, but, on the other hand, fan ire can seriously hurt an artist’s career.” That’s a lot of power to have among a community, especially when you consider that it can make or break an artist’s career. I find that, in some ways, incredibly terrifying. I find that having such power forces artists to behave in ways fans want. It’s hard to say who actually encourages such behaviour, and maybe that highlights my reservations about power and groups who wield power.
Fans and fan power is an exciting area of study, especially in the world that we live in. As a fan, I’ve been someone who doesn’t have a lot of interest in meeting artists (especially in the music industry). I’m happy to admire them from afar and support them by going to concerts. I understand that I’m a type of fan, and I’m okay with that for the most part. Fans and fandoms are incredibly diverse. They can be great places to find community, but I think it’s important to recognize that it’s not always the case. Other fans can bully fans, and it can be an unwelcoming place when behaviours you do not necessarily agree with happen. As someone raised in a Buddhist household, and even though I’m not religious by any means, “everything in moderation” is something that I have been reminded of. That’s my view of fans, and fandoms-when I mean moderation, I mean that we need to learn to not over-invest ourselves in fandoms, but not under-invest either. This moderation probably looks different for everyone. And perhaps that’s where the problem lies, “who decides what is moderation?” Is it adults? Is it youth? Who does? And I don’t have an answer to that. But I think it is a question that we will always come back to.
Since I've discussed KPOP a lot in this journal, I would like to share a part of the documentary "The Birth of KPOP" by created YouTube.
References
ABC News. (2006, January 6). Four Die in Crush at A1 Appearance in Indonesia. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=108105
Blake, Y. (2020, March 10). For the love of fangirls [Video]. TED.
Choi. H. (2021, June 7). How K-pop fans control idols: from hating on Lee Seung-gi and Lee Da-in’s romance to the Blackpink #RespectLisa hashtag, obsessive ‘fansumers’ are now calling the shots. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3136349/how-k-pop-fans-control-idols-hating-lee-seung-gi-and-lee
Manifold, M. C. (2009). What Art Educators Can Learn from the Fan-based Artmaking of Adolescents and Young Adults. Studies in Art Education, 50(3), 257–271. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2009.11518772
Soompi. (2013, August 13). EXO Members Experience Hardships Over Sasaeng Fans. Soompi. https://www.soompi.com/article/519749wpp/exo-members-experience-hardships-over-sasaeng-fans
Tamondong, H. (2021. January 15). What Is A 'Sasaeng'? A Guide To South Korea's Toxic Fan Culture. Cosmopolitan. https://www.cosmo.ph/entertainment/south-korea-sasaeng-fan-toxic-culture-a4575-20210115-lfrm
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