Fandoms: Am I a fan?

Am I a fan?

In short yes, but isn't everybody a fan of something?

The Oxford dictionary defines a fan as "A person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular person or thing"1, which personally I disagree with. I have a 'strong interest' in history, and am fascinated by organisations such as the Nazis, however I would definitely not consider myself a fan of them. From my own experiences, I would classify somebody as a fan if they strongly like a person/topic/thing but only once they have performed an action which has contributed to said things success, such as downloading music from a band, buying a film, voting for them to win a competition or buying merchandise.

I know people reading this might say, 'Does that mean I am not a fan of a band if I cannot afford a CD or top?'

No.

You could stream their music on Spotify or share their social media in support for free.

In order to talk about this topic in connection to my own personal experience, I am going to link this specifically to being a fan of a band.

My favourite artists right now is Motionless in White. I have an official t-shirt and have been to see them live, which was one of the best experiences of my life. I listen to them on a regular basis, follow them on Instagram and keep up to date with upcoming events. This is being a fan. Unfortunately, this is not what I have observed from fellow 'fans' of this iconic group. Recently it was announced that lead singer Chris Motionless and his partner Gaiapatra were ending their relationship2, details of which were kept off social media for personal reasons which should be respected. However, what has been observed was not respectful at all, with comments such as 'do you do anything else other than take pictures of your white privileged self?', 'What the fuck is that', 'die', 'Oh look Gaia the liar nobody cares', nobody could honestly be surprised that the relationship ended with this kind of abuse purely because they were together. The people making these comments claimed to be fans, yet they seemed adamant to ruin Chris Motionless' happiness. Stefanie Rhein3 would refer to these people as 'teenie fans', which she defines in a similar way to obsessive fan girls.

They key word there is obsessive. There is a difference between being a fan and being obsessed. Obsessions are unhealthy, lead to bizarre behaviour to say the least and can be damaging to the representation of the band/icon/film etc, as where fans are respectful in their love for the same thing.

To summarise, yes I am a fan, everybody is a fan of something, however there is a difference between having a healthy respect and admiration of a person's craft and obsessing over it to the point it effects their personal life.

1 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fan last accessed on 22.04.2018

2 https://www.instagram.com/p/BgpOFvXB-_Q/?taken-by=gaiapatra

3 http://www.jstor.org/stable/41699316?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

"Being a Fan is more than that": Fan-specific involvement with music by Stefanie Rhein

The world of music 42 (1) 2000-95-109

#Fandoms