Written by A.J Riley
Hi, guys
Today I am going to talk about the dark side of fandom. I want to clarify that I am well aware not every person in all fandoms is like this, but we also know every fandom has those groups of people who sometimes ruin the experience for others (especially if you’re a minority). So, as a minority who takes part in many fandoms of various things, I decided to finally discuss it.
This is from my own biased opinion and from my own experiences, please note that.
Please note that this is just an article I felt like I needed to write, I do not get paid for this. Usually, I write for fun, so this is a more serious article, I guess.
Okay, now onto the article:
The first thing we need to discuss is what exactly is a fandom? Well, to sum things up in a few short words: A fandom is a group of fans who are a fan of something or someone. An example would be a fan of a band or a fan of a TV show. They might consider themselves a part of that specific fandom.
A better definition can be found in the image below
Are fandoms always bad? The answer is no. In fact, oftentimes, fandoms become a family for most people. In my personal experience, I have made many friends who have become like my family in fandom spaces. I met my best friends through our love of shows, music, books, movies, etc. Fandoms can be very special to many people.
But other times, fandoms can become a dark, toxic place. I notice the toxicity in fandoms are more often than not in fandoms of a show or movie, not to say fandoms of bands cannot be toxic, because they can, it is just from a personal, observational standpoint that most toxic fandoms are fans of shows/movies.. And you will see fans say horrible things to each other. From insults and to things that are too far like death threats. (All over a fictional TV show. Like I said, too far)
A lot of the time, fandoms have their own smaller subsets of fandoms. Especially when it comes to ships and ship wars. Fans of certain shows will ship a character with another one, and at times, that is when things can become toxic. Especially if there are characters who are already canonically (they are dating in the show) together, along with a popular non canon (a ship that is not together) ship.
Now, not to generalize, but from my personal experience, a lot of shippers who ship a canon ship hold almost a strong superiority complex over shippers who ship a non canon ship. Especially if the non canon ship is popular and is a queer ship and the canon ship is a man and woman. And from my own experience, a lot of shippers of the canon ship will often mock and invalidate shippers of the popular non canon ship and make them feel bad about shipping two men or two women (for me personally, this has only happened with two female characters, a sapphic ship) and at times they will put other fans down for the things they do with their ships in terms of fan creativity (fan art, fanfiction, fan edits, manips)
Like previously stated above, this is only coming from my personal experience from a handful of people I’ve interacted and engaged with. I’ve met plenty of people who ship a ship I don’t ship/dislike who are wonderful and some of my favorite humans ever.
Homophobia is often a strong thing in many fandoms and at times, if you ship a female character with another female character or a male character with another male character, you will get comments and responses of people saying “They are straight,” “They’ve only dated, kissed, had sex with the opposite gender,” which is false because bisexuals and pansexuals exist.
All fandoms have toxic people and it’s hard to figure out if you want to be in them or not. Especially if a fandom has been notably known for being problematic (such as constant racism, ableism, homophobia, etc)
Another subset of fandoms within a fandom are fans of fictional characters. When you are a fan of a fictional character, more often than not, you want to protect that character with your life and defend them. At times, there’s characters that should have no fans if they’re meant to be the bad guy, but you cannot control who someone else stans.
When you look at things that a character has done, there will be things that they might’ve done in the past that other fans would’ve found upsetting (ex: a character being homophobic), you will see them say reasons as to why they dislike the character and while they may have reasonable points, often times, us as fans will still want to defend them. Even if they deserve to be held accountable for the poor choices and bad decisions they’ve made in the past.
Fandom has been a part of fan culture for many, many years and it is still a huge part of our world today. And most of the time, fandoms are what make a show popular or what make a celeb more noticed. A fandom is made up of people who love and adore a certain book or ship or a specific character or artist.
And while fandoms can be exceptionally beautiful and you can find your best friend in fandom (I’ve even seen people meet their bfs/gfs in fandoms), we need to acknowledge that fandoms themselves can still perpetuate heavily on being problematic and we cannot just continue to allow it to happen.
I feel this is all I have to say, there is probably more but this is currently all I can think of.
Just remember that if you feel unsafe in a fandom, you are allowed to leave and do so to keep your mind at peace and at ease. And you are not a “fake fan” for leaving a fandom for the sake of your own mental health. Trust me when I say I’ve left fandoms due to the homophobia, ableism and bullying I personally faced. You can still enjoy something on your own and outside of a fandom
Another thing to do is if you feel the fandom is too toxic but you personally do not feel unsafe, you can just try to surround yourself with good people and try to avoid the bad apples. Even though at times, the bad apples are the loudest, there are still nice, wonderful people in every fandom.
This is all for now. I may consider writing a part two if I feel the need to
Thanks everyone for reading! Sorry if this is a bit jumbled, I am a little tired from my surgery last night and the anesthesia.
A.J Riley
07. 27. 2023
Below is an article that’s probably better than mine;
Written by Peter Coffin, published in 2015
