Every fandom has toxic fans. I don’t think I’ve ever joined a fan group for any fandom where the people in it didn’t say x has the most toxic fans in the world. When you actually engage with it, you get a more front row seat to the toxicity. I’ve personally seen Halloween fans that can get more toxic than Star Wars fans for instance, but Star Wars will have a worse reputation because it’s a much larger fandom. Which will obviously both attract more fans including toxic ones, but also amass more eyeballs to the toxicity. Niche fandom also causes gatekeepers.
Stans for celebrities are a special kind of breed. I see them daily on Twitter for almost every celebrity you can imagine. It’s really not contained to any one individual. But I will say females tend to attract more of them. There’s something about women where both men and women gravitate to stanning where as male celebrities will get a few hardcore male fans, but generally not to the level of stans. They’ll have female stans, though, even women tend to stan other women more. What I think is worse though than being massive fans is when stans turn on their idol for supposedly turning on them. Because they also stan companies in WWE’s case or specific relationships which ties into shipping culture.
Now like with fandom the more you engage with the stans the more you’ll see the toxicity of their fans and stans. Especially if you’re already someone that doesn’t like the performer. If you already don’t like Sasha Banks, you’re far more likely to see the negativity of her fan base. Even more so if you engage with negative speak of her online.
It should also be noted, too, you’re also far more likely to get massive stan backlash the more a superstar gets hate online. The more negativity that’s bore about a popular person online, the more the fans of that person have to engage with it and the more they feel the need to stand up for them.
It’s like I don’t particularly think of Becky Lynch as having toxic fans, but that’s because generally speaking most people like her at least a little bit so there’s no negativity to rile up her bigger stans.
time!
