Toxic Fandom Culture

[rynling]

Waking Up: Neil Gaiman and Toxic Fandom
https://thelearnedfangirl.com/2018/07/waking-up-neil-gaiman-and-toxic-fandom/

There is no shortage of examples [of toxic fandom]. Much of this behavior is based in misogyny and racism, some of it is not, and all of it seems to shriek, “You did not do what I want, therefore you are bad, and I am going to tell the world.”

This is not love. It is not even fandom. It is a mob.

Preach.

I should mention two things about this short essay. First, it's about the author being a fan of Neil Gaiman, not about Neil Gaiman himself. Second, it was written in July 2018. I was going through an intense online experience at the time and wondering what in the world I had done to deserve what was happening, and reading this essay then would have helped me a lot, I think. It's definitely worth saying that, outside of a genuine #MeToo (or similar) situation, no artist or writer deserves this. I'm tentatively hopeful that this sort of culture has started to fade, not in the least because we all have much better things to devote our time and energy to.

Comments

[runicmagitek]

What a great article. It touches on so many toxic aspects of fandom. The part talking about people clinging too much to the thing they like and how it becomes their identity... yeah. It seems to get magnified with access to social media, but I do hope it's something that dies and stays dead.