“Baby-gate” is an example of how the “fan and let fan” mantra has contributed to fandoms normalizing behaviors that would have been completely unacceptable years ago
It is interesting to me that the “fan and let fan” people in this fandom are either:
1) Perpetrators of some of the worst behaviors in the fandom and/ or
2) Fans who spend all day long criticizing (i.e., “policing”) the social media behavior of Sam, Cait, their SOs, their colleagues who don’t support the ship, any fan who says anything they disagree with and of course “antis.”
Basically these women demand the right to criticize whomever they want but to be left alone to do anything they want to do without repercussions.
And we have seen this behavior across fandoms. From people I have spoken to who were involved in fandoms for decades, real person (RP) shipping used to be taboo because it was considered to be inappropriate to treat real people as objects.
But the “fan and let fan” movement changed that and RP shipping is now common.
“Tinhatting” or the need to prove a real person ship is real (beyond substantial evidence to the contrary) was considered taboo.
Now it is ubiquitous to the point that it is often confused in fandoms with regular (i.e, “wishful”) shipping.
It used to be considered taboo for fans to break down the fourth wall and go to celebrities with their tinhat beliefs. Now that has become common.
With the normalization of tinhatting and breaking down the fourth wall, fandoms are becoming increasingly toxic of celebrities and their loved ones, to the point that celebrities like Jamie Dornan have shut down their social media because they couldn’t stand the harassment of their families by extreme fans.
Group norms are powerful things. But if there is a rule that anything goes, then the worst instincts of the group will become normalized.
So now we have a whole group of fans in the Outlander fandom who not only speculate if Cait is pregnant, they cyberstalk her to try to prove she has “secret children” with Sam. And the bizarre “findings” of this group are circulated as if they are “fact.”
In a 03.23.16 interview in Marie Claire on March 23, 2016, Sam complained about some of the fans but then said (referring to the entire fandom) that it was okay because they were “self policing.”
MC: What’s the craziest thing a fan has done to get your attention?
SH: I probably can’t say, because I think it’s a bit embarrassing. But they’re great, they generally are very, very well-meaning and very supportive of everything we do. And some time it might go a little too enthusiastic, but they’re also self policing as well and they have a great community of support for each other. [emphasis added]
Sam was referring to the fandom being self-policing, not individuals stopping themselves from acting out. In other words, he was counting on people in the fandom to speak out when some fans go too far.
Sam has no problem with fans calling out other fans when they cross boundaries. The fans who cross those boundaries aren’t going to stop themselves. They think what they are doing is just fine.
You need appropriate group norms in any group. The whole “fan and let fan” nonsense has created very toxic fandoms full of stalkers who are always trying to “out” their OTPs and who circulate ridiculous rumors as “fact” about secret marriages and children or in other cases that real marriages and children are fake. And they repeatedly break the fourth wall with this nonsense, harassing the celebrities and their actual loved ones all to support their personal “entertainment” at the expense of these people’s real lives.
So if you want to accuse me or anyone else of being the “fandom police” for speaking up and saying the attempts to prove that Cait has been pregnant and given birth to secret children is crossing a boundary that should never be crossed by a fan, then I will proudly accept that designation.
“Fan and let fan” has created toxic fandoms for the very celebrities that are supposedly being fanned. It’s not okay. And it will only get worse unless there is a new norm in fandoms where fans are free to speak up when inappropriate boundaries are crossed by other fans.
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