“Stans”
I feel like I have to say this because the more the term becomes normalized, the more I worry that people don’t know the real meaning behind it.
Now of course to whoever sees this and decides to read it all the way through, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or add something if you like.
But, one day I was in the car with my mom and we were driving to get dinner, I turn to her and say something along the lines of one of my friends being a “marvel stan,” not really considering maybe she wouldn’t know what that meant, I have a habit of using tumblr terminology (or whatever you wanna call it) around people who wouldn’t have any idea what those terms mean, like saying something is a mood around your grandparents, which I did, and then had to explain what it was, which was quite funny because an hour or so later my grandmother referred to something as a mood and I was like O: but anyway...
My mom turned to me and she asked me if I knew what that term originated from, and I was like, “Uhhh... tumblr? I think? The internet, at the very least, why?”
And she said, “No, it’s because of one of Eminem’s songs that’s called Stan,” and she explained that the song was about an obsessed fan named Stan, who murdered his pregnant girlfriend and in the process, killed himself (by driving off a bridge) because Eminem wouldn’t respond to his fan mail.
Stan is a mashup of two words. Stalker fan. Stan.
By all means, be a zealous and dedicated fan, but do not be a maniacal and creepy fan.