This entry goes to show how Twitter skews everyone’s notions of fame. @Trendeh has 116,000 followers (while only following 16,000 back), which means he is 250% more famous online than Laurie Penny, for instance. But, presumably, he’s a guy few of our readers will have heard of. He exists far, far away from that White Media Twitter Elite we find most of our candidates in. He’s from a world that few people past the age of 20 will ever find themselves in. He is the king of fandom.
When we first put this list together, I had @trendeh pegged down for a spot at around #98. He was on the list solely because he had the most obnoxious bio of all time, now lost to the ages, but read something like “I’m a mean ghetto-ass bitch from the hood except I’m gay and Irish”. Terrible people who may or may not be featuring higher up on this list have made this error before, calling Rihanna “ghetto” when she grew up a mere 1,200 miles as the crow flies from the Bronx and had chartered accountants for parents.
But then I read this guy’s timeline more and more, and read up about him, and… look, I’m too old to understand anything I found. All I know is that I don’t like it.
I don’t “get” fandoms. I don’t understand them. I appreciate that being a teenage is a difficult, complicated time. I appreciate that kids who are particularly vulnerable (via their sexuality, coming from a broken home, bullying at school or simply through being very ugly) may be that much more prone to finding identity in celebrities and treating that poster on the wall as an outlet. But to define yourself as a human being by the famous person you like, as thousands, millions of kids do online? It’s depressing and it’s a sign of failed parenting.
So, on one level, @trendeh makes this list as a symbol of fandom, on how we’ve somehow managed to commodify psychopathic obsession with a celebrity into being a positive capitalistic trait, a cult of personality where the tithe is 80% of your weekly allowance. And, on another level, @trendeh is on this list because he really is an absolute fucking prick. Guys who spend that much time Photoshopping their eyes bluer shouldn’t make tweets complaining about “ignorant black people”, as a general rule.
I appreciate that gay guys who come from repressed, small towns where their sexuality may be frowned upon tend to “explode” when they get a platform, whether that be a move to a new city or an online podium. However, there’s only so much “bitch”, “hood”, “ghetto”, “bitch ghetto hood ghetto bad bitch ghetto ghetto” chatter you can take from someone before you half to calmly place your hand on their shoulder and go “these aren’t your words. Stop using them. Delete your Twitter account, go and stand in a corner and think very carefully about what you’re doing with your life. Also, Rihanna hasn’t made a good song since ‘Pon De Replay’.”
Sample Tweets:
"The people in the #namesbetterthanIvyBlue trend need to realize this baby is 1 day old & already owns more money than you'll ever make, Bye."
"#Feyonce is the ghetto version of spelling Fiancée."
"i like to rap along with nicki minaj and feel like a ghetto fabulous hood bitch"
