beyond the basic issue of stanning wealthy people and celebrities in general,
the largest issue in stan culture is the idea that who you stan reflects on your morality. rather than that then being used to back off or at least stop apologizing for when your faves fuck up, people now take accusations of any sort personally.
the idols you stan become an extension of self. you aren’t a stan of BTS (which would imply a level of distance), you’re ARMY. insert in any group/idol and fan name and it applies. your sense of identity hinges on these people you obsessively consume. once you consume them, they’re inside you. they are you unless you spit them out.
stan culture is based on putting in massive loads of time, energy, and money (sometimes money you might not even really have) for the benefit of someone who doesn’t even know you exist. for the person/people you stan to be revealed as bad or problematic or straight up evil is to imply that a. that time/energy/money was wasted and b. you are bad, problematic, or evil for choosing that person, even if you had no way of knowing. that said, people can’t distance themselves from their idols cause they’re in too deep.
and they need a reason to justify NEVER distancing themselves from their idol, even in the wake of controversy. “how can i be a good person and continue to like [x] who has been accused of [y]” only ever has the path of denial or apologism. no longer stanning or admitting “yeah, that’s fucked up, but i still like them for this separate reason” isn’t an option to these people.
it’s why people hyped up their faves for donating to blm or whatever because, wow, liking someone who donated to blm is almost as good as you, yourself, donating to blm without any of the financial cost. their goodness is yours. that also means... their badness ia then yours but why should you suffer for something someone else did?
when the people you stan become morality signifiers and you refuse to stop stanning no matter what, this is what happens. you view what your faves do through the lens of “how does this affect me,” victims be damned. common sense be damned.
sorry for the long reply but i’ve been thinking about this a lot.
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