‘Maybe if she stanned …’: Reinforcing fan identities and affirming positive fan-object relations through toxic practices in K-Pop fandom

Abstract

This article proposes an analysis of a specific form of toxic fan practice within Korean pop (K-Pop) music fandoms, discussing the role these toxic discourses play in the formation and affirmation of positive fan identities. The specific toxic practices that will be discussed occur in response to the personal tragedies of others, frequently where suicide or attempted suicide is involved. In particular, this article focuses on the ways in which certain K-Pop fans target the personal tragedies of others as a means of reinforcing a positive relation to their fan-object. Crucially, the tragedies these toxic behaviours are directed towards are not immediately related to the fandom or fan-object, and these aggressive fan behaviours are largely unprovoked. This ‘Maybe if she stanned …’ phenomenon serves to express the superiority of fan communities by asserting their distance from the suffering of others, as well as the redemptive qualities of their fan-object. I argue that these toxic fan practices function as a means of reaffirming the righteousness of a particular fandom, and this righteous toxicity is itself the result of the K-Pop industry’s valorization of an emotionally heightened form of fan devotion, as well as a changing online fan environment. In doing so, I hope to demonstrate how toxic fan practices arise as self-affirming meaning-making discourses within fan communities.