The video of Eminem’s Stan is hard to forget.
It is also a song indicative of today’s celebrity madness.
The song follows the fictional titular character’s spiral into madness as he tries to receive affirmation from the award-winning rapper but it only leads him to his death. At the time, the rapper was speaking about the kind of fan mail he was receiving and it became a message to his fans to try not to take anything he says too literally.
While the fictional character dies on screen, his spirit has proven to multiply in today’s age birthing the term Stans – which is a specific group of people dedicated to following a celebrity’s career (think stalker meets fan).
Celebrity culture has changed a lot since 1999 when the song came out. What has also changed is the way in which celebrities are held accountable. No longer limited to tabloids and powerful players in the media game but the consumer now has the power to be judge and juror of bad stars. But with Stan culture being a tool to keep a celebrity famous, it seems it has run the risk of watering down a critical approach to celebrities and entertainment.
Stans aren’t just loyal fans who put too much effort into the work of their favourites but are fans that have a deep and personal connection to the work a celebrity created. Their art can be so touching that it pushes someone to be loyal to everything else they create.
Having dedicated themselves to protecting a star they want to see succeed, Stans tend to attack anyone they deem an enemy of their favourite. Take the case of Beyoncé’s Beyhives and their attack on local musician Phila Madlingozi. The opinionated star suggested that Beyoncé should retire, a suggestion he compared to the many career peaks of rappers like her husband Jay Z.
This was seen in a negative light by fans who belittled his career, life choices, credibility and his father, the iconic Ringo Madlingozi. Adding fuel to the fire, the star hosted a Twitter Space (a live community broadcast tool on the platform) where he further aggravated the fans who refused to see his point of view.
As a self-confessed lover of Beyoncé, Phila stated that his comment was not made in malice, something the Beyhives could not fathom as they deemed him unworthy of the random opinion.
Able to amass themselves and cancel others, the same sentiment was spared when Beyoncé and her husband were seen exiting Dave Chapelle’s show recently. With many of the Stans coming from the queer community, a community whose lingo has been embedded in the lexicon of Stan culture, it's surprising to see how their favourite was exempt from immediate accountability considering many other celebrities who have associated themselves with the opinions of transphobes have been called to cancellation.
With many psychological studies that have gone on to explore both the good and bad side of consuming media with this level of intensity, there remains an issue that worries me about the Stan culture. As it rises, cancel culture seems to dwindle. What was once meant to be a means to hold problematic celebrities accountable for their actions is now synonymous with the fluctuating anger of a passionate fan.
Depending on the star, a fandom can elicit a cancellation of someone, especially if the person is not liked by the fans or the celebrity. Cancel culture becomes less of a means to pressure high-profile figures to be held accountable but rather a weapon that they can all wield against those that they do not like, especially in cases like Kanye West whose fans often brought guns to the knife fight that involves cancelling him. As these fans grow and their toxic behaviour is normalised, there is a running threat of demolishing the merit of holding celebrities accountable.
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