Stan Twitter

Stan Twitter is a community of Twitter users that post opinions related to music, celebrities, TV shows, movies and social media. The community has been noted for its particular shared terminology, much of which has been appropriated from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE).

Background and description

The origin of the term stan is often credited to the 2000 song "Stan", about an obsessed fan, by American rapper Eminem.[1][2] The term was originally used as a noun, but over time evolved and began to be used as a verb as well.[3]

Stan Twitter has been noted by The Atlantic as one of the "tribes" of Twitter.[4] Polygon has described Stan Twitter as "an overarching collection of various fandoms",[5] and additionally as a community that "[signifies] individuals congregated around certain, specific interests ranging from queer identity to K-pop groups, and added that "Stan Twitter is essentially synonymous with fandom twitter."[6] The Daily Dot wrote that "Stan Twitter is essentially a community of Extremely Online like-minded individuals who discuss their various fandoms and what they 'stan.'"[7] Stan Twitter has also been noted for its common overlap with LGBT Twitter communities.[6][8] The Guardian noted, for example, that "Gay male culture has always coalesced around female pop stars, from Judy Garland to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande."[8]

Mat Whitehead of HuffPost described stans as "volcanic", and added that they are "organised, ... dedicated and—at times—completely unhinged."[2] Whitehead went on to describe stans of recording artists, writing "stans aren't just superfans, they're a community of like-minded souls coming together, unified under the banner of wanting to see their chosen celebrity flourish. Friendships are made, bonding over a shared love of an artist, their work, their achievements."[2]

Culture
Singer Ariana Grande has been noted to have a very dedicated fanbase, and is frequently mentioned by media articles about stan culture.[9][10][11]

Stan Twitter has been noted for its aptly fanatic culture and behavior.[12][13] Vanity Fair highlighted American pop singers Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and K-pop group BTS as artists who have "extremely fanatic fanbases".[9] Vanity Fair also credited those fanbases and "stan culture and its associated engines" with helping propel the popularity of music videos for those artists.[9] Stan Twitter has also been highlighted for commonly sharing memes within respective communities and utilizing a particular vernacular and terminology.[6][14] Online stan accounts are frequently run by impassioned teenagers, and they can "take on a corporate monotone on par with many singers' own junket."[12] An artist's fanbase is often attached to a nickname used in the media, and in some cases by the artist; " "Little Monsters", "Barbies" or "Barbz", and "BeyHive" are examples of this, with those nicknames referring to the fanbases of Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and Beyoncé, respectively.[13][15][16]

Some outlets have also touched on stans being "toxic" in their fanaticism.[17] The subculture has been noted by the BBC for displaying a trend of "toxic fandom" which includes fans joining to bully or harass others in the name of an artist.[18][19] Entertainment Weekly cited Jordan Miller as stating "[Stans] will eat their own"; Miller runs BreatheHeavy.com, "a pop music website that for many years was the premier Britney Spears fansite."[13] El Hunt of NME wrote "most of the time, stanning is harmless. It's old-fashioned fandom for the internet age. But often, stanning manifests as a kind of blind, unquestioning devotion – the kind of thing that leads the BTS Army to talk about their idols like they're gods on earth who can't be criticised," and added that "at its worst, [stanning] can lead to threatening behaviour, mob-handed bullying and it can even turn on the object of affection."[17]

Memes and terminology

A common activity that those in the Stan Twitter community engage in is sharing memes with each other and onto their Twitter accounts. Polygon wrote about how those in Stan Twitter share memes with the belief that the memes have an insular quality to them.[6] One meme, "Stan Twitter, do you know this song?" was noted by media outlets as particularly popular among Stan Twitter, being able to intersect more specific communities.[5][7] Polygon described that the meme "seems very silly at first glance," as it is "expressed through an overly obnoxious all-caps exclamation, [and] pairs the sentence with theme songs from early '90s TV shows, random YouTube videos, anime tracks, High School Musical remixes and random one hit wonders."[5] Polygon further noted that the meme was "designed around nostalgia-baiting people who love to bring up beloved childhood memories.[5]

The terminology used by the Stan Twitter community has also been the subject of discussion. Much of the community's slang originated in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE),[20] with various sources writing about how many Stan Twitter users have appropriated AAVE terms.[21][22] The terms tea and wig have been attributed to African-American LGBTQ communities; the term wig particularly has been attributed to the drag community, specifically from the phrase "wig snatched" used by the black LGBTQ ballroom culture of the 1980s.[20][23] The Daily Dot and Billboard cited American singer Katy Perry's usage of the term on American Idol as helping propel its popularity online.[20][24] The popular Internet meme of Kermit the Frog sipping tea has also been frequently paired with the tea term.[14]

The term stan itself is used as both a noun and verb with many variants, including "[I or we] stan", which is a phrase used for one to express a liking of, as well as praise or support of, any person or artistic work.[25] Aside from the term stan itself, common words and phrases used in the community include:

  • bop – used in reference to a song that is deemed good. Other terms include banger, grit, or saying that a song slaps.[26]
  • cancelled or over – Stan Twitter often partakes in cancel culture: if a celebrity does something controversial, fans may call for a boycott of them ("cancelling" them) and in a majority of cases, attempting to trend a hashtag celebrating such a boycott. (e.g. #CelebrityIsOverParty).[25][27]
  • chile – Southern eye dialect spelling of the word "child"; on Stan Twitter, the term was popularized through a viral video of an episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta in which Nene Leakes says "Whew chile the ghetto."[28]
  • fancam – a fan-recorded or brief sample of a video that is very frequently attached to a Twitter user's posts with the intention of promoting an artist and/or their music or accomplishments. Initially originating within the K-pop fanbase, the trend eventually spread to fans of artists from other genres. This trend has been criticized and scrutinized by some users, including "locals" due to a constant spamming of such tweets, unintentionally igniting hate towards the artist involved as well.[29]
  • IRL – an acronym for "in real life"; in reference to a user's friends or relatives in real life or offline.[14]
  • keysmash – A seemingly random and unintelligible string of characters as produced by a literal smashing of the keyboard. Often used as a substitute for laughing. (e.g. SJKDJSKJDKS).[30]
  • local(s) – mostly used by stan twitter to refer to the general public outside this community.[4]
  • OOMF – an acronym for "one of my followers"; in reference to a Twitter user's followers.[14]
  • periodt – a alternate spelling of the word "period"; The additional "t" is used to add a more forceful tone to the statement or argument. Other words often have a "t" added for the same reason.[21]
  • shade – a comment with an insulting intent towards an individual or group; similar to trash talking.[22]
  • sis – a shortening of "sister".[20]
  • skinny or skinny legend – a term to show praise and endearment toward a celebrity or individual, that most likely originated from the Lambs (Mariah Carey stans). Memes may include a photo of an artist whose body is severely or poorly modified to look unrealistically squashed for humorous purposes.[31]
  • sksksk – a more frequently used keysmash; associated with VSCO girl trend.[32]
  • stewen - used to describe when 'tea' is old and tired, or 'stew' as an opposite of tea.[33]
  • tea – a synonym for gossip, or relating to drama.[14]
  • wig – often used in the context of something being exciting or shocking that someone's "wig" falls off; other variants include wig snatched or wig gone.[14][20]

Contrast with local Twitter

A key component of the Stan Twitter culture is its contrast with Local Twitter; individuals deemed part of Local Twitter are colloquially referred to as simply locals.[4][6][34] The Verge likened local to past terms such as square and normie.[35] The publication wrote that "much like being basic, but online, 'local Twitter' describes someone who loves decidedly, even painfully mainstream things."[35] The Atlantic described Local Twitter as a group of "mostly white, well-adjusted suburban teens who share stale platitudes of the kind that some Internet users might call 'basic'."[4] Local Twitter is also sometimes referred to as Bare Minimum Twitter.[34] Polygon defined Local Twitter as the "general population of Twitter—people not congregated around specific interests or in defined communities."[6] In the context of Stan Twitter terminology, local is similar to a pejorative term. Stans are noted to view locals as a group that cause memes and jokes to lose their humor."[4][6]

Controversial incidents

Artist–stan relationships
Normani of Fifth Harmony briefly quitting Twitter use was an early instance of a contentious relationship between an artist and their own stans.[2]

The culture of Stan Twitter has been noted by media outlets and celebrities as "toxic". Huffington Post noted that singer Alessia Cara lamented over the "toxicity" of Stan Twitter; she was quoted, "This whole world of stan culture, while it's amazing and great and connective a lot of the time, it can be very hurtful."[36]

There have been several instances of celebrities deactivating or taking a break from using their social media accounts due to harassment directed at them from their own stans. In 2016, Normani of Fifth Harmony briefly quit using Twitter due to Fifth Harmony stans.[2] In 2017, American rapper Cupcakke also opted to stop using Twitter because she received death threats from BTS stans, after she made a sexual comment about member Jungkook.[37][38] Millie Bobby Brown, an actress most notable for her role in Stranger Things, also deactivated her Twitter account due to a meme popular in the Stan Twitter community.[6] The meme falsely attributed violent and homophobic language and behavior to Brown.[6] Critics of the meme expressed that the meme bullied Brown.[39]

Aside from deactivating their accounts, artists have also addressed their fans, requesting them to not go after those perceived to be critical or detrimental to the artist.[13] Stans of Ariana Grande sent bullying messages to her ex-boyfriend, comedian Pete Davidson, after the two broke up.[17] Grande asked her fans to be "gentler with others," and added that "I really don't endorse anything but forgiveness and positivity."[17] In a light-hearted post, country and pop singer Bebe Rexha mentioned her father's critical take on her more "risqué scenes" in her "Last Hurrah" music video. Some of her stans posted "mean" comments about her father in response, which resulted her in stating, "Don't say mean things about my dad, please."[17]

Other controversial incidents

Newsweek and The Inquisitr covered an incident involving The Barbz (a name for stans of Nicki Minaj) sending direct messages to blogger Wanna Thompson after Thompson suggested Minaj release more mature music.[40][41] Thompson described the messages, stating "You have these stans camped out on Twitter and [Instagram] with someone else's face in their avi/header hurling insults because they can."[40]

In June 2019, Nicole Curran, the wife of Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, was the target of online harassment and death threats by Beyoncé stans.[19] This was the result of a video which showed her leaning past Beyoncé to speak to Jay-Z during a Warriors game.[19] In an Instagram post, Beyoncé's publicist addressed the incidient and stated, "I also want to speak here to the beautiful BeyHiVE. I know your love runs deep but that love has to be given to every human. It will bring no joy to the person you love so much if you spew hate in her name."[19]

In the wake of April 2020 reports of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un having potentially died, many Twitter users were noted by media outlets as stanning his sister and speculated successor Kim Yo-jong.[42][43][44] Some users were also noted to post fancams of Kim Yo-jung.[42] While some users defended their post as jokes, media outlets and other users criticized the stanning of Kim, even if done in jest.[44][45]

Political activism

In 2020, Stan Twitter, in particular K-pop fan accounts, received media attention over its involvement in American politics. During the George Floyd protests, many hashtags opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement, including #WhiteLivesMatter, #WhiteoutWednesday and #BlueLivesMatter, were flooded with images and videos of K-pop artists to drown out those using them. Similarly, when the Dallas Police Department asked people on Twitter to submit videos of protesters, its iWatch Dallas app was instead flooded with fancams.[46] K-pop stans and TikTok users also took credit for falsely requesting tickets to President Trump's Tulsa rally on June 20, 2020, leading to a disappointing turnout.[47] US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commented on the event, tweeting "KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too."[48] The New York Times noted that "the recent turn toward political activism in the United States also follows a concerted effort by K-pop fans in recent years to make positive change en masse, in part as a reaction to the groups’ reputations as superficial, silly and even menacing mobs".[49]

gollark: You are like an algebraic magma with the binary operation multiplication.
gollark: You are like the hexadecimal value ce7d4761fa385c421e9b155e0ceea047498f2a33acefdafa6bb93f845de606061868f3a7ad48002042c7c79fc6aa5dc2bcc0528976eacb95b58e4932027b76b2.
gollark: You are like an endofunctor OUTSIDE the category of monoids.
gollark: You are like a homomorphism between two vector spaces.
gollark: You are like the novel *The Englishman's Boy*, by Guy Vanderhaeghe, encoded as a unary brain[REDACTED] program.

See also

References
  1. O'Keeffe, Kevin (August 25, 2014). "Directioners, Arianators, Mixers, the Skeleton Clique, Katy Cats, Oh My: Stanbase Names, Ranked". The Wire. The Atlantic. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  2. Whitehead, Mat (November 9, 2017). "What The Hell Is A 'Stan' And Where Does The Name Come From". HuffPost Australia. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  3. Gaillot, Ann-Derrick (October 26, 2017). "When "stan" became a verb". The Outline. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  4. Lorenz, Taylor (July 3, 2018). "How Twitter Became Home to the Teen Status Update". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  5. Alexander, Julia (August 22, 2018). "'Stan Twitter, do you know this song' is the unifying meme we need right now". Polygon. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  6. Radulovic, Petrana; Haasch, Palmer (June 14, 2018). "How an ironic, abusive meme drove Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown off Twitter". Polygon. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  7. Vincent, Brittany (August 24, 2018). "'Stan Twitter, do you know this song' has fans digging deep for gems". The Daily Dot. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  8. O'Flynn, Brian (September 4, 2018). "'They just wanted to silence her': the dark side of gay stan culture". The Guardian. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  9. Duboff, Josh (December 20, 2018). "2018: The Year The Internet Saved the Music Video?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  10. del Rio, B. (January 21, 2019). "Ariana Grande and the dark side of stan culture". The Inquirer. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  11. Mulcahy, Meg (November 29, 2018). "What Is 'Stan' Culture And How Did It Help Ariana Grande's 'Thank u, next'?". GCN. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  12. Jackson, Lauren Michele (August 24, 2016). "The Reality Of Teen-Run Stan Accounts". The Fader. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  13. Feeney, Nolan (November 1, 2017). "Slay, flop, iconic: What it's like to be a pop music stan". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  14. Bellos, Alex (December 17, 2018). "Did you solve it? Can you speak Twitter?". The Guardian. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  15. Greenwood, Douglas (April 27, 2020). "The internet belongs to the Barbz". Vice. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  16. Bryant, Taylor (October 25, 2016). "What The Biggest Beyoncé Stans Really Think About Their Queen". Nylon. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  17. Hunt, El (March 26, 2019). "Stan by me: how super-fan culture turned sour". NME. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  18. Baggs, Michael (August 1, 2018). "Toxic fandom: Online bullying in the name of your favourite stars". BBC News. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  19. Evans, Patrick (June 7, 2019). "Beyonce: 'Beyhive' hounds woman off Instagram". BBC News. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  20. McDowelle, Onaje (June 17, 2018). "What the heck does 'wig' mean these days?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  21. Tenbarge, Kat (January 26, 2020). "From 'periodt' to 'and I oop,' the most common stan culture and VSCO girl slang is rooted in cultural appropriation". Insider. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  22. Jolly, Jennifer (August 10, 2018). "'It's lit': The ultimate guide to decoding your teen's text and speak". USA Today. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  23. Gehring, Matt (November 1, 2018). "Yes, Stan Twitter Is Already Using The Bald Emoji To Say "Wig Snatched"". Total Request Live. MTV.com. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  24. Daw, Stephen (March 8, 2018). "The Best Memes From Katy Perry's 'Wig' Comment on 'American Idol'". Billboard. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  25. Khorma, Celina (June 21, 2019). "Here's a Glossary of All the Stan Culture Terms You Should Know by Now". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  26. "A Very Serious Investigation Into The Difference Between 'Bops', 'Bangers', And What 'Slaps'". Junkee. October 9, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  27. Maunakea, Thomas (January 25, 2018). "The Term "Canceled" Is Canceled". The Odyssey Online. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  28. Penrose, Nerisha (October 3, 2018). "An A-Z Guide to the Best Catchphrases, Disses and Iconic Moments From the Real Housewives of Atlanta". Elle. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  29. Anderson, Sage. "Reply sections on Twitter are filled with K-pop videos. Here's why". Mashable. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  30. "Definition of keysmash". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  31. Nguyen, Kristina (June 20, 2018). "What does it mean to be a 'skinny legend'?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  32. Ritschel, Chelsea (November 25, 2019). "VSCO girl: Where did 'and I oop' and 'sksksk' come from?". The Independent. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  33. Monroe, Tommy (March 25, 2019). "Stan Twitter: Examining The Empowering And Toxic Nature Of Online Fandoms". Vinyl Me, Please. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  34. Gehring, Matt (August 23, 2018). "8 Questions To Ask Yourself To Determine If You're A Local Or A Stan". Total Request Live. MTV.com. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  35. Farokhmanesh, Megan (June 30, 2018). "'Local Twitter' finally gives a name to being performatively basic online". The Verge. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  36. Friend, David (November 27, 2018). "Alessia Cara Calls Out Toxic 'Stan Culture' On Social Media". HuffPost Canada. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  37. Bergado, Gabe (November 6, 2017). "BTS Fans Are Outraged With CupcakKe Over Her Comments About Jungkook". Teen Vogue. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  38. C, Raine (November 3, 2017). "Cupcakke Leaves Twitter After Receiving Death Threats From BTS Stans". Affinity. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  39. O'Connor, Roisin (June 14, 2018). "Millie Bobby Brown quits Twitter after being turned into an 'anti-gay' meme". The Independent. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  40. Zogbi, Emily (July 11, 2018). "Wanna Thompson Response to Nicki Minaj 'Stans' Attacking Her". Newsweek. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  41. Weaver, Amanda (August 5, 2018). "Nicki Minaj And The Price Of Stan Culture". The Inquisitr. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  42. Sung, Morgan (April 26, 2020). "We regret to inform you that people are stanning Kim Jong-un's sister". Mashable. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  43. O'Sullivan, Eilish (April 26, 2020). "People are really stanning Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong". The Daily Dot. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  44. Reinstein, Julia (April 30, 2020). "A 21-Year-Old Made Viral TikToks About Why You Shouldn't Stan Kim Jong Un's Sister — Even As A Joke". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  45. Behan, Julia (April 27, 2020). "Don't be seduced, as the worst woke commies are, by North Korea's Kim Yo-jong". The Telegraph. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  46. Lee, Alicia (2020-06-04). "K-pop fans are taking over 'White Lives Matter' and other anti-Black hashtags with memes and fancams of their favorite stars". CNN. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  47. Bedingfield, Will (2020-06-24). "K-pop stans took on Trump in Tulsa, now they're after the White House". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  48. Hoffman, Jordan. "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Salutes K-Pop Stans for Their Possible Trump Troll". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  49. Coscarelli, Joe (2020-06-22). "Why Obsessive K-Pop Fans Are Turning Toward Political Activism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-08-18.

Further reading
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