A Word About Fandoms

[THDGaja]

A friend of mine posted this on twitter, and then Tokio Hotel international tweeted about it, too, and really, considering what all we've seen with 'CFFs' in this fandom, I think it's quite an interesting read about how fandoms and how fans treat celebrities nowadays.

--

Hey! Hey! You know what's not okay? THIS (http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/43099676.html).

(There's a second locked entry (http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/43113559.html) (it's not locked anymore)--I don't know why it's locked--that you can see if you're a member of ONTD, wherein basically this girl is shown to have said on Facebook, "jokingly" or not, that if they accused the guy of rape, they'd get to ride in the police car with him omg. 1) You morons, it doesn't even work that way. 2) NO.)


An Open Letter to Fans


NO




An Open Letter to Celebrities

Look: as a fan of many things, I think about the weirdness of celebrity a lot, for whatever reason--probably because I have spent so many years here and elsewhere commenting on pop culture. (You can hear us discussing it on Made of Fail for the second half of the show here.) I have seen a lot of crazy ****. I am talking quality cray-cray here. And in trying to break it on down into basic principles, I have come to believe that what we need are boundaries. Check it:

The essence of being a fan of something is, "I like this. I like you." Everything else is just a matter of intensity:

I really like you.

I really like you. Like omg a lot.

I have wallpapered my room with pictures of you.

I have wallpapered my room with pictures of you and I am not a teenage girl.

I love you.

I want you to love me.

I love you and I want to kill myself because you do not validate my love for you and satisfy whatever psychological need I am projecting onto you.

I hate you because you do not love me.

I want to eat your eyeballs.


But there are three aspects to being a creator/performer (i.e., celebrity):

1) They enjoy creating/performing.

2) They enjoy feedback from people who enjoy what they create/perform.

3) They would really, really like to make a living creating/performing.

Continues here: http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/841629.html It's pretty long, but worth the read.

[ChikaXD]

Thanks for posting this it was a good read :-) I wish they would draw the line.

[ANTi_POP_CHiC007]

it's disgusting that certain fans have to take things way too far and stop seeing these celebrities as humans..
why is it okay to just show up on some celebrity's property? to photograph their personal lives?
it isn't.. it's not right to do that to anyone.. but yet because they're famous, some people treat them as less than human..

she has a great point though.. celebrities do have to set the boundaries..
yeah, they're job may be to entertain us, but they're not here to cower down to us and deal with things as dangerous and ridiculous as being stalked..
if they don't want to take a picture, give an autograph, or be harassed by crazy fangirls, they shouldn't have to.. i don't care how much someone begs.. they should be allowed to clock out just like any other job allows you to..

i've never understood how someone can claim to love and worship someone and blatantly disrespect them at the same time..
support and obsession are not the same thing..

[Metro-Retro!]

Wow. I am actually a fan of ATL, and this is just... Saddening and ridiculous... ):

[cherezadda]

Well :-? I must say that they are right about some stuffs but that happens with most of the crazy fans not just the normal ones, I mean, I'm a fan of TH but I'm not obsessed with them. I don't have any kind of future and deep desire of being Bill's or Tom's wife at all. :P

[CocoRockStar]

i've never understood how someone can claim to love and worship someone and blatantly disrespect them at the same time..
support and obsession are not the same thing..

Exactly. Do they even stop for a minute to put themselves in the celebrity's shoes? What if some creepy guy had waited outside of her house and taken pictures of her house and pets? She would want him in jail! This girl seriously needs some help if she thinks this is okay....

And W.T.F.?? He was still nice enough to take pictures? This guy has some serious patience...

[Metro-Retro!]

Yeah patience is what surprises me the most out of all the stalker issues. Some celebs you think that if you were them you would go crazy and call the cops instead of letting the stalker do what they do.

[Karebear]

Exactly. Do they even stop for a minute to put themselves in the celebrity's shoes? What if some creepy guy had waited outside of her house and taken pictures of her house and pets? She would want him in jail! This girl seriously needs some help if she thinks this is okay....

And W.T.F.?? He was still nice enough to take pictures? This guy has some serious patience...

Thats the same thing I thought! He was too nice to someone who was waiting hours for him outside of his house.

[Karebear]

Yeah patience is what surprises me the most out of all the stalker issues. Some celebs you think that if you were them you would go crazy and call the cops instead of letting the stalker do what they do.

Probably cuz theres just too many stalkers. Usually when theres stalker issues people only have 1 stalker and the police can do something about it but when they're celebrities theres a lot of people trying to meet them and stuff.

[CocoRockStar]

Thats the same thing I thought! He was too nice to someone who was waiting hours for him outside of his house.

He probably didn't know the extent of her stalking ways until she posted every detail online or wherever, but showing up at his house like that should've been more than enough for him to slam the door in her face.

[BlueBiscuit]

These people are really sick if they think that accusing someone of rape is funny. To destroy someone's reputation just to get a few sick laughs is appalling. It's sad that some famous people have to feel like slaves/prisoners to their 'fans' and be afraid to the people who helped them become as famous as they are. SMH

[Karebear]

Continues here: http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/841629.html It's pretty long, but worth the read.

ok, i just read the whole thing and it sounds just like this fandom! How the non-crazy fans have to suffer because of the CFFs and I do think that Bill needs to draw the line and tell people not to touch him like those girls that pulled him in Mexico. That was wrong.

[Metro-Retro!]

Yeah! Like the stalkers that TH had.

A lot of French people were very sad and offended because they were given a bad image because of that, even though most of us know that just because one person is or acts a certain way, doesn't mean everyone else is like that, but there were other CFFs who got mad at the whole French fandom... I just find it sad when it gets racist... D':

[Yell[[Yeah]]Krissie!]

Dude.
That is seriously messed up, I think those people need medical help or something.
I mean, really creepy.
And weird...
sorry, I'll post a comment that makes sense when my brain's recovered from shock.

Who thinks that waiting outside their idols house for hours on end and taking photos of thier house is a normal thing to do? And crying rape so your idol will pay attention to you... just... weird.

the first link drove my head in withhh alll theee repeateddd letterssss. >:[ <3

[MeinDarkAngel]

i want to eat your eyeballs?!...ok...weirdos...that's...er...:??:...d id i read that right?...

[Yell[[Yeah]]Krissie!]

i want to eat your eyeballs?!...ok...weirdos...that's...er...:??:...d id i read that right?...
Err... yeah.
I read that too.
Creepy, eh?
Srsly, these people need to learn a little thing called BOUNDARIES. D: <3

[transparent elegance]

Yeah! Like the stalkers that TH had.

A lot of French people were very sad and offended because they were given a bad image because of that, even though most of us know that just because one person is or acts a certain way, doesn't mean everyone else is like that, but there were other CFFs who got mad at the whole French fandom... I just find it sad when it gets racist... D':

To be honest, the french fandom has actually been referred to as the craziest section in general for a while. (I don't know if it's true or not but I heard it said way before the stalkers. I think it has something to do with their concerts tending to be the worst/craziest, which just might have something to do with France being in the center of Europe and therefore an easy concert for craziest to travel to. IDK.) The crazy stalker issue just reinforced that generalization.

[transparent elegance]

I thought that journal entry was really amusing. XD

And I agree with it.
Also, Taylor Lautner just got points.

I think this fanbase is pretty feral too though. =/
It's kind of why we've got issues at concerts, too many girls are there and it's their first concert and they just don't know HOW to behave. (Pushing and shoving is NOT moshing or dancing and is not ok.)

[mollie]

I never understood why it's so hard to put yourself in someone elses shoes? If he wasn't famous and waited in her garden when she was home alone she would call the police. This also shows how much selfcontrol you will need as a girlfriend of someone famous.

And OMFG girl needs to learn how to spell! >.<

[CocoRockStar]

I always say that if you wouldn't do it to a normal person, then don't do it to a celebrity. Would you wait outside of a normal person's house and take pictures of their dogs and wait for them to get home? Then what makes you think it's okay to do that to a celebrity? They're people too, and they deserve to be treated as such.