I’m typing this randomly at 1:30 am because of an interesting discussion I had with my brother. Although I was lost on his overall points because he lacked clarity at times, it was very intellectual. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but it had to do with social justice warriors and fandoms being too toxic. Looking back at that discussion, I often found myself associating fandoms with social justice warriors. Am I in the right?
Taking a step back, I wanted to realize why I do this. I’ve been attacked by the Little Mix fandom after saying the lyrics to power alluded to sex. They called me a b**** and dumb which honestly proved how immature and hypocritical they were supporting this “feminist” message the group was portraying. I have also seen how other female artists allude to sex when trying to portray feminism. Now sexual liberation is a form of feminism, however, feminism itself is more than that. I wish artists were deeper in their lyrics and really try to empower women with everyday struggles. I’ve seen fans stanning their artists calling them gods/goddesses when they speak on a political/social issue and become toxic the moment anyone disagrees/criticizes their idol. Every fandom has those toxic idiots, but the moment a political and social statement is said, well there is the chaos.
Besides me going through a mini hate train full of dumbos, I find it ironic how certain people stan an artist who is all about, let us say equality then has the audacity to bully someone online just because they don’t like their idol. I think the reason why I always equate fandoms and social justice warriors is that a lot of artists these days speak on social issues. Hence fandoms take their stance, usually siding with their artists, and challenge anyone who disagrees. I’ve seen it a lot online to a point where I wonder if any justice is actually being served. Like is the community actually trying to establish a point or just trying to force/bully people into their state of mind? And I always assume the two because my generation is so embedded into the stan culture. Many in my generation are also PC as well leading me to believe that a ton of fandoms has those toxic PC people.
So should I always assume that poisonous fans are all PC? I probably shouldn’t. However when I see bull s*** like fandoms feeling entitled to bashing creators for not creating a gay storyline (though more gay storylines would be great for normalizing gay people), then my assumption isn’t far off. PC people and fandoms can be very disgusting and discouraging when proving their point which is just a turn off to me. I remember looking up the term social justice warriors when I was first introduced to the term. Wikipedia’s def was: Social justice warrior (SJW) is a pejorative term for an individual who promotes socially progressive views, including feminism, civil rights, and multiculturalism, as well as identity politics. That all sounded great to me and I was confused as to what the hate was about. I even felt offended by the hate at first because I’m liberal and I believe in the social issues they speak out on. But after getting older and seeing how these fandoms act when their favorite artists come out with a social point of view, I just immediately think of the word “catastrophic.” It sucks because PC people and fans are supposed to be a positive thing but now I just associate the two together. Writing this now, I will try not to because that correlation does have its holes, but I get fed up and this is what happens. I really just hate oversensitive hypocritical people in general I guess.