Toxicity, fans, and a whole lot of Scotsman denial.

 

Approach with caution

    In a recent article with the Independent, George RR Martin expressed that he simply does not understand how people can come to hate so much something that they loved. He was quoted as saying 'if you don't like a show don't watch it'. Lamenting how things have become so toxic. Comparing the franchises of GoT, Star Trek, and Marvel. Martin goes on to explain that he was a huge fan of Marvel growing up and even wrote to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to tell them they were 'better than Shakespeare' (as a former teacher myself I concur), and talks about the adaptations of Marvel at the time such as The Hulk with actor Bill Bixby. Martin states he did not like them, but 'didn't go crazy and start writing hate mail' suggesting that social media has a lot to do with how things are now. For those playing along this the last on point thing Martin says in this article. However, whenever a story, or discussion, of toxic fans comes up I cannot help but throw my head back and roll my eyes. The mythos of toxic fandoms is an infectious meme that has entered our collective consciousness, and like some kind of mental herpes refuses to die. Flaring up every time the media gets run down, or news sites get fatigued. 

Minecraft! 

    When I was younger I went to a party and everything was fairly chilled out. Then some shouting broke out. Then it got louder and we found a heated exchange between the host's family and some unwanted visitors. It went back and forth escalating to the point of violence. The altercation cast a shadow over the rest of the evening. After some post event talk I came up with the theory I call the 'dickhead quota'. If we assume that X is the potential number of dickheads that might be in a group of people we will call Y. One can safely assume that the potential number of X increases as Y increases. In my little party example even in a small Y size we still got an X. Therefore if you take the size of Y of entire fandoms and the internet at large we can expend to find a lot of X. In short the more people you bring to your open party the more chances you will get a meth head turn up. Perhaps in this same spirit it is time to call a spade a spade. 

    When addressing this topic I see time and time again the mantra of 'the Fandom is toxic', rather than these individuals are toxic. It is like lopping off a limb before it even has gangrene. I would first request some kind of metric for how we write off an entire fandom as toxic. Is there a magic number? I have already given my opinion previously on the idea of community, and to be honest it has not really changed that much. When it comes to this issue I just wish we would call a spade a spade or rather a toxic fan what they really are. A dickhead who likes the same stuff we do. It is a fair statement to say that just because you go to the same pub as a bunch of other people you will not share their beliefs, aspirations, or opinions. You are literally just inhabiting the same shared space, and consuming the same content and services. You owe them nothing and can expect little from them. Believe me I do understand how much it sucks when you find yourself sharing something with people you cannot stand. To further this pub analogy this is what I call the 'six drink Steve' moment. A six drink Steve is someone that seems cool you have a drink with them they seem normal. Three drinks in they make some funny jokes, and then after drink six Steve just drops something god awful. Could be a racist statement, throws out a slur, or just does something that violates the social contract. You decide to disassociate from Steve. Problem is that Steve is very loud and now people have seen you and Steve enjoy interests and so now you must be the same as Steve. This is how I feel about the toxic fandom label. That relatively small overall groups of six drink Steves just make a lot of noise and get a lot of attention until suddenly they represent the whole pub. So what do you do once your pub gets the label? Do you just abandon it because a couple of six drink Steves cannot keep their mouths shut? I believe the phrase cutting your nose off to spite your face comes to mind. Also there's a word for giving stuff up because of aggressive or unpleasant people. Appeasement. You should never give up the things you enjoy just because some dickheads make a circus of themselves. 

    Shared spaces are always a tricky place to inhabit. Yet we do it all the time in life. Hell every time you get into your car and drive you are on the most dangerous shared space you could be in. Yet you do not give it up. The Sin Squad made an excellent video regarding fandoms. She points out that the problem some people is that fandom has become a coping mechanism and escape. Or as The Sin Squad observes 'fandom has become a coping mechanism, a safe space, the real world is fucking terrible so people spend more and more time online in communities where they can find joy and safety through fandom'. This is something I myself have found and observed in those around me. This seems fine on the surface. We all seek out escapism to recharge or just take a break from life. This however is where the problems start to arise. The assumption of everyone being on the same page, or sharing the same ideals and beliefs. Even just sharing the same standards. Put ten TTRPG players in a forum and ask which edition or RPG is the best. Go into any online Star Wars space and offer an opinion on Rey. Smash cut to opening scene of Gangs of New York. Sin Squad accurately encapsulates this problem in her video stating. 'The trouble here lies in the fact that fandom doesn't work as a safe space. The internet as a rule is not a cozy little side room with bean bags and fairy lights and hot coco. It is a godless wasteland full of porn'. Despite this we can see the fandom conflicts rife amongst the fans of any fandom. These conflicts at their basest level seem to stem from the wishes of individuals wanting their particular fandom to operate in the way they desire it.  Honestly her video is a perfectly measured break down of fandoms and I strongly suggest you give it a watch and send her some love. Tell her the Khan sent you. 

    Now I keep saying individuals because at the heart of it this is the basis of these conflicts the problem is that in the online and fandom scene we see that huge Y value and soon X comes back into play. These various dare I say toxic individuals manage to find many other likeminded individuals and they flock together. This then splits the conflicts down party lines. The proliferation of these groups within fandoms and online spaces can make it feel like they are massive. But in reality they are not that large a part of any fandom, but rather a very loud part of it. They are like private little sub fandoms unto themselves. Each promoting what 'they' see as the fandom and what it should be. Just recently I saw someone I have some respect for having to field the following in their DMs it so perfectly sums up this phenomenon, and I must thank these amazingly smooth brained dickheads for serving it up in such a clear manner. What is even more amazing is I could have written this post at any time and found a similar 'call to arms'. 

    Firstly I want to give @Mr_Meph a massive round of applause for meeting this DM with exactly how it should have been treated. But furthermore I want to state that this sort of thing is exactly the micro nations within fandoms that I am talking about. These individuals that are taking it on themselves to 'take back' their fandoms are just dickheads. I am sorry but they are. Both the market and the average consumers simply do not care. For all the rage, the invective, and drama in the online spaces or fandoms the world just continues, by and large, to roll on.

    Go back to the days of 2014 to a debacle that needs no introduction. The online spaces were in metaphorical flames. I was due to attend the Supanova convention I had made a tradition of going to. One of the guests was caught up in the shit show with people calling for deplatforming and all that jazz. I had never seen this kind of thing and was honestly a bit put off by the idea of going to a con when people were threatening to protest it etc. Can you guess what happened in reality? That is right not a damn thing. Because despite all the noise and drama, it equated to very little in reality. We can all sometimes fall into the trap of believing what we see online is a crystal clear image of what the would is like but luckily in many instances this is not the case. I am blessed to have a lot of normie friends and family. I have mates that are excited about the Rings of Power series and I am happy they do not have to see half the sizzling mild takes I have seen about it. For the most part these conflicts are pointless and easily ignored, with the companies, creators and everyday fans able to ignore them. Take Warhammer for example do you think the company gives a damn about the very loud spats on twitter? I would say they care very little as they continue to make and sell minis at record levels. When I go to my local GW or FLGS do you think we talk about hot takes, or do we get on with the hobby? Cyber crusades are like fish drag em out of the pond and they just sit there gasp for air and relevance. 

Jokes

    Perhaps sadly the only victor in the rise of the 'toxic fandoms' meme would be companies that can hide behind it to shield themselves from criticism. For example if you make a certain show about a famous super soldier with a knack for destroying ring shaped super weapons, then spend years promoting the show only to deliver something so wildly different from what some established fans wanted and expected, when they see it you receive a wave of criticism you can throw the label out like a trump card and call it a day. Remember reader the dickhead quota was definitely in full effect here as well. I also saw a ridiculous number of six drink Steves cutting about. Yet regardless this gave the company an ironclad excuse for disregarding all criticism of their incredibly expensive fanfiction project. I know for my part when the show failed to deliver I dipped out very quickly. If you had told teenage me that I would be put to sleep by a Halo live action show I would have called you crazy yet here we are. So much like Martin on the Marvel shows of his day I did not like it so I did not watch it. Nor did I jump into the melee of the various fans fighting over the show. However, you cannot hide behind the toxic fans meme to remove all blame either when you take a beloved IP and fail to deliver. Could be worse you could have been part of the team behind the original model for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. My memory is fuzzy but what did happen when they listened to those toxic fans? Oh that's right it absolutely exploded with over 300 million USD at the box office.   

    In the end we are all simply victims of our own expectations. As the Buddhists would argue suffering based on our own desires. Fandom existence is suffering due to the desires of fans, or arguably the unrealistic desires to mold it to what each person, faction or tribe wants their fandom to be. Resulting in the intense battlegrounds that leave old Martin so nonplussed. Despite this gloomy assumption there is a silver lining in all of this. These conflicts occur almost entirely within the online space. With you having a variety of tools at your disposals to almost entirely avoid them. They can be ignored and only highlighted on those aforementioned slow news days. When some pop culture journo decides to larp as a wartime correspondent. Who can forget that time an interviewer hit Henry Cavill with the toxic fandoms question.

Never such an easy topic as it first appears

    So what is the solution? For the first part keep expressing your love of a property as you wish even in the face of backlash. You should not be scared off what you enjoy. I came up prior to this whole geek chic wave back when I was harassed and physically roughed up for reading it on a school bus. Keep on enjoying yourself. You want to ship? Go for it. You want to model your expensive toy soldiers how you want? Good go for it you bloody paid for the things! You want to create fanfiction and art? Excellent swing away. But if you want to 'reclaim', or 'take back a space', then I am sorry Don Quixote that is your windmill to joust and believe me they swing back. I assure you that simply going forward enjoying your interests whilst shrugging the dickheads off has one golden result. You will have less stress and believe it or not you will attract like minded people. Just as I said the dickheads tend to clump together, well the equal and opposite happens as well. This goes along the lines of what I outlined in a prior post ( https://theliterarykhan.blogspot.com/2021/06/community-great-struggle-of-our-times.html ). Therefore it stands to reason if you continue to be positive, continue to enjoy your interests and continue to not let people drag you down you will attract others like minded as yourself and that will be the fandom you get to experience. 

Keep gaming
Keep following your interests
Keep expressing yourself
Remember it is the individuals that are toxic not a fandom

As always hospitality is sacred

-The Khan