Being a fan doesn’t mean you have to like every piece of media in your favourite fandom. Though, would it hurt to show respect for other fans?
We’ve had one hell of a week calling out toxic fans of The Flash over their petty clash over trying cancel Candice Patton and Danielle Panabaker. Many of these people attacked us for being ‘tone deaf’ and having white privilege. Like what the actual hell? What’s wrong with supporting two different actresses who have two different skin colours in a fandom that is for everyone? Oh, and we’ve told ‘to check our facts’. First off, you don’t know us personally, and second, we do check our information.
As we stated in our Can People Stop Attacking Candice Patton and Danielle Panabaker? post and our follow up, there is basically zero official evidence that the two are feuding. In the minds of the Candice and Danielle stans, every piece of interview footage is proof that one is racist [Danielle] and the other is a diva [Candice].
Also, we don’t need to defend ourselves against these nut bags. Anyway, it’s not our place to judge these people. We’re actually here to talk about toxic fans in a completely different way; the general way so called fanboys (and girls) behave.
Toxic Fandom Behaviour Is Becoming Disturbingly Obvious
The reason we’re writing this is because we were browsing through Twitter and found a piece written by one of our co-contributors on Dork Side of the Force, Meg Dowell.
In her Medium article, she mentioned having received an email from a so-called Star Wars fan who was ‘calling her out’ for liking a film he didn’t. It was also a response to actor/director Frank Oz’s comments about fulfilling fan expectations. Meg makes a valid point in what she wrote which we’ll get into later.
Whoever the guy was said she wasn’t a fan of the 43-year mega franchise. He even had the gall to tell her to ‘admit’ to being a fake fan. WTF? Meg doesn’t have to admit to anything. Just because she has a different opinion to someone else, that doesn’t make her less of a fan.
According to Meg’s recount, he listed the reasons why he was a true fan. This guy has no shame in calling a woman out for liking a fandom that caters for everyone. Just because he has read ‘countless Star Wars books’, doesn’t make him the lord of the franchise.
We know Meg’s work and she is one of the most dedicated Star Wars fans out there. She didn’t deserve this. No fan does. She is one of the loveliest people we know and she doesn’t need to stoop low to show she’s a loyal fan.
The issue of toxicity in fan culture is growing and it’s becoming obvious. We’ve had our fair share people ‘calling us out’ and it’s not fun. A while ago, we wrote an article on Medium about our displeasure at The Simpsons episode, ‘Bart versus Australia’. It got hammered but not in a good way.
No One Fandom Is For Men Or Women
While a lot of genders are accepting of each other other in their respected fandom, though there are others who do not approve.
When a lot of franchises started way-back-when, they were catering for a specific demographic. For example, Star Wars originally catered for mostly boys and men but there were lady fans among them. It should also be noted that before Mon Mothma’s appearance, there were only two female characters that stood out in the original trilogy; Princess Leia and Beru Lars. Sure, there was Oola the dancing Twi’lek who got eaten, but she wasn’t a main character.
Some may argue that Beru didn’t have much of a role either. However, she helped to shape Luke into the man he became. Oola was only there to show what happens if Jabba is displeased with his servants. Over the years, most male fans have accepted that women can like Star Wars too. However, there are those who don’t.
For example, Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill was tagged in a Tweet by a mother who explained that her daughter was bullied at school for having Darth Vader shoes. The little girl was even told that she wasn’t allowed to like Star Wars because it was for boys. Being awesome, Hamill replied to the tweet saying he loved the shoes. He went on to say that A New Hope would’ve been very short if Leia hadn’t saved Han and Luke.
Yes, when fandoms are created, their original creators try to cater a certain demographic. For example, the My Little Pony fandom is for little girls between the ages of 5-10. Though, there are adult fans out there known as Bronies. It should be noted too that the characters, Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood in Legends of Tomorrow are both Bronies.
There’s Going To Be Changes
Every book, videogame, comic, anime, etc that has ended up on the big screen will have changes of some degree. However, fans love to bitch and whine when their favourite character doesn’t get the treatment they ‘deserve’. For example, the image above is from the film adaptation of the Young Adult novel, Beautiful Creatures. The character is Ridley Duchannes played by Emmy Rossum.
In the book, the character is blonde with pink streaks. However, in the film, she is a redhead. Though, Rossum did dye her hair blonde for certain scenes that take place before Ridley turns bad. One example is this one:
Nitpicking tiny things like hair colour is just ridiculous. A film or television adaptation will NEVER be 100% true to the source material. Look at The Hobbit for example. The book is roughly 400 pages while three movies were made to match Lord of the Rings.
There was a load of added material to The Hobbit films including Evangeline Lilly’s Tauriel who served as a love interest to Kíli one of the dwarves in Bilbo’s company. The movies also included Legolas who doesn’t actually appear in the book. Another character that also doesn’t appear is Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) who serves as a supporting role in all three films.
Sure, there likely unhappy fans with all the additional add-ons, but very few people voiced their annoyances when the films were released. This was also during a period where cancel culture wasn’t as widely known.
Another example of how things can change for an adaptation to screen are the two Percy Jackson films. Author Rick Riordan is no stranger to voicing his hate for the movies that were based off his book series. He has said that with the upcoming Disney+ series, he and his wife will be producers.
Changes: Part II
While this hasn’t got anything to do with toxic fans, we wanted to highlight what people will complain about if given the chance.
Continuing on with what we were saying about the Percy Jackson fandom, Riordan who is affectionately dubbed ‘Uncle Rick’ by fans has stated that he emailed the producers whom he told not to age the lead characters up. For those who aren’t aware, the character is 12 in the first book and continues to age as the series goes on. In the first film however, the characters are five years older.
Riordan added that when he saw the final script he was horrified that the characters would be swearing, though it’s unknown which movie this was for. It is likely this was for the first one. We totally agree with how he felt.
We don’t mind if there’s a few small changes here and there, but when they decide to change things like a character’s age to appeal to an older audience is just ridiculous. This is what we call money-hungry studios who don’t care about the source material and only want the cash as the original story was popular.
Trashing The Actors
It’s not exactly odd to see to fan castings posted over social media – trust us, we’ve seen more of these to last us a lifetime – it’s not right when people have a certain actor in mind for a character and they simply can’t let it go when that said person isn’t cast.
One example of this that we’ve seen is the casting of singer Halle Bailey as Ariel in Rob Marshall’s upcoming reboot of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Now, a lot of people were dying to see Spider-Man: Far From Home star, Zendaya take on the role. However, when this didn’t happen, the internet all but blew up.
What gives people the right to say that a person isn’t ‘qualified’ to play a certain role? Everyone has to start somewhere and Halle does have the experience, but she’s never played the leading role in a film before this opportunity came along. She and her sister, Chloe who form the singing duo, Chloe x Halle, have portrayed twins on Grown-ish in which they have statuses as being part of the main cast.
Yes, Zendaya has more experience, but that doesn’t automatically make her perfect for the role. Maybe she didn’t want to play the character. She is a member of the MCU now, after all. Not to mention, she also has her television series Euphoria so she mightn’t have time to play a mermaid.
We should also mention that Kelly Marie Tran who plays Rose Tico is Star Wars was pushed off Instagram because of racist trolls. The same applies to Daisy Ridley who was being trolled by toxic fans on Instagram who were accusing Rey [her character] of being a Mary-Sue – which she’s not – and whatever shit they could throw at her which is not fair.
It’s Fine To Have An Opinion…
It’s perfectly fine to have your own opinions, but hating on someone who doesn’t share your views is NOT right. You cannot force someone to have the same opinions as you do. If you could, the world would be a very BORING place.
Going back to the beginning to Meg’s Medium and Dork Side articles, she had every right to comment the way she did. Frank Oz, who is a well-known performer outside of the Star Wars fandom doesn’t owe the fans anything and neither does any other creative out there. Sure, they’re grateful to the fans for keeping them in work but that’s as far as it goes.
Many of the performers we know and love have been working for years and while they might be thankful to fans for giving them a chance, they don’t owe them for making them household names. The reason a lot of creatives go to conventions like Star Wars Celebration, San-Diego Comic Con, Wonder Con, etc is promote the brand they are representing. They are also going to these events in their own spare time, depending what they’re doing. It’s their way of giving back, but never, ever think of it as something they HAVE to do.
Answer this for us. If you were a creative in any entertainment medium, would YOU want people demanding you show up to cons when you don’t have to go? There is no clause any creative’s contract that says that they have to show up or give back to the fans in any way, shape, or form. They do their line of work because they love what they do. It’s like being a YouTuber.
A vast majority of them create videos and content because they want to not because they have to. There are probably some really big YouTubers who are doing it solely for the clicks so they can get money, but most do the right thing and at the end of the day, it’s their business not the fans.
How To Support Fandoms
There are so many ways to support your favourite fandom without being snippy with other fans. Here’s a few suggestions:
- You can edit (in a non-bias way) your chosen fandom’s Fandom/Wiki site.
- Create a YouTube account dedicated to the subject, but be civil about it without being toxic as there are plenty of channels out there like that that spew false and misleading information.
- Begin a blog (like us!)
Want more Fan Culture content? Be sure to subscribe to the blog and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @cjhawk93 on all platforms! And be sure to follow Meg on Twitter at @MegDowell.
