#weird and overly emotional

[nyssabong]

“Are media representations of fans as ‘weird’ and ‘overly emotional’ fair? What is your own experience of fandom?”

A fan is somebody who is obsessed with a particular star, celebrity, film, TV programme, band, and they participate in communal activities (Hills 2002). Most of us are fans of something, as long as we are interested in something. There are many types of fans represented in media and the public, such as normal fans, weird fans, and overly emotional fans. Although there are also some normal fans in the media, I still agree that media representations of fans as ‘weird’ and ‘overly emotional’ are fair. In this blog, we are going to see how the fans are ‘weird’ and ‘overly emotional’ on media, and my own experience of fandom.

One Direction’s crazy fans

According to the research (Chin 2023), the study of fans isn’t new, and it is not just about K-pop or K-dramas. One hardly needs reminding that fan audiences have historically been viewed as ‘obsessive, freakish, hysterical, infantile and regressive social subjects’ (Proctor n.d.). The Channel Four documentary ‘Crazy About One Direction’ (CAOD), begins with the narrator, Julia David, explaining that Directioners are ‘simply crazy’ about the band and that the fan culture is nothing less than a ‘new breed of fan’ who use social media to ‘worship their idols’, and ‘go to extreme lengths to get noticed by the boys’ (Proctor n.d.). They are loyal to their idols and become crazy and weird. According to Proctor (n.d.), those crazy Directioners perform their fandom by tweeting the band and often begging them to ‘follow them’ on social media. From One Direction’s crazy fans research, we can see how ‘weird’ they are.

Sasaeng Fans in Korea

Sasaeng are fans of music groups, who have taken their obsession to extremes because nothing says ‘fan’ better than a bloody letter (Iwicka 2018). Sasaeng fans are people who infringe on the private lives of artists, and they are also ‘weird’ and ‘overly emotional’ in media. In Korea, fans usually give artists gifts like soft toys, or flowers during performances. According to my own experience, I have ever heard some of the weird fans put a micro camera in the gifts, to peep at that artist. Besides, they also get celebrity’s phone numbers from some sources or follow celebrities to their hotel room and keep on disturbing them.

On 21 May 2019, EXO member Kai was broadcasting live on Instagram when he was gym. When he wants to leave, there were two sasaeng fan who are stalking him, and waiting for Kai near the gym of his car (Philippines Star 2019). Not only Kai from EXO, but also a lot of South Korean celebrities met sasaeng fans. During 2021, Blackpink member Kim Jennie was the target of a US$30,000 billboard advertisement set up by Filipino socia media influencer, Christian Albert Gaza, who is a self-proclaimed No 1 Jennie fan (Chung 2021). Sasaeng fans are mostly weird and overly emotional, they not only want to stalk their private lives, but also date the celebrities.

✨My Experience of fandom✨

First and foremost, I used to be a fan of EXO member Luhan while I was in primary school. On October 8, 2017, Luhan made an official announcement on Weibo of his relationship with Guan Xiaotong, which was one of my most memorable experiences. On that day, Luhan's Weibo followers dropped by about half and the social media service was down for a few hours. This research demonstrates that Luhan's fans are typically extremely emotional, since they always consider themselves to be Luhan's girlfriend. Some fans will call themselves as 'girlfriend fans' or'mother fans' on social media platforms. According to my fandom experience, 'girlfriend fans' are more weird and overly emotional. If the celebrities they like suddenly expose their relationship, most of them would either hate the celebrity's girlfriend/boyfriend on social media or begin to condemn the celebrity's girlfriend/boyfriend.

Conclusion

Based on my research and experience in fandom, I believe that media representations of fans as 'weird' and 'overly emotional' are fair. They are strange and extremely emotional, yet they like celebrities. If the celebrities do something that the toxic fans are uncomfortable with of, they begin to hate and destroy them. However, despite their weird and extremely emotional behaviour, it is all because of they like the celebrities, but in the wrong way.

References

Chin, B 2023, ‘MDA20009 Week 9 Fandom’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne Univerity of Technology, 6 October, viewed 8 November 2023.

Chung, JW 2021, From stalking to date requests: 5 times diehard K-pop fans went too far, South China Morning Post, viewed 11 November 2023, <https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3155816/5-k-pop-idols-who-were-victims-sasaeng-fans-blackpinks>.

Hills, M 2022, Fan cultures, Routledge, London.

Iwicka, R 2018, ‘Every Breath You Take: Sasaeng Fans’, At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, vol. 99, pp. 125–147, viewed 10 November 2023, <https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=b28b24e8-2373-3530-8d04-7355f54fe6c2>.

Philippines Star (Manila, Philippines) 2019, ���EXO’s Kai exposes alleged “sasaeng” fans’, 21 May, viewed 11 November 2023, <https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=8adcf75c-6a0a-3b75-a957-1370b7abae6d>.

Proctor, W n.d., Chapter 6 A New Breed of Fan?: Regimes of Truth, One Direction Fans and Representations of Enfreakment, viewed 10 November 2023, <https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/83943346.pdf >.

[kuruk]

genuinely sort of obsessed with suicide and killing yourself and dying lately. main character in a manhwa I was reading tried killing herself kind of late into the story coincidentally at a time where I was already starting to become very obsessed with death wnd now I'm having so much fun finding more killing yourself stories like yes let's all kill ourselves no more I think that'squite enough.. like 8ts really the only thing I look forward to thinking about lately I wake up disappointed that there's nothing to look forward to for the day or life but remember I have time to think about killing myself and I'm like Yay and hurray and such. I've felt this way like twice and it's a comparatively higher risk level of being suicidal for me since I kindof dont care about anything but this focus and I feel almost genuine excitement and anticipation about death and for hours a day I'm just fantasizing about being able to give up or start over, which is worse than having severely sad angry emotional issues kind of depressed where things do matter and they're just not good but in this case nothing matters or excites me except this. it's worse as in like it doesn't feel as impossible to happen but it does feel way better like well at least I still have killing myself and dying we wlways have killing ourselves and dying

[brilliantpines]

the endless battle between "being around people is one of the most effective ways to improve mental health/general outlook on life" and "depending entirely on other people for emotionally stability can lead to Consequences"

[suntamer]

varric. 🖤

[smoshidiot]

[arahabakix]

nah but ppl shitting on gege for writing gojou's reactions the way he actually is and not fanon's version of him is so funny

[oceanwithinsblog]

binge-watched episodes 10 to 12 yesterday night and i am still astonished at how THREE EPISODES were so much more fun and enjoyable than the whole first half of the season ☠️

[grandmasickomode]

God dads outburst at me about the election really has left me shaken and fucked up

Spent the last few weeks feeling incredibly lost and tired. All it took was dad breaking my trust in him and losing his stupid ass to the right wing.

[starkidlabs]

Kinda hate how weird men can ruin you passion for something.

[zukkaoru]

chuuya bsd and cherry sk8 have the same gender

[synthshenanigans]

Dear Machine. Hate, the Cog is insanly fucking good god damn

[thoughtspeaker]

Sometimes the only nonverbal moments are during moments of extreme stress or panic(and believe me, I've had plenty of those moments, having been known as the crybaby kid way back in elementary), where even when I wanted to say something, or even try to explain why I was upset, all I could do was hyperventilate, cry, and wait it out.

I've gotten better with it over time, but it really wasn't fun, going to school and crying basically daily.

And hey, I don't speak for even CLOSE to everyone whose autistic. I'm just saying how my own experience with it has been! I just wish I'd known sooner honestly...

When my mum looked into the possibility of me being autistic when I was a kid, the information she could find said I would have to be nonverbal and unable to read.

While it's true that some autistic people are nonverbal some or all of the time, or may struggle with reading or be dyslexic, neither of those are a requirement to be autistic.

Every autistic person is different.

(I'm pretty sure I was hyperlexic.)

[eenochian]

been in such a weird mood all day and night…

[umbracirrus]

Today is another one of those weird days......

[boneless-mika]

Too many “tales from the front desk” stories are just “how dare neurodivergent people exist in public? How dare any disabled person exist in public??”

[kisssukuna33]

JJK men and the weird things they do when they are in a relationship

Satoru would be the the type to collect random things as mementos for your relationship. Mostly stuff from when you two go on dates or when you two spend time with each other in general. There's a whole drawer in his closet dedicated to it and it will be the most random stuff too. Dried flowers from the parks you two visited, seashells, random stones, stickers and hell the last time you checked there is even a dirty tissue there which you didn't even want to ask what kind of memory it holds.

Geto would be the type to refers to everything as "we". He likes to include himself in everything you do. "Are we feeling better now?" "Are we forgetting to take care of ourselves again?hm" There are even times where you would have to mentally slap yourself after hearing some of the shit he says.

"Are we on our period again Angel?"

"Suguru I love you but the hell you mean by we? As if I'm not the only one who go through this diabolical pain every month"

"......"

"Sorry Angel"

Nanami would be the type to get overly emotional and expressive in the most random times. You two can go on a walk and he will see a caterpillar on the road boom a conversation starts and somehow it will always end up with him expressing his undying love for you, this gets a bit embarrassing when he started doing this in public though

Sukuna would be the type to bite you. One thing about Sukuna is that he bites. Not even in a sexual way it's almost became a habit for him to bite you just randomly for the sake of it. You two can settle down on the couch to watch a movie and the next thing you know is Sukuna having his canines sank into your cheek for the half of the movie. Don't worry about the marks because he is always there to kiss it better.

Toji would be the type to just carry you randomly. You could be sitting on the couch reading a book and the next thing you know is your big boyfriend picking you up and carrying you to the bedroom. You can't even complain other than just let it happen because he already locked you in his hold after he put the blanket over the both of you, getting you two ready for sleep.