Where Will the Cult of the Fan Strike Next?

Imagine being verbally abused in the street. Imagine receiving death threats from somebody who you’ve never met. Imagine not being able to express an opinion or hug your boyfriend in public for fear of the outcry it would spark.

This is what is happening to a number of women in the public sphere and the reason behind it?  Crazy fans who treat the objects of their affection like their own property with behaviour that borders on the obsessive.

It sounds like a Hollywood horror film and when you think about it, the reality would make a great story for the big screen but so-called ‘the cult of the fan’ is becoming an increasingly scary phenomenon.

From obsessive female fans tweeting death threats to journalists being abused for writing about a celebrity, the tradition of the fan is turning into an almost abusive cult.

We all remember screaming at Take That until our throats were sore and plastering our bedroom walls from top to bottom with posters of the Spice Girls. And there were arguments about which boy band member was the hottest and which girl band had the best songs. But all of this was good, old-fashioned fan behaviour which didn’t hurt anyone.

Nowadays, fans are unleashing their anger if any public figure says a bad word about their beloved idols or an ordinary girl gets too close to one of them. It’s no longer about having admiration, it’s about possession.

Fans now seem to think they have some sort of ownership over celebrities and that their unfailing dedication gives them the right to lash out at people who pose a threat. The worrying thing is that this affects peoples’ lives, not just those who are at the receiving end of the abuse but the celebrities as well.

It was plain for all to see that Caroline Flack couldn’t take the abuse she got from One Direction fans and this ended in heartbreak for her and Harry Styles. The same thing happened when a receptionist was thought to be meeting up for a date with Zayn from the band. Not only was she abused on Facebook but she received hundreds of telephone calls, causing her to cancel the rendezvous.

Remarkably Selena Gomez has managed to overcome the torrent of abuse aimed at her by her boyfriend’s fans the ‘Beliebers.’ It was reported that one Justin Bieber fanatic even threatened to kill Gomez in her bed during the night.

And it’s not just the girlfriends of young male celebrities that are being targeted, it’s anyone who voices an opinion. At our very own Her.ie towers, a journalist was verbally abused online for an article she wrote about a very well-known actor and comedian.

Similarly Nicki Minaj’s fans, or ‘Barbs’ as they are known, attacked singer Jill Scott via social media for voicing an opinion on the widely-slated Grammy performance by the Starships star.

It seems that you don’t even have to do anything to be a victim of this new ‘cult.’ Lady Gaga’s ‘Little Monsters,’ apparently by name and nature, took to Twitter and Facebook to make nasty jokes about singer Adele’s weight just because the two were battling for the same music award.

At the heart of this phenomenon is something that people all over the world use every day. Social media tools, most notably Twitter, enable fans to interact with their worshipped celebrities and others in the public sphere. Links of interaction have been opened up by comment boxes as well.

This level of interactivity gives everyone who wants one a voice that can be heard on a global scale. Unfortunately this voice can be negative and abusive. By no means are we saying that this level of debate should not be allowed as it is a valuable source of banter and discussion, and one that Her.ie fully embraces and promotes. Opinions should definitely be expressed but there is a fine line between a view and an attack.

If anything it makes you wonder what can or should be done about those who take the opportunity to comment and tweet in an abusive and threatening way? Is it up to the celebrities to quash the outbursts? Are there effective online repercussions for those who are guilty of abuse?

What is clear is that the cult of the fan no longer appears to be innocent. It has become something entirely different. We only hope that the cult of the fan doesn’t strike as a result of this article since all we’re doing is calling out nasty behaviour and requesting that everyone, no matter how much they idolise a certain band or actor, play nice and that’s not too much to ask for, is it?