I think one of the most mysterious aspects of fandom is, honestly, standom. And I don’t mean general standom, wherein we casually say, almost jokingly, “I stan.” I mean standom that, whether the bearer of the label consciously recognizes it or not, reflects the origin-song name, “Stan.”
It happens in every branch of fandom, and probably every fandom. Here, we have Sam stans, Dean stans, Cas stans, recently Jack stans. Jared, Jensen, Misha stans. Any trio or duo set of them. Any romantic pairing of them. There’s an entire stan ecosystem.
But one thing I find is that stans – like Eminem’s song tribute stan stans – is their bitterness is self breeding. For example, they get an interpretation in their head of a character they don’t like – we’ll say Castiel since he gets some of the most vitriolic readings. So say, a Sam or Dean stan gets a reading on Castiel where they don’t like the character, ergo, will read their canon through a distorted lens henceforth.
Now, we’re going to hear the warcry, “it’s art, all interpretations are equal”, and that’s true to a point. But in the case of SPN, the story and artpiece is still being built. If you’re still reading active brush strokes and projecting the meaning before the piece is completed, if you are completely unawares of what the artist is trying to paint but become HELLBENT on a certain idea, odds are, if you haven’t really empathized with the artist’s intention, you’re going to be wrong.
And this is a painting 14 years in progress. (More behind the cut to really break out the source of the cycle of bitterness, as it emboldens itself now at our 14 year mark.)
Bitterness Intensifies: Tinhat Edition
The original post is meant to talk about huge issues in literary interpretation and how it impacts fandom, and largely brushes over but mentions in-passing things like tinhats. This is because issues with tinhats are adjacent-to, but not immediately relevant to literary interpretation, recognition of author intent, etc. They impact our fandom experience almost relentlessly, though, and the psychology behind it echoes the stan psychology closely enough that it’s worth doubling back and talking about.
Let me mention again: I am not a tinhat of any sort. Friends try to tug at me into the dumpster and occasionally it looks cozy, but I keep it squarely outside of my area of business. But let it be said I have never met what I could call a bitter Cockles stan. I’ve met Cockles stans that were simultaneously Destiel shippers, and even Cockles stans that were simultaneously Bitter Destiel Stans, but I’ve never actually met a bitter Cockles stan. They may be out there, IDK, but they’re definitely not the overwhelming majority.
But problem narratives, shattered glass castles of disproven rhetoric etc definitely aren’t just a literary interpretation issue and other RPS and tinhat features in this fandom have bred an entire extra-aggressive subset of bitter fans. So I’m going to put some stuff behind a cut, screenshotted, and highlighted full of things that have literally been proven to be lies to exemplify the psychology between obsessively negative fixations, delusions and dismissal to continue building faulty narratives. Because this IS adjacent and related, in more ways than one, to the original topic though it deserves independent posting.
Bitterness Intensifies: The Middle Lane Fan Conundum.
A final and closing but necessary part to this saga: “Y u not just ignore them, u make urself bitter too.”
Well, fam, that’s a great question, but that’s because bitter stans are insufferably everywhere, and unless you close yourself up in some bizarre cult-of-silence bullshit like OnlyLove, you’re SOL. And even then, that’s… what, conquered by TAW fans that support doxxing the fandom?
This isn’t a matter you can just adjust to interpret the intent of the author. This isn’t a matter you can just will away. Your only option is turning off the digital fandom entirely to cull this until they stop self-feeding their vitriol into every lane as above.
And yes, Destiel fans can be middle lane. The vast majority are J2M fans. The vast majority also enjoy the brobond but are ironically cautious of content because it leads down bronly/*ncest/tinhat holes or, at best, salty stan holes. There’s some infinite series of wank wormholes in this fandom filled with salty stans and tinhats, or weirdo cult worshippers that still choose to overlap with these lanes but then try to shield bash silence if you have a different opinion, like “only me/mine get an opinion and anything else is bullying.” That doesn’t work. None of it works.
And so the problem. Tucked neatly behind a cut.
The Stan Cycle: Bitterness Intensifies.
Published
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