Toxic Superfans and Twisted Worship

Jezebel had a headline last week that the coverage of Taylor's new relationship was starting to get weird. Huh? The coverage of her has been strange for years, and I have never understood it. It started being weird almost a decade ago. Why? I rarely contemplate or question the fervor over this woman, mainly because it feels so manipulative and orchestrated, and I have always thought she came off as a mean, spoiled, backstabbing, popular high school homecoming queen who bullies people and stays forever 16. Still, she is everywhere all the time doing nothing notable, so it is hard to ignore her even when I actively work hard to do it. I really don't give two damns who she pretends to fuck or fucks for real or contracts or blackmails to be her partner in pap strolling.

I don't even like her music because, to me, it is formulaic and boring, and her songwriting reminds me of the overwrought poetry we wrote in 9th grade, heartbroken because your boyfriend has decided (sob) to break up with you or your crush doesn't seem to know you exist(double sob). Important gut-wrenching stuff poured into painfully terrible poetry in diaries every day all over America. The lyrics do my head in, and I feel like screaming when I hear Shake It Off against my will. I hate her music without one ounce of apology. Apparently, though, millions of people disagree with me. Taste is subjective anyway, so it shouldn't come as a surprise.

But what turns simply liking someone's music to loving the musicians into a rabid and sometimes warped obsession? What makes someone develop feelings of ownership and an unhealthy, compulsive, parasocial relationship with an idol? I understand these connections as teenagers because most of us live lives within rigid emotional parameters. We don't have real adult experiences that widen our perspectives and are usually not very pragmatic. Our lives are filled with extreme feelings and tortured angst, sometimes making teens insufferable to adults. It is a stage we typically pass through, still loving our chosen bands, but the days of playing a CD on loop for days with hours of free time to idle and to dream ends.

BTS' Superfans: Army

Partially, it is social media. It has upped the ante and handed fans more places to get information and to talk to others in a folie à deux reality that throws buckets of oil onto their burning fires. We know so much about our idols now that people develop an odd symbiosis or psychosis, depending on some outcomes parasocial connections grow into and how the relationships end. Taylor Swift's Swifties, Beyoncé's Beyhive, One Directions's Directioners, Rihanna's Navy, BTS' Army, and Gaga's Little Monsters (I added them because those people were nuts and used to swarm Dlisted) are the first superfandoms that come to mind. They are the ones who will swoop into a comment section and bully the fuck out of people for their opinions. They, to me, are the most loyal, vocal, protective, irrational, and deranged superfans regarding their music idols. (Britney's fans need a whole article because WTF)

While doing some light research, I discovered Chris Brown has a superfandom too, which explains his ongoing career. Team Breezy. I am all Team Bree, who I call Breezy, but little did I know there was a Chris Brown association. (Sorry, Bree, but you are forever my Breezy fuck that fool.) Those have got to be the most forgiving or, more like, most asinine people on the damn planet. There are movie franchise superfans, too. Potterheads (um, okay), and TV show superfans. In my experience, the most obsessive and worshipful are the ones for musicians or music groups, maybe because music can feel more accessible and we listen to our favorite songs over and over, relating on a primal level that gets under our skin.

Rihanna and her Navy

Recently, Olivia Wilde learned, firsthand, what superfans are capable of.  Whatever issue anyone has with Olivia, she didn't deserve the recent backlash from The Navy for simply observing that she found A$AP Rocky sexy and hot and was effusive in her language. (I would have been all about it in my single days. He's sexy to me, too.)That is all she said other than observing his loyalty to Rihanna and thinking that was an attractive trait. She didn't say I think I will seduce him away from Rihanna so I can fuck his brains out and ruin her life forever, leaving her broken and alone! The Navy decided Olivia was way out of line, and a pile on ensued. And the backlash was so hot Olivia deleted her post. Rihanna, I can't believe she would have cared; unlike Taylor, she seems thick-skinned and very secure about her life and her relationship and would see it for what it is. She hasn't dropped an album in years, but her Navy can worship their idol by supporting her Fenty brand, and they have, in droves, and as a result, they have pushed her wealth into the stratosphere.

I do wonder what that kind of power feels like. You can sip a glass of wine while your minions go on the attack and protect their Queen like an agitated hive and try to rip their perceived enemy apart, hellbent on total annihilation. There is a threat in their attacks that makes a lot of people back the fuck down and try to make amends. The Navy has nothing on the Swifties, though. Their fervor is only matched by the Beyhive. The Little Monsters would have had that honor 7 or 8 years ago, but they have either moved on or cooled as Gaga's career changed direction.

The Swifties saw photos of red coloring on Travis Kelce's lips on a very publicized date, whipped out their magnifying glasses, and decided they must have kissed. 500,000 of them are suddenly Kansas City football fans. Taylor is serving what they want, slowly revealing little hints driving Swifties beyond their limit and then a significant gift to keep them onside and then rinse and repeat. All of it is recorded in photos, of course. Taylor is sometimes generous with the reveals, and they love her even harder, so they open their wallets to buy as much merch as their credit cards will allow.

One of the photos that drove Swifies into a frenzied investigation.

The media is partly to blame. They fuel their power with these ridiculous, continuous headlines. Superfans and the media feed off each other, creating an absurd amount of validation for their behavior; sometimes, however, they will flex their strength. Taylor's Swifties have strong opinions about their idol's love life and are so aggressive they ruthlessly pressured her to dump Matt Healy. 

They were beside themselves. Some information they flung at her were things I cannot believe someone like Taylor or her fastidious team did not know ahead of time. She has known him since 2014. Their damsel was being hoodwinked! She mustn't have known! Maybe she thought she could rehab the outlandish, messy Matt. But in doing that, she allows them to take charge, and the monster grows more powerful. They own her even more now and not the other way around like she thinks, and they know it. She loves the adoration and seeks an exorbitant amount of their attention and money, so I am short on pity. She uses her love life for lyrics that they decipher and then descend on the victim nastily and relentlessly. 

Travis is naive, or must be, to even get involved with someone with crazed superfans because when they break up, she will write a song, and Swifties will blame everything on him. They will stalk him online and come up with conspiracy theories galore without any proof. Some careers have never bounced back from dating or contracting or whatever it is; just ask Tom Hiddleston. Some of the blame lies with him for wearing that supremely tragic TH❤TS tank top, but he thought he was selling their relationship, not realizing he doomed himself forever. 

Beyhive Bee

Another twisted group is Beyonce's superfandom. Many people are honestly wary about the Beyhive and won't write what they want to say about Queen Beyonce and her life. Her superfans will attack like a swarm and bite and sting until they overwhelm their target on social media, fan sites, or comment sections. You can almost imagine them breathlessly banging away on their devices angrily and, in their minds, valiantly standing up for her in their delusional, warped way. You can feel their heads explode whenever someone dares question their idol or rightly criticize what she wears or does, even when it is evident to everyone else she messed up. 

According to them, the pillow baby never happened; a baby crumples and folds when someone sits down. Scientific facts about anatomy can go fuck itself. They know! Their idol would never do such a thing! Plastic surgery side-by-side photos are clearly altered to make it look like she's had procedures because Beyonce is a natural beauty! She doesn't need to go under the knife! HATER! Except they aren't altered; homie had a nose job, among other subtle things. One commenter on a site claimed her wigs were her natural hair, and I almost responded; instead, I simply stopped commenting at Lipstick Alley. 

Totally carrying an accordion baby.

This leads me to question if the celebrities do this on purpose. Do they realize too late what this level of loyalty costs? Do they enjoy their protection as they fatten their bank accounts and elongate their careers? The problem is that at a certain point, the fans take the wheel and start controlling their star, sometimes making them behave as they want them to and changing the direction of their idol's career and life. 

Doja Cat, with all of her heinous behavior, dumped her superfandom called Kittens, and it might be that, in the end, this is the only way to be free of the intensity. Scorch the earth so thoroughly that nothing will ever grow in its place. This will be a test. Without them, she may find no one cares, and as the Kittens break up and move on, she will be in their past, their wallets will slam shut, and it will be over. Maybe so will her career.

(photos: CNN, Kevin Mazur, unknown)