The L Word Stan

[Glauco Schlembach]

Theslang spread online in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with stans of different fandoms arguing for the superiority of their interests. In 2010, the website Stan Wars launched because of these online arguments.

This is not meant to be a formal definition of stan like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of stan that will help our users expand their word mastery.

Though Eminem gave the world the image of Stan, Nas showed the world how to put "stan" to work, having used it in his classic 2001 diss track Ether": "You a fan, a phony, a fake, a pussy, a Stan." His is the first recorded usage of "stan" as a label (and a pejorative one) for an obsessive fan rather than the name of the fan himself. From there "stan" slowly took off, and while the noun's pejorative meaning remains, the murderous intent it was originally associated with has nearly disappeared. Stans all over the world label themselves as such to express just how dedicated they are to a particular artist and their fandom.

The term stan originated from a combination of the words \"stalker\" and \"fan\", but has since evolved to become a positive term for fans who are highly engaged and supportive of their favorite celebrities.

While the term \"stan\" is generally used in a positive way to describe passionate fans, it can also have negative connotations. Some fans take their enthusiasm too far and engage in toxic behavior such as cyberbullying, which harms both the celebrity and other fans. It's important for fans to maintain a healthy balance and not allow their stan behavior to become obsessive or harmful.

The origin of the term stan is often credited to the 2000 song "Stan", about an obsessed fan, by American rapper Eminem featuring British singer Dido.[1][2] The word itself was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.[3][4] The term was originally a noun, but over time evolved and began to be used as a verb as well.[5]

Stan Twitter has been noted by The Atlantic as one of the "tribes" of Twitter.[6] Polygon has described Stan Twitter as "an overarching collection of various fandoms",[7] and additionally as a community that "[signifies] individuals congregated around certain, specific interests ranging from queer identity to K-pop groups, and added that "Stan Twitter is essentially synonymous with fandom twitter."[8]

The Daily Dot wrote that "Stan Twitter is essentially a community of Extremely Online like-minded individuals who discuss their various fandoms and what they 'stan'."[9] Stan Twitter has also been noted for its common overlap with LGBTQ+ Twitter communities.[8][10] The Guardian noted, for example, that "Gay male culture has always coalesced around female pop stars, from Judy Garland to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande."[10]

Stan Twitter has been noted for its extremely fanatic culture and behavior.[14][15] Vanity Fair highlighted American pop singers Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and K-pop groups like BTS and LOONA as artists who have "extremely fanatic fanbases".[11] Vanity Fair also credited those fanbases and "stan culture and its associated engines" with helping propel the popularity of music videos for those artists.[11]

Stan Twitter has also been highlighted for commonly sharing memes within respective communities and utilizing a particular vernacular and terminology.[8][16] Online stan accounts are frequently run by impassioned teenagers, who often add a distinct touch to their tweets, in contrast to "anonymous accounts jockeying to be the most official unofficial fan source" that can "take on a corporate monotone on par with many singers' own junket."[14] An artist's fanbase is often attached to a nickname used in the media, and in some cases given by the artists themselves.[15][17][18] Some social media accounts focused on delivering music and miscellaneous celebrity news, such as Pop Crave and Pop Base, have been recognized as credible outlets within these stan communities.[19][20]

Some outlets have also touched on stans being "toxic" in their fanaticism.[21] The subculture has been noted by the BBC for displaying a trend of "toxic fandom" which includes fans joining to bully or harass others in the name of an artist.[22][23] Entertainment Weekly quoted Jordan Miller as stating "[Stans] will eat their own"; Miller runs BreatheHeavy.com, "a pop music website that for many years was the premier Britney Spears fansite."[15]

Stans are consumers of a particular medium, whether they are consuming music of their favorite artists, stories written by their favorite writers, or video content by their favorite online content creators. The evolution of the online space has created opportunities for fans to become active consumers, thus enriching their fan experience.[24] Several fans have used the knowledge that they have gained while stanning artists, creators, or shows to write academic papers like case studies, dissertations, and research papers on popular artists like BTS or Taylor Swift.

A common activity that those in the Stan Twitter community engage in is sharing memes with each other and onto their Twitter accounts. Polygon wrote about how those in Stan Twitter share memes with the belief that the memes have an insular quality to them.[8] One meme, "Stan Twitter, do you know this song?" was noted by media outlets as particularly popular among Stan Twitter, being able to intersect more specific communities.[7][9]

Polygon described that the meme "seems very silly at first glance," as it is "expressed through an overly obnoxious all-caps exclamation, [and] pairs the sentence with theme songs from early 1990s TV shows, random YouTube videos, anime tracks, High School Musical remixes and random one hit wonders."[7] Polygon further noted that the meme was "designed around nostalgia-baiting people who love to bring up beloved childhood memories.[7]

The terminology used by the Stan Twitter community has also been the subject of discussion. Much of the community's slang originated in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE),[25] with various sources writing about how many Stan Twitter users have appropriated AAVE terms.[26][27] The terms tea and wig have been attributed to African-American LGBTQ communities; the term wig particularly has been attributed to the drag community, specifically from the phrase "wig snatched" used by the black LGBTQ ballroom culture of the 1980s.[25][28] The Daily Dot and Billboard credited American singer Katy Perry's usage of the term on American Idol with helping propel its popularity online.[25][29] The popular Internet meme of Kermit the Frog sipping tea has also been frequently paired with the tea term.[16]

The term stan itself is used as both a noun and verb with many variants, including "[I or we] stan", which is a phrase used for one to express a liking of, as well as praise or support of, any person or artistic work.[30] Aside from the term stan itself, common words and phrases used in the community include: cancelled,[31][30] keysmash,[32] fancam,[32] moots,[16] tea,[16] tw,[16] cw,[16] oomf,[33] naur,[33] wig,[25] and skinny legend.[34]

A key component of the Stan Twitter culture is its contrast with Local Twitter; individuals deemed part of Local Twitter are colloquially referred to as simply locals.[6][8][35] The Verge likened local to past terms such as square and normie.[36] The publication wrote that "much like being basic, but online, 'local Twitter' describes someone who loves decidedly, even painfully mainstream things."[36] The Atlantic described Local Twitter as a group of "mostly white, well-adjusted suburban teens who share stale platitudes of the kind that some Internet users might call 'basic'."[6]

In 2020, Stan Twitter, in particular K-pop fan accounts, received media attention over its involvement in American politics. During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, some Nicki Minaj fans expressed support for Bernie Sanders using the hashtag #Barbz4Bernie.[37][38] During the George Floyd protests, many hashtags opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement, including #AllLivesMatter, #WhiteLivesMatter, #WhiteoutWednesday, and #BlueLivesMatter, were flooded with images and videos of K-pop artists to drown out those using them. Similarly, when the Dallas Police Department asked people on Twitter to submit videos of protesters, its iWatch Dallas app was instead flooded with fancams.[39]

Though The Verge noted that despite these K-pop fandoms showing support for Black Lives Matter, many Black K-pop fans continue to face racism online.[40] K-pop stans and TikTok users also took credit for falsely requesting tickets to President Trump's Tulsa rally on June 20, 2020, leading to a disappointing turnout.[41] US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commented on the event, tweeting "KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too."[42]

The New York Times noted that "the recent turn toward political activism in the United States also follows a concerted effort by K-pop fans in recent years to make positive change en masse, in part as a reaction to the groups' reputations as superficial, silly and even menacing mobs".[43]

During the 2022 Philippine presidential election season, K-pop stans had started voter education campaigns to empower their fellow fans, organized food pantries to help others in need and created posts, groups, hashtags and fanpages supporting then-Vice President Leni Robredo, detracting any hashtag that would smear her reputation as a presidential candidate.[44][45][46][47]

The culture of Stan Twitter has been noted by media outlets and celebrities as "toxic". Huffington Post noted that singer Alessia Cara lamented over the "toxicity" of Stan Twitter; she was quoted, "This whole world of stan culture, while it's amazing and great and connective a lot of the time, it can be very hurtful."[48]

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