Femcel Fandom (PATREON EPISODE)

It's not like I never had a crush on male celebrities--googling pictures, biography or filmography, daydreaming of course---especially when I was younger, but good lord I would never in 10 million years be a part of this open essay about this man's relationship! Christ on a cracker 😂 how are they not embarrassed? lmfao

Who is Chris Evans? lol never mind I’ll look it up. Mature women who are celebrity stalkers are not normal in their lives either even if they are married with kids. They are hard to work with or share a social circle with.

I went through my celebrity-fandom phase a bit later than a lot of girls. I remember being "obsessed" with my celebrity crushes well into my teen years. All through high school I still collected pictures and posters of my faves. It's hard to say when I "peaked" but I think it was around the time I started my career path. My teenage-self decided to go into media because I thought it was the best chance of getting to meet and make friends with celebrities *cringe*

From examining my own experiences and the experiences of other girls and women, one of the main differences between those who grow out of this phase and those who don't is the communities we surround ourselves with. When I was 16, I had a very small circle of friends (five or six total). Three of us would spend most of our free time talking about our favourite members of One Direction. I was constantly Googling the newest photos of Harry Styles; re-watching every YouTube video he is in; sharing collages and edits in fan blogs (some of these images I'd seen hundreds of times); daydreaming about various scenarios in which he and I meet and we fall in love.

As soon as I actually started studying and working in media the cynicism began seeping in. I could more clearly see the levels of manipulation that go into influencing young girls and neurotic adults into thinking these people are your friends. Platforms like Twitter make it easy. Users can curate their whole timeline around their favourite celebrities and fandom communities, including getting notifications sent to their phones when celebrities Tweet (mimicking the feeling of personally receiving a message from them). Meanwhile, in reality, most celebrities don't even compose their own Tweets.

At 17 I started college. Getting out into the real world was a huge wakeup call. When someone asked me what I like to do for fun, I would just blank. Of course, I couldn't tell them the truth. I felt a deep sense of shame in admitting what an incredibly boring person I was: that I had no hobbies of my own, that I spent all my passion and time on this guy who literally doesn't know I exist. The social humiliation paired with learning more about the inner workings of the media industry (most of these men ain't shit, it's all fake) were very effective motivators for me to get outside, make real friends (not just mutual followers), and find actual hobbies/ passions I'm interested in and excited to talk about when people ask. I now feel much more grounded in reality and honestly couldn't give two-shits what any celebrity does. Looking back, I don't even know how I found so many hours to spend on these people. If you're living a fulfilling life then you don't have time for this nonsense. Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter movies) was part of fandom culture in her girlhood, too. She did a great interview talking about the strangeness and toxicity of her experience a couple years back: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harry-potter-evanna-lynch-fan-culture_n_5ef21f16c5b609fdb7283cf9

Ugh this is so weird. The beginning of this open letter makes it sound like Evans had an affair or something. As a Kpop stan, I wouldn't be surprised if this woman dipped her toes in those fandoms too, namely regarding the similar parasocial relationships and feelings of ownership. You are not his friend. Evans doesn't have to reveal his relationship status to anyone, including literal strangers.

This is why I take celebrities with huge grains of salt. That way I never get to this level of disappointment.

Okay, this fan brought into the illusion of his public image and they feel lied to. Can I blame them for not being a cynic like me? For being so trusting that they believed what Hollywood publicists wanted them to believe? Publicists work overtime to make the public believe their BS. Well, mission accomplished.

People over on Twitter are replying like this is the most unhinged thing they've ever seen. Some of them are saying this is crazier than the Supernatural fandom. Nah, it's not really.

This open letter reminds me of when my mom used to chastise me with "I'm not mad, I'm disappointed." I've definitely seen worse stuff from fandom. Like outright actual threats. At least there's none of that with this letter.

If Mr. Man Chris doesn't say he is single for the cockadoodie fandom he will become hobbled!

https://youtu.be/2pbfkNI2d_A