genuine question btw. i can't figure out the deal with capital f Fandom as a lifestyle. it's baffling to me. i'm a fan of things but identifying as being in the xyz fandom and performing acts of fandom is weird to me. it seems to get in the way of truly engaging with the art/media/whatever, but maybe i'm off base with this idk
KIND ANSWER:
people are social creatures, but it's hard to make friends unless your brain is shaped a certain way. many people find it nice to have a shared interest that gives you a conversational inroad with others, and even a sense of shared identity within a group. it can also be fun to compare and contrast in-depth analyses and opinions on the same piece of source material by others with a wide range of backgrounds. in essence, it is art transformed into community, often resulting in more art created as a byproduct. it allows people who wouldn't normally think of themselves as artists, critics or social people to engage with those aspects of themselves in a space that understands. it's neat!
PISSY ANSWER:
consuming media is an easy substitute for doing interesting or constructive things with your life. it's what capitalism uses to keep us from noticing we're all meat for the grinder, and in our modern times media companies try to foster an attitude of hyper-obsession over their properties to keep us guzzling from their content teats. toxic fandom culture is when people recognize something's wrong with the world, but they decide it's easier and/or more personally satisfying to strangle the piglet on the next titty over rather than kill the source of the milk
MY ACTUAL GUESS:
i think most people just kind of need to be a little totally ghoul-mode bugfuck about something in order to survive nowadays. fandom is one method of doing it. whether that manifests positively or negatively is Up To Them
CHIRASUL ANSWER
capitalism has absorbed + replaced culture, and the community involvement it provides, to the point where you cannot really find it outside of capitalism (including fandom) or a religious institution. and in a lot of ways, fandoms provide kind of the exact same things as a religious institution. let's break it down:
church is popular because it provides for these intrinsic human needs:
- community: i can go to church and meet people! and they usually want to meet me, too! that is, all else accounted for, kind of nice
- the Rules: not only does everyone have an intrinsic need to know that they're Doing the Right Thing, but they gotta know what The Right Thing is, and they want to meet people who believe in the same Right Things as them
- purpose: why am i alive? why do i exist? what's a larger reason why I'm alive? how can i grow as a person? church provides this robustly - few institutions come close to addressing this human need
now, let's compare that to fandom [EDIT: btw i'm talking primarily about fandoms based on a corporate controlled media property. not, like, the furry fandom, necessarily. that's a different post]. does fandom meet these needs? kinda!
- community: being in a fandom instantly connects you with people who have at least one shared interest, and by the nature of the fandom, constant creative output from either the media source or from other users means they're always new pieces of culture to experience and share. community is fandom's strongest aspect
- the Rules: here's where it gets interesting! fandoms can vary wildly based on what kind of values the members share. what tends to happen is that a fandom based on a media with the broadest possible appeal will also have the broadest range of shared values. media with a very specific audience will often have fans with a more consistent shared sense of values. and yes, people treat media much like a holy text in the sense that they extract and interpret ethical values from it! humans have done this for all of history, and they will keep doing it forever. for better or for worse.
- purpose: wild card! the purpose of a fandom within the context of capitalism is to consume the content and support the media. if you do not do these things, you are an outlier in the fandom! this purpose essentially defines your membership within the fandom. culture becomes something you buy and wear. membership is based on whether or not you have purchased.
[EDIT forgot to say why this makes fandom Like That.] because fandom is based on consuming media and not, like, some overarching human connection or purpose, media consumption is designed to just shove a bunch of people (primarily, and by design, people who otherwise have no other stronger community, Rules, or sense of purpose, hence why they are looking to meet those needs within the context of fandom) together into a box and encourages them to express their feelings at maximum volume as a kind of walking talking advertisement in support of the Content. capitalist media loves nothing more than a very vocal and passionate fan! no bad publicity baby let's get dramatic and emotional!!
hmm, that sucks. is there a way to fix this?
sure! media needs to be able to exist outside of capitalism. the intent of the media needs to have some purpose more important than "trap users into a spending cycle". that can be a lot of things! it can be things like:
- share the experiences of real people!
- explore the human condition!
- imagine what the future might be like!
- challenge the viewer's preconceived notions and/or sensibilities!
- whatever else!
you know where you can get those three human needs met outside of a fandom? there's lots of places! some popular places to interface with culture in a way that meets those needs without necessarily conforming to the desires of capitalism are:
- local political orgs!
- local book clubs!
- the fucking Library!
- local hobby groups!!!
- local arts and crafts groups!
- local volunteer work!
- local zine clubs!
you'll noticed i used the word "local" a lot yeah that's because the anthithesis to capitalism is to find people around you living under the same conditions as you and to find fellowship with them and do things with them that aren't based on consuming a piece of media released by a corporation. yeah, it takes more work and effort and vulnerability to do that than consuming a piece of media, which is essentially riskless. corporations are counting on that! unfortunately, good things require taking risks and inconveniencing yourself a little. you might even have to be around people who annoy you sometime - dont worry, that is not a bad thing!
i'm sorry that things keep coming back around to "it's capitalism" but i'm afraid that's just kinda the umbrella under which we all are operating. but if we stick together and do things that aren't dependent on spending money on product, things get better, a LOT better, measurably better, both personally and communally!!!
fun addendum: you know what else i've noticed provides for those three human needs? online group environments like forums or discord servers! rules, community, and more or less purpose. no wonder churches are hemorrhaging attendees these days.

