The Rise of Toxic Fandom (short documentary film)

[kristen jones]

It's difficult. Because while i acknowledge that the film had some political slant to it, i nevertheless don't fully agree with that slant, and so i defend the movie based on the other elements that i did agree with and enjoy, and try to put the political message part out of my mind.

So i suppose I'm a bit of a conundrum, because I defend the film, but not because I agree with it's political slant. It's more that overall I like what was done with the characters both old and new, and overall i like the direction of the story.

I realize that makes me different to many here, but that's OK. I liked it, but not for support of political messages.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Yes, fans are WAAAAAAAAY more full of unhealthy toxins than they used to be. I think it would be fair to describe their lifestyles as “toxic”.

The typical American movie-goers:

I totally agree and I blame Disney for this.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I dont agree with the link that you provided. The writer tried to connect bad writing with a political leanings.

You win the prize. All of these types of articles come from people with a certain view which colors EVERYTHING they see. I could tell them the sky is blue, and that would be racist/misogynist/etc. somehow. I don't take it too seriously. There are a**holes all over the world so I don't know why people get surprised that they're also on the Internet. Ignore them. What drives me nuts is these types of articles paint all SW fans with a broad brush, then when they are called on it, they complain about those people complaining saying the article wasn't about them (like this writer). Just use the word "some" in there...

 

[Psab keel]

People are people so why should it be? You and I should get along so awfully?

The person who wrote this article is not only a year late to the discussion, but they aren't saying anything new that hasn't been analyzed to death, and quite frankly even if I agreed with their assessment, they were not all that eloquent in defending their position.

It's articles like this that I have been rallying against this past year. The fact that vocal critics of the film have been drowned out and almost completely ignored by the media is downright infuriating if only for the fact that I and countless others STILL need to make the distinction between us and racists, etc and I am utterly exhausted. You can't reason with idiocy.

Since no one has any attention span enough to think things through, why would we honestly think that some arrogant journalist is going to consider the fact that perhaps the actual problem isn't Star Wars fans. It's the fact that human beings at their core can be awful to one another and that having to use something as fun as Star Wars to express that seems like a veiled attempt to divide and conquer through entertainment. Even if their hearts ARE in the right place (though I doubt that for most of them) their focus is on the wrong thing.

There are REAL people with REAL problems the world over. Star Wars was supposed to be an ESCAPE from all of that negativity and look what they've done with it. You want to create a timeless, fun adventure, with characters that people love and can relate to? Then stop miring them in the present where everyone is a victim and the best we can do to fight injustice is cry about it on the internet.

It's almost 2019.

Let's stop fighting imaginary problems and start solving real ones.

You want to fight racism, sexism, homophobia, homelessness (insert real problem here) then DO something about it. There is enough heartbreak out there. If you want to make the world a better place, there are better ways to do it than this.

Let's leave escapist entertainment alone. At least there we can get away for a few hours and forget our problems. At least there, in a galaxy far far away, good will triumph over evil.

 

[mugatu]

Within the fandom groups nope. Too much politics, backstabbing, etc.
My experience in the 501st was the worst; had people calling saying they were going to rape my girlfriend at the time, screaming at me in public, etc. One guy came up to me and my friends at DragonCon and tried to start a fight out of nowhere.

Individuals are a different story. People I run into at cons to take pictures and the like are great.

Yup. It's a mob mentality in the local garrison. One of the craziest stories is there's a cop in the midwest garrison; he came up to me at Wizard World and offered a card that had a picture of him on it in costume. I said no thank you and that I don't collect the cards and that he should hold on to it to give to someone who does. His reaction was to threaten to beat the hell out of me and get the mob riled up saying how horrible of a human being I am. The mob in turn harassed me anytime they saw me wear my SW costumes at a con because they felt I shouldn't be allowed to wear them and of course threatened me.
Just another example of my experience with the "fans".

I just want to say, as one human being to another, I am sorry this happened and that you or any person has ever had to experience any of that.

My own take is that there are fanatics and I don’t consider all fanatics or fanaticism to be negative. I myself, according to my coworkers, am a Star Wars fanatic, and I can certainly see where they are coming from.
Still, I don’t treat anyone poorly for having a different opinion or perspective than I do. If someone loves the Last Jedi, and it has spoken to them more than any orher Star Wars film, then Great! And I really do mean that. I even tell them so. I’ve had many a discussion of FB with people that loved the film. I tell them what I didn’t like about it, but I do not say I am a real SW fan and since they like it they are not real SW fans. I tell them I am thoroughly earnestly happy for them that they were able to enjoy it so much when I was not able to. I envy them. I honestly do.

Regarding toxic fans: yes there are toxic fans. The people that threatened Kelly Tran are toxic fans. They understand little about the film makig process, and apparently many other things in life.
The mirror of that, are those offended by non-toxic fans whom have a different opinion. This group of offended people are akin to being toxic fans (possibly even worse) as they attribute any and all dissent as stemmig from “toxic fandom” in order to delegitimize a criticism that these offended people do not wish to or simply can not justify.

It is pervasive in the film community, in fan culture, in politics, and in most aspects of life. It is a disease that is rotting and ruining everything. I don’t know how it started, other than coming from the facelss armchair quarterback anonimity that the internet has afforded everyone, but I am mostly concerned with eradicating it.

And as several others have already stated here: Hollywood, stop making **** films. All of this goes away when the movie doesn’t suck @ss. You’ve been making movies for so long now, how do you not understand how it works by now?

 

[MangyDog]

Just my tidbit... The rise of toxicity in fandoms... Wow... It's both true that yes the studios keep effing things up and upsetting the very people they're meant to appease... But I have also been on the receiving end of this toxicity and in a different side...
As you lot prolly know by now I'm a big trek fan... And not long after posting my voyager concept tricorder on redit I did a post about my thoughts on STD... Now here's the thing I thought I was really fair about my semi review of the show. Mentioning both the positives and negatives... And my in the end conclusion was I didn't hate the show out right... I actually begun enjoying it, even though it's far from perfect.

And yet I got massively slammed by other die hard fans who wouldn't accept any critics at all... But even got insulting at me about it... I was rather shocked tbh....

So yeah without a doubt there really is a toxicity in fandoms, on both sides of the argument.... Rather upset me tbh

 

[Cephus]

The problem is, there are some shows and some movies and absolutely some actors and actresses, that you cannot criticize at all without getting slammed for it, no matter how credible your criticism is. This is what happens when Hollywood becomes hyper-politicized. It isn't about the shows or the movies, it's about the political positions that are crammed into those shows and movies. It isn't whether a given actor or actress is any good, it's what that actor or actress says politically that people care about. It isn't just fans that get toxic, although that certainly happens, it's when the people making the content do. Then, you can't say anything bad about their products without being called a Nazi. That's just stupid.

 

[Bigdaddy]

Am I the only on who sees the irony of the video's title?

 

[MangyDog]

See I don't think I'm even that fussed about the politics of STD, the lgbt side of things I actually think has been written fairly well... And stammis (is that spelt right?) is actually one of my more like characters as he's grown from the grouchy know it all from season 1.

The story arc and eventual recouping of him and umm the doctor, could have been handled a bit better and I feel was a missed opitunity in terms of story telling... It all happened to easy from the initial "I can't be with you because I don't know who I am any more blah...."

I hate the fact the focus has been far too much on Michael... But I don't hate the character, and certainly don't hate the actor, she's great... Again I think she was poorly handled... The premise of a human who was raised on vulcan and rediscovering her humanity and emotions from this emotionless upbringing would alone been a great character arc... But no the show became too focused on her and she had to be spocks sister, at some misguided attempt of fan service.

The other critism I had is, well we don't really know the supporting cast at all... The bridge crew, I don't even know there names they've been so under utilised on the show...

The one character I really like is reno. She was the perfect counter point to stammits...

Seru is good too... But at times again I think there was some poor writing with him....

STD has the very real possibility of becoming a good trek show... I just don't think karts man is the person to do it... Oh and they really need to dial tilly down... Qerky is fine but there were times she came across as completely incompetent...

Ages ago I wrote a screen play for a trek fan film I wanted to make... It was going to be a dark horror like film, with the goal of making the borg scary again...

I actually had a gender neutral guy or bisexual half squid character, who was chief engineer... And had some of the same subtle quirks... Always happy and eager to please... But never to the point of being in the way or acting like a 5 year old child.....

 

[Captain Dunsel]

The other critism I had is, well we don't really know the supporting cast at all... The bridge crew, I don't even know their names they've been so under utilised on the show...

I think this one is Thall Joben from “Droids”? Glad to see he is still getting work....

 

[Psab keel]

That haircut is toxic.

 

[Egon Spengler]

When a guy like the Angry Video Game Nerd gets attacked for simply stating he's not going to see a movie, and gets attacked not only by "fans" but studios and actors, the problem clearly isn't just toxic "fandom" but an intolerance for different tastes as well.

 

[Psab keel]

Oh the irony of "tolerance."

 

[Cephus]

Oh the irony of "tolerance."

Come on, they don't care about tolerance. They'll tolerate you, only if you follow their ideological line. Otherwise, they call you names and try to ruin you. These people are hypocrites.

 

[Psab keel]

Exactly. Which is why I put it in quotation marks.