Fan de hockey, de Britney ou… de tueurs en série. Fini le temps où on levait le nez sur les fans et leurs groupes. Ceux-ci font désormais l’objet d’études sérieuses et surtout variées, suscitant de plus en plus l’intérêt. Pour cause : avoir des idoles rend heureux. Donne un sens à la vie. Et en a même sauvé certains de la pandémie. Explications, analyses et témoignages, en trois temps. [Read on]
Late last July, mindless social media scrolling led me to an ad for something called the Mysterious Doctor Plague. This turned out to be a plush toy of—you guessed it—an old-timey plague doctor, complete with a beak-nosed mask and a glow-in-the-dark lantern (the better to visit plague patients at night, presumably). I couldn’t decide whether I was repulsed by it or wanted to hug its rotund little body, a dilemma I resolved by tweeting out a screenshot of the ad along with the text “I mean …. I don’t NOT want this.” The response was overwhelming—hundreds of people replying that that they either loved it and had already purchased one or planned on getting one. Impulsively, I ordered one for myself. [Read on]
From the key elements that make a stuffed animal lovable, to the aggression behind our affection for babies and puppies, an article that deconstructs the idea of “cuteness.”
The students were told they were participating in an ice cream taste test. Each entered a room with a tub of vanilla ice cream labeled “Test Flavor A” and was given an ice cream scoop. They were told to scoop as much as they wanted into a bowl, which was then placed on a scale and weighed. They rated the ice cream on seven criteria, including the flavor and texture. At the end, their bowls were weighed again.
Then, their carefully considered ratings were almost certainly thrown away, because this was not, in fact a taste test. It was a scoop test. The students had been given one of two ice cream scoops. The first was a standard red scoop with utilitarian grips on the side. The second was a scoop fashioned into a cute little female figure with a red dress, little arms, and a stylized smile. Her hairdo created the “curve” of the scoop. She was adorable.
Organizers called it an unusually good turnout for their niche activist group, in which fans of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world promote literacy, human rights and civic engagement in Washington and beyond.
Até a década passada, a mente de fãs era pouco compreendida por executivos à frente de empresas que alimentam o mercado da cultura pop. Aos poucos, eles passaram a entender que, da mesma maneira que este amor pode ser lucrativo, também pode gerar descontentamento e, eventualmente, prejuízo. Foi o que aconteceu entre fãs de Harry Potter e a Warner Brothers em 2014, quando a Harry Potter Alliance, uma ONG norte-americana que engaja fãs na luta pelos direitos humanos, fez campanha para que a empresa deixasse de usar mão de obra escrava – terceirizada – na produção dos Sapos de Chocolate vendidos nos parques temáticos e lojas dedicadas ao Mundo Bruxo de J. K. Rowling. A princípio, a companhia resistiu, mas não o suficiente. No fim, os fãs conseguiram.
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While superstars like Beyonce and Marilyn Monroe found stardom in the traditional sense, the Kardashians gained popularity through a whole new medium. Here’s how the entertainment industry has shifted from its traditional roots to glorifying “everydayness” through reality TV and YouTube.
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Do you ever feel like you’re friends with celebrities you don’t know? Here are some psychological and historical reasons why that may not be as strange or uncommon as you think.
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When Brandon Farbstein first joined Instagram in 2014, he was 14 and optimistic. Farbstein was born with a rare form of dwarfism, and he wanted to use the photo-sharing site to educate people about his condition—to, as he told me, “show people a glimpse into my life and inspire people.”
Soon enough, though, the hateful messages started coming: death threats, expletive-laden comments about his appearance, worse. A meme page put his face on Hitler’s body. Multiple accounts popped up with the explicit purpose of taunting him. His house was swatted. When he does a live video, the insults float onscreen, fast and furious. “It’s been hard to keep my composure,” Farbstein told me. After trolls started posting pictures of him in the hallways at his high school, he started to fear for his safety. Eventually, he left and finished high school online.
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I consumatori alfa della nostra società. Così vengono definiti i fan, o meglio i ‘super fan’, persone talmente appassionate da un prodotto, o da un film, un musicista, una serie tv da diventare più esperti degli stessi creatori. Per analizzare questa crescente ossessione, Zoe Fraade-Blanar e Aaron M. Glazer hanno pubblicato il volume “Superfandom: How Our Obsessions are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are” (Superfandom: come le nostre ossessioni stanno cambiando i nostri acquisti e chi siamo).
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February 2003, Durban, South Africa: The ICC Cricket World Cup was in full swing and ahead of India’s much-hyped clash with England, I found myself in the business lounge at the Kingsmead Hilton. The location of the hotel is fantastic as it’s right across the road from the stadium. Indeed, you can see right into the ground from the top floor lounge while sipping a cool drink. Anyway, as I sat there, I noticed a young man, sporting an India fan jersey, beavering away on a PC in the corner. So I wondered over, “Hi, I’m Arup, who are you?” “I’m Raks Patel”, he replied with a raffish grin. “I’m with the Bharat Army.”
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