Trigger warning: domestic violence.
There are only few of us who cannot relate to any fanbases or groups supporting online creators and artists. With all the youtubers, influencers, and other social media stars that easily took over the 2010s, the borders between the fans and “the stars” have become more and more blurred, perhaps more than anyone has ever anticipated. The shared feelings of belonging, community, and support, as well as admiration directed towards certain creators tend to make people feel more connected, as if the people we see on screen are much more than just content creators.
I vividly remember from my teenage days how certain fandoms grew to the point of breaking boundaries, making said creators feel unsafe and threatened – often finding out and publishing things that they themselves did not know or did not want others to know and, consequently, feeling entitled and unashamed to ask for more and expect more.
While the above image presents the “findings” of One Direction, an extremely popular boybands’, fans, similar things have been uncovered about famous Youtubers and Influencers, often forcing said people to “out” themselves against their will or generally feel like their private life has been infiltrated.
However, such things have been significantly more popular in the early 2010s, when the overall craze about boybands and internet stars started. Although certain fandoms still edge the borders of privacy, it appears that there is overall more understanding (although DEFINITELY not a complete understanding) that internet celebrities lead their own, private lives and not everything is supposed to be shared with the fans, which brings me to the question – how much do we really know about the people whose content we often consume without thinking? And how much, in fact, should we know?
This question, consequently, brings me to Amouranth, a popular twitch streamer and OnlyFans creator. Seemingly successful, happy and quite well off – having more than 6 million followers on twitch and quite a significant following over other platforms as well, the streamer has recently revealed a part of her life that no one had expected – an abusive, exploitative marriage and the strain that it had taken on her. Just a tad bit more than a month ago, the woman disclosed a variety of threats, ranging anywhere from taking “all her money” and “killing her dogs”, that she received from her husband. Similarly, the Siragusa (last name of the streamer), has revealed abuse in terms of her filming schedule, with her husband pushing her to stream for hours and seeing the “Hot Tub” category as an opportunity to exploit the young woman even further.
Consequently, with certain fandoms bordering the border of proper boundaries and interaction, it is important to mention that the streamer had received undeniable support and affection from her fans (aside from the few who felt “betrayed” by her marriage).
However, despite the support, one thing is clear – there is so much that is left unknown and unseen, emphasizing the idea that we actually know very little about those we admire. Nonetheless, that should not be an in invitation to look even further into celebrities’ lives, but rather a call to be open and willing to consider that not everything is as seen on the screen – someone who’s seemingly happy and content, may actually not enjoy the long hours spent in a hot tub trying to get donations and views. However, it is important to remember that although we, as fans, are not entitled to people’s personal lives, the continuous support and admiration can have a significantly positive impact on people, as long as it does not cross the boundaries between private and public.
Thank you for your post! And I absolutely agree with your point. Being (hardcore/ loyal) fans does not give us the right to be more intrusive than the creators let us be and there should be a boundary. Although, the boundary is, in my opinion, rather subjective and can change depending on the situation.
Although the boundary’s vagueness can help or save the creators’ lives, it is atrocious how often creators do not feel safe or comfortable in their own homes and are stalked to the point of having their fans trespassing or robbing. They shouldn’t be treated as property and have their privacy disregarded, just because they co-called “owe” their fame to your (their fans’) support.
Thank you for interesting post. I really agree about your thinking. Many popular celebrities are suffering from that kinds of problems. Some fans buy their star’s phone number and torment him/her, and even some ‘criminals’ visit star’s house. Since many infos are shown in online world, it seems that the boundary of privacy is being vague.Therefore, it can be said that it will be more intimate with fans, but it seems that it is easy to expose personal information. Fans should have a attitude to respect the daily life, for sure.
Thanks for your insightful post. Just like the commenters above I absolutely agree with your statements. This makes me think about the K-pop industry. Fans get really invested in parasocial relationships and often take it too far, such as stalking and trespassing. But even the smaller things are often critiqued by fans. Such as the love lives of idols. I have a friend who was actually angry that EXO’s Chen got married and had a kid. Like, calm down girl. Let the man have his happiness. It feels like the idols’ happiness should be sacrificed for the fans’ happiness. And this is so disrespectful towards idols.
Thank you for writing about this! I also was interested in Amouranth’s situation, not even as a supporter of her content myself (although I think she’s really cool), but just because it became so public within the sphere of Twitch and live streaming.
I think that blurring the line between what is private and what is public is a bit dangerous, especially with social media having more reahc into private lives nowadays. In hindsight, all early-2010s fans of One Direction and the like were very parasocial-esque (me included). I wonder how far this phenomenon is going to go really.
Hi Thank you for the post, and agreeing with the commenters before me. celebrities and popular influencers do have it rough with fans and reporters. Being under watch with cameras can be really stressful, especially with hackers or fans who can retrieve information from you and publicize it. There is more of a dark side to their private lives, which most fans do not see since it is not recorded. They are seen as property since their whole career is based on being known to the public, however, that does not mean that they don’t deserve their own privacy.
Thank you for the post! I agree with all the comments. t should certainly be up to celebrities how much information they want to share to the public. I think a lot of people think that some celebrity’s role as ‘entertainers’ extends to their personal life, and expect them to date certain people or do certain things as if they live to entertain us (in line with Shiwi’s comment above).
I really wonder how celebrities manage knowing that so many people can analyse every little movement, their posts and be able find their location, etc. I’m particularly thinking of the phandom (Dan and Phil) several years ago and how so many little details in their videos were interpreted by fans to make it look like they were dating even though that is information they are allowed to rightfully keep to themselves but were forced to address to keep the phandom happy.