In this final part to Fanship Phenomenon you will read about the fan and antifan groups that have effected their peers. Many times the receiving end of obsessive fan behavior is celebrities, but it can and has spiraled to harm fellow fans. We would find it very normal to think that people with common interests would bond, but in some cases it sparks a sick version of competition. This imaginary contest to protect a celebrity or do due harm to a celebrity has lead to harassment, stalking, assault and for some worse.

Shortly after the time of Lee Eun Ju’s suicide, overzealous fans and antifans of the boyband DongBangShinKi flooded fan-site/forums of deceased with the goal of trolling. Trolling is a hobby of many bored individuals. A troll will post just to begin arguments or cause chaos. Just like in this case the TOS of the site is usually broken during trolling situations. The disrespectful messages called the deceased a third rate actress, saying it was her suicide that cancelled programs that the boy-band were scheduled to perform on. Of course the mystery here is that we will never know who these fans or antifans are. The people identified themselves saying they came from certain fan-sites, yet the site that was named denied it was any of their members but trouble making antifans posing as them. There was an investigation since these fan-cafe’s are hosted by one select website system (usually daum) and Id’s were identified. A letter that was sent to a newspaper admitting the situation was planned out in order to ruin the credibility of DBSK fans was published, embarrassing the members of this antifan group. It followed with the antifan site posting a formal apology, it was then the reputation of the site suffered and since was closed.

The existence of role playing fans had a place even when the Internet was still new commodity. In the mid 90’s a mass email were sent out by, so called, G.O.D. fanatics on “How to Destroy” the fan groups belonging to H.O.T. and ShinHwa. The body of the letter told those to infiltrate peer communities, pretend to be ShinHwa fans and then harass the members of the forum. Their goal was to take screenshots of the posts so they can then say ShinHwa fans are horrible people. These strategic instructions carried on to say that they should pin peer-groups for the same band against one another. They also labeled that they would follow suit and do this to groups that support SES, BoA and FTTS. In this case, a wrench was thrown into the gears of these overly dramatic plans when the very email was forwarded to a member of ShinHwa’s fangroup. The original ShinHwa fangroup members had then all signed a petition not to ever curse or harass other users of fan-sites for any band.

This compulsive-negative behavior is mostly by juveniles, so we can almost understand that young people are not mature enough to realize the stupidity of these actions. However, some that take fantasy of fanship too too far should be examined in depth and taught the correct way to act. In many of these cases with some extra thought and common sense these horrid outcomes could be prevented. 

With a heavy heart we are reminded of how these very fan/anti fan dealings have led to one young girls suicide. A weekly variety program called Star King is for people who do extraordinary things and have rare talents. They are then judged by a chorus of famous celebrities. Members of the boy-band Super Junior have appeared as judges and have interacted with the contestants in many memorable moments. When preteen Contestant Lee EunJi lost 88 lbs in three months, she took part in the show. During the taping she met with the celebrity judges and took photos. One photo made rounds from being posted on her website, was a picture she took with Suju Member Kang In. With that EunJi was a constant target of harassment by Suju fans called Elves. It began as comments and online postings. This quickly rose to emails, vulgar voice mails and crank calls. Even school peers would alienate her due to her 5 minutes of fame. One teacher even punished the poor girl for her phone ringing in class when it was clearly due to harassing phone calls. One article stated that for months EunJi begged the elves to leave her be but they ignored her cries until it her suicide broke news. Then the group posted an apology but were any of the people that posted the apology actually the real harrassers? But what was so special about EunJi’s case? Why was she so easily pushed over the edge? Also Why wasn’t her fanship for Suju accepted and celebrated by her peers? Why was she alienated?

We can say… that EunJi starved herself by drinking 2 glasses a milk per day to loose weight. That she was not taking care of herself or her health. That people who loose a massive amount of weight quickly will suffer from side effects and chemical imbalances. Probably when was heavier she was mistreated too. That she was probably suffering from depression which first began from people teasing her and then continued to be fed by this harassment. This all may have taken a toll on her self esteem. But are these excuses for these fan groups to feel okay about singling out any one person because they are jealous of their accomplishments? Who is truly psychotic in this situation, is it EunJi for ending her life and suffering from depression? or these Fans who seem to live imaginary lifestyles where harming others in the name of loving a celebrity is okay?

Fanship Phenomenon for many can be a blessing. People bond over their love of certain celebs. They give to charities in their name and form ever lasting friendships. Yet for many as you can see Fanship can definitley be a curse.