Cindy 0:00
Hi, welcome back to Estrogen Express. I’m Cindy.
Tiara 0:04
I’m Tara.
Marilyn 0:05
I’m Marilyn.
Cindy 0:06
And today we’re going to go into depth about stan culture. The stan culture they usually have a bad rep on during fandoms and how people portray them in media and in ordinary life, but it’s not all true. Depending on where you stand. Do you have any opinions on what stan culture means to you?
Tiara 0:32
Um, well, actually, I wrote a little article about this, but I’m, I’m kind of on the fence about it. So I feel like Stan culture can bring a cool way to bring people together, like communities and stuff like that. So like, say like Marilyn, she’s a part of the beehive. And she’s probably met some people throughout this community that has, they can share their like their their love and their passion for the celebrity or whatever. But then, It can get taken too far to where people obsess over these people but on an unhealthy way so like thinking about them every second of every day to where like all you do is just see your life revolves around them I guess if that makes sense.
Marilyn 1:16
Yeah
Tiara 1:17
and it no one just spend their their days kind of thinking about someone else. It’s not yourself. And I think that Stan culture like, especially in today’s like, our era of like Twitter and stuff like that, people go crazy for the celebrities like it’s just too much. And I think when it consumes your, your everyday life, and that’s when you just need to take a step back and realize that these people are just normal people like yourself, and they don’t really deserve to be worship like a god. I don’t know. Marilyn, do you worship Beyonce like a god?
Marilyn 1:52
No, but I
Tiara 1:55
your lying
Marilyn 1:58
no, I don’t. I Because when Tara said when you mentioned worshipping these people thinking about them every second day there’s so many Beyonce fan accounts and I don’t have a fan account because I don’t think you should know I don’t everyone mute lets mute Tiara’s mic.I don’t i don’t think you need to have a fan account you have to do this you have to go to this many conferences to be a part of the
Tiara 2:26
to be considered stand of an account, yeah
Marilyn 2:28
Yes, I’ve had. I’ve been to Beyonce concert. I’ve I have not met her yet. But I love her I have Ivy park items. I love everything she does. I follow some of the fan accounts, but I do not think that I’m a crazy obsessive stan at all luje I if there’s times where someone says something about Beyonce. I tried to see their point.
Tiara 2:52
No, she doesn’t. She is 100% lying, this girl would defend Beyonce till her death. She no no
Cindy 3:00
something is like in her body.
Tiara 3:03
It’s like a demon just comes up your mine beyonce is not overrated. And I’m telling you guys yesterday or two days ago, Marilyn started crying because of the Netflix documentary that she’s coming out with. So I don’t know that
Marilyn 3:19
because it’s I think, the reason why people love these artists so much, not only just because their music is, what they what they do their message and what they want to portray, and they’re like political messages, like Beyonce is very political. Not so loud. She’s very subtle, but she’s political and all her work and I think I appreciate every detail she puts into her work because it’s not just the music that I love about her. It’s everything that she puts out. So that’s Yeah, I love Beyonce that’s,
Tiara 3:49
and honestly, I feel that I I feel like I’m a stand for Frank Ocean. Definitely Frank Ocean and Ariana Grande I, I think more so with Ariana Grande day as a whole, Because of the fact that she interacts with their fans more, and she kind of puts out, you know, a lot of content, stuff like that, whereas Frank Ocean doesn’t talk to us at all acts if we don’t exist, but it’s fine because at the end of the day, I feel like as a stan, you still have to respect that these people have boundaries. And if they don’t want to put every single thing onto social media or talk to their fans all the time, then that’s that’s how it is. If they just want to put their their music out, which he hasn’t done in three years, then then that’s what we need to accept because at the end of the day, they’re not here to to explain it.
Cindy 4:37
They’re not here to please us.
Tiara 4:40
They’re doing it just to outside of the music. Obviously, they’re not doing anything in their daily lives to please us. They’re just putting up the music that they think that we want to hear that makes them feel the most happy. And that’s that and they don’t really owe us anything.
Cindy 4:40
Yeah, like I don’t think. I’m apart of any stan, I like a bunch of artist. Like, I support certain areas in their lives like
Tiara 5:03
but you don’t have like one like celebrity that you’re just like, wow, like I if I met them I’ll probably pass out.
Cindy 5:08
I don’t think so. I haven’t had that moment like, Marilyn like that in your life demon comes out of me like I am your stan. You are my God or Goddess like, but I see like why he would do it sometimes you’re in a rough time like your music, I don’t know get out of that like hard, difficult time like events of your life and that you see I was like Oh, they are like a god they are my inspiration my role model but to them they’re trying to inspire others but that’s not their 24 seven jobs to please just one person their trying to have like a happy life and like yeah, if that’s if they’re living their lives, all of a sudden like makes you happy and like can
Tiara 5:54
put it they’re putting out their their content, their art, stuff like that.
Cindy 5:57
Make sure you also happy means Like oh, they’re don’t even care about me, they are and just different perspective
Marilyn 6:06
a lot of stans forget that that person is not there to please you. Like You were saying that person just wants to make music their artists wants me music loves making music it’s about the music and what today’s generation it’s more than just the music now
Cindy 6:22
I feel like
Marilyn 6:23
it’s so like interaction fans want this fans want to meet them fans want to go over their house for listening individuals.
Tiara 6:29
It’s like how does merch look like how
Marilyn 6:31
and before if you go back with one of my other favorite artists is Michael Jackson. When you go back, he made bodies of work. Like he made albums and that’s all people wanted from him. And I think and I believe this if Michael Jackson were big today, like let’s say he wasn’t a big star in the 80s he was big today. I know people will be calling him overrated. Because it’s not it’s I can’t I can just go on and on. It’s like for Me. It’s not just when people call Beyonce overrated or anyone overrated.
That person has continued to be in the limelight and stay in the spotlight and the topic on media stay the main topic on media outlets. So they’re not overrated. They’re doing something with their career, they’re doing something with their music. And just because it can I know it probably will annoying people who do not like them. But that does not mean they’re overrated. It’s just that they’ve been able to be consistent with their work and their music is really good. And their ethic and their visuals and everything they put into their music is amazing, which is why they’re still prominent in media outlets and you taught you hear about them, and with Ariana Grande day, I had I was talking to a coworker yesterday. And this made sense, she said, I do not like Ariana, but I like some of her songs because it’s really hard to not want to listen to her songs and I totally understood that because I do not like her. I did not like her personally. like a person but her music is good. Like, her music is good. I don’t like some of the things she’s done in the past but I, I think
Tiara 8:08
like what
Marilyn 8:09
I think music is good.
Cindy 8:11
It’s kind of like people kind of blur the line between a person and their music. They kind of see them as one and which sometimes is not the case it do there they are that person who the art and then the music is something different, like it can be about this story or like inspiration. But it really is like, if you do you see them as this way or that way and I feel like people just see them on the whole. And I don’t think their best works by the personality.
Tiara 8:44
I feel like I’m on the fence about separating like an artist from their, their artistry, like their work and stuff like that. Because when you look at people like our Kelly, he has a lot and I mean a lot of the like very Old Time classics that people play at cookouts and stuff like that. But at the end the day I’m still not going to keep jamming to his music because of the stuff that he’s done and it’s kind of hard to even hear a song without thinking of the stuff that he has done. So I it’s like I see what you’re saying Marilyn about how you like some of our Be honest music, but not really her as a person which doesn’t make any sense because we’re not normal. Okay.
Marilyn 9:26
Like and she left the donuts or she’ll she’ll go
Tiara 9:29
but that was her biggest scandal
Marilyn 9:31
she’ll go on like little she talks about like positivity and uplifting women, which is great. I totally support that. And like being a really good being a good woman if I’m laughing because I was waving my hands everywhere. But she goes on these shows on like Twitter rants and sometimes and say things and she forgets like you’re a prominent person, so everything can be twisted around. And then when she gets called out for it, she knows she’s wrong. Then she’ll be like Sorry I’m sorry. And no one calls her out on it and also with the whole like, I know Tiara you’re gonna get really heated, babe, like the black fishing too. I think
Tiara 10:16
Come on
Marilyn 10:17
she I think she appropriate.
Tiara 10:18
This b is Italian. I’m black and I’m telling you she does not
Marilyn 10:23
I think she apporpriates like black culture No One No One calls her out on it. And I’ve seen so many like outlets and people on Twitter say like, No one calls her out and it because she’s everyone’s fav because she’s everyone’s favorite but she does appropriate the culture she makes money off of it.
Cindy 10:39
I know that but I get a bit of hate for this but sometimes stans kind of blur that line. Blur that image of her try to not show up, like the negativity and their favorite artists because they want to see it like because it’s a role model. Essentially because they want to see the positivity like, good at doing instead of like, of like the wrong your scandals, stuff like that, what stans out, understand that you have to see like, understand that they’ve done something wrong, they should acknowledge it. Like, your builds or address the scandel or whatever.
Marilyn 11:22
Like I know why certain people don’t like Ariana and it’s because like, they hate how she does the baby voice. But if you I like her music, but if I know some people are probably heated, but when I think of Ariana Grande, I think of Oh, the high pony was not her actual hair. It’s like it’s a weave, whatever you like to call it. That’s like her high pony and her beautiful tan skin. And that’s not really her color. And also it’s like, boy, you think now
Tiara 11:49
everyone in Hollywood tans, everyone in Hollywood tans. And at the end of day That girl is still Italian. And that girl is still going to tan like, I don’t get because like everyone in this industry tans. But then because of the fact that she is Italian along with that tans it’s automatically
Marilyn 12:05
just there on the ground. I like the Kardashians, I think they’re appropriate so much and they swear that they don’t
Cindy 12:10
they created the next generation of their brand.
Marilyn 12:13
they make their they make their skin to Tiger like Kim Kardashian. She’s tan like she’s actually tan but she goes or bloody and she makes it. She makes world like me wanting to be tan, and I’m almost similar to Tiaras, call it like that’s something wrong as well as Kylie Jenner. When she puts that picture on vacation. She was super tan, and she almost looked black.
Tiara 12:35
But I feel like one thing outside of the whole Ariana thing. A lot of people in like the limelight today profit off of black culture black appropriate, like just appropriating black people as a whole. And that’s not something I’m overlooking. But it’s something I’ve noticed. And it’s more so to me a compliment because they want people want to be like us at the end the day. And with Ariana, there has been some things that she has done like she wears this. This kind of ponytail that is like, you know, I forgot what it’s called. But it’s like a it looks kind of like crimped, but it’s like original black hairstyle. And because she got pulled up for that, and I have never once been like oh no people shouldn’t be mad at like about blawh blawh blah because I mean, hey, like that is kind of weird that she’s kind of trying to pull off like a black hairstyle. But um, what was the other thing you were talking? Oh, yeah. You said that she was black fishing kind of her skin was too dark. Yeah, like I said, she tan just like a lot of celebrities do because they they cannot be photographed every day. Like the paparazzi isn’t and stuff like that and then expect like, Oh, yeah, I look pale as s. Like,
Cindy 13:41
like, cultural
Tiara 13:44
appropriation
Cindy 13:45
and going on. Especially when you’re that high status. Everyone kind of sees all your little flaws.
even though it’s an intentional, like, she might have not thought that she might have done like thinking my new hairstyle.
Tiara 13:51
Yeah,
Yeah.
Marilyn 13:58
And it’s hard not to, like fully cut off that person. I’m trying to look for my evidence here. It’s hard not to fully not like the person because I still listen to our music. It’s It’s good. But, But also, oh, man, I forgot.
Tiara 14:17
to something that you said, how she goes on Twitter rants and then apologizes for it later. I feel like that’s the same thing that we kind of touch on. Like, we have to realize these people are humans, they have opinions and they make mistakes. And that’s with anyone. Some people are very quiet about their opinions. And some people like Ariana where she has even like said that she’s very emotional, emotional person. And like she she does things on instinct, and that she kind of regrets visiting and
Cindy 14:45
how she always like puts it. Like Chrissy. I like her. Because she, although she doesn’t go under like rats on Twitter, she does have her comments, he puts her two cents in everything with something relatable. And sometimes it’s like kind of crossing the line. But that’s who she is
Marilyn 15:00
some things that Chrissy does when people call her out for being wrong. I hate that she ignores it, and she’ll just go off on them and like, she’ll delete their comments. Like that’s like, You’re a grown woman like
Cindy 15:10
Yeah I see that. But also like sometimes she just like, plays around with it. Like it is fun. Because if she knows she’s wrong center, she like plays around with it. Like she just makes fun of herself. All right. But
Tiara 15:21
yeah, like
Cindy 15:22
I think it just how she like in person, like impersonates it. But how she like goes on about it. She had just addresses it in her way. It doesn’t have to be like a formal apology like a bunch of YouTubers do like oh, sit in front of camera and say I’m sorry.
Tiara 15:37
Oh, yeah,
Cindy 15:38
the fake tears.
Marilyn 15:40
I remember what I was gonna say. So it’s hard not to listen to an artist that has had a lot of heat and been under fire lot, because I still listen to Ariana. But um, I guess what sets us Tiara and I different is that, like you? She’s complemented by it. But like if anyone’s profiting off any culture for me, I just think it’s, I think it’s wrong because like they’re profiting from a culture because they know that being themselves is not going to get them a lot of money. Like with the Kardashians being more like having the hair and cornrows and Kim did it or, you know, chatting more that makes them money because being the natural self does. And that’s like when I see like a Latina or a black person doing something exactly what they’re doing. Like, let’s say they started that idea, originally. Like why why are they not getting Limelight and shine from it, but someone else is copying exactly what they’re doing. I saw like a Twitter post with the yodel Boy, you know, I got famous off Walmart, there was a black little black kid, they kicked him out. And it’s also like, I’ve seen a white person had a lemonade stand. And there’s like a Latino kid trying to sell frickin lemonade and augua fresca outside, and the police kicked him out. And they but they didn’t do that to the white boy. And the white boy had so much praise on social media. But why the little black boy?
Tiara 17:02
Yeah, that I feel like that
Marilyn 17:04
just the little black boy and the little Latino boy didn’t get that praise. And there’s someone and it’s I know, that’s so different from like, making yourself look dark, darker and all that. But it’s like it’s within the same lines. It’s like, people who are sugar skulls, like let’s say their profit, someone who’s White is profiting off of that off of this Latino culture, then why can’t someone who has a full Instagram page of wanting to help people learn more about Latino culture is not being looked at as a nice and like, as great as this white prison. It’s the same thing with black culture, too.
Tiara 17:37
I feel like that you’re 100%, right, like, 100%
Marilyn 17:41
that’s what gets me like, that’s what gets me like heated about it
Tiara 17:44
and that is more so just of our society, white people can do anything, and they will automatically get that Limelight more than a person of color. And that’s just because white people are not the minorities in this case. And so even when it comes to celebrities there so part of this, when white people do something, these white artists do something and they’re gonna be more praise for it. So I don’t know if you guys heard the song Old Town road by this new this new person upcoming his name was a lil nas or something. And he he created like a country song. And it’s it’s gotten really big. And it was like number one on Billboard and everything and the
Marilyn 17:47
country pop.
Tiara 17:51
It’s like a country song. Yeah. And they took it off of the country genre, because it wasn’t country enough, because and people are like, all right, well, this boy is black. So we kind of see where it’s going. Then he gets Billy Ray Cyrus on the song automatically number one in the country spot. Just like just like you said, it’s the white privilege in it all. So I feel like with things like that, so with the Ariana thing, that’s not something she can really control. It’s not like she’s asking for people to be like,
Marilyn 18:47
Oh, well, I think there’s like a lot of things that go behind it. Because it’s not just her wanting to do that.
Tiara 18:51
It’s the brand.
Marilyn 18:52
The brand, it’s like you have so you have a whole team behind it. You have your marketing team, you have this and that. But, okay, I don’t mean to sound like such a stan. This is what I’m trying to say you have the whole marketing behind it. But you as the artist, you have a say, and she Ariana has made, she’s put herself on the top. So if she decides to drop her record label and start her own, like many artists do, she can do it, she can do it. So she has that say, and for me, I look for an artist who represents everything. And that’s why I love Beyonce so much when she denied Reebok because because of the lack of diversity. like Beyonce has a say. And she’s been in this industry for a long time. And since then, when she started off in Destiny’s Child, she is she’s barely not doing this now like she’s since I’m coming up. She’s always like, No, I’m going to stick to what represents me
Cindy 19:43
during these times. Because there’s a lot of artists, there’s more competition than ever before, until even a small little like artist, Hispanic or black or any other culture ethnicity, trying to make it in this industry is hard because they’re competing in say, high, like artists that are primarily white. So it’s hard for them to actually have a voice without then getting into like the business side of things.
Tiara 20:10
Because at the end of the day into the money controls everything.
Cindy 20:13
Yeah.So I see like, yes, they should have a voice from the start. But it’s hard to like, put their identity and they’re like,but honor
Marilyn 20:22
being that separates the talent and originality that you have within yourself. Because if you have talent, one of like my favorite producers, Dr. Dre says if you have talent that can take you anywhere, you don’t have to go on with the whole business and contract which sucks. But your talent if you have it and you work hard enough for it, you can be
Cindy 20:43
Like Jennifer Lopez, how she like did herself a single mother, Hispanic, Brooklyn, New York, where there’s millions of other artists like starving artist, she actually broke that in my get her own thing. And now is like a triple threat dancers, singer, actress.
Marilyn 21:04
And Dr. Dre said something that really stood out to me. So let’s say this label says, oh, being yourself, let’s say this label tells me my person being yourself is not cutting it, we want you to look for more tan we want you to wear start wearing these wigs this that he says if that person is not giving it to you, if they don’t want if that’s not who you are, and what you stan for, someone else will come in and help you like he said, there’s so many businesses out there that are just terrible on like, try to take advantage. But he helps artists that he knows has talent and he kind of gives them that
Cindy 21:40
yeah thats hat I feel like
Marilyn 21:41
like if that label is telling you to be something you’re not dropped them, you’ll find someone
Cindy 21:46
go to somewhere else because he has support now they have like fans and supported the followers that would help them do their own thing and identify who they really are because of their fans. They’ll support them no matter what given lable jobs, that artists, they have that support from them. And it doesn’t really matter if like if business is telling you put on a wig because there’s other other there’s way many other labels that would say, Oh no, you can do whatever you want. Because of our like our message and our goal here.
Marilyn 22:20
I don’t know if like my whole ranting makes sense and probably the way
Tiara 22:25
I saw this thread on Twitter of pretty much all of these like pop culture I mean pop artists that kind of they started off as you know like they’re innocent little they had their innocent image and then they ended up having like a rebranding phase to where they came back as more of a soulful kind of profiting off of the black culture in a way and I’ll just name a few of the celebrities so I know Justin Timberlake he started off with in sync you know he was in a boy band had that very clean the what is it called the Jake curl curl, he had his j crew or whatever. And then he came back out of fencing started clapping people like Timberland Nelly stuff like that for ferrel and all that stuff. And he had like a soulful voice not stuff he had a rebranding thing and yeah, well like you said you can have your own voice and drop background
Marilyn 23:14
I dont think that has to go with the image though because I like
Tiara 23:17
that 100% does
Marilyn 23:18
when you’re with a band when you’re with a band, everyone has their own sense of style like
Tiara 23:23
talk about what you got out of the
Marilyn 23:24
Yeah, like when he got out of the band and he went to see
Cindy 23:26
rebrand self though he has to make himself
Marilyn 23:29
No what I’m trying to say is that yes in the band he had this he like made this music but that’s the band like you don’t know what type of music he liked making as alone because that’s why a lot of bands break up like the Jonas Brothers broke up because they had different ideas of what they want to do for music like Joe wanting to do alternative while Nickwanting to do pop.
Tiara 23:48
Okay, but let me finish right so he left and think he has like this, you know, Cry river stuff and then his most recent album, man in the woods. He’s literally standing barefoot in the woods actually like white man again. Did we hear about that album? hell No, we didn’t. So let’s not even just like oh well it’s it’s the brand blawh blawh blah or so but no, it’s because he probably dropped that whole only act like a black man will blonde give me so full kind of music and all that stuff. Now he he went back to his original roots of whatever he thought he liked. And it did not get him anywhere because people profit off of black culture period. And that’s how it’s always been
Cindy 24:26
but he also had the 20/20 experience
Tiara 24:29
2020 experience I have that on my phone. It’s so good. With mirrors and all that stuff. Strawberry bubble gum, don’t hold the wall and all those feature are produced by black people. but um the Christina Aguilera she came back with dreads out of nowhere Super tan this picture that actually pulled up for you guys see like and this one this music video can’t hold us can’t hold us down or something like that. She even profit off that black culture. It’s it’s what the the white community it’s going to happen. And I can’t 100% judge a celebrity off of profiting off black culture because that’s everything, jazz country, pop, everything is kind of based off of African American But um, I feel like overall stand culture can you know, make some people bigger, but at the end of the day, you can share your different opinions about celebrities and stuff like that. It can bring people closer, I can tear you guys apart and make sure it does not consume your life. Thank you for listening to our last episode or our latest episode of estrogen Express and stay tuned for next week’s episode.
Transcribed by Cindy Canas
Edited by Cindy Canas
