Some People Just Suck: When One Fan Goes Too Far

TRIGGER WARNING: This story talks about someone faking their suicide, so there are a lot of suicide mentions and harassment. Do not read further if these issues are triggering.

Several summers ago summer, after fandom drama came to a close, I wrote the paragraphs below. I think I’ve misplaced about a third of the essay. But given that I’m revisiting it a few years later, I’m confronting my thoughts. Much has happened.

“Some people just suck,” Amanda Palmer writes in The Art of Asking when talking about how she trusts her fans and has had more positive than negative experiences involving trust.

When One Fan Goes Too Far

We all grow up eventually, and we have to adult. Granted, we can handle the usual activities: paying bills, saving money for taxes, cleaning our homes, and remembering to send birthday gifts on time. Then we have our safe spaces violated and we cannot easily recover from such a blow.

In an ideal world, fandom serves as a safe space. Fans come together to spread their love, creativity, and thoughts about an established body of work, whether it’s literature, television, comics, or even podcasts. For those of us who…