Fandoms exist for everything. However, not all fans are viewed in the same way. Sports fans are often viewed with a level of respect for their dedication to a team or athlete, while other fan types are heavily labelled and stigmatised for doing much of the same thing.
Imagine a stadium filled with thousands of people. They are screaming at the top of their lungs as the football is blasted into the net. Now imagine that same stadium, but this time it is filled with thousands of people singing along to the best song on an artist’s album. These moments are nearly identical – so what creates the difference?
The distinction is created by who the fan is and what they are a fan of. The majority of avid sports fans are men who may or may not fit into the stereotypical masculine bracket. This demographic continues to dominate the world’s narrative on what is and is not acceptable behaviour. Sport, even in today’s modern age, is still male-centric. Thus, praising activities that have stereotypical men at the forefront is viewed more positively. This viewpoint, known as androcentrism, places interests and the interested parties that are not typically male/masculine into the other category of fans.
Eddie Munson and the Hellfire Club, from season 4 of Stranger Things, fall into the other category. They are the weirdos, geeks, and losers who play a role-playing fantasy board game in an empty classroom while the rest of the school watches the basketball final. They are viewed as unstable and devil-worshipping for their investment in Dungeons and Dragons. This makes them the prime suspects when people start dying in Hawkins. These negative labels are a common symptom of being placed into the other category. Sports fans are allotted words like dedication and passion while other fans are dubbed crazy and obsessive. Which is hilarious in the context of Stranger Things because it
is the fans of the Hawkins High basketball team who exhibit the negative labels. They are the ones who are mobilised by the team’s basketball captain to hunt down Eddie Munson. Their perception of a Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast as a monster has led them to take actions which are more deserving of that title. And yet, they are never seen that way by anyone but the viewers.
Society needs to re-evaluate its views and the sorts of things that inform its perceptions of the world. The world is accustomed to a male-dominated narrative as it has existed since the dawn of time. This narrative supports the behaviour of sports fans, which although shared by other fans, is not met with the same judgement. The fan scene is a small sphere within the world where people can take a step in normalising the support and interest in non-masculine/male subjects and embrace the other as respectable and equally worthwhile.