ABSTRACT
Despite media and academic presentations of celebrities predominantly as loved and admired idols, doted on by their fans, famous people are not always the subject of admiration and love. In some extreme cases, audience members are not lovers but ‘haters’. This chapter aims to provide a systematic analysis of this relatively neglected issue in fan studies: the phenomenon of anti-fans. With some notable exceptions (for example Gray 2003), little research has been done on anti-fans. This begs the questions: who are they and who or what constitutes the objects of their dislike? What kind of emotional involvement – if any – does anti-fandom imply? Is anti-fandom merely about the enjoyment of dislike – for instance as emotional relief – or do deeper moral or societal expectations, values and norms come into play? Preliminary answers to these questions are suggested by Gray (2003) who describes anti-fans as being different from fans while sharing several characteristics. Elaborating on Gray’s work, this chapter provides a theoretical discussion of characteristics of anti-fans as such and in relationship to fans and non-fans. Further, a combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of anti-fans’ online reactions to media articles about celebrities provides systematic empirical insight into the particulars of anti-fans. This allows, in conclusion, for a bett er understanding of the phenomenon in itself and its relation to regular fans.
