Kristen Strmel Blog Post #2 - Youtube and the Fandom Menace: How the Quest for Clicks Shaped Modern Star Wars Discourse

 

I'm a huge Star Wars fan. Have been since I was 10. If given a good hour, I'd love nothing more than to elucidate upon various lightsaber styles, Jedi vs Sith philosophies, and whether or not Han actually did shoot first. 

Now, I happen to be in some luck, seeing as Star Wars happens to rank among the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.  This means there's a ton of people who'd be more than happy to ramble on and on about it with me. Indeed, you'll find no shortage of social media profiles, forums, and YouTube channels dedicated almost entirely to talking about Star Wars. YouTube in particular is a nexus for all sorts of Star Wars content creators who post endless theories, character analyses, and more.

And sometimes--or should I say, quite often--you'll get something like the picture at the top of this article. Because, as it turns out, YouTube is something of the perfect weapon for a certain subset of Star Wars fans we like to call the Fandom Menace. 

Let's rewind a bit. In April of 2014, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, Star Wars canon was split. Every single Star Wars movie, along with a few other shows, were considered part of the larger canon. Many other shows, books, games, and comic runs were relegated to Legends (also known as the Expanded Universe)--aka, they were no longer considered to have officially happened in the Star Wars universe. Every piece of Star Wars material created after April of 2014, in the meanwhile, is considered canon. 

It's only to be expected that many fans would be upset about the decanonization of their favorite Star Wars materials. The maelstrom of fandom discourse, however, truly began following the creation of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The sequels are either fantastic or in fact the very worst thing to happen to Star Wars, depending on who you ask. The objective quality of these movies aside, they created a deep rift in the fandom, and fueled the rise of the aforementioned Fandom Menace. 

What is the Fandom Menace, exactly? This article goes into a bit more depth about how it works, but it's a loose "movement" of fans who target certain large media franchises for purportedly "going woke." In a Star Wars context, these "fans" target what they see as the hated "Disney Star Wars." They position themselves as defenders of the old and "true" Star Wars, but in reality target modern Star Wars shows, regardless of their quality, for having the gall to--gasp!--include women, people of color, and LGBT+ people in prominent roles. This has, unfortunately, led to the targeted harassment of quite a few modern Star Wars actors.

While the Fandom Menace is rife in all corners of the Internet, it has a particularly prominent base on YouTube. There's no shortage of Star Wars content creators who post everything from clickbait about the sequel trilogy's supposed "decanonization" to bold proclamations that "NEW STAR WARS SHOW means that Disney has GONE WOKE -- Star Wars is DEAD!!" There's still a decent amount of level-headed Star Wars content creators out there, mind you--they're just oftentimes buried between rows and rows of videos clearly designed to attract and inflame. 

And therein lies the problem. YouTube thrives off of clicks: if a content creator is big enough, they'll likely include at least an ad or two in their videos. The more views those ads get, the more money the creator makes. So, how do they get those clicks? Easy!: just create a video talking about THIS INSANE NEWS LUCASFILM JUST DROPPED.... or how THIS SHOW IS RUINING STAR WARS..., place a prominent character (often female) in the thumbnail, and wait. Regardless of your own opinion, make sure you stretch out the video long enough to ensure you'll squeeze a couple ads in. 

Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this phenomenon is how possible YouTube's structure makes it. You see, so long as none of these content creators outright say something racist, sexist, or homophobic, they're technically adhering to YouTube's Community Guidelines. As such, they cloak their commentary in words like "woke", framing themselves as the "old guard" who just want the "true" Star Wars back. So the vicious cycle continues, driven by the desire for clicks.

I'm not looking to accuse YouTube of outright abetting such behavior--though, honestly, (warning for demeaning language in the linked article) its track record on the issue of targeted harassment isn't exactly the best. The fact remains, however, that its monetization structure is set-up all too perfectly for phenomena like this. It's not even limited to Star Wars--anyone looking to make money could, with a bit of luck, employ the same strategy that the Fandom Menace does with a target of their choosing. At some point, social media giants need to decide what matters more: profit or decency. Unfortunately, it's all too often the former.

(On a lighter note, I should say that I've met plenty of Star Wars fans who simply want to enjoy the franchise they love, and similarly see the Fandom Menace as something they don't have time for. While fandom discourse is somewhat pervading, there are online spaces dedicated to promoting positive discussion of Star Wars [such as the Star Wars Catina subreddit], which I'm unspeakably grateful for!)