Solidarity fandom: fighting back against the trolls

It’s easy to view the internet as a constant fight in good against evil, right versus wrong, one side versus another. It’s even easier to hyperfocus on the worst stories as they appear, choosing to hone in on trollish, vile conversations that seem to so easily explode.

This is true in fandom. Star Wars is one of the biggest movie franchises in the world, and maintains one of the biggest fanbases. It also attracts some of the worst trolls, many using social-media platforms like Twitter as a way to spread hateful rhetoric. Trolls aggressively participate in spreading hate, and it’s easy to mistake that as the vocal majority — especially on the internet where campaigns attract as much attention as possible.

This isn’t a story about those people. It’s a story about the fans who are fighting back to prove that fandom is still good. It’s a story about learning to reverse troll tactics to accomplish a positive goal. It’s about strangers coming together to fight back against a group of people deemed “the voice of Star Wars fans” after Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi came out.

People like Brian Young. People like Eric Kwun. People like Jess Shitara.

This is a story about the fight to reclaim Star Wars fandom — and a look at the ongoing fight from one community to better the internet for everyone.

Fight against Star Wars toxicity isn’t new

Toxicity in the Star Wars community isn’t new. It’s decades old. The difference between now and then is the internet.

Ahmed Best, the actor who played Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, told Wired in 2017 he “had death threats through the internet.”

Conversations people weren’t privy to in the ’80s and early ’90s are suddenly on their computer monitors every morning. The only inkling of a clue they’d have 30 or 40 years ago about an issue came from their immediate social circle. Discourse happened, but unless people were super glued into the community’s every breath, chances are they didn’t know about it.

That changed in the late ’90s and early ’00s thanks to bulletin boards, email groups, AOL Instant Messenger and, perhaps most importantly, Reddit in 2005. Suddenly, people were introduced to conversations they hadn’t seen before. Queer folk and people of color found a community looking to explore more than just the canonical space (through communities on popular fanfiction sites like Archive of Our Own and FanFiction), and more fans found communities they could obsess over Star Wars with comfortably. Fandom blossomed from tiny meatspace communities into a web, each group of fans connecting to a much bigger community.

“The trolls are winning”

The internet also allowed fandom’s hateful parts to flourish in toxic technocultures like Reddit and 4chan — a cesspool of trollish, aggravated and, at its most extreme, sexist, racist and homophobic rants.

The biggest shift between The Phantom Menace’s release in 1999 and the most current Star Wars film in the main series, The Last Jedi, however, has been the democratization of the internet.

The internet suddenly became more accessible than ever before. New tools appeared to accommodate the influx of users coming online. Start up companies creating blog networks swallowed up individual homepages; instant messaging services like IRC and AOL crumbled under a growing demand from people using the internet each day to connect with more people, giving birth to social media; society gave itself a digital scalability issue that allowed for just about anything without any real consequence.

Ellen Pao, a former CEO of Reddit who was only in the position for eight months and faced continuous harassment from users, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in 2015 arguing the internet’s “openness has enabled the harassment of people for their views, experiences, appearances or demographic backgrounds.”

“The trolls are winning,” Pao wrote.

Regardless of why people were trolling, their aggressive campaigns became impossible to ignore. The internet seemed to suffocate in its toxicity. The 2016 election, and the violence it wrought, affected every corner of the internet, piling onto the hatred already spewing in various corners of the internet following GamerGate. Everything felt bigger, unavoidable and worse.

Bryan Young is a prominent member of the Star Wars community online. He’s built a reputation for himself as a knowledgeable Star Wars expert, and as someone who actively tries to fight toxicity issues. Young said that Star Wars fandom is just a microcosm of the world right now.

“Being a Star Wars fan on the internet right now is like standing in the middle of a minefield,” Young said. “There’s a concerted effort to shout-down positive voices in fandom that you simply don’t see at conventions or in in-person interactions with fellow fans. Some of the same minds behind GamerGate and ComicsGate have obliquely encouraged harassment of people like me who speak out against such toxicity. They attack the cast and crew behind the films. On some level, I think they think that Star Wars is a club exclusive to old fans who happen to be straight white males, and anyone who thinks it should be for everyone has a target on their back.”

New toxicity, and fighting back

Toxicity is like a hornet’s nest, especially on platforms like Twitter where it’s easy to amplify voices spreading hate by tweeting derogatory terms, and targeting specific people. By the time Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theaters in December 2015, harassment tactics organized by trolls and bigots on Twitter worsened. Vox described the increase in troll accounts spewing hate as “ridiculous and disgusting.”

Specifically, the #BoycottStarWarsVII “movement” takes umbrage with the fact that The Force Awakens’ cast features not one, but multiple people of color, a situation a small but vocal minority sees as evidence of a “white genocide” in the Star Wars universe, perpetuated by Abrams, a white-hating Hollywood Jew. Yes, it’s ridiculous and disgusting on many, many levels.

Lucasfilm’s decision to focus its new Sequel Trilogy on a black Stormtrooper (Finn) and a young woman (Rey) upset trolls who argued the studio was trying to force diversity. A particularly hateful hashtag campaign occurred just before The Force Awakens came out. #BoycottEpisodeVII featured self-identified alt-right users jumping in to argue that Star Wars should remain an inherently white franchise. Other hashtag campaigns, like #BlackStormtrooper, drove the discussion about Star Wars fandom’s toxicity becoming a growing issue.

Reports rummaging about Star Wars fandom’s doomed future ran everywhere. The Daily Beast reported that self-identified members of the alt-right were co-opting Star Wars for their own personal trolling. Star Wars fandom, Young said, was encountering the same issues much of the internet was having. Politics divided the country, and the internet fell suit.

“Being a Star Wars fan on the internet right now is like standing in the middle of a minefield”

Eric Kwun is a prominent member of the Star Wars community. He’s a constant, active presence on Twitter and Instagram, and has become an authoritative voice within Star Wars fandom — even though Kwun described himself as “just a father of two Sith Lords, an amateur artist and creator of Star Wars things.” Kwun said that he’s not surprised the current dissonance within the Star Wars community, which is active online, is echoing what’s happening on a mainstream, political stage. Toxicity is like cancer; it spreads to other organs, all intertwined by one central system — Twitter. Star Wars has such a large fandom, and its built directly into a large part of the internet’s core, Kwun said.

“Personally, I find it scary,” Kwun said. “I think every single person that is in the Star Wars fan community really passionately loves Star Wars, but the rise of toxicity within the fandom rooted in racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, etc is just absolutely disgusting. I feel like the current state of toxicity in the fandom is obviously charged by what’s going on in the country right now. I feel like people feel more divided than ever in society and people are more combative against each other and that has obviously shown in the Star Wars fan community.”

Star Wars’ community is massive, and continuously growing. It attracts both positive and negative people. Having the Sequel Trilogy move in a more progressive direction by introducing a more diverse cast and different political ideologies was always going to upset some people. The fact that Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy (Episode VII, VIII and IX) is playing out at the exact same time that political discussions in the United States — and around the world — are at some of their most extreme, driven by vitriol, doesn’t help.

“Right now, the United States might be as polarized as it’s ever been since the Civil War and part of that is built on a foundation of sexism, misogyny, and racism,” Young said. “Since Star Wars is one of the single largest cultural forces in the world, it’s no wonder that we’ll see those problems rising inside of it as well. We’re seeing it become more prominent because, thanks to things like the Trump administration, it’s more prominent everywhere. How do I view them? I think it’s sad, honestly. I’m baffled by the fact that you can spend your life watching Star Wars and not learn a single lesson from it.”

Young learned one particular lesson. Young realized that standing together against trolls is far more effective than refusing to feed them.

Young isn’t the only person who discovered that turning a blind eye to hate-fueled vitriol didn’t accomplish anything. Film Crit Hulk, an anonymous writer who has written about fan culture and internet toxicity in the past, tackled the issue with “ignoring the trolls” as a mentality. He wrote:

The premise of “don’t feed the trolls” implies that if you ignore a troll, they will inevitably get bored or say, “Oh, you didn’t nibble at my bait? Good play, sir!” and tip their cap and go on their way. Ask anyone who has dealt with persistent harassment online, especially women: this is not usually what happens. Instead, the harasser keeps pushing and pushing to get the reaction they want with even more tenacity and intensity. It’s the same pattern on display in the litany of abusers and stalkers, both online and off, who escalate to more dangerous and threatening behavior when they feel like they are being ignored. In many cases, ignoring a troll can carry just as dear a price as provocation.

Things changed. Fans fought back.

Dr. William Proctor is one of the foremost experts in Star Wars fandom. He started the World Star Wars Project, which tracks fan reception to transitional Star Wars films (think the Prequel Trilogy transitioning into the Sequel Trilogy), and focuses much of this time exploring fandom and community.

Proctor wrote about hashtag campaigns like #BlackStormtrooper and #BoycottStarWars, arguing that positive Star Wars fans arrived in droves to encourage uplifting conversation about diversity and fandom.

“Twitter hashtag ‘movements’ like #blackstormtrooper or #boycottstarwars, have since been overturned as the work of internet trolls, with the hashtags in question amassing a significant number of progressive comments, some of them vehemently hostile themselves, that far outweigh the voices of reactionary actors by a significant margin,” Proctor wrote in February. “According to social media analytics firm, ‘Fizziology,” for instance, 94 percent of tweeters in #boycottstarwars ‘were merely expressing outrage over its existence,’ with the other six percent being racist trolls trying to get people mad.’”

Kwun said he often uses his Twitter account to spread positive messages, and engaging directly with trolls to try and push back on turmoil running through the community. Twitter, Instagram and the internet-at-large is important to Kwun — it allowed him to develop friendships, become a member of a community he adores and even find work. Putting in the effort to keep his home as comfortable as possible, for him and his friends, is a top priority.

So he fights.

“I think the best way to describe being a Star Wars fan on social media is that ‘it’s complicated,’” Kwun said. “The majority of the experience is great. Sadly, there is a dark side as well. There are always small groups of individuals out there that use their love and passion for Star Wars as a weapon against others. Personally, I try to make sure that what I put out onto the internet is from place of love. Whether it’s encouragement for someone trying to create art or a dumb Star Wars-centric joke to make people laugh, I try to make an effort to be positive force in the Star Wars fan community and in return attract and make more connections with like minded fans. That doesn’t mean I ignore all the negativity in the fandom. I try to be cautious and use my social media to speak up against anything I feel is morally wrong.

“It’s exhausting at times, but I believe it’s necessary to address issues within the fandom or even with Lucasfilm itself.”

Both Kwun and Young spoke about the importance of demonstrating solidarity, especially during more trying times.

“There have been a lot of great fan campaigns to break the toxicity,” Young said. “#FanartForRose [a campaign set up by fans on Twitter and Instagram in support of Kelly Marie Tran] was great. At San Diego Comic-Con there was a #RallyForRose [a meet up where fans dressed as Tran’s Rose Tico to show support for the actress] that was incredibly positive. I mean, on a day when I was getting bombarded by trolls on twitter, I just asked people to post their favorite moments from The Last Jedi, and I was getting responses for two days. I get letters every week from people thanking me for keeping things positive because they believe they’re part of this silent majority and I think they’re right. No, I don’t think fandom is broken. I think a lot of these toxic individuals are and I hope our mutual love of Star Wars — at least parts of it — can help turn them around.”

#ForceOutHate

Young’s optimism for what Star Wars fandom can become isn’t a hopeless romantic belief. He’s been through the ringer, and seen what a community can be when they band together.

Young faced a round of backlash — and immense support — from different corners of the internet after he tweeted a lengthy thread about Rebel Force Radio. Rebel Force Radio, often referred to as RFR, is a podcast that’s come under fire in the past for its views on diversity in Star Wars and other issues labeled as “Social Justice Warrior” problems. It’s common rhetoric that came about during GamerGate, and is used as an insult toward people who tend to lean left politically and socially.

Everything started with a tweet. The main RFR account tweeted about Andi Gutierrez, a host of Lucasfilm’s YouTube series, The Star Wars Show, calling Gutierrez out for a mug that read “fanboy tears.” Fanboy tears was a campaign that people participated in as early as The Force Awakens, trying to combat the negativity by owning the positivity. RFR’s tweet sent a number of toxic Star Wars fans toward Gutierrez. People sent derogatory, vile comments toward her, all because of the photo. Some people asked Lucasfilm to fire Gutierrez, another common tactic used during GamerGate.

“It’s exhausting at times, but I believe it’s necessary to address issues within the fandom or even with Lucasfilm itself”

Young couldn’t sit by and idly watch as people attacked a prominent member of Star Wars fandom, and decided to step in and help.

“The Rebel Force Radio situation was bizarre and I’m still a little stunned by it,” Young said, adding that the RFR team was taking swipes at him for a long time before the most recent incident. “They unleashed their hordes of trolls on her. You have to be careful how you say this. They didn’t ask their fans to go harass her. They just made videos about how upset they were and pointed her out, and they took the hint. At this point, Star Wars fans were livid. One disgruntled listener sent me some audio from a live show [RFR] did for Patreon supporters and I felt compelled to post those two clips — though there were many more and just as damning — and overnight they deleted their twitter account. Since then, they’ve really leaned into the notion that they’re the right-wing show for toxic fans who want toxic positivity. And it’s bizarre.”

Young said he felt “shocked and embarrassed” on behalf of the community by the whole situation.

“Star Wars fandom is better than this,” Young said. “These guys saw their patreon subscribers go up and leaned into that toxicity because it was the only way they could continue making a buck on fandom.”

Young was hounded by people defending RFR. It could have become a reminder of just how toxic corners of a fandom can be, but Young didn’t see it that way. Despite being inundated with so much negativity, and interacting with some of Star Wars’ most toxic fans, Young was reminded of how positive the community can be.

Twitter hashtag campaigns like #ForceOutHate acted as a reminder that the majority of Star Wars fandom, even if silent most days, was overwhelmingly positive. Despite an attempt from people to co-opt the hashtag and turn it into support for RFR, the rest of the community focused on sharing fan art and supportive messages.

“My main takeaway from the situation is that fandom will stand together against toxic influences, even if it’s hard,” Young said. “And it was hard for everyone to stand up against a part of the fandom that has been there almost as long as anyone else. And they still have a solid base of fans who still harass people. My podcast continues to get one star reviews from RFR listeners. You can tell because they five star review RFR and then one star review my show. It’s childish, but, like I said, one day they’ll learn.”

Young’s hope for a positive Star Wars fandom in the future is still something he talks about through Twitter on a near daily basis. Other prominent Star Wars fans have stepped up, lending their own thoughts to the situation. Omar Hilario is one Star Wars megafan who has started to highlight positive YouTubers, giving attention to smaller channels in an effort to redirect people toward creators with a less toxic message.

It became obvious to Young that more people who may have belonged to a silent majority were coming together to speak out against the surge in toxicity. The response helped Young remember that just because Twitter — and other forums on the internet — can often feel like an accurate representation of fandom, that’s rarely the case. It’s a facet of fandom that others, like Fandom editor, Lauren Gallaway, and Proctor have also spoken about.

“The way in which right-wing trolling operations become sources of outrage, with news outlets, blogs, and user-generated activity actively ‘normalising’ and ‘legitimising’ hateful ideological currents — thus pushing the reactionary agenda into public discourse on behalf of a few online rabble rousers and rapscallions — should be most concerning of all,” Proctor wrote.

The best way to revisit what the Star Wars community really means is to get offline, according to everyone who spoke to me for this story.

“I didn’t realize people hated it”

Lauren Gallaway has a story concerning her connection to Star Wars and the fandom-at-large.

She was a young pre-teen when Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace came out in theaters.

Galloway, alongside her Star Wars mega-fan parents, lined up for tickets, and sat through George Lucas’ fourth chapter in his popular Star Wars saga, full of excitement. Galloway left the theater bouncing, overwhelmed by Anakin Skywalker’s story, wanting nothing more than to go and watch it again. It was a special time for Galloway. Her parents encouraged her obsession with the sci-fi world Lucas crafted in the late ’70s, and supported her enthusiasm for the newest batch of characters, worlds and stories that made up the foundation for a new Star Wars trilogy.

Galloway wasn’t aware that people hated The Phantom Menace until she went to college and met some fellow Star Wars nerds. They mocked The Phantom Menace — and the rest of of the prequel-at-large — and snorted at the idea that anyone could enjoy what the film community mostly dismissed as unintelligible. Galloway was confused, but in an interview, said she felt a surge of gratitude for having people like her parents in her life when the prequel trilogy came out; people who didn’t mock, roll their eyes, or belittle Galloway for liking a movie as a kid.

She points to that moment, away from any type of online discourse and in the comfort of her own home, as a starting point for a discussion on Star Wars fandom’s positivity. Galloway, now an editor at Wikia’s Fandom, and a certifiable Star Wars expert, said she wants more conversation about Star Wars fans’ positivity, especially in a world and at a time when the negative, reactionary and aggressive voices are so much easier to hear.

“I didn’t realize that people hated the prequels until I was like 30,” Galloway said. “I was very sheltered. Twitter wasn’t really a thing, and social media wasn’t really a thing. It was just me and my high school friends playing with our lightsabers and waiting for the midnight showing of Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones. I didn’t realize that people hated the prequels until I started going to Comic-Con and meeting people who were kind of elitists, and kept saying, ‘Oh, we don’t really talk about the prequels.’ I never encountered that!”

“It has been nothing but a positive experience to be able to join and interact with this massive Star Wars fan community, even if it’s only online and at cons”

Gallaway reiterated the importance of stepping away from phones and computers to remember there’s a big difference between fandom as perceived on Twitter, and fandom as it actually appears.

“I’m on Twitter 95 hours a day,” Galloway said, “for my job, for my social network and for my friends, so I see a lot of things that a single mother in a different state might never happen upon. My childhood best friend lives in the Midwest. She has two kids. She works a lot. I doubt that she’s filling her hours with reactions to Twitter. Her perspective of fandom might be very different than mine. I think it does depend on how close we are to things. But I also think we kind of decide every day what we’re going to engage with, and what we’re not going to. The point of talking about positivity is that we choose to focus on it.”

Kwun and Young said they both go out of their way to embrace the most positive aspects of fan culture — from hanging out with friends at conventions to sharing fan art — and make sure to spread that across their own online spaces. It’s the same strategy that toxic groups like those that spearheaded GamerGate and ComicsGate also use, ironically. It’s an expression of solitude and support for a cause through countless retweets, promoting friends’ work and bringing attention to a certain space.

Kwun said it was a reminder that Star Wars fandom was still good; it reminded him of why he decided to seek out other people online, and through cons, in the first place.

“[I’ve been] a bit of an introvert all my life so I’ve always expressed myself through art and being creative,” Kwun said. “I used to show my passion for Star Wars and other fandoms through art projects like drawing, painting and making toys out of paper. My family was a lower income family so toys were harder to come by. Growing up, I didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy all the original Star Wars toys and vehicles like a lot of people. After the introduction of the internet and social media, I’ve been able to share that side of me with people around the world through different channels, and it opened up an opportunity for an introverted kid from the suburbs of Southern California to meet new people online and share my passion projects with them. It has been nothing but a positive experience to be able to join and interact with this massive Star Wars fan community, even if it’s only online and at cons.”

It’s a spirit. That’s how a couple of people described Star Wars fandom. Galloway said it’s important to reinforce that spirit whenever toxic events do occur. They will continue to happen because, as Galloway, Kwun and Young have said, Star Wars is mainstream. The Sequel Trilogy is more diverse, which is seen by the overwhelming majority of people as a good thing that Star Wars needed to explore, but there will always be trollish naysayers to contend with.

“There’s so much more positivity going on in fandom than there is negativity,” Galloway said. “Take the magnifying glass off the ant who’s very angry, and put it on like the Rose Tico cosplay meetup that happened at San Diego Comic-Con, or the Looking for Leia fan film that’s being edited right now. I think it’s all about where we choose to look, and encouraging our friends who may get caught up in negativity to look at these great conversations happening. We’re trying to shift the narrative a little bit.”

The future of Star Wars fandom

Everyone who spoke to me for this story was sure the future of Star Wars’ fan community is bright.

Methods that trolls often use to take down a community are now being reversed by those very same targeted groups. Campaigns led by hate flourish into outpourings of love, admiration and adoration. The silent majority is quickly becoming the vocal majority, joining in with their friends to create fantastic fan art and participate in a show of confidence through various hashtags.

It’s a facet of the community that Kwun is very passionate about — something he spoke about at length.

“The majority of the Star Wars fan community is incredible,” Kwun said. “They are an incredibly passionate, positive, and supportive group. One of the most heartwarming events to take place organically on social media was the #FanArtForRose initiative. Even when facing hatred like what we saw directed towards Kelly Marie Tran, the fan community decides to respond to those hateful individuals by creating something positive through creativity. Fan art of Rose Tico from all over the world was being posted online by amateur and professional artists of all ages to show love and support for Kelly Marie Tran and Rose Tico. There was even a Rose Tico fan and cosplay gathering at San Diego Comic Con 2018 called #RallyForRose. Events like this shows you that there is more positivity in the Star War fan community than negativity. The fandom is not broken. There are new generations of fans like my kids who love Rey, Rose and Finn that will keep strengthening the fandom as time goes on. The negative forces are loud and deafening at times, but its such a small group that they would never really be able to gain enough support that can match anything like #FanArtForRose.

“As long as people are good to each other and stay positive and creative, the fandom is always in good hands.”

He’s not the only one. Young and Galloway can see fandom becoming even stronger, despite the negative attacks on their community and those directly involved with Star Wars.

“My first memory is seeing Return of the Jedi,” Young said. “I was almost three-years-old, and I feel like it was my first time in a theatre that wasn’t a drive-in. I feel like it awakened something inside me and I’ve been a Star Wars nerd ever since. The film has inspired me through my life and helped me through tough times and helped me become a better person than I think I would have been able to become otherwise.”

Young added that he hopes those who do feel the need to troll the Star Wars fandom, or participate in unacceptable behavior, learn a similar lesson.

“There’s a great quote from Rian Johnson in the making of The Last Jedi,” Young said. “He’s giving Poe some direction from early in the film and he says, ‘You’re not ready to learn this lesson yet.’ And I think with Rebel Force Radio and their listeners and parts of toxic fandom, they’re just not ready to learn yet. But I have hope.”

Jess Shitara, a co-host on the Rebel Grrrl Podcast and co-founder of the #SWRepMatters monthly conversation, said participating in positive campaigns acts as a great reminder of how far Star Wars fandom has come over the past four decades. It’s also a reminder, however, that people can always learn more about issues affecting the community, and building toward a more positive fandom for all.

“ I’m truly proud of the #SWRepMatters campaign,” Shitara said. “It’s a monthly discussion centered around a focused marginalized group where we highlight voices from each group. For many that tune in, it’s an introduction to the experiences and opinions of people who are different from them, but it’s also a chance to critique the Star Wars franchise on the representation front. We are all always learning — learning when to speak out, learning when to let others speak for themselves and when to step in and help them. We are always learning about varying experiences within the greater American experience and how it may be different from our own. We are all learning that white male and cis-gendered doesn’t have to be the default we see in media because it’s not the default human existence.

“It’s OK to always be learning and I think right now, Star Wars fandom is learning how and who it wants to be. It’s hard and uncomfortable, but it’s necessary.”

For Galloway and Young, the message is within Star Wars itself. All people need to do is listen, stand together, and fight back for their community.

“I think there is a group of people who they figured out fan art works,” Galloway said. “And it’s such a quick way to translate that message of like ‘someone is speaking out against this character or this actress.’ No, this is how we see them. We love them. We support them. Sometimes when you’re outside of it, you don’t necessarily know what to say, but you can post post a picture with Rose’s quote: ‘We’re going to win the war by celebrating what we love.’ It’s fighting back. It’s a messy situation, and yet her message is speaking louder then the toxicity, which I think is extremely powerful for fandom.”