The Positive Power of Fandom Communities

The last year has been a tough one — that’s not news. One of the hardest things, without question, has been the isolation. Personally, I live more than four hours from the closest family, and by myself. I did adopt two quarantine dogs because otherwise I might have gone mad. The dogs (named Fergus and Aloysius, both Outlander references) helped a lot. So did the Outlander fan community.

Before quarantine, I was more than a casual fan. I belonged to a Facebook subgroup for Outlander, but I belonged to quite a few groups like that. I posted occasionally, and checked it consistently. However, when I was sent home from my job as a teacher, and, more, when I was told we wouldn’t be returning for the rest of the school year, I was at a loss. I was in my studio apartment, in a town that wasn’t home, with few friends that I couldn’t see in person anyway.

One thing I resolved to do was to draw more, to get back into it after a four or five year hiatus. Another was not a resolution, but simply an outlet. I made a fan Instagram for Outlander called @outlander_rewatch. It was titled thus because my goal was to rewatch, review, and rate all the episodes in the 5 seasons.

Since then, Outlander has taken over my life — in the best way.

I spend a lot of my time on Instagram, but I have been blessed to see the incredible benefits that social media can have. Instead of scrolling through watching the picture-perfect versions of my friends’ and acquaintances’ lives, I am engaging meaningfully with people I have something in common with, even if that thing is just the love of a TV show.

However, when I say “just,” I think I’m doing the show and us a disservice. There’s a lot you can tell about people based on the media they like, though it’s not a perfect metric. Generally, I discover that I have a lot more in common with the people I interact with than just a love of Outlander.

This leads me, eventually, to my point. The communities created around fandoms are incredibly valuable and, especially now, incredibly necessary.

I have made wonderful friends who I feel a level of kinship and understanding with that’s rare. Often, I think people get judged for loving a piece of media so much, but within the bubble of that media’s fandom, there is no judgement, and that’s incredibly freeing.

Or, there shouldn’t be any judgement. I can’t neglect to mention that some people are just nasty, and are always going to have something negative to say. Others like to act entitled and superior to other fans because it makes them feel better about themselves in some small way. That is both not okay and very pitiful. There certainly can be toxic elements in fandoms, and that’s not something any of us need.

But when we focus on the positive, our fan communities can be incredible experiences for all of us. There is a real beauty that I see when there are positive disagreements; when people see two things differently but respect each other enough to have a healthy discussion. I think the more we participate in and practice that, the better we all are.

Speaking very candidly, this week was one of the hardest, most frustrating weeks at my job I’ve ever had, and I have had some stressful ones. Yet I had two events that allowed my stress to completely melt away. I’m part of an Outlander Book Club (outlanderbookclub.com), and we talked about the very special Wedding episode. For a myriad of reasons, it was one of the most enjoyable, and meaningful, nights I’ve had in a while. The next day, I had an Outlander friend and the creator of our book club on a live Instagram to watch another episode of Outlander, and it was a blast.

Those were some of the most fun times I’ve had in a while, and it just reminded me how important human contact is for all of our mental health.

It’s easy to get down about the world and the things around us, especially when we’re isolated or isolate ourselves. I have definitely felt that over the last year. But the beautiful thing is that we are so blessed to have a window to the outside world, to connection with people we would not have otherwise met. Social media is often decried for all the negative effects, and those are certainly real, but I think there are positives if we search for them.

The communities that are built through fandoms are no less real — and sometimes can be moreso — than ones formed in-person. I am so blessed to be part of those I’m in, and, especially when physical proximity is so hard, it’s important to have emotional proximity in places we feel safe. I hope you all have a place to do that, to express a side of yourself maybe your family or in-person friends don’t get to see or understand. If you don’t, I’d encourage you to seek out a positive community based around something you irrationally love; you might be surprised at how meaningful it can become.