Non-Traditional Deviance by Marin Satterwhite

Taylor Swift Fans

marinsatterwhite — 2025-02-26 19:42:08 UTC

Taylor Swift fans are a community of people united by their admiration for Taylor Swift. They are worth studying because they are an intense fandom with a lot of devotion for analyzing her actions and posts, they developed their own language, have secret chants during certain songs during her concerts, they become very defensive about her on social media, and go to extreme lengths to show their love for her such as tattoos and fan art.

ABC's

marinsatterwhite — 2025-02-26 19:42:32 UTC

Taylor Swift fans can be applied to both attitude and behavior from Adler and Adler's ABC's. Taylor Swift fans fit into the attitude category because a Taylor Swift fan can have a strong, emotional attachment towards Taylor Swift and they see themselves as part of a community. Their intense loyalty and defense of Taylor Swift makes them have extreme views and they stand by their views by defending Taylor Swift and arguing with people who do not view her the same way they do. Her fans can also fit into the behavior category because, as a fan group, they engage in behaviors such as following Taylor obsessively on social media, attending multiple concerts, making thousands of charm bracelets, or creating chants for her concerts during certain songs.

Conceptualization

marinsatterwhite — 2025-02-26 19:43:15 UTC

Taylor Swift fans fit most closely with the Social Constructionist/Relativist conception of deviance because their behaviors in their fandom can be described as deviant or intense, particularly by outsiders or those who are not familiar with their fan culture. However, inside the Taylor Swift fan communities, their behaviors such as following her every move and content posts are accepted and normalized.

Three S's

marinsatterwhite — 2025-02-26 19:43:32 UTC

Taylor Swift fans are in the selection category of Adler and Adler's three S's because they consciously choose to align themselves with Taylor Swift's fandom. Their selection could be based on their love for her music or personal connections to her lyrics. By identifying as a "Swiftie," fans are selecting a community that shares the same interests and supports each other in their admiration for Taylor.

Goffman

marinsatterwhite — 2025-02-26 19:45:14 UTC

Taylor Swift fans have behaviors that are seen as "deviant" or extreme, but they are mostly not immediately visible to outsiders which makes them have discreditable stigma. For most Taylor Swift fans, their fandom is more of a personal identity that is usually not immediately apparent, but if one were to have a visible tattoo, they could have discredited stigma. A lot of Taylor Swift fans online use Goffman's idea of passing because in most of their fandom communities or fan pages for Taylor, they are using usernames that do not use their names and they are anonymous. By keeping themselves anonymous, to the outside world they can not receive stigma because no one knows who they are. Fan behaviors such as intense devotion, obsessive analysis of Taylor's lyrics, or constant social media activity about her can be put into Goffman's blemishes of individual character category. Their behaviors can make others label them as excessive or immature and others may view their behaviors for their admiration for Taylor as a flaw in their character.

Deviants View of Their Behavior

marinsatterwhite — 2025-02-26 19:58:15 UTC

For most Taylor Swift fans, they do not view their behaviors as deviant, and instead many fans see their behaviors as a normal, positive expression of admiration. Even if her fans are extremely devoted, they do not see their behaviors as out of the ordinary because Taylor Swift is a mainstream figure and the fandom itself is accepted in pop culture. Every Taylor Swift fan is different and some stay life long fans by going to concerts throughout their whole lives, staying up to date on all her albums and releases, or even continue to support her on social media by fan accounts or fan videos. Other fan's behaviors are temporary and only a phase in their life that they can grow out of. Temporary fans can have a short lived period of intense fandom during a specific era of Taylor Swift's career, such as after a release of an album or during one of her concert tours.

Impacts on Society

marinsatterwhite — 2025-02-26 19:59:22 UTC

Taylor Swift fan's deviant behavior can have a positive impact on society because ultimately they are creating a community for people to feel like they belong in when they are "super fans" of Taylor Swift and make them not feel as alone. Fans can also express their devotion to Taylor Swift through creative outlets such as fan art or even original music inspired by Taylor's work. In other cases, Taylor Swift fans can have a negative impact on society because Taylor's fandom can include obsessive behavior where they spend all their time on social media, analyzing every post or piece of content related to Taylor Swift. Her fans sometimes engage in cyberbullying or harassment of individuals who disagree with Taylor Swift or do not like her. Society, especially through the media, focus more on the extreme behaviors of the fans, particularly online feuds and obsessions, but there has also been a growing acceptance of fandom culture because the media has allowed fans to connect globally and some are amazed on how connected Taylor Swift fans can be, for example making friendship bracelets for concerts and handing them out to each other to a point where their arms are covered in friendship bracelets.

Resources/Works Cited

marinsatterwhite — 2025-02-26 20:00:26 UTC

Goffman, Erving. "Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity." New York: Touchstone
(Reissue edition). 1986

Barone, Taylor. 2023. "An Analysis of the Psychology Surrounding Fan Culture in the Music Industry and its Effects on Marketing on Social Media." Connecticut. Digital Commons.

Resnick, Kendall. "When Admiration Turns to Obsession: A Case Study on Taylor Swift Fan Theories." (2021). Student Research Submissions.

Strain Theory

marinsatterwhite — 2025-03-03 02:39:59 UTC

In Merton's Strain Theory, Merton argued that anomie does not result simply from unrealistic goals, but from a faulty relationship between cultural goals and legitimate means to access them. As fans of Taylor Swift their cultural goals are to belong to the Taylor Swift fan community, support her work, and enjoy and admire her success. Taylor Swift fans can be considered as conformists because they embrace her success as a goal and align with her mainstream pop culture image by conforming to the societal expectations of fandom and celebrity admiration.