"STANS" and the Psychology of Fandom
In a new documentary, fans long for, and fear, connection.
Updated August 14, 2025 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina
Eminem may be the wordsmith of our time. Of all the words he's coined in his lyrics, just one has made it in to the Oxford English Dictionary . "Stan," the title of his worldwide 2000 hit single about an obsessive fan, has become widely used to describe obsessive fandom: "The stans found their way backstage" or "As a teen , Eminem was stanning LL Cool J."
STANS, the new Eminem documentary directed by Steven Leckart, opens with fans narrating letters they've sent him. Their questions range from "Is Stan based on a real fan?" to "Who is someone who helped you the way you helped me?" The questions are personal, but more importantly, they reveal a longing for connection.
Most of the film tells the story of the artist through the voices of sixteen self-proclaimed 'Stans'. Throughout, fans borrow a line from the song "Stan": "I'm just like you." For those of you aren't Stans, Marshall Mathers is the artist, Eminem his alter ego, and Slim Shady the character he created to dramatize American alienation, his darkest imagination , and the psychological effects of poverty.
The key term in research on fandom is parasocial relationship --a one-sided relationship, involving strong feelings toward a person you don't actually know, often a celebrity. STANS ' sixteen narrators are self-aware. They allude to parasocial relationships and sometimes even use the term. As a refrain, "I'm just like you" becomes a signifier for the intensity of their identification--and demonstrates a critical awareness of a key component of Eminem's music: Its capacity to dramatize the lives of alienated Americans.
The song "Stan" is dark. Stan is obsessive, unhinged. Feeling neglected by the object of his fandom, he kills himself and his pregnant wife. One fan describes the song "almost as a PSA, like please don't do this ." Many of them take pains to distance themselves from Stan the character, worrying about Mathers' safety, describing themselves as "protective" of the artist.
In his music, Eminem's portrayal of fans is generally wary, sometimes angry. In "Without Me," he warns fans to stay away,
But at least have the decency To not come and speak to me To leave me alone when you freaks see me out When I'm eatin' or feedin' my daughter Do not come and speak to me
Yet throughout the film, Mathers expresses love and admiration for those same fans. They, in turn, express the power of their identification with Mathers and his alter egos to change their lives for the better.
In his book Fans: A Journey into the Psychology of Belonging , Michael Bond argues that fandom enables solitary outsiders to bond over their obsession. These fans "are the new tribes." They "attract people with wildly divergent experiences and backgrounds." In Bond's words, "when you love something that other people love, many of the traditional social boundaries fall away." The fans in the documentary range through ages, ethnicities, and gender identities. Across demographics, the fans identify with Mathers' history, mythologized through the characters in his music. They're outsiders. Like Mathers, they were abused children; were bullied; confronted addiction ; lost people they loved. As an artist, the documentary reminds us, Mathers managed to translate outsider experience into mainstream pop. To be a stan, his narrators make clear, means belonging to a club of fans who hold their outsider status proudly.
Bond goes further, arguing that "Like popular social movements, fandoms are places of revolution. The forces at play can change the lives of individuals, and they can also change the world." He cites Taylor Swift's decision to reveal who she was voting for in the 2024 Presidential election. But he offers a subtler, scarier example too: Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Why do these perpetrators of mass murder have so many fans? Because they were bullied. Because they were outsiders. In fact, Slim Shady is one of their fan boys. Harris and Klebold's violence was at least in part a product of the violent hierarchies they endured in American high schools. To be a member of this particular fan club means uniting with others to reject the systemic violence of high school culture.
Research bears out the driving thesis of STANS --the correlation between psychological well-being and fandom. A Texas A&M study suggests that gatherings of fans lead to social engagement and, ultimately, well-being. A study published in Psychology of Popular Media argues that fans "will attempt to relate to other people as part of an attempt to cultivate an ideal self." Another, published in Continuum , argues that Kate Bush fans on TikTok demonstrate "the role of music in identity formation, self-creation and self-maintenance." A second study published in Psychology of Popular Media focuses on a darker side of parasocial relationships: Jealousy . Its authors might be describing Stan when they write that "In-depth interviews reveal dialectics that guide fans’ responses to the media figure’s romantic relationships ." Aggrieved by his hero's neglect, Stan writes another of the song's iconic lines, "We should be together."
Eminem's obsessive fans are articulate about their identification, the degree to which they've shaped their lives around fandom, and the anxiety they feel about whether or not they've crossed the line from fan to stan . They worry they might alienate their hero by violating his boundaries. A French fan, Zolt, visits Detroit, to steep himself in the culture that made Eminem who he is. At a concert back home, Zolt found himself in a crowd of fans when a car pulled over, a bodyguard inviting him to get in. He met his idol, "felt the love," but kept it brief because, in his French accent, "I'm the guy who respect his time."
A second fan, Nikki, describes people deriding her on the internet for inking herself with dozens of Eminem tattoos. "It kinda hurt," she tells viewers. "But my Instagram has brought a lot of other fans who relate to me." She met her husband because of the tattoos, testimonies to her fandom: "Without Eminem, I wouldn't have the life I have right now." A third fan, Katie, went so far as to get a job at Gilbert's, the Detroit restaurant where Mathers was a dishwasher, hoping to meet him. "But now my mindset has changed," she says toward the end of the film, "because I feel like this documentary is a lot more personal than it would be just meeting him. Now he can understand how his music has truly influenced me life and gotten me through traumatic times."
Mathers bonds with his fans through shared trauma—and a drive to change the world that harmed them. In his words,
My true die-hard fan, I think, really does understand me . . . The reason they connect with me is because they see some of them selves in me. Maybe they were bullied as a kid. Maybe the world dealt them a . . . raw deal. But for every young person who gets older and wants to pay the world back, that's the person that connects with me the most, because they understand me, and I feel like I understand them. I get them because they're really me.
Bond, Michael. Fans: A Journey Into Psychology of Belonging . Picador (2024).
Maxwell, L. C., Tefertiller, A. C., & Neese, C. (2025). “'It’s You and Me, There’s Nothing Like This': Parasocial Relationships, Fear of Missing out, and How Fans Consume the Products in Taylor Swift’s Media Empire." Psychology of Popular Media . Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000588 .
Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Stan. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved August 7, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1063400918 .
Reysen, Stephen, et al. "Social Activities Mediate the Relation between Fandom Identification and Psychological Well-Being." Leisure Sciences (2024, VOL. 46, NO. 5). 681–701. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2021.2023714.
Tukachinsky Forster, R. (2022, June 9). "The Green Side of Parasocial Romantic Relationships: An Exploratory Investigation of Parasocial Jealousy." Psychology of Popular Media . Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000413 .
Share this post Facebook Bluesky Linkedin Email
There was a problem adding your email address. Please try again.
By submitting your information you agree to the Psychology Today Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
Jason Tougaw is the author of The Elusive Brain: Literary Experiments in the Age of Neuroscience (Yale UP) and The One You Get: Portrait of a Family Organism (Dzanc Books).
Get the help you need from a therapist near you–a FREE service from Psychology Today.
This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.