Article: Michelle Kwan: The Kwaniacs Attack! | Golden Skate

Article: Michelle Kwan: The Kwaniacs Attack!

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/bay_area_sports/2005/10/michelle_kwan_t.html

Well, well. A reporter has decided to publish an article on the dramatic responses he got from Kwan fans when he made a comment to the feel of, "I wish to see another (American) face in Torino."

Read this, and then read the comments below. Rather something, don't y'all think?

I know I'm having a similar experience right now. I really feel for this reporter, and everyone else who has had comments about Kwan taken out of context. Sucks, really. :no: :cry:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I like this part, especially:

"(Kwan) fans are a cult of unhappy middle-aged frumps, pimply teenagers, and other societal misfits who have latched onto the ultimate loser, Kwan."

Taken out of context, no doubt.
 

Lucy25

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
I have no doubt that the negative responses come from known Michelle haters on the net. Once the original article was posted on the forums, the negative comments started to flood in. So who's more pathetic, the so-called weirdo Kwaniacs or the haters who responded? Anyone who takes these comments seriously are wasting their time. I certainly would hate to see any poster try to use them as examples to try to prove some point because it wouldn't work.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Mathman said:
I like this part, especially:

"(Kwan) fans are a cult of unhappy middle-aged frumps, pimply teenagers, and other societal misfits who have latched onto the ultimate loser, Kwan."

Taken out of context, no doubt.

I think this says a lot, if not taken a little out of context. I agree that that is a huge generalization, but let's stop and think about things a bit.

Maybe some of the responses he got were SO scathing and bitter that it made him angry at these fans? I know I've definitely felt the same way. Not to the point for me to make a comment like that (although I've definitely subconciously felt like saying it) but I think it's something to think about.

What's really telling is the responses to this article. They are quite mixed in opinion, and I haven't gone through all of them myself, but some of the responses are interesting, definitely.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Also these, LOL:

"Just wanted to say your (negative) comments on the MKF are correct. Heather, Kwanette, Ginny Smith, Kwanboy(lol) and Bella Della will be riding the short bus to St Louis for sure. Oh I'm sorry, the hags on rags call it Kwanlouis don't they?"

"Kwan was crying (at Salt lake City) because she made a fool of herself once again at another Olympics. HaHa"

"We of the FSU would like to salute the members and fearless leader of the Michelle Kwan Forum for being the suckiest fansite and forum on the planet.
Posted by: FSuniverse | October 13, 2005 at 11:53 PM "

I'm not exactly sure what point you were trying to make, Red Dog. But, yes, there are a lot of immature lads and ladies out there who like to call attention to themselves by vilifying Michelle and her fans. Go figure. :scratch:

Mathman
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Lucy25 said:
I have no doubt that the negative responses come from known Michelle haters on the net. Once the original article was posted on the forums, the negative comments started to flood in. So who's more pathetic, the so-called weirdo Kwaniacs or the haters who responded? Anyone who takes these comments seriously are wasting their time. I certainly would hate to see any poster try to use them as examples to try to prove some point because it wouldn't work.

You have extremes on both sides, and neither is right. But I can't help but wonder if the extreme Kwan lovers' behavior has a ROLE to play in producing the other extreme, the real Kwan-haters. Notice that hardly any other skater has such a rabid love/hate fan base? I don't know, this might be a possibility. I'm not by any means saying that this is the cause, but I really wonder about it. Maybe I'm way off, but there it is.
 

kyla2

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 24, 2004
An Opinion

I am very much a Michelle Kwan fan first and foremost. But I also really admire and respect other skaters, especially Sasha, Irina and Fumie. I no longer post on the main Michelle fan site because of the over the top comments, personal rudeness and caustic comments about other skaters. I regret that, because there are some fine people on this other site, some of whom I have met in the past, and in many respects, it is a wonderful site. This is what this particular writer encountered when he suggested that Michelle not compete at this Olympics. Clearly, I DO NOT agree with him, but I certainly wouldn't send him scathing e-mails about it.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Red Dog said:
I think this says a lot, if not taken a little out of context.
Here's the context:

"Thank you for exposing the deranged fan following of Michelle Kwan. If you've ever had the misfortune to attend an event where they are present, I'm sure you have seen the taunts of "fall, fall, fall" directed at her competitors and the accompanying cheers when a competitor makes a mistake. The hostility directed toward any potential competitor of Kwan's is scary. I don't think it's any coincidence that security has been dramatically heightened at recent skating events.

"These fans are a cult of unhappy middle-aged frumps, pimply teenagers, and other societal misfits who have latched onto the ultimate loser, Kwan, whose legend is that of the gracious loser. They know, and lament, that Kwan will be remembered not for her U.S. or World titles, but instead as the girl who, every four years, is on the TV crying as she has lost once again."

I have to admit, this does not tell me much about either Michelkle Kwan or her fans, but it speaks VOLUMES about the poster.

MM
 

mzheng

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
Mathman said:
I like this part, especially:

"(Kwan) fans are a cult of unhappy middle-aged frumps, pimply teenagers, and other societal misfits who have latched onto the ultimate loser, Kwan."

Taken out of context, no doubt.
How can you like this one? This is the dirtest dirt I've seen to attact the fans of competetor of the poster's favorates.

On contrary, I see most MK's fans are well educated, financially independent in a well successful society. Middle-aged? Maybe, just by the fact that so many of them have the means to attend veriouse Figure Skating events that Kwan competed in. You can tell they are a group of well being off in society. Jealouse a bit? May be. :rofl:
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I'm not exactly sure what point you were trying to make, Red Dog. But, yes, there are a lot of immature lads and ladies out there who like to call attention to themselves by vilifying Michelle and her fans. Go figure

Maybe I did wrong in singling out the rabid Kwan "love-fans". There are definitely the Kwan "hate-fans" that will not stop at "bashing" MK, and this is just as messed up as the fans that praise her to no end. After all, it's not worth the energy to put such intense hatred into a skater, IMO.

But the real point here is I think this issue is bigger than a lot of people would like to acknowledge. I've read about several reporters saying that critical articles about Kwan receive a LOT of responses. In other words, this is NOT RESTRICTED TO SKATING FORUMS. THAT's the major point I'm trying to make.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
This is blog news, isn't it? Why am I not surprised who posted it here?

I guess it's one way to get your rocks off.

More important overall skating news throughout Golden Skate for those not limited to one skater.

Joe
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I would like to see the original article, and also some of the other articles he writes.

What his opening line in the article says to me is that he's written columns about many other athletes, but NO article about an athlete he's written about has gotten such strong responses as this one. Hence why he wrote this article. Nevermind the "generalizations" or whatever he uses to paint Kwan fans with a bad paintbrush. Looking beyond all that, (the idea behind) this article speaks volumes to me. to ME, at least.
 
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Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Red Dog said:
Maybe I did wrong in singling out the rabid Kwan "love-fans". There are definitely the Kwan "hate-fans" that will not stop at "bashing" MK, and this is just as messed up as the fans that praise her to no end.
I cannot agree that excessive love is as bad as excessive hate. That's ridiculous. Love who you want. Hate nobody.
I've read about several reporters saying that critical articles about Kwan receive a LOT of responses.
And the reporters love it when that happens. What they hate is when they write a column and nobody cares.

MZheng, when I said I "liked" that comment, that was my little attempt at being sarcastic.

MM
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Red Dog said:
But I can't help but wonder if the extreme Kwan lovers' behavior has a ROLE to play in producing the other extreme, the real Kwan-haters.
Or is it that their parents did not teach them anything about common courtesy?
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I cannot agree that excessive love is as bad as excessive hate. That's ridiculous. Love who you want. Hate nobody.

No, man, it's the BEHAVIOR I'm alluding to. Not the feeling.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Mathman said:
Or is it that their parents did not teach them anything about common courtesy?

Maybe. But to be fair, that cuts both ways too. It's also NOT common courtesy to boo other skaters, send insulting and threatening emails to anyone who doesn't agree with them, etc.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Whoa, daddy! The article is interesting and I too feel for this reporter having been vilified for years as a "Kwan hater" because I had the temerity to point out some of the weaknesses in her skating, state my clearly subjective opinion that her style and presence just didn't do it for me, and joke about Michelle the way other posters joked about every other skater. Only when Michelle made certain changes to her skating in 2003 and '04, which I felt greatly enhanced her "total package," and complimented Michelle as such, did the attacks from the front lines of the Kwan-fan army cease. Some even rejoiced in my becoming "one of us!" which totally creeped me out, ie, Tod Browning's classic film "Freaks" and the chant "One of us, one of us, one of us." :laugh: Seriously, there are many great Kwan fans who are proud to call themselves Kwaniacs. I'd be a RepubliKwan or DemoKwan myself; however, I prefer to maintain my Independink status.

Even more seriously, it's really sad that a small percentage of Michelle's fans taints the whole group. When people practically deify someone they don't know and attack en masse whenever they feel Kwan has been unduly criticized, I'm sure they feel they are doing a good thing. However, I wonder if they ever consider the damage they cause.

To be fair, one person who said the "you're one of us now!" thing apologized and said she just got overexcited. But the continuing creepy thing was, even after my conversion to "Kwan supporter and sometime fan," there were still people who posted in chat rooms or on another forum that they "hated" me because "once a Kwan hater, always a Kwan hater" or because they perceived me as an "uber Sasha fan," which I am not. For the record, Rgirl is a "Cohen supporter and sometime fan."

Again, to be fair, these people were a small percentage of Kwan's fans and of course I realize their behavior in no way reflects on Michelle. Still, one person is going on her fourth year of nonstop "Rgirl harassment" primarily because she either continues to perceive me as a Kwan hater or Sasha fan.

Which brings me to my belated "Whoa, daddy!" point about your link -- I can see this turning into a 75-page thread as we speak -- which are the emails the author of the article received, and are listed as you scroll down past the article. The first half dozen or so are supportive of the author's plight but then the fights start. One person is called "psychotic" and it goes on from there.

This greatly saddens me because a number of the MOST intelligent, fair-minded, enjoyable people on GS, more than a few of whom I am happy and honored to call my "forum buddies," are strong Kwan fans. The behavior of the Kwan zealots saddens me because it is so negative and exactly as described in the article and many of the emails, and in NO WAY do the zealots reflect the behavior of Kwan fans such as, to mention just a few, BronzeisGolden, Realtorgal, NYMKfan, DorisPulaski, Mathman, Piel, Heyang, and oh, gosh, so many that if I try to make a complete list I know I'll forget some. But you know who you are.

What is sad to me is that people such as the above and their counterparts are sometimes or even often overwhelmed by the extremely negative personal attacks by "rabid" Kwan fans, for lack of a better adjective, on posters who criticize Michelle the way any other skater on GS is criticized. I think this is how the supersensitive, negative-minded Kwaniacs who see Kwan haters behind every crit of Michelle seem to represent for some people the majority of Kwan fans, which I am as sure as I can be without doing a survey is not true. IMO, a skater of Michelle's stature should be identified with fans who reflect rather than act in opposition to Michelle's behavior, which, I think most would agree, has always been gracious.

Anyway, Red Dog, never has the aphorism, "Every dog has its day" been more appropriate.

However, to paraphrase Bette Davis in "All About Eve": "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy thread." ;)

Rgirl

Edited to fix some poorly worded sentences in the third to the last paragraph.
 
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R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Well said Rgirl. ITA.

It's unfortunate that a few overzealous Kwan fans have to go and give the whole fanbase a bad rep.
 

mpal2

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Yes there are over the top Kwan fans, but the other side is doing their utmost to proclaim that ANY compliment to Kwan is uberfandom and psychotic rambling.

Both sides need to stick their opinions right back where it came from..... where the sun don't shine...
 

mandykane21

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 17, 2003
You know, I find the whole thing kind of funny. Being a Michelle Kwan fan practically makes you as famouse as Michelle Kwan! But seriously, the fact is simply Michelle is the most popular skater in the country. I'll go even farther, she's one of the most popular atheletes in the country. And the longer she's around, the more fans she seems to make. With so many people in her corner, they're not all gonna be upstanding, mature citizens that enjoy a lively but respectful debate about they're favorite athelete. Then again, you're not gonna find that with a single person, place or thing that has a more than two fans in this world. It's not about what you're a fan of, it's the kind of person you are. And about some people being provked by others behavior, just put things in perspective. Excuse my language, but who the h$!! cares if some people call you stupid for voicing your opinon. You just have to take a deep breath and realize it comes with the territory (trust me, I KNOW it's hard but it's just ice skating). As a sports writer, I find it hard to beileve that they've never had a barage of complaints and criticisims about something they wrote. Jeez, I babble too much about absolutely nothing!:rofl: Sorry, you guys!
 
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