About

Stan is an internet slang term meaning to have an intense fandom for a particular object, such as a singer, athlete, or company. The term is derived from the Eminem song of the same name which is about an obsessive Eminem fan named Stan.

Origin

On May 23rd, 2000, Eminem released his second album, The Marshall Mathers LP.^[1] The third track on the album, "Stan," is rapped from the point of view of the title character, a fan who has an obsessive relationship with Eminem. The song features Dido and was the third single released off the album. The music video stars a young Devon Sawa.

Spread

On February 5th, 2006, the term was defined on Urban Dictionary^[2] as an overzealous fan of a celebrity or athlete (shown below).

The term was defined in various news publications over the years, including Bustle,^[4] Hip Hop Wiki,^[5] and Popsugar.^[6] In July of 2017, the term was added to the Oxford English dictionary.^[3] In September of that year, Noisey^[7] published an article on the legacy Eminem's "Stan" has had on fandom. A website devoted to communities of "stans", Stan-wars,^[8] has also launched. Of note, certain large "stan" communities are often given names, such as "Beliebers" for fans of Justin Bieber and "Arianators" for fans of Ariana Grande.^[9]

We Have No Choice But To Stan

As Stan culture grew more popular through the 2010s, fans would often express their praise of their preferred idol with variations on the phrase "We Stan." One of the most popular variations of these is "We Have No Choice But to Stan." The phrase began gaining in popularity towards the end of 2018. One early popular tweet to use the phrase showed Kris Jenner in Ariana Grande's "thank u, next" video; it was tweeted by @leesego_ November 30th, 2018, gaining over 520 retweets and 1,500 likes (shown below, left). On June 11th, 2019, Twitter user Laydiexskull made a post about Nessa with the phrase, gaining over 250 retweets and 1,800 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References