Belieber
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A Belieber is a fanatical devotee of the Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber.[note 1] Use of this term predates 2010, and the existence of the community dates back to Bieber's early YouTube videos. The vast majority of Beliebers are pre-teen and teenage girls who have a sense of community, but the fandom also includes "Boy Beliebers", who are generally loved by their female counterparts due to their rarity.
Many Beliebers strictly defend and support Bieber and may resort to extreme methods to protect him against anything they deem as a threat, such as issuing death threats to women connected to Bieber and defacing Wikipedia after he failed to win aGrammy.[citation needed] On the other hand, Beliebers are also subject to put biased content on Justin Bieber-related pages on Wikipedia, which is why protection templates have been inserted on such pages.
In April 2013 pop star Justin Bieber made international headlines when he left a message in a guestbook at Anne Frank House that he hoped Anne would have been "a Belieber".[1]
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Etymology
Devoted Bieber fans are called Beliebers.[2][3] Belieber was declared one of the best new words of 2010. The Canberra Times defined the word as: "belieber (n) blend of Bieber-believer, a fan of pop star Justin Bieber".[4] A definition for belieber offered by New York Times "On Language" columnist Ben Zimmer is "a fanatical devotee of the pop singer Justin Bieber".[5] Usage of the word predates its inclusion in dictionaries.[6]
Love of Bieber by Beliebers has been named "Bieber Fever."[7] Bieber Fever is described as an addiction to Justin Bieber that may start out as a crush on him before escalating over the course to a point where others view the addiction as harmful.[8]
Similar words that mean similar things are: "Swifty", a devoted fan of Taylor Swift; "Directioner", a devoted fan of One Direction; and "Selenator", a devoted fan of Selena Gomez.
Demographics
Beliebers have a clear concept of themselves as a community,[9][10] which Bieber acknowledged on Twitter by using the word,[11] and by claiming one day he could fall in love with one of his fans.[12][13]
The early Bieber fanbase developed on YouTube, and predated the release of Bieber's first album.[10][10][14][15][16] Fans viewed his videos more than 2 billion times on YouTube, with Bieber becoming the first person to reach that number on the site.[15]
The fandom has developed several components which co-exist uneasily. One aspect of the fandom can be self-mocking and commercial. The other part does not like the association with problematic fans and is less willing to buy into the more overtly commercial parts of the fan community.[3][10]The community sometimes has issues and rival factions inside fandom have been known to attack one another. In one case, a Twitter account shared "alleged direct messages from Justin scolding the authors of [a] blog for writing lies about him."[3] Despite these issues, being a fan of Belieber provides fans with access to a community that is over 20 million strong.[15]
Most of Bieber's fanbase is composed of young girls in their pre-teens or teens, although there are still many young men out there who support him.[2][17][18] His fans have been described as patient and doting by the Toronto Star.[19] Bieber fandom offers its female fans "a way not only to subliminate romantic and sexual yearnings but to carve out subversive versions of heterosexuality."[20] Inside the fandom, Bieber is almost always viewed as heterosexual.[21] Some of his fans have expressed an interest in having sex with him, and there are documented cases of fans asking the media to pass along messages to Bieber suggesting this.[22] There was a situation in the fandom where a fan tried gain access to Bieber for this reason by claiming she was Bieber's personal stripper.[23] Fans will also express their love of Bieber by sending him messages on social networking sites like Twitter.[8] Fans may have shrines dedicated to Bieber in their bedroom. X-Factor contestant Drew Ryniewicz was described as being a "true" Belieber for having such a shrine.[24]
Bieber's popularity is a result of the Internet, with a large segment of the fan community actively continuing to use it to communicate with their fellow fans.[10][15][16] Bieber fans utilise online social networks as a way of not just connecting with Bieber and Bieber related information but as a way to interact with other like minded fans.[25] One of the most coveted things for Beliebers online is a return follow from @justinbieber on Twitter.[26] This has been described as the fandom's holy grail.[26] When Bieber announced he was taking a break from Twitter, his fans tweeted supportive messages to him.[27] Twitter changed their algorithm to remove persistently trending topics from the list, including Bieber. His Twitter followers responded by trying to circumvent the changes through the use of misspellings of his name.[28]
Extremities of Belieber hysteria
The hysteria of Bieber fans has been compared to Beatlemania[10] and, in some instances, has been so extreme that it has resulted in the cancellation of scheduled appearances by Bieber.[2]Beliebers can have a strong mob mentality and may maraud crowds when Bieber shows up; this has happened several times previously. Some 3,000 fans showed up at a shopping mall to watch him sing early in his career.[29] At an appearance in Australia, ten teenage fans fainted, and eight girls had to be hospitalized.[30] Beliebers have chased Bieber through an airport,[31] and one sat on the hood of his car,[32] an action repeated when Bieber has made other appearances.[33] Thousands of fans showed up in Oslo, Norway, when Bieber visited the city during his Believe tour.[34]In New Zealand, fans stole his hat, and pushed his mother to the ground in their zeal to get a glimpse of him.[30] At a concert, a fan hit him with a water bottle while he was performing.[2] One paid $624 for a bottle of water that Bieber drank from.[15]
Beliebers try to get Bieber's attention,[3] and often defend him.[8] I Don't Know How She Does It has a character portrayed by Olivia Munn saying that Bieber's birth to a teenage mother was a "billion-dollar mistake"; fans subsequently attacked Munn for this line.[35][36] After Esperanza Spalding won a Grammy (as opposed to Bieber having won a Grammy), Beliebers attacked her physically and verbally,[37] and in at least one case, wished for her death.[38] Most of the anti-Spalding activity took place on Twitter and Facebook.[38] Bieliebers vandalized Spalding's page onWikipedia,[39][38][40][41] inserting statements like "She now has the 2011 Grammy for being the Best New Artist! Even though no one has ever heard of her! Yay!" into the article about Spalding.[41] They even went so far as to threaten the Grammy judges, with one fan saying "the Grammy judges better watch their backs! A bunch of tween girls are out to get you now!"[40] His fans have also sent death threats to Kim Kardashian over several minor issues.[15][42]
In media
Never Say Never, released in 2011, focused heavily on Bieber's fan base.[34]
Cathleen Falsani is a self-proclaimed expert about Bieber, and has written a book about Bieber's Christian faith titled Belieber! Fame, Faith, and the Heart of Justin Bieber.[36][43]
Mobilization
Bieber's management team makes an effort to mobilize and coordinate Bieber's fans into taking actions related to Bieber.[22]
A contest was run on Twitter which included several celebrities that enabled fans to gain access to behind the scenes footage and purchase tickets to the Bieber movie before others.[44][circular reference]
Pre-teen Bieber fans sometimes coordinate on social media services to gather at a mall and "buy their entire stock of Bieber paraphernalia to donate to charity."[3][45] One such buyout was organised by a 13 year old and 14 year old in Indiana.[45]
Anti-Bieber act of sabotage
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There have been many acts of sabotage against Justin Bieber.
One of the most notable anti-Bieber acts of vandalism was when an anti-Bieber prankster submitted copyright violation notices to YouTube, claiming Bieber's official videos were copyright violations. YouTube's policy is to remove material that is reported and then investigate the claims, which resulted in the temporary removal of all of Bieber's official videos from the site.[46] Bieber's Jewish manager Scooter Braun was threatened with death if Bieber performed in Israel.[47]
