Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara
Erin Lee Carr’s documentary “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara” provides a rare glimpse into how one member of Canadian indie band Tegan and Sara, Tegan Quin, was able to impersonate a number of her band’s fans in this case and deceive them with wad fake fishing profiles. But in the same light, the story is also about how social media developed from a place where fans could interact (and where the queer fans could find a safe haven) to what it is today, a breeding ground for sociopathic fanatics. It also serves as a history lesson of sorts for those who were around in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with platforms like Facebook and Twitter, LiveJournal, MySpace, Tumblr and even Last.FM being integral to the fraud. The only drawback is that its culture and true crime style treatment of events tends to obscure the intricacy of the emotional trauma underpinning the narrative.
Although the title is an inclusive one given Tegan and Sara, the emphasis seems to be more placed on Tegan who up to 2008 could be impersonated online by at least one perpetrator. However, many other more criminal sleazebags pretended to be fans and spoke to their victims like the actual musicians.
Tegan starts the documentary by revealing some fears they have about bringing up this topic, considering it might be uncomfortable for both them and their supporters. As the film reaches its deeply felt climax, we understand why this particular reluctance existed and discern the remnants of the trauma that exists to this day.
This investigation uses the first two years of Tegan and Sara’s career as they finished two years of what seemed to be endless touring in 2011. It is during this time that the management broke the news that their social media and other personal information was breached. For instance, a phony Tegan, “Fegan” as she is called in this paper, pretended to be Tegan and created fake profiles and email addresses to lure the fans of the band into sexual activities with her as well as a friend of Tegan from her early Vancouver years in what should be described as a deeply distressing situation.
As the film progresses, it presents more segments when we hear from more super fans about their interactions with “Fegan” and their thoughts on Tegan and Sara’s management who were present during the investigation in 2011 as well as a catfish psychoanalyst who explains what motivates people to engage in this behavior through the complexity of human weaknesses. The fans are intriguing in terms of how they articulate their experiences in the fandom spaces during the early 2000s, which were important for many individuals, especially the young and queer. While I was not a big fan of Tegan and Sara in the first place, I’ve read many posts of theirs, often in the context of conversations on other topics that were about making cyberspace friends who would be there for you for life.
Tegan and Sara were idols who were the first ones to actively engage and build their community online, as for Tegan, she recalls having interaction with her fans by replying to their emails during the night when she was back home from her job.
Tegan emerged as the kind of rock star who would mingle with fans before the show, sell the band’s merchandise post gig and sign autographs for hours after having performed. The ’confessional’ manner of the band’s song lyrics further added to and nurtured this impression of them which was ready for all such sham.
The abuse never ended there and this is the point the film focuses on. Once people became fans, abuse went to an extreme. A number of people from their generation probably are oblivious to the extended history lesson of where the word ‘stan’ originates, but with the fact that Eminem’s “stan” turns twenty-five next year, one can see a vile face history to the song.
The film also includes what the authors intended to be astonishing scenes at the very end and in which they don’t quite succeed. One of the narrators, JT, describes his coming out experience in which he has been mistreated and felt isolated in queer spaces due to Tegan’s treatment. “Vancouver is a small town. Music is a small town,” says Semenuik. It seems raw and although a great distance has passed and Sahoyan and Semenuik have not met in over a decade, it seems the unfortunate events still scars them.
Her response is, of course, in keeping with Tegan’s notion of herself as a victim, but from what I’ve seen I do not see much of an effort on B. B. B.’s part to resolve any issues either. If anything, the whole portrayal of JT in the flick feels generic as though he was just a pawn sacrificed for the sake of cinematography.
The next sequence follows a rather rancorous “Tara” who used to be a “Quincest” blogger (I do apologize to the readers, especially those in the know for the first time, about twincest and fanfiction. If it is your first time to hear about it, please do not search for it). Tara was present in the elaboration of this film and had the strongest ties among fans of “Fegan,” Tegan and Sara management, as well as one of Tegan’s former lovers. Erin Lee Carr and Tegan take the viewer along as they remonstrate “Tara” about their troubled past while obscuring their voice, and ‘Tara’ turning out to be ‘Fegan’ is not out of the question. That sounds awfully moronic, but that’s how it is.
Unfortunately, none of these speculations actually succeeded or proved anymore useful. Watching the scene can be quite painful at the same time, but again, not exactly for the reasons expected. Yes, she violated a lot in the past, which should have been off limits.
The comments made by fans speaking on what happened to Tegan, saying it shouldn’t have any impact on the singer as she is a celebrity, displays how many fans still forget that stars also are people and possess feelings too. It is also shot in such an intrusive manner with no sense of how Tegan or the documentary filmmakers are justified to be filmed in such a manner. Which is odd considering how the entire feature length film deals with the theme of catfishing as a courting strategy. Tegan and Carr however do draw a conclusion that it is likely “Tara” is not “Fegan” but this is the sole conclusion they draw from the meeting.
As a footnote, it is illustrated that “Fegan” has been in touch with their victims for more than two thousand messages for the past sixteen years and the attempts to find out who did it go on. It is a constant story with no resolution. Certainly, when the credits came up, I was left wondering if Tegan still had regrets on agreeing to come on board on this project and whether those fans who ultimately became the subject matter of the case felt it was worth it to relive their account.
It really is admirable how the mature fandom is approached through various lenses. While fans return to Carr’s intense crimes, weirdly, emotions like what fans would feel after reconfronting every conviction are never examined, arguably because they do not provide valuable information to the inquiry.
Regardless of the argument that celebrities are just ordinary people with complexities, this documentary doesn’t have a single human element.
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