Hard Stan

Synonyms:	NSFW fan
See also:	K-Pop Stan Twitter, Soft Stan, RPF, Dead Dove
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A hard stan refers to a fan who views K-Pop idols in a sexual way. This has no clear definition and can vary depending on the fan.

It can refer to fans who are simply attracted to an idol and prefer the "sexy" and "mature" concepts in music. They might often make thirst tweets. It can also refer to fans who engage in NSFW RPF fanfiction or fanart, or even to the more extreme fans who make deepfakes and explicit edits.

The opposite to this is soft stan, someone who views the idol as cute and innocent.

Definitions

There are varying definitions for hard stan. Urban Dictionary defines it as the following:

A hard stan is a person who views their idols or someone famous in a sexual way. This does not necessarily mean that they only think of them sexually but can be emotionally and mentally attached as well.

Likewise, another fan puts it:

pretty sure hard stan means someone who's more on the nsfw side. either very hard cursing or making adult jokes. soft stans are the opposite, all cutesy posts about their faves. i may not be correct too, but thats what i recall! been a while since i've been on stan twitter, so the meanings might have changed 😭

However, it can be used for fans who engage in more NSFW works:

Hard stan (my version) is talking about how hot I find my ult (Jungkook of BTS), appreciating when he brings his sexy side out to play, will hoot and holler when he flashes his abs like I'm at a strip show and I don't hide that I find him sexually attractive. Would I hook up with him if he was interested (oh my god, not a snowball's chance in hell he would 🤣😂) & I was single? Yes.

What's different with my version is I won't say anything about him that I consider inappropriate and I judge that by if I'd be willing to say it directly to his face. Other hard stans can go seriously, seriously NSFW, 18+, will post graphic & explicit stories, fantasies, art to the open timeline on Twitter. I think that's part of why the negative connotations are there about hard stans.

And some have unknowingly thought it wasn't sexual at all:

little story for y’all: when i got into the kpop community. i thought a “hard stan” was someone who went OFF to support a group so i classified myself as one for a hot minute before discovering what it actually is...

Communities

Some groups in K-Pop have their own communities dedicated for NSFW content:

• M0AN: For TXT, it's a play on their official fan name "MOA".
• NSFD: Meaning "Not Safe for (NCT) Dream"

Fans on NSFW Twitter will often block all official accounts and censor idol names to prevent others from seeing them.

Controversy

Hard stans are often an controversial topic due to the level of sexualization and objectification towards idols.