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Stan culture isn’t limited purely to the world of music, but this might just be the most peculiar beef fictionalised by the internet to date.
Pick a side and get to tweeting your non-sensical argument immediately.
The latest internet beef based on precisely nothing, and with absolutely no influence from either party, is the Greta Thunberg vs Malala Yousafzai squabble for title of ‘best Gen Z activist.’
Late last month, Malala appeared in a bizarre TikTok with Jimmy Fallon lip-syncing to a 4 Non Blondes/Nicki Minaj mash up. This rounded off a recent run of ironic ‘normie’ content on social media from the Nobel Prize winner, with one Insta post captioned: ‘Not me becoming chronically online.’
The education activist is currently promoting her new memoir, Finding My Way, in which she describes her rise to fame after surviving being shot by a Taliban soldier at 11-years-old on the way home from school. This has included a podcast with Jay Shetty and an interview with Marie Claire, among others.
As part of her rise to prominence, Malala has also indulged in other opportunities including producing an Oscar nominated film and a musical with, get this, Hillary Clinton. In a viral TikTok clip she was also spotted courtside at an NY Liberty game. Suffice to say, she’s becoming adept at playing the game and maximising her altruistic message through the vehicle of media.
Compare this to Greta, a face almost as recognisable as Che Guevara in today’s activist circles – we won’t comment on whether that’s a good thing. The 22-year-old climate activist receives her fair amount of online slander and memeification, but is largely revered by Gen Z as a no-frills, legit climate and human rights activist.
@fallontonight What’s going on, @Malala Yousafzai?! #FallonTonight #TonightShow #MalalaYousafzai #JimmyFallon ♬ original sound – dj auxlord
Greta’s MO is markedly different, in that she’s less about social commentary and just getting up and doing shit. Whether it’s staging protests outside Swedish government buildings or, more recently, being apprehended on an aid flotilla headed for Palestine, Greta has to be doing something on the front lines.
She isn’t accustomed to diplomatically spreading a message on a comfy couch opposite chat show hosts, but is partial to slam national leaders at climate summits they clearly have no moral investment in whatsoever.
This dichotomy of methods is what the internet has used as an excuse to interject itself with fabricated drama and conflict. There is absolutely nothing in the way of competition between Malala and Greta, but a strata of social media is determined to tenuously pit them against each other. The salient rule is: you can ‘stan’ one or the other, so long as you parasocially co-opt their activism to echo your own beliefs.
Social media doesn’t do nuance very well, and heightened emotions tend to make people operate in absolutes. This is especially true when it comes to things like Israel’s invasion of Palestine, which Malala was slightly less fervent in approaching than Greta.
