About
“Attention Whore” is a slang term used to describe people who attempt to receive attention from others through unnecessary or overbearing means. It can be found in comments on message boards and social networking forums to admonish others seen consistently providing unwanted information about their personal business or drawing attention to their posts by requesting likes, reblogs, views or comments, depending on the social network.
Origin
The term was used as early as May 19th, 2000 on the everything2 wiki site in a discussion on the phrase “It’s better to be hated than to be ignored.”[1] After a poster named rue asked what other users thought of the phrase, a user named moJoe claimed he had been called an attention whore on the site previously, but would prefer to have his posts ignored than misunderstood. He then went on to prove that he was not an attention whore by providing a story of how he blew off a girl who had attempted to talk to him.
Spread
In January 2001, the “insecure attention whore” was listed as a rock fan cliche on the Straight Dope message board.[2] That July, a member of the alt.y2trolls Usenet group was called out for being an attention whore[3] by another poster who asked the board not to play into her demands. On November 7th, 2002, a member of the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club[4] began a conversation on the difference between an attention whore and someone who simply likes to post often. While many posters agreed that the difference mainly existed in the humor and entertainment value of the posts, FunkerVogt emphasized that to be considered an attention whore, one’s topics are usually about themselves and attempt to solicit "compliments, sympathy or recognition. The same year, threads about how to avoid percieved attention whores while dating were posted on the Honda-Tech forums[6] and the Love-Scent message board.[7] In May 2003, the phrase was first defined on Urban Dictionary[5], where it was featured as the October 19th, 2009 Urban Word of the Day.
In 2004, the video game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines was released, containing a quest titled Attention Whore[8] in which the player is instructed to kill a Ghoul who was attracting Vampire Hunters to the vampire bar. Over the course of the next two years, threads either dismissing people perceived as attention whores or discussions about how to avoid them while dating appeared on a number of message boards including Bodybuilding.com[9], eBaum’s World[10], Tilted Forum Project[11], The Straight Dope[12] and Godlike Productions.[13] By 2005, some people began to self-identify as attention whores, acknowledging that they would go out of their way to seek recognition by falsely playing a female character in an MMORPG[14] or by posting seductive photos of themselves[15] (shown below).
In 2006, an Uncyclopedia entry[16] for the phrase was created. The following year, The Daily Kos[17] posted an article by Cindy Sheehan, a U.S. antiwar activist whose son was killed during the Iraq War, about being called an attention whore after she announced she was taking a break from activism. In 2009, house music producer deadmau5 released a collaborative song with singer/songwriter Melleefresh titled “Attention Whore” (shown below). In 2011, a WordReference forums user started a thread[18] seeking help translating the phrase into French, but no exact translation was found.
In May 2013, Rookie Magazine[19] investigated the judgement and envy that goes into deeming everyone people attention whores, leading to a similar article on Jezebel[20] looking at the covert misogyny that exists in the term, as it is mostly reserved for females who depart from traditional stereotypes. These points were reinforced in a Huffington Post[21] piece about the implications about women typically being labeled attention whores. As of August 2013, attention whore is regularly used on Reddit[22] and 4chan.[23] It can also be found as a hashtag on Tumblr[24], Twitter[25], Facebook[26] and Instagram[27], where it has been used on nearly 55,000 photos.
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]everything2 – It’s better to be hated than ignored
[2]Straight Dope – Rock cliches
[3]Google Groups Archive – alt.y2trolls: MONA IS QUEENATTENTIONWHORE
[4]NASIOC– What’s the difference between being an attention whore, and just having a lot to say?
[5]Urban Dictionary – Definition for “attention whore”
[6]Honda-Tech – How to spot an Attention WHORE!!!!!
[7]Love-Scent – Battle tactics and ways to deal with “attention whores”
[8]GameBanshee – Vampire: Bloodlines: Attention Whore
[9]Bodybuilding.com – The fine line between alpha male and attention whore
[10]eBaum’s World Forum – Look At Me, Im an Attention Whore
[11]Tilted Forum Project – attention whore – why does it bother me so much?
[12]The Straight Dope – Suicide Post… A Cry For Help, Or Attention Whore
[13]Godlike Productions – How to handle a Attention Whore?
[14]Something Awful – I was an Everquest attention whore
[15]Cannabis.com – So I’m an attention whore..and damn good at it.
[16]Uncyclopedia – Attention Whore
[17]The Daily Kos – “Good Riddance, Attention Whore”
[18]WordReference – attention whore
[19]Rookie – Shameless Women
[20]Jezebel – In Defense of the Attention Whore
[21]Huffington Post – Why We Need To Rethink The ‘Attention Whore’ Label
[22]Reddit – Search Results for “attention whore”
[23]Foolz Archive – Search Results for “attention whore”
[24]Tumblr – Posts tagged #attentionwhore
[25]Twitter – Search Results for #attentionwhore
[26]Facebook – Results for #attentionwhore
[27]Statigram – Photos tagged #attentionwhore