Search #Pistorians on Twitter and you might be surprised by the results. ‘Keep the faith,’ one writes, using the hashtag #supportforOscar. Another post features a picture of Oscar's face with the aphorism ‘a real smile that has struggled through tears’ photoshopped over it. Another image is of an arm (presumably belonging to a fan) covered in a tattoo of an Oscar Pistorious quote, ‘I’ve got two disabilities I’ve got millions of abilities.’
These aren’t isolated cases. They are examples of the groundswell of support on social media for Oscar Pistorius – the Paralympian-turned Olympian hero on trial for shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through his bathroom door in the small hours of Valentine’s Day 2013. These people want him cleared, and his name absolved.
‘Keep the faith,’ one writes, using the hashtag #supportforOscar
The athlete has now been on trial for four weeks. His lawyers argue that he shot at Reeva in self defence, believing the person in the bathroom was an intruder and not his girlfriend of three months. The prosecution, meanwhile, claim that he shot her after an argument – citing the fact he was wearing his prosthetic legs as evidence the shooting was thought through. In what’s already been a protracted, contentious court battle, we’ve seen Oscar vomit and break down in tears, photos of the bloodied bathroom door and ‘frightened’ Reeva's text messages read out by the prosecution in an attempt to prove their case.
But while the rest of us might be sporadically checking into Sky News for updates, the self-proclaimed Pistorians are glued to the coverage, determined to absorb every aspect of the case for themselves. In the same way Justin Bieber’s fans self-identify as ‘Beliebers’, or One Direction's fans call themselves ‘Directioners’ – those who claim the name have a life-consuming interest in the defendant.
‘I will spend hours watching interviews with him and re-watching parts from the trial,’ Stef Turnbull, 23, from Gateshead tells The Debrief. ‘I’ve also sent several messages of support to Oscar through his official site. I can’t actually believe how into it I've got. I think my girlfriend hates me slightly, because I won’t shut up about the trial or Oscar.’ She insists none of the evidence emerging from court thus far has altered her opinion of Oscar’s innocence. ‘Everyone has arguments, I’ve had my fair share of them, and there’s CCTV footage of them together being loving to each and 99% of messages were loving between them,’ she says.
‘I never followed Oscar before this case, but I do not believe for one second that this was anything but a tragic accident. I’m talking to everyone about it’
Melina Narcalo, a 37-year-old from Manchester, agrees. ‘I’m quite obsessed. It can go through from getting up in the morning and I’ll follow it all day on Twitter and Facebook sites for Oscar and Reeva,’ she tells The Debrief*.* ‘I never followed Oscar before this case, but I do not believe for one second that this was anything but a tragic accident. I’m talking to everyone about it.’
While she is keen to stress her support of Reeva’s family, Melina doesn’t understand how the prosecution’s argument stacks up. ‘I don’t know about you, but when I have had arguments with my partner – if my partner was threatening me with a firearm, I certainly wouldn’t lock myself in the bathroom, I would run out of the door,’ she says, her admiration for Oscar himself clearly evident. ‘He has achieved so much, he is good-looking.'
Other Pistorians say the inconsistent police work in South Africa is behind their belief that Oscar is facing jail. ‘I’ve been watching extremely, extremely, extremely closely,’ Terry Hall, a 51-year-old from Ballito, South Africa tells us. ‘I’ve been there: my daughter was raped, but it never reached court because of cops’ shabby work, so I understand. I support him because I know Oscar would never hurt a fly.’
She also attributes his trigger-happy nature to a heightened sense of fear, explaining that South Africans are entitled to a sense of paranoia. ‘The fear and the danger are, like, really right against your door, wherever you are,’ she says. ‘His fear and what could happen to him is far worse than what ours is because we are able and he is not and he’s been prosecuted on that level which is not right.’
‘His fear and what could happen to him is far worse than what ours is because we are able and he is not and he’s been prosecuted on that level which is not right’
All three will be delighted if Oscar is found not guilty. ‘Oscar’s lost his girlfriend who he loved very much,’ says Terry. ‘But we as the public would be celebrating his release.’
Oscar’s parents have been quick to distance themselves from this unmovable devotion to Oscar. ‘The disregard that is being shown by some – specifically those commenting via social media – for the profound pain that Reeva’s family and friends are going through is very troubling,’ they said in a statement last year. ‘There is not a moment in the day that Oscar does not mourn for his girlfriend and Reeva’s family, and all those who were close to her are in his thoughts constantly.’
But their opinion hasn’t made much difference. Pistorians’ view of Reeva is ambigious at best: ‘Jealousy happens in relationships. I don’t think [Reeva] was all sweetness and light, that is all I am saying. She was saying “I’m no ho”, but who knows what goes on behind closed doors,’ Melina tells us when discussing the text messages Reeva sent Oscar saying he was ‘scaring’ her with ‘tantrums’ over her exes. Melina insists, however, ‘I love these [Pistorian] sites. Everyone is entitled to their own opinon.’ But there are also examples of grim victim-blaming of Reeva on social media – like calling her ‘Hooverarsed Potskank’ because of supposed liposuction and weed-smoking – that make it easy to see why the family find the Pistorian movement distasteful.
‘Jealousy happens in relationships. I don’t think Reeva was all sweetness and light, that is all I am saying’
This sentiment is perhaps why there are many now distancing themselves from the term ‘Pistorian’. ‘We, the people behind the blog, support Oscar and wish him a fair trial, but none of us consider themselves as “Pistorians”, so we can't help you with this,’ the owners of the Support Oscar Pistorius website wrote in response to an interview request from us.
The truth is, though Oscar’s fans might use the internet to coalesce, they’re just the most vocal members in a country that is seemingly still pro-Oscar. ‘South Africa loves her heroes: Nelson Mandela, Dr Christiaan Barnard [the first person to perform a heart transplant], Oscar Pistorius. Once they were all mentioned in the same breath – figures who had made their nation proud,’ says Alex Crawford, who has seen her fair share of Pistorius supporters whilst presenting Sky TV’s coverage live from the Pretoria courthouse where the trial is ongoing. ‘Pistorius was the little boy with no legs who refused to be defeated, who survived his parents’ marriage break-up, his mother’s early death when just a teenager, and who fought to be the first amputee to race at the (London) Olympics.’
‘All South Africans took Pistorius to their hearts. He was a son of the ‘new’ South Africa, epitomising the country’s never-give-up attitude’
This struggle helped him to become adored across his home country: ‘All South Africans – young, old, black and white - took him to their hearts. He was a son of the ‘new’ South Africa, epitomising the country’s never-give-up attitude. His good looks, his apparently humble approach and determination saw him named the “definition of global inspiration” in Time magazine’s 2012 list of the world’s most influential people,’ says Alex as explanation. ‘This backdrop makes the Blade Runner’s ongoing trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, all the more tragic. The country is watching the court case unfold on television like it is a reality show. Only this is for real.’
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.