Fangirls and misogyny
From Beetlemania in the 60s to the online communities of the modern day ‘fangirls’ have long been denounced as hysterical, obsessive, and crazy. The misogyny inherent in these characteristics is obvious. Whether it be musicians, TV shows or movies, those that cultivate a largely young female fanbase seem to be consistently undermined. The experience of women in these online spaces and its translation into the world is endemic of a wider issue. It is one of the main motors through which society embed the idea that young women are less capable than their male counterparts. The presence of the internet brought to the forefront this competition of what is ‘cool,’ it created communities for young women but also opened their interests up to further criticism. However, It has a much wider context than just being about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ music. To tell young women their interests are less important, less valuable, less than a mans and to show passion is equal to hysteria, is to embed patriarchy in young minds.
In 1964 Paul Johnson wrote an article for the New Statesman attacking the Beatles and their fans. Describing the “moronic ranks” of fans who “scream themselves into hysteria and are the least fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idle.” Since the Beatles there have been other bands who have attempted to replicate their fame but few can claim as much influence as the boyband One Direction. Their success was no doubt a result of the increasing influence of the internet, connecting them and their fans. From their conception they created ‘video diaries’ posted to YouTube documenting their journey through X Factor and live steamed their life whilst sat in their bedroom. The utilisation of social media sites was a fairly new phenomenon in the music industry, but it helped to create a more humanised version of celebrities. Being able to connect with fans worldwide, through these mediums, created dedicated online communities ensuring further reaching fame than even the Beatles were able to achieve. Whilst young women created these online communities dedicated to their favourite celebrities the online space became increasingly hostile towards their interests. Despite One Direction’s success and large fanbase they seemed to garner very little popular or critical success, the only explanation for this seems to lie within the demographic of their fanbase.
Despite their commitment and loyalty fangirls are often reduced to a screaming pulsating mass of hysteria which comes from a historical trend of dismissing not only what women are interested in but women themselves. Hysteria was a Victorian medical term used to describe women with a “tendency to cause trouble.” Young women screaming at concerts, expressing determined love and opinions deters from the patriarchal norm of the docile, mailable young woman. Major discrepancies can be seen in the way football fans, who are largely male, and fangirls are treated and judged. Sports fans obsessively check match scores, shooting percentages and know the names of the players in every team, sharing wins and losses online. In other instances, football fans hurl abuse at other teams, get into fights and destroy public property. According to the UK Football Policing Unit banning orders in England and Wales were up 230% in 2021 to 2022 and were at “worrying levels.” Violence as a form of passion is not as regularly seen at the concerts of One Direction or BTS but rather a sense of community. The invalidation of intense love for something however seems to be exclusively limited to young women as “taking a detour from the codes of patriarchy come with dire consequences.”
Yve Blake criticises a world where female enthusiasm is described as crazy, psycho and hysterical. She says “And if girls grow up in a world that tells them that they are designed just a bit “crazier” than the boys, then isn’t that a little bit like telling them that they are born less capable of rationality than men? Less capable of reason, and unworthy of the same intellectual respect as their brothers?”
The massive online communities created by fangirls, or fan culture, have created forces for change. K-pop fans mobilise like no other, they flood apps designed to identify people protesting at BLM marches with ‘fancams’ causing them to crash, match $1 million donations for COVID relief or bulk buy tickets to Trump rallies with no intention of ever attending. When acting together, these massive communities can create real change, but many still view the fangirl experience as largely vapid.
However, the trope of the irrational, hysterical, online fangirl has sustained, compounding the message of misogyny that women are not as capable of choosing what is worth the time of a man. Harry Styles said when interviewed by rolling stone, “we’re so past that dumb outdated narrative of ‘oh these people are girls, so they don’t know what they’re talking about.’ They’re the ones who know what they’re talking about… They fucking own that shit. They’re running it.”
The things that women express enjoyment towards are consistently undermined as cringy or over-hyped. Even without being a fangirl women are branded ‘pick me’ or ‘cheugy.’ Putting women down or in competition with one another is so normalised that young people are blind to the misogynistic rhetoric they are perpetuating. Allowing young men to obsess over sports teams but not young women over music or a celebrity without judgment is a firmly rooted method of the patriarchy to undermine women. In reality fangirls have been able to create communities of like-minded and strong-willed women sharing their passions. Young women must be able to express interest without being undermined or devalued, it creates a culture of internalised misogyny if women cannot trust themselves to be able to choose what is ‘good.’ The experience and reaction of women in these online spaces needs to change, it is one part of a much wider issue but, at the very base level, women interests and passions should be respected.
