Why it’s time to leave young fans alone.
A few days ago I stumbled upon a Ted Talk by playwright Yve Blake. In her talk, titled ‘Why are fangirls scary?’, she discusses the way society views, and describes, young female enthusiasm.
I nodded along to her twelve minute talk, laughing and enjoying how I fit so many of her descriptions. Then came the moment when Yve Blake perfectly encapsulated the predicament of being a fangirl: “If girls grow up in a world that tells them that they are designed just a bit crazier than the boys, isn’t that a bit like telling them they are born less capable of rationality than men? Less capable of reason? And unworthy of the same intellectual respect as their brothers.”
I agree. It’s time to leave young fans alone.
Prepared to fight any spotty teenager
I’ve always loved girl and boy bands. Some of my earliest memories include watching the creation of Girls Aloud on TV and dancing around my bedroom to ‘Sound of the Underground’. Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Boyzone…the cute puppy eyes were enough for my young, pure heart to beat just a little bit faster despite the fact they were long past their prime years.
Ten year old me thought it was a great shame I hadn’t been alive to witness the Spice Girls mania, although I was very proud when I managed to buy their debut album at a car boot sale for a pound.
In 2008, the Jonas Brothers were like the warm-up before the main act: One Direction.
“as the boys grew older, so did I, and by the time I went to university I had other priorities.”
I loved One Direction the first time they appeared on my screen. They had all the necessary ingredients for a successful boy band: cute, funny, playful, and in my naive thirteen year old eyes seemed so old and mature – like a friend’s older brother you secretly hope is home when you pop in for a visit.
I watched their weekly video diaries, travelled to their concerts, re-blogged gifs on Tumblr and was prepared to fight any other spotty teenager who wanted to marry them. But as the boys grew older, so did I, and by the time I went to university I had other priorities.
A melting pot of passion, excitement and love
Looking back at those years I am surprised by the intensity of it all. I lived and breathed One Direction. At the time it felt like I could never experience the same rush of excitement when the lights lowered and a whole arena started screaming as the band entered the stage. One Direction were a happy distraction for my fourteen year old self dealing with mean girls in my class, teenage acne, and crushes on boys way out of my league.
Amidst the 24/7 job of being a fangirl was of course the judgement. I’ve always been judged for my taste in music. I became accustomed to the mockery, from friends and family to random strangers online. Eh, it was all part of being a dedicated fan, I used to think. Now that I’m older my opinion has changed. It’s time to leave fangirls & fanboys alone.
“Apparently, young people expressing a wide range of emotions seem to fill these adults with incandescent rage.”
Countless times I’ve seen peers who claim to be progressive and open-minded, continuously slam those young fans of artists. The excuses are always the same – “their songs are awful”, “their pop music is a disgrace to music”, “Taylor Swift is such a drama queen” (aren’t all Hollywood stars?), yet they fail to see how they consistently attack the same kind of group: young people (many women), whose only crime is voraciously loving an artist. Apparently, young people expressing a wide range of emotions seem to fill these adults with incandescent rage.
Fan culture never leaves you
Fan culture is incredible. It is a melting pot of passion, excitement, pure love and hope. Fans dance, laugh, make memories, and feel an instant connection with peers hundreds of miles away over a laptop with a crummy wifi signal. Fan culture is a space for people to explore who they truly are, and to express themselves in ways that may not be possible elsewhere.
I won’t go into too much detail about acceptable fandoms, because we already know the spiel: sports such as football are granted the gift of being an acceptable obsession. Making a football club the centre of your life is acceptable. Loving a group of young men/women singing up-beat pop songs, is not.
“Everyone deserves a safe place to be themselves, especially if the outside world fails to provide one”
Perhaps one day young girls and boys will be able to fully love and support their favourite artist without being ridiculed. It gives me hope seeing how inclusive the BTS fandom seems to be. Everyone deserves a safe place to be themselves, especially if the outside world fails to provide one.
As an adult, I think it’s time to leave fangirls and boys alone. Let them enjoy their music no matter how horrendous you think it is, it really won’t have a huge impact on your life. These young people will one day discover all the musical greats, but it’s not your decision as to when and where they do.
My life has drastically changed over the past ten years. My music taste has evolved, in a way many people will probably say ‘improved’. The innocence I felt when I was a young fan is long gone. But if One Direction ever get back together as a quintet (a girl can always dream), I will be there, front-row, screaming my head off and enjoying every minute.
Emilia Jansson
Tweet to @JanssonEmilia
Featured image courtesy of Anthony Delanoix on Unsplash.
