March 2012 was the first time I came across a One Direction video that didn’t make me roll my eyes. Recently turned fifteen, I had reached that point in teenage years where you either scoff at the very sight of a pop singer, choosing to fill your ears and brain with alternative genres of music such as indie or heavy metal, or you gravitate towards the pop world, the pop industry and pop music as a general thing. For years, my case was the first . I, as many as other girls, thought the premise behind One Direction was ridiculous and unsatisfying. I’d thought that the mindless pop they had put out with their first album Up All Night was nothing to write home about, nothing that would make me the type of girl that could relate to protagonists in every single YA book – the moody, sullen girl that lives off fairy dust and Of Monsters and Men.
All it took was a video of them singing I Want and Harry Styles’ funny – for a fifteen year old, at least – lyric change into a penis joke for me to go down the rabbit hole of music videos, interviews, photoshoots and theories upon theories. Days of research and allowing myself to listen to their album from a non-biased point of view and I was hooked. But most importantly, I became extremely aware of how my decision to drift away from One Direction was more caused by the way people might feel or talk about me than the way I felt about their existence and their music at all.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely no fault in not liking pop music – that’s a discussion for another time – and my particular views on One Direction and their music have shifted through their years, but from day one I was extremely bothered by the way the media perceives fandom and fandom culture as a whole.
More than anyone else, I can attest you that fandom culture is not a particularly safe space. It wasn’t when fanzines were the preferred means of interaction between fans, when it was Livejournal and it definitely isn’t now that Tumblr is one of the main platforms where fans come together to talk about their favorite celebrities. Much of it is due to the different backgrounds and beliefs between the fans of a particular person. The diversity inside the fandom is something that should be praised and loved, but at the same time it leads to tons of discussions that are tied with social justice problems, which are themes in minority communities daily. And just as much as those themes cause controversy in and outside those communities, it doesn’t work much differently in fandom.
However, there’s one thing that ties together every single publication about a pop star . It’s something found on any article about Justin Bieber’s pecs, Miley Cyrus’ antics or Taylor Swift’s latest Grammy, and that something is how these articles’ authors refer to the pop star’s fans. From “hormonal teenagers” to “crazy devoted girls”, being a fan of a pop singer has been reduced to something banal and pathetic, something worth being made fun of. Granted, those articles, much like everything else concerning music and the music industry, are predominantly written by white males in their thirties. Therefore, they are often less than interested on what they are talking about and, most of the time, are more willing to pass off judgement that comes from a place of sexism than give out valid criticism.
What the media is interested in passing to younger generations is that they’re more mature and smart if they’re a fan of, say, Radiohead, than if they’re a huge fan of Fifth Harmony. The validation of teenagers’ music taste and opinions only come if the most played artist in their library isn’t somehow related to the type of music Lady Gaga puts out. Needless to say, that’s extremely detrimental for a teenage girl with a developing mind. They’re either going to react like I did and refuse to start liking a pop artist or they are going to deny through and through that Rihanna’s latest single is not only a song they love, but one they can relate to.
The praise of things often considered inherently male is more socially accepted as perfectly healthy and normal over the praise of things that are considered exclusively female. That conflicts with the fact that boys can easily be One Direction fans as much as girls can root passionately for Manchester United or offer valid and constructive criticism while watching a Cavaliers game. However, the girl is not going to be taken seriously whether she talks about One Direction or sports – the first because of the social acceptance aforementioned and the second because the sexist views in the society keeps telling women that they are not supposed to be well verse in things inherently male claiming it’s out of their range and comprehension. Meaning, whatever path a girl chooses, she’s going to be doomed to being judged and questioned, no matter how much she’s invested in it.
I am nineteen years old now and I’ve been part of one fandom or the other since I was about ten. It went from Harry Potter to Percy Jackson to Glee to One Direction and now exclusively Zayn Malik, passing through countless other books, TV shows and music artists until I reached this point. I’ve yet to encounter people more creative, shamelessly passionate and invested in something that brightens their days as people that are part of a fandom, as girls that are part of a fandom. We grow together with our idols, be them real or fictional, and we learn with them and beyond them.
The point is that we’re both what we build of ourselves within fandom and fandom culture, and the experiences we live outside of those. To have our existences diminished into being scandalous girls with not much to offer other than twitter “stan fights” and keyboard smashes is hurtful and condescending. We can definitely give you all of that and so, so much more.
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site.
