In my
search for a topic to blog about, I happened to stumble across an interesting
read regarding a subject often spoken of : boy bands.
In an
issue of GQ magazine released earlier this year, an author proceeded to
describe One Direction fans (particularly women who happen to be fans) in ways
that can, and perhaps should be seen as offensive. Such descriptions included statements like
these:
"By
now we all know the immense transformative power of a boy band to turn a
butter-wouldn't-melt teenage girl into a rabid, knicker-wetting banshee who
will tear off her own ears in hysterical fervour when presented with the
objects of her fascinations. Hasn't this spectacle of the natural world - like
the aurora borealis or the migration of wild bison across America's Great
Plains - been acknowledged?"
"These women don't care about
the Rolling Stones. They don't care about the meta-modernist cycle of cultural
repetition. They don't care about history. All these female fans care about is
their immediate vociferous reverence."
"Inside the venue a hormone bomb
has gone off: 20,000 females all turning themselves inside out, some almost
literally, to the sight of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis
Tomlinson, and Liam Payne...an ocean of 20,000 wide open mouths, hundreds of
pleading white eyes, 40,000 palms raised skywards, a dark pink oil slick that
howls and moans and undulates with every impish crotch-thrust from their idols'
plinths. Thousands of female fans caught on the cusp of their own sexual
awakening.
Of course, many
feminist writers/blogger has a field day analyzing such categorizations, two in
particular catching my interest. To begin
with, we have Aja Romano from the Daily Dot. Romano’s central point focuses on
the reaction of the fans to the GQ article, and the media’s counter response to
the fans (GQ included). She accurately points out that the vicious reaction of
the fans against their misogynistic portrayal in GQ, and the mockery of said
reaction is deeply rooted in the patriarchal society in which we all live,
which demands that women remain silent and smiling despite being under constant
pressure to conform to a societal ideal, and being criticized for interests that
lie outside of said ideal. Of course, anger is a natural and justified response
to this kind of treatment, but because GQ and certain other media outlets
routinely exploit the misogyny of their primary base of readership (straight
men), they are quick to dismiss the valid complaints of 1D fans as naught but hysteria
and insanity.
Another author, a
blogger from Jezebel, brings attention to another dynamic, the inherent misogyny
of focusing in on one particular fandom composed of primarily teenaged girls as
if it was some kind of bizarre spectacle. The author points out that sports fans,
a demographic composed more of boys and men, are given a certain amount of
respect, even though sports fans have routinely caused riots resulting in
property damage. This seems to indicate that more respect to interests that
appear to be dominated by men, then given to interests which appear to be
dominated by women, but even that analysis doesn’t completely address the
problem, as women often face difficulty becoming a part of supposedly man
dominated interests, revealing that the true issue lies with the interests of
women themselves. This indicated a deeper level of misogyny, where women are
expected to have certain interests, yet, they are simultaneously condemned for
those interests, or for branching out into other interests that they haven’t
been allowed (by society) to like. With a system like this in place, it’s
simply not possible to win….. women will face criticism simply for existing in
society that places men ahead of them.
Overall, it was
interesting for me to delve into this kind of though, because boy band related
topics aren’t something I personally have a great deal of experience with. I’d
invite everyone to check out articles, and well as the original GQ article, and
leave thought below!
http://groupthink.jezebel.com/boy-bands-and-sexism-can-we-stop-hating-teenage-girls-991624796
(Jezebel)
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