Fandom, Fangirls and Female Sexuality
By: The Isthmus
Tags: Feminism, Fangirl, Fandom

“And the louder you screamed, the less likely anyone would forget the power of the fans. When the screams drowned out the music, as they invariably did, then it was the fans, and not the band, who were the show…” (Ehrenreich, Hess and Jacobs, 1992)

Last month at Brisbane’s BIGSOUND music conference, Pitchfork’s senior editor, Jessica Hopper, gave a keynote address which I strongly believe is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in music. As one of the most influential music critics of today, Hopper could have spoken about anything and had the room’s complete attention, but instead she took the opportunity to expose the sexist attitudes that plague the world of music, opening a discussion about why, after years of women establishing themselves as incredibly talented musicians, tastemakers and writers, women in music are still made to feel like they don’t belong. She spoke about some of the daily struggles women face as both musicians and music professionals in the industry, sharing all too real examples from women all over the world.

As a young woman on the cusp of her professional life with an interest in dipping her toe in the music business, these stories were quite disconcerting, but interestingly enough what jumped out at me was Hopper’s discussion of society’s disregard for women as consumers of music. Hopper eloquently highlighted how we have lost sight of the enduring capacity that young women have to anticipate, sustain and add culture value to the experience of music, and how we instead look down on female fans as second tear to male:

The term ‘fangirl’ tends to be a pejorative one. Its associated somehow with a lesser experience of music, as if teen girls in all of their riotous enthusiasm are simply undermining the point. Artists are made less important by that fangirl excitement, which is reduced and delegitimised as hysterical or silly, or worst of all, stupid. Their interests are assumed to be based on the glimmering surfaces or their attraction to the artist, rather than what they actually get from the music, or the concerts or the fan communities that they are a part of. Their interests are seen as an adoration that spoils the credibility of the artist that they love.

Hopper’s powerful address made me question my own frequent misuse of the term ‘fangirl’ and why I was so easily turning on my own and dismissing a demographic that is in fact integral to the industry. Women, in particular young girls, are the largest consumers of music in the world today and over the years have helped shape the way music is written, promoted and sold. After all, fangirls are not a new phenomenon…

In recent years the media has been swept up in a moral panic surrounding the intense and ‘unhealthy’ fans of artists like Justin Bieber and One Direction, but as Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess and Gloria Jacobs highlight, this is not the first case of star centred female hysteria. In the 1940s young women were swooning over Frank Sinatra, in the 1950s they were screaming for Elvis Presley and in the sixties, fandom hit a whole new level with the emergence of Beatlemania. In Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships Katherine Larsen and Lynn Zubernis discuss how The Beatles were headline news not only for their musical talents, “but for the reactions of their female fans, whose swooning and crying constituted a rare open expression of emotion and sexual feelings which has been described as revolutionary.” The young Beatles fans were reported as expressing themselves by, “sobbing uncontrollably while screaming… until the onset of either unconsciousness or laryngitis. Girls peed in their pants, fainted, or simply collapsed from the emotional strain.”

It is evident simply from the wording in the above report that, although The Beatles were a highly respected band, these young fans were looked down upon by society and their support of the band was mocked and ridiculed as silly and overwrought. The same can be seen today with Beliebers and Directioners, simply by looking at their urban dictionary definitions:

While admittedly these fandoms have at times produced scary and unhealthy subcultures which should of course not be encouraged,

…we cannot dismiss an entire culture based on a few extremists (sound familiar?). Fangirls have proven time and time again to be dedicated and passionate consumers, they will buy every ticket and every piece of merchandise available and are the cheapest and most effective publicists an artist could dream of. Yet, instead of celebrating this lush enthusiasm, the stigma surrounding female fandom seems to be, not so subtly, reinforcing that the worst thing you can be in this world is a passionate young woman. Why does the music industry, and the world at large, continue to reject these young fans?

Writer and Doctor Who fanatic, Deborah Stanish, suggests that there are two key issues at fault. Firstly, is the involvement of ‘fandom gatekeepers’, who take on the role of policing fandoms from people who they believe aren’t doing it ‘right’. This notion, which is seemingly ridiculous, deems there is only one true way to be a fan and dismisses fangirls as frivolous and their enjoyment of certain artists and music as unauthentic. Stanish proposes the second issue is the demonization of fangirls, which she defines as, “the systematic belittling of women’s, particularly young women’s, opinions.” In an article for Apex Magazine highlighting the oppression of fangirls in geek culture she wrote:

These petty fandom politics are damaging, and create an environment of exclusion that seeps into the real world. These are the same sort of arguments that were used to keep women out of voting booths, jobs and political office. It’s the rationale that is still used to drive women away from video games, comics, and the Internet at large: they don’t count, their opinions don’t count and we’re going to make sure they know it.

Looking back at fangirls within the music community, because their fan adoration is generally directed at male artists and boy bands, I would suggest there is a third issue to unpack as to why fangirls are frowned upon, and that is societies discomfort with female sexuality.

Fandom theorists believe that for many female fans, fandom is inviting because of its encouragement of self-expression, including sexual exploration. But as the constant public shaming of these young female fans by society, the larger fandom communities and even the artists they adore shows us, there is something about young women desiring or expressing sexual feelings that is socially unsettling and needs to be controlled. Larsen and Zubernis continue to highlight that young women are struggling to, “create a healthy sexual identity for themselves in a society still filled with mixed messages, double standards, fear and exploitation.”

[caption id=”attachment_6653" align=”aligncenter” width=”330"]

Society is fine with this…[/caption]

It seems the music industry is fine with making young women sexual objects in order to make money, but as soon as they become sexual subjects who express their desires, a moral panic is declared (simply look at Miley Cyrus)! Because then, the control is out of their hands and the reality sets in that female sexuality in young girls exists beyond the male gaze. There seems this social double standard where young boys are expected (if not encouraged) to have sexual feelings and to explore them privately with outlets like porn. But today, in 2015, we still seem to treat young girls as precious and delicate flowers that need to be protected from the realities of adulthood. We should be encouraging a healthy and safe exploration of sexuality in young girls, rather than instilling them with a sense of shame.

[caption id=”attachment_6949" align=”aligncenter” width=”300"]

But not with this.[/caption]

Hopper’s keynote address opened a much needed discussion about why the music industry dismisses fangirls as relevant consumers of music. It seems that for healthy development to occur, the industry needs to start acknowledging and valuing fangirls and to simply stop telling them that they are doing it wrong. Within the industry and throughout the world, fangirls are dismissed as overly emotional or hysterical, but even hysteria is a gendered term. If you look as far back as the nineteenth century, Freud defined hysteria as a neurosis in women caused by repression, conflicted sexuality and fantasy.

So maybe the question should no longer be, why is society dismissing fangirls? But instead, is fangirl excitement simply caused by the heightened emotions of pubescent teens, or is it deeper than that? Is this fangirl ‘hysteria’ a product of generations of sexual repression and a disregard of young women as sexual beings?