Fandom, Feminism, and FUN

male audiences will happily watch a dozen superhero shows, but then something like Agent Carter or Supergirl turn up and they’re panned from the first trailer and have to struggle for ratings. male audiences will watch countless installments of a franchise as long as it’s about men doing man things but the second a character like Rey or Furiosa or god forbid four entire female Ghostbusters steps up and takes a position of prominence it’s “pandering sjw bullshit”.

this isn’t like… an opinion I’m pulling out of my ass here? this starts where earlier than tv shows and hollywood blockbusters, when all the kids in a class are reading Harry Potter or Percy Jackson or Eragon o Lord of the Rings or Maze Runner or whatever the hip book is right now. the books like that, the ones that become popular reading, are overwhelmingly about male leads, because male is still considered the default. 

there’s a split in YA literature, between books that are “for everyone” and “for girls”, and that’s honestly the entire issue in a tiny little box right there. stories about men are supposed to be accessible for everyone, but stories about girls are seen as 1.) inherently for women and 2.) something that only women will care about.

men grow up in a society that doesn’t make them go out of their way to get into the heads of women and empathize with then. historically it’s been very easy for men to not engage with female-led media if they don’t want to, whereas (like someone else commented on this post) girls and women have had very little choice in the past because everything was about men. we didn’t even question it.

and now the women are arriving in mainstream media in ways that say they’re important and they matter and

small (or sometimes not so small) but loud-enough-to-be-acknowledged groups of men lose. their. shit.

because they think there’s something inherently Not For Them about a woman’s story, and they never learned how to deal with it.

Korobkova, Ksenia A. “Schooling the Directioners: Connected Learning and Identity-Making in the One Direction Fandom” (2014).

VanCant, Brianna. “Whovians and Directioners: Challenging the Fangirl Identity” (2014). (thesis)

Hartati, Nur. “The Structural Procedures in the Translation of Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction the Biography Book” (2014). (thesis)

Nguyen-Phuong, Jessica. “’All You Need Is Love’: The Rising Importance of Celebrity Status, Social Media, and Fandoms in the Music Industry” (2014). (thesis) – can’t access this one without a Claremont Colleges affiliation, which maybe you have?

Arnold, Katharine. “The Fangirl Gaze: The Influence of Gendered Media Audience on Emerging Sexuality” (2015).

Black, Rebecca W. and Ksenia A. Korobkova. “Contrasting Visions: Identity, Literacy, and Boundary Work in a Fan Community” (2014).

Allen, Kim; Harvey, Laura; & Mendick, Heather. “'Justin Bieber Sounds Girlie’: Young People’s Celebrity Talk and Contemporary Masculinities” (2015).

Jones, Rachel E. “‘I’m Happy Just to Dance to the Best Song Ever’: A Comparative Musical Analysis of The Beatles and One Direction” (2015). (college writing contest submission ?)

Bailey, Dorie. “Beefing Up the Beefcake: Male Objectification, Boy Bands, and the Socialized Female Gaze” (2016). (thesis)

Fuck your white horse and a carriage

Get your Riri Valentines hot off the press

my father tells me we have nothing to worry about. last night he sent me one of those email chains that say at the top “Safety Tips For The Women In Your Life!!!! Don’t Let Her Die!!” 

me, and the stranger on the train. she is asleep and the man is asking me who i am going home to. i feel tears pricking the sides of my eyes. i am 13 while he towers over me. he reaches out one hand, and while i don’t know how she knows, she speaks up without opening her eyes: “If you touch my daughter, sir, I will murder you.” Whatever he grumbles is lost in history, because this moment I am so grateful for the existence of other people that I cannot breathe.

I am 19 and on my phone when i become aware of a 13 year old girl is smiling nervously at a man who’s saying disgusting things. I grab her arm. “There you are, cindy,” I say, and then look at the man like he is bile. “Do you need something from my sister?” i ask, and i walk away with her. she cries later.

Leave one word “subscribed” comments

Tell them “consider this extra kudos <3″

Leave that essay on that old fic

Tell them if you’ve reread it once. Tell them if you’ve reread it 100 times 

Tell them how much you’ve seen their writing grow

Tell them when you rec their fic

Tell them how much you can see their passion

Tell them when the fic made you grin when it made you cry when it made you FEEL

CNN dug up a letter he wrote to the editor of the Indianapolis Star in 1997, in which he called out mothers in the workforce because, ladies, Mike Pence wants you to know that you truly cannot have it all. “For years, we have gotten the message from the mouthpieces of the popular culture that you can have it all, career, kids and a two-car garage,” he wrote. “The numbers in this federally funded study argue that the converse is true. Sure, you can have it all, but your day-care kids get the short end of the emotional stick.” 

[excerpt]

it has been shown time and time again that the negative connotations surrounding One Direction and pop music, the negative connotations of being considered a One Direction fan, the dismissal of One Direction and their success by music critics and the poor treatment of One Direction fans by the music community are very largely rooted in sexism.