Why Don’t We Take Fangirls Seriously?

From running onto fields and courts during a game to destroying public property, sports fans have done plenty of dangerous, inappropriate things to prove their devotion and passion. Why is that fan behavior practically normalized for a fandom that’s stereotypically male, when “fangirls,” who do little more than scream at the top of their lungs as they wait outside of concert venues, are widely considered crazy? You guessed it: misogyny.

Take the term itself: “fangirl.” The creation of this term spawned from decades of fan culture associated with girls and femininity, dating back to the matinee girls of the late 1800s and the “screen-struck” girls of the early 1900s. These girls bolstered a market that allowed the mass production of music to thrive and contributed to the rise of popular media. Yet, despite this clear market value, two things have happened to the social perception of this group: Their behavior is often generalized as crazy, and the objects of their desire often dismissed as worthless of everybody else’s time.

Let’s break this down and return to a comparison of fangirls to sports fans. The most evident similarity between these fan groups is the desire to express their passion for their particular interest. The dominant difference is the general public’s perception of the expression of that passion. The fan behaviors of grown men, things like storming the court or riots and death threats, are normalized, and the fan behaviors of young girls and women waiting for the newest Twilight book or creating fan trailers and posters are described as ravenous or even rabid.

Though there isn’t a distinguishable trait that unifies all objects of fangirl desire, there are identifiable interests associated with it, including boy bands, teen drama TV shows, dystopian book series, rom-coms, and beyond. These forms of media are all different, yet they share a striking similarity: None of them are taken seriously in the public eye. This indifferent and often shameful attitude is evident in the way fangirls are made into an easy joke in sitcoms, where a character is made fun of for their interest in something girly. For example, in an episode of the show Friends, Joey is made fun of (through the sarcastic comments of other characters and the audience laugh track) for his sudden love of the book Little Women. Or take the appearance of the boy band BTS on The Late Late Show with James Corden, during which Corden generalized their fans to be “15-year-old girls” — even after the band had just appeared at the U.N. General Assembly. The clip has since been deleted once fans spoke up against the condescending and misogynistic comment.

Time and time again, our culture finds ways not only to shame or dismiss girls and women for their interests and passions, but also to establish a hierarchy among women — a hierarchy in which the fangirl falls to the bottom. Take how the shame associated with being a fangirl is also the foundation of the “pick-me girl” or “cool girl” archetypes that reject passions and interests clearly associated with women in a way that elevates them above other girls and women.

To be clear, this is not a defense of truly crazy fan culture. As a proud fangirl myself, I believe there is a line between being a passionate fan and being obsessed; it is a line any person can cross, regardless of gender. I’ll also be the first to admit that not every boy band, rom-com, dystopian book series, or teen drama series is of high quality (whatever the heck that even means). But plenty of media targeted to other demographics is of poor quality, too, and who is to say that every piece of media has to be “of quality.” Who among us hasn’t enjoyed a badly written TV show or book series? The bottom line is that girls’ interests are not less than those of men or anyone that falls outside the traditional fangirl demographic. As young girls and women, much of the media we consume is of high quality and we should not let anyone tell us otherwise.

Too much of my adolescence was spent ashamed of the very interests that have kept me going through some of the toughest parts of my life, so it is time that young girls and women speak proudly about their passions and that the general public recognizes some of our interests and passions for what they are: incredible, hilarious, life-saving things that anybody can proudly enjoy.