Thoughts on Fangirls

[nightfox]

If you are a fan, a female, a female fan or know any female fans then check this out:

Fangirl Isnt' A Dirty Word by Deborah Stanish


Thanks to issy5209 for pointing this article out!

I am quite happy to identify as a "fangirl" even if I technically left my girlhood long ago. And while I do roll my eyes a bit at the public behavior of some fangirls (harassing actors in their private lives is just not cool) by and large, most of the fangirls I know are seriously cool people and I am proud to call myself one of them.

Comments

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful. Thank you for sharing the link ♥

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome!

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

Most of my fangirl friends are totally cool and I'm a fangirl, too, although I haven't been in girlhood for quite some time.

I think the media and social networks tend to focus on the 'bad' and lump everyone into the same pot, mainly because it's easier than understanding the subtleties of fannish experience. Sadly.

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

Even among certain fan communities there are factions that look down their nose at some of their fellow fans. Thankfully the Merlin fandom isn't one of them, but the Doctor Who fandom where I started out certainly is. The older, long-term fans of Classic Who tend to sneer at those who came on board with the new show and there's also a lot of male vs female fandom as well. As if the female experience/expression of fan appreciation is less valid than the male and therefore somehow contemptible.

[tambear13.livejournal.com]

I love being a fangirl, but occasionally I do get very embarrassed because of what other people do...

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do too but then again, sometimes I get very embarrassed by my family in public as well, so, we take the bad with the good, eh? I'd rather have it all than have none of it.

[tambear13.livejournal.com]

True, very very true =)

[issy5209.livejournal.com]

exactly!
Its just how fangirls are treated or viewed in the wider community that is a problem, as somebody else said

Fangirls are not only being told they are doing it wrong, they are also being mocked and marginalized within the larger fandom community.
and that's not cool either.
Mind you, I think its still OK to laugh at One Direction fans who got all upset and wanted to go after members of "The Who" for daring to suggest that a song was a Who ripoff, when they didn't know who The Who was to start with!!!

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

Well, those One Direction fans aren't any more ludicrous than the Merlin fans who got volubly upset when Colin & Bradley got themselves girlfriends or the war over whether or not Bradley was actually fat or not.

You will have the ridiculous element everywhere. However, to take a broad brush to all female fans because of the behavior of a few is unfair.

[issy5209.livejournal.com]

LOL, I missed the fanwar over whether Bradley was fat or not!

But yes, that's the point isn't it, not every girl who's a fan behaves in that manner