When you’re sitting outside and a swarm of flies decide to set up camp on your limbs, the automatic response is to swat them away.
“Who knows where they’ve been?!”
“Yuck!”
“GO AWAY!”
The thing that nobody thinks about, is that each fly that you mindlessly swat has a story. They were born somewhere, they probably have thousands of siblings, a mother, and want nothing more than to survive.
In the eyes of the media and the general public, the term “fangirl” ignites a similar response. A tendency to view them as mass produced items with no effort being made to individualise or tell their stories.
I am (almost) nineteen years old, and since the age of fourteen, I have been a fan of One Direction.
Depending on the contextual surroundings and subjective boundaries of the term, I could be classed as a fangirl. I went to their concert, I bought their albums on the release dates, I follow them on social media, I engage with fan blogs, and now that I’m old enough to drive, I blast their music in my car despite my family’s rage.
Now, before you light your torches and grab your pitchforks, I want you to think about this for a moment.
When I said that I was a fan of One Direction, your perception of me probably changed. To you, I am no longer an ordinary nineteen-year-old girl, I am a fly.
What I haven’t yet told you, is that I also jam to the likes of Elvis and The Beatles, read classic novels on the regular, study Public Relations at University, and my main goal in life is to bring a positive change to the world.
Why is all of this obsolete because I’m a fan of something popular?
The war between fandoms and the media has been fought for many years. The media’s perception of screaming, crying and the thriving merchandise industry is all the general public is really familiar with.
But amidst the release of Cameron Crowe’s interview with Harry Styles in Rolling Stone Magazine, it would seem that a spark has (finally) been ignited.
When asked about his audience being comprised of young girls and the pressure of this this, Styles said something that I believe the world truly needed to hear.
“Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music – short for popular, right? – have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That’s not up to you to say. Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick,” he said.
Journalists and the general public have relayed this message all over social media, and it would seem that a fire is finally burning.
Whether those with preconceived ideas of the group choose to ignore it or not, fangirls are the future.
The girl that you met in high school who wore a Justin Bieber t shirt every day may be the leader of your country.
The boy that cried at the release of Harry Styles’ ‘Sign of the Times’ may save your life when you enter the emergency room.
We all have stories to tell, and we all have goals.
So instead of swatting us and hindering our growth, give us the encouragement and support we need to bring about the level of change that could truly save the world.
