One Direction Infection

BY: Allyson Williams

When you hear the word “fangirl” what do you think of? I’m sure some words that popped into your mind were crazy, obsessive, young, silly, etc. According to Gerrard, the definition of a fangirl is “a discourse that is commonly used to devalue young and feminine fans, fandoms, and behaviors” (Gerrard 2021). The devaluation of girl culture, fan culture, and celebrity culture all go hand in hand because all three are always under surveillance. People treat being a fan girl as a horrible personality trait that makes them unprofessional and immature, but what about the positives? Let’s talk about how passionate, loyal, thoughtful, creative, excited, and dedicated fan girls are within their fanbases. More specifically, let’s talk about the great British boy band, One Direction, and how they have had some of the “craziest” fans in the world.

In 2010, One Direction emerged from the U.K’s television show “The X-Factor.” All five members, Harry, Louis, Niall, Zayn, and Liam, went onto the show as solo performers and came out as one big boyband. Simon Cowell, who was one of the judges on the show at this time, was the one to decide to put all five of these boys together. Despite the fact that One Direction didn’t win this season of The X-Factor, they definitely became one of the greatest boybands of all time with one of the largest fanbases across the world. They got so much fame in such a short amount of time that they didn’t know what to do with it. “In four years, One Direction released five albums and played 326 shows in theaters and stadiums across four world tours” (Paul 2021).

This nonstop celebrity life had a great effect on the members of the band which led to one member leaving, and not long after, the rest of the band deciding to take a hiatus. The hiatus was said to last 18 months, but we are currently in month 77 of the hiatus, and all of the members have began their own successful solo careers. With that being said, Directioners don’t believe they’ll be reuniting any time soon, but that doesn’t stop them from being fans.

The study of girlhood is crucial to understanding girls. Anita Harris introduces the theory of the can do girls versus the at risk girls. Can do girls are self driven, self made, optimistic, individualized, ambitious, abstinent, athletic, and the list goes on. At risk girls are the early mothers, lazy, depressed, drug users, lacking in resources, and once again, the list goes on (Harris 2004). While thinking of the can do and at risk girls, I wonder, where do fangirls get placed? The devaluation of fangirls leads me to consider them as at risk girls. Gerrard has an interesting point about how even the white cisgender heterosexual girls, are less privileged on an institutional level, making the fangirl identity marginalized (Gerrard 2021).

Related to Harris’ theory of the can do versus the at risk girls, Projansky has a similar theory on girlhood being a spectacle. Projanksky studies the spectacularization of girls in the media in two ways, which makes them “visual objects on display” (Projansky 2014). Girls are everywhere across the mass media because the media is so fascinated with not only celebrity girls, but normal girls too. The spectacular girls are more like the can do girls in the sense that they are less controversial, confident, smart, and fabulous. The spectacle girls, also known as scandals, are more similar to the at risk prototype of girls. The fabulous girls catch your eyes in a dramatic and spectacular way, while the scandal girls draw attention to themselves in a ridiculous way (Projansky 2014). This makes me think of how we think of fangirls being crazy and obnoxious, the same way we think of at risk scandal girls in the media.

Gerrard also talks about how there are three fan stereotypes, which all happen to be degrading. I already talked about fangirls and how they are devalued for being young and feminine. There are also the groupies who are the stereotypical female fans who are more interested in sexual relationships with male musicians than their actual talent. Lastly, there is the shippers who are more interested in the fictional relationships with male artists (Gerrard 2021). Shippers usually have parasocial relationships with their favorite artists, which is when one person extends emotional energy, time, and interest, and the other party is completely unaware of the others’ existence. Shippers are also known for fan fictions, which were huge in the One Direction fandom. One fan fiction, After, became so popular that it was published as a series, then soon after became a movie sequel. However, to assume that girls only like an artist or boyband because of sexual attraction, is a false assumption. Girls don’t need to normalize their pleasures. If you’re a fan of something, be a fan. Embrace that passionate side of yourself because as soon as you start to feel guilty for being a fangirl, you “reproduce the same intersecting ageist and sexist discourses that are leveled against you” (Gerrard 2021).

It is also important to mention the surveillance of girls and their sexuality. The idea of girls having sexual thoughts or engaging in sexual behaviors creates this massive moral panic. Hasinoff describes the discourse around sexuality between boys and girls in which it is widely more acceptable for boys to be sexual than girls. “The most problematic implication of blaming girls for sexualization is that it diverts attention and blame from the typical perpetrators of gender- and sexuality-based violence—men and boys” (Hasinoff 2014). This is the reason why “groupies” and “shippers” are so devalued, because girls aren’t supposed to have sexual desires no matter what the age. They are simply supposed to be heterosexual and asexual at the same time!

In an article by Krystal Orehek, she talks about the misogyny behind fan culture and why female dominated interests are not taken as seriously as male dominated interests. Anytime a girl shows interest in something, whether it be a boyband, solo artist, book, movie, etc., they constantly have to explain why it is interesting. Not only does this belittle girls and what they like, but it also puts down boybands, and deems them unsuccessful (Orehek 2020).

As we can see in this Venn Diagram (Orehek 2020) the characteristics of fandoms, both male and female dominated, actually have a lot more in common that we fail to realize. Both types of fans spend loads of money, get emotional over team or artist, scream/chant, and go to concerts/events. Society expects men to be die hard fans of sports, cars, and models, but the double standard belittles girls and women into having to justify their interests. Because girls have no taste, right?

Another important factor in the devaluation of girls, is their age. One Direction’s fanbase was majority young girls or teens, but all these girls grew up into women who are still “Directioners.” In The SAGE Encyclopedia Of Children And Childhood Studies, we can see a glimpse at the ageist and sexist norms that are pushed on girls and boys from very young ages. SAGE says “women and children also share some similar structural dynamics of oppression… in terms of a relative lack of influence, power, and the realization of their rights” (SAGE 2020).

Like I said before, everything girls show interest in is silly and not taken seriously. However, we can see that it doesn’t change when girls get older, their title just transforms from fangirls to groupies. Orehek has a good point of how when men get older, they aren’t judged for liking a sports team past the age of 18. On the other hand when girls start turning into women, they need to grow out of their interests and move on with their lives. “If you can have a man-cave dedicated to a football team at 50-years-old, then she can have a Michael Jackson poster up at 50 too” (Orehek).

When One Direction was formed, I was only ten years old. At this point in my life I was a Jonas Brothers fan because of the influence of my sister, a Justin Bieber Belieber, because who didn’t love his hair during that time, and also a One Directioner. I am now almost twenty two years old and still listen to all three of these artists. One Direction in particular was the most influential on my life, and to this day I still follow all five members solo careers. One Direction was more than just a band to me and millions of other fans across the world. They wrote music we could dance, cry, and scream the words to. They made us laugh through their video diaries and interviews just by being themselves. They helped millions of girls navigate through their girlhood just by being a band. There was a video on TikTok (screenshot below) that talked about how One Direction is a comfort band to so many people, that the fans use to help cope with trauma. The entire world collectively went through a traumatic experience with the coronavirus pandemic, so a lot of One Direction fans went back to listening to them. They bring their fans comfort, peace, and happiness even in the toughest of times, which is hard to say the same for sports teams. So when someone says One Direction is more than just a band, believe them, because that band is a huge part of the girlhood experience.

Resources

Gerrard, Ysabel. “Groupies, Fangirls and Shippers: The Endurance of a Gender Stereotype.” American Behavioral Scientist (2021): 1-16.

Kustatscher, Marlies. “Gender.” In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies, edited by Daniel Thomas Cook, 1–6. Sage, 2020.

Harris, Anita. “Chapter 1: The ‘Can-Do’ Girl versus the ‘At-Risk’ Girl.” Future Girl: Young Women in the Twenty-First Century, 13-35. Routledge, 2004.

Projansky, Sarah. “Introduction: Finding Alternative Girlhoods.” Spectacular Girls: Media Fascination and Celebrity Culture, 1-23. New York University Press, 2014.

Hasinoff, Amy Adele. “Blaming Sexualization for Sexting.” Girlhood Studies 7, no. 1 (January 1, 2014): 102-120

Paul, Larisha. “10 Years of One Direction: The Story of the World's Biggest Boy Band, Told with the Fans Who Made It Happen.” Billboard, December 8, 2021. https:// www.billboard.com/music/pop/one-direction-ten-year-anniversary-fan-

interviews-9419436/.

Orehek, Krystal. “The Underlying Misogyny Surrounding Fangirl Culture.” The Paper Cut, October 6, 2020. https://shsthepapercut.com/48947/showcase/the-underlying-misogyny-surrounding-fangirl-culture/.