When you are a 6-year-old girl, you are mocked for playing with Barbie dolls, for wearing a sparkly baby pink bow, for believing in unicorns & mermaids for acting “too Girly".
When you turn 9, you opt for a pair of azure slip-on Sketchers and a game of football instead of rhinestone embellished, light-up Lelli Kelly's and ballet, then you’re a “tomboy” or a “pick-me".
As the years go by and your interests diversify, you enter the celestial realm of fandoms, whether they be of television shows, film franchises, book series, bands & musicians (although in most cases it is often multiple), you find yourself enraptured by this mystical universe and embark upon your journey of becoming a fangirl.
This experience is one that I and numerous others have been so thankfully graced with, however, often upon informing somebody of your interests in these subjects, you are frequently greeted with a plethora of condescending stereotypes.
But why?
Why, when a teenage girl expresses her passion, are they defined as hysterical, deranged, obsessive, extreme psychopaths?
Why does the term “fangirl” elicit such negative connotations, when in fact it is the fruit of effervescence?
Well, the answer to your question is the panoptic presence of sexism in our society: now this does not solely apply to our modern-day world, misogynistic ideals have long been active in our culture, they are the virus of a code programmed into the human conscience preliminary to the invention of the computer, the echo of the spite sibilated into our ears by our malevolent mothers, the infection of a poison laced into our blood as meek infants.
For instance, ever since Beatlemania seized the attention of the youth back in the 1960s, fangirls have been regarded as berserk and hysterical, but where does this notion come from?
The term hysteria originates from hystera, Greek for the uterus. According to Wikipedia, the oldest record of hysteria dates back to 1900 BCE when Egyptians recorded behavioural abnormalities in adult women; the Egyptians attributed these to a “displaced uterus” – thus the condition later being dubbed hysteria.
The ancient Greeks accepted the ancient Egyptians' explanation for hysteria; and in the 19th century hysteria was a diagnosable medical condition (for women only) which ensued exaggerated displays of emotion or “difficult” behaviour.
Such prejudice towards women and young girls has been deeply ingrained within our society for centuries and is widely prevalent even today; for example, the “overly emotional” state of women is often dismissed as being the doings of their uteri.
On the other hand, men appear to have been granted a free pass to be fanatics of their favourite sports teams or video games, so why not women?
There is abundance evidence of the presence of a double standard: grown adult men are frequently lauded for attending sports matches shirtless, with their torsos smothered in paint resembling the colours of their favourite team and gallons of beer to fuel their crude fights in defence of their “boys”, however, a 14-year-old girl buying her favourite artist’s vinyl and staying up till the early hours of the AM in order to witness possibly the highlight of her year over a grainy livestream is viewed as delirious and “falling for marketing gimmicks" and “feeding overconsumption”?
As a major fangirl myself, I can attest that these feelings of scorn are very much real; on multiple occasions, I have mentioned my deep admiration for Taylor Swift and have been instantly met with outbursts of rage from my very own peers!
These anti-feminist toxins have weaselled their way into the minds of children, posing peril to both the future of society and multiple generations of young girls.
I recall my first guitar lesson and my first conversation with my guitar teacher, who upon learning of my passionate feelings towards Taylor -and Finnick Odair 😉- instantly remarked that I was born with the fangirl gene; this is a prime example of how an interaction about fangirling should go, no deprecating statements but instead respect and laughter.
Unfortunately, this is often far from the case with most fangirls; recently, the tragic passing of One Direction phenomenon Liam Payne and the grieving of fans has been misused by many online as an opportunity to make remarks about how “we didn't even know him” or insensitive jokes, such as “he went in the wrong direction".
Such experiences have induced further distress towards Directioners simply trying to heal their inner little girls’ broken hearts - I myself am a victim of such heartlessness.
Meanwhile, the death of Kobe Bryant led to deep sorrow amongst thousands of basketball fans who unlike the little girls, were completely supported and justified in their grief.
Such disparity perpetuates the patriarchy and attempts to belittle people's feelings; however, I strongly believe that everyone should be capable of mourning, regardless of their gender, age or whether they had ever even physically met the person at all.
Recent tours by the likes of Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo have cemented the economic and cultural power of fangirls, with Swifties alone generating an estimated $5bn for the US economy last year, yet so many female music fans still feel prejudiced against - and this number will only continue to rise.
The time is here, the time is now.
The time has come to dismantle the stigma around fangirls because the truth is exactly what the great Cyndi Lauper very wisely proclaimed, "Girls just wanna have fun!”.
