Boy Bands and Sexism: Can We Stop Hating Teenage Girls?

[redqueen]

GQ recently published an article about One Direction. There's been a lot of angry reactions to the article for a number of reasons, but what I'm interested in is the fact that the article is grossly misogynistic. It objectifies One Direction fans and reduces them to their perceived sexual interest in the band.

Excerpts:

"By now we all know the immense transformative power of a boy band to turn a butter-wouldn't-melt teenage girl into a rabid, knicker-wetting banshee who will tear off her own ears in hysterical fervour when presented with the objects of her fascinations. Hasn't this spectacle of the natural world - like the aurora borealis or the migration of wild bison across America's Great Plains - been acknowledged?"

It's like a sexist BINGO card. In two sentences, the author refers to girls as banshees, calls them hysterical, and talks about them as if they were animals instead of people. That's a pretty impressive feat on its own, but don't worry, he manages to outdo himself.

"These women don't care about the Rolling Stones. They don't care about the meta-modernist cycle of cultural repetition. They don't care about history. All these female fans care about is their immediate vociferous reverence."

Yes, if you like boy bands you couldn't possibly be interested in anything else. You think you have depth? No, you just have hormones:

"Inside the venue a hormone bomb has gone off: 20,000 females all turning themselves inside out, some almost literally, to the sight of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne...an ocean of 20,000 wide open mouths, hundreds of pleading white eyes, 40,000 palms raised skywards, a dark pink oil slick that howls and moans and undulates with every impish crotch-thrust from their idols' plinths. Thousands of female fans caught on the cusp of their own sexual awakening."

Apparently being a 34 year old man and writing about teenagers using highly sexualized language makes you a journalist rather than a creep.

...

Sports fans have caused actual riots, but people still take sports seriously. Boy band fans scream at concerts, and suddenly they're "a spectacle of the natural world." Things that are made for women, particularly young women, are automatically given less respect. Girls who get interested interested in comic books or video games or science fiction get called "fake geek girls."

...

http://groupthink.jezebel.com/boy-bands-and-sexism-can-we-stop-hating-teenage-girls-991624796?utm_source=feedburner

[clarice]

1. I'll bet he was in the front row. nt

[ismnotwasm]

2. I had the rare young patient

(I usually care for above 18 year olds) who had a cardboard stand up of a boy band in her room. I had never heard of them so I looked them up and listened to a couple of their songs. Not bad.

This was a very sick young girl whose courage and strength rivaled, in fact exceeded, many adults. She has a full understanding of her condition including the worst possible outcomes.

She was an admirable person in every way.

That article is disgustingly misogynistic and über creepy. Written like a dark sexual fantasy, the author reminds me of an asshole who wishes he had a secret basement full of bandage gear (he'd be too afraid to actually use until his clear hatred of women has an "excuse" to act) Because he doesn't want permission, he wants to control. So he writes crap instead.

[redqueen]

3. It sickens me that this kind of crap is so commonplace.

Girls are treated as less-than by default, and as soon as they reach adolescence the scum like this guy and that magazines readers really kick their hatred into high gear.

[Arcanetrance]

4. Obviously this guy's never been to a slayer show

Been two a bunch of them and let me tell you it's a bunch of big white males doing nothing but trying to draw blood in honor of the band. But I guess that's not a target he'd like to go after. Music always creates primal feelings in humans.

[ismnotwasm]

6. No shit.

I went to Metallica one time and some idiot threw a beer bottle on-stage and hit the Bass player. The band threatened to stop the show. The beer thrower got the shit kicked out of him.

[seabeyond]

5. because redq, we have all become porn to our men and boys, AND

they will define us as just that. we have no say if we are their fuck....

[ismnotwasm]

7. ..

[seabeyond]

8. was i nice and gentle enough???? quandaries.

what is a woman to do

lmFao

[ismnotwasm]

9. See the article I just put up

[seabeyond]

10. ya ya ya, i was at peace all these months.

heart is already worked up. hearing that if i am JUST mice enough the sexist, misogynist trolls will be nice back, lol. already had a conversation with 15 yr old about the pay wage gap starting at childhood. as i make him his breakfast cause... "it will just be easier" per the son.

sigh.

i was really out the door. but, so many stories in hof, kick ass points so many tend to ignore to maintain their agenda. i will get on it.

and hugzzz to you for a number of different reasons.

[ismnotwasm]

12. I finally got a FB account

For two reasons, one; my second daughter lives in Michigan, and two; TON's of feminist activism going on and I can control any bullshit this way.

Hugs back to you.

[seabeyond]

14. me too, about your reason but....

i cannot make heads or tails out of it. having my niece come over this weekend. we are drinking adn she is going to clear everything up for me.

people i do not know want me to mark them. my page has become someone elses life, ???? and i do not get it. BUT... by monday i am going to know what i am doing. so another woman moves on, after telling me a lot of good places on facebook to only move the bar. NOW, she is using tumblr. wtf is that, lol

when i figure it out, i will ask you to be a friend, k????

[ismnotwasm]

21. Of course

I'm still figuring it out myself.

[seabeyond]

11. your article is more important. i have been doing a lot of thinking on this supposed "hatred" so

many men feel toward women, and the why's. based, stewed and wreaking out of fear. WTF???? i will get on it when i have a little more time. on the way out, if i did not say that already.

[Arcanetrance]

13. I know this is completely off topic but hi I'm glad to see your screen name around again

[seabeyond]

15. ya ya ya ya. but, i am not being nice, i do not think, OR

nice according to the people that oppose my point of view. i was really gonna check that attitude. didnt work.

and ALWAYS, i have been enjoying your posts.

[Arcanetrance]

16. You shouldn't be nice the people here not this group but the site were beyond cruel to you

[seabeyond]

17. ya. but it is my fault they act like asses, dontcha know....

damn. i cant stop me, lmao.

gonna get busy here. sat my 15 yr old in front of the very BEST movie.

weekend at bernies. i cannot believe he has not seen it.

[thucythucy]

18. Me too! Glad to see you again

seabeyond! You've definitely been missed!

[seabeyond]

19. hugzzz

and more hugggzzzz

[MadrasT]

20. seeeeeeeeeeeeeabeyond!!!!!!!!

[seabeyond]

24. maaaaaaaaaaaaadras!!!!!!

chest bump, lol

[geek tragedy]

22. Reads like something John Derbyshire would write, without

the subtlety.

[mzteris]

23. What happened to bands/singers like

Blondie, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, The Wilson sisters, Linda Rondstadt, Stevie Knicks (ok - she was kind of a sex symbol), but the rest were pretty kick ass. Even Madonna - yes, even when she became so "sexualized" - it was on her terms. Bonnie Rait. Melissa Etheridge.

Where did they all go?


Seems like all they want to do know is look and dance like the back up dancers in all those "male videos". Singing be damned. Though half of anybody now can't really "sing". Autotuners and looks and a promoter (and being a former little Disney kiddieporn star) are pretty much all you need. Play an instrument? roflmao.