Follow us:
DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY
  • Weekly Posts
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023
  • Monday Motivators 2023
  • Weekend Picks 2021
  • Contributors
  • Bickmore's Posts
  • Lesley Roessing's Posts
  • Weekend Picks 2020
  • Weekend Picks 2019
  • Weekend Picks old
  • 2021 UNLV online Summit
  • UNLV online Summit 2020
  • 2019 Summit on Teaching YA
  • 2018 Summit
  • Contact
  • About
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023

Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday has a new Feature-- A YouTube Channel

Don't worry, it is easy to find.  Just go to YouTube and search for Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday.

Check Out the YouTube Channel

“Stalking Boybands was Serious Business”:  YAL, TikTok, and the “Girlfan” by Angela Insenga

10/13/2021

20 Comments

 
It is time for your "Young Adult Literature to popular culture" connection! Angela Insenga is steeped in all kinds of connections between popular culture--music, television, film, documentary, and so many social media sharing formats. Every time I read something Angela writes I am amazed by her ability to make all of these connections. Her assignments are amazing and I often wonder if I could pull off some of them in my class--but it doesn't stop me from trying every once in awhile. 

Angela has been a frequent and productive contributor to Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday. To find a few more of her posts just browse through the Contributor's Page. Thanks Angela.

“Stalking Boybands was Serious Business”:  YAL, TikTok, and the “Girlfan”

by Angela Insenga

​In the era of “Devious Licks,” it may well be anathema to think about bringing anything related to TikTok into the classroom. And, with study of social media informing us of its addictive and purported degenerative powers, using it could raise hackles. However, I’m pairing Goldy Moldavsky’s novel Kill the Boyband with the documentary This is Us, which tells the "rags to riches" Algerian tale of the British-Irish sensation One Direction and is slickly directed by Morgan Spurlock. And then, instead of asking my students to turn in one more end-of-unit essay, I am asking my students to study TikTok creations within the real 1D fandom, gather data on how the one-minute chunks of film are put together and by whom, and come to conclusions about the (mostly) girlfans they encounter.  
Picture
Picture
In Goldy Moldavsky’s darkly humorous and satirical Kill the Boyband, the members of The Ruperts, each named Rupert, originally auditioned alone on So You Think the British Don’t Have Talent?,  each imagining a solo career in the music business. But all the boys were eliminated from competition. However, the boyband is born when the host looks out into the audience, sees myriad signs featuring the name “Rupert,”  and quips, “Seems like the Ruperts are getting a lot of love tonight!” At this moment, “a million lightbulbs went on over the heads of music execs,” and the boys were rockets into space, destined for stardom and inevitable commodification, their personalities narrowly and heteronormatively defined for millions of those who had only seen their tryout videos. Where there are boy band members, fangirls follow.  
The unnamed narrator of the novel defines and self-identifies as a new breed of fangirl, noting: 

It wasn’t enough anymore to send them fan mail and kiss the posters above our                                      
beds….you weren’t a true fan until you engaged in Twitter death threats and endless                               
stan wars [where fangirls]. . . .[wielded] Sharpies like weapons [and passed] the time by                                
discussing ambush tactics. . . [with another] Ruperts fangirl [whose] friendship [with                                  
other fans also] lived and breathed primarily in Twitter DMs and text messages.
​
In short, we learn from the ensemble of female protagonists, “just how important the internet was in all of [their] lives.” A virtue of the internet is that it can connect groups of likeminded individuals who spur each other onward, enrich each other’s lives, and share common obsessions. This virtue is also social’s vice, with which we contend daily. But why focus only on the decline when there are also positive results?
​The action in Kill the Boyband takes place on a single night at the “swankiest hotel in SoHo,” the Rondack. Superfans Erin, Isabel, Apple, and our unnamed narrator book a room here, right where The Ruperts are staying before performing their sold-out half-hour special, “Coming to America: The Ruperts Learn about Thanksgiving!” Instead of freezing outside at the barricades the city set up—though being a “barricade girl” is quite a feat, I have come to understand—the girls go inside, where the chances of running into a Rupert increase dramatically.  In their quest, they end up accidentally kidnapping Rupert Pierpont, the least-adored “ginger” Rupert whose only redeeming quality is that he can juggle. What follows is part comedy of errors, part searing critique of the music industry, and an examination of a weirdly maligned group: girls who stan bands.
Picture
If any of the book’s details sound familiar, you may have lived through the 2010s, when British-Irish boyband One Direction ruled pop music. After Simon Cowell plucked each solo boy from the group that did not make the cut on the British talent show The X Factor, their popularity soared. And even though they came in third place as a band, within five years, by 2020, the band sold an astonishing 70 million records worldwide. In their five-year run, 1D won seven Brit Awards, seven American Music Awards, five Billboard Music Awards, five Billboard Touring Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards. Most importantly, the band won a record of 28 Teen Choice Awards after being nominated 31 times. By 2015, it was hard to turn a page, stand in a grocery checkout lane, walk through a school supplies section, a mall, peruse toothbrushes or teach an adolescent without seeing one of—if not all—of the boys’ faces.  And when I tell my students that 1D was bigger than The Beatles, they balk.  But they traveled to and performed in more countries and cities, expanding their fanbase and its rate of consumption, and they had the power of social media: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Vine.  
Picture
It is at the juncture of Moldavsky’s critique of the music industry and the fangirl figure, the culture that so harshly dismisses fangirls them as “crazy,” and One Direction’s enduring fanbase that now resides largely online where my students and I are now situated. We moved from the fiction of the novel to the heavily mediated image of One Direction in This is Us to “real” fans on TikTok who, even now, are churning out intricately crafted videos or putting up slapdash ones because they are upset, excited, or angry. 
After studying Moldavsky’s fictional representation of The Ruperts stans—called the “Strepurs”—we move into the thriving niche of TikTok where Directioners dwell, making and remaking artistic chunks of film dedicated to One Direction or to one of the members. I ask my students to think about the critique of the music industry and fans in the novel as they begin to methodically examine TikToks organized under assigned hashtags (e.g., “#Nialler” for Niall Horan, “#Narry” for those who ship Harry and Niall, etc.). Using criteria I’ve suggested; in particular, I focus on the “rhetoric” of TikTok, on trends, and on ways in which recombinant TikToks critique or seek to answer others. Considering the purported fickle nature of teen girls, the 1D portion of TikTok bursts with energy and optimism, depression and exhilaration, and longing and having.  All of this, even though the band went on hiatus over six years ago. 
Picture
I chose this learning pathway for my students with hopes that they could further understand how social media in the hands of a dedicated fandom works and how foregrounding specific TikTok trends from girlfan creators leads us to complicate the rather prejudicial trope of the “crazy fangirl,” much like Moldavsky explodes the concept in her novel. TikTok, I hope to show them, is a (de)generative space, wherein a multitude of communities governed by hashtags exist. In these hyperreal groups, adolescents repeatedly demonstrate higher order thinking as they create videos using the platform’s mechanics—filters, voiceovers, snippets from films, and soundtracks. Each TikTok about 1D is added to an ever-widening web of texts that produce syncretic and longitudinal knowledge about the fandom and the object(s) of its affection. While TikTok allows for endless recombinant chunks of film, the trends also bear out that trends arise. For example, enduring beliefs that two members of the band dated, showcase the band’s time in the spotlight, (re)imagine a reunion, and artistically advertise every scintilla of news about the boys’ now flourishing solo careers. But there is more than recapitulation of adoration, the boys’ own contracted social media appearances, or concert footage. 
In their TikToks, girlfans of 1D are often philanthropists, raising money through a 5k or donating to charities favored by the members of the band. They are increasingly comfortable living in ambiguities, adapting happily to others’ chosen pronouns, sexual identities, and gender expressions. They create pointed, critical messages to other public people like Candace Owen, who in 2020 attempted to blast Harry Styles for wearing a dress as the first man to appear on the cover of Vogue, pleading with him and America to “Bring back manly men.” Fans profess Harry Styles' “Treat People with Kindness” mantra and mean it, as comment threads and monies to charities on his birthday evince. They profess that the friendships they’ve made with other fans mean more than anything to them--even more than the band itself. They also, in teary posts, sometimes leave the Neverland they’ve half-lived, half-created.  They go to college, get engaged, have children. And their social accounts, left as a kind of momento mori to their own girlhood, remain. 
Picture
In my YA class, then, study and discussion of Moldavsky’s satire in Kill the Boyband has become a conduit for study of real girls in a real fandom. In absence of 1D concerts and in a plague year wherein all members of One Direction canceled solo gigs, TikTok is, more than ever, a bastion for expression in a world that does not sanction the exhibition of female desire or hysteria. A girl falling to her knees when Niall Horan surprises her at a candy shop in Disneyland or a “Louie” claiming that he is “the actual sun” in her life is seen as unbalanced, while boys losing their minds over football, screaming at umpires ‘calls in the sixth inning, or being loud, obnoxious, or angry is seen as typical, even expected. On TikTok, girls who are fans are seen. They are heard. And that, it turns out, is the point. 1D TikTokkers, just like the young women in Moldavsky’s texts are super fans. They scream. They snipe. They love. They obsess. And, in the mix, I am finding, is their creation for our study, for our understanding of how YAL and social media connect, how both can be a place for authentic expression.
Until next time.
20 Comments
Jess Jolly
10/14/2021 03:54:59 pm

Having watched my fair share of Harry Styles TikToks, I have to agree with Dr. Insenga's observation of the fan base's willingness to understand one another and support one another. Their rejection of gender stereotypes in particular is one that I have come to appreciate. They admire Harry in all aspects, and his attitude has spilled into their own personal opinions. The influence he continues to have over his audience is fascinating, particularly as they take to a newer form of social media to share their opinions. It's a very prevalent theme in the hundreds of videos I've watched, and something that I cannot help but admire.

Reply
Kenya Fields
10/18/2021 07:38:05 am

I agree with you Jess having watched my fair share of TikToks as well. It's almost as if I have opened a new side of TikTok that I don't think I was prepared for. I think I expected to see more negative aspects from past experiences with fandoms, but I haven't seen many. I've slightly observed a competitive energy between fans regarding the hierarchy within the fandom, but I thought I would see more "hate" within the community. Though I am happy to not see this, I do wonder if you have had a similar thought process.

Reply
Jess Jolly
10/18/2021 06:13:39 pm

Oh, absolutely! I fully expected to see a lot of the same behavior I saw at their age - fans belittling one another and spreading hate. Instead, I've overwhelmingly seen friendships blossom and community support. It almost makes me jealous, wishing my experiences had been so positive.

Grace Holewinski
10/20/2021 03:37:48 pm

After having many of my fangirl experiences on Twitter I really expected much of the same thing on TikTok, hatred and even death threats towards other fans and even towards other people in the boys lives, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the sense of community that has seemed to develop among the One Direction side of TikTok.

Grace Holewinski
10/20/2021 03:34:53 pm

I have had my fair share of fangirl moments and experiences throughout my life, especially during my time in high school. However, I never made an account on any social media that was dedicated to any of the boys or bands I was "obsessed" with, so I only knew being a fangirl as something I needed to hide or feel embarrassed of. After seeing the sense of community built by these fans on TikTok I can't help but admire the way they are able to form relationships based on their common love for one, or multiple, boys in this band. They begin their account through a dedication to boys many of them have never met but are met with fans who have similar views and support their love for the boys rather than people who call them crazy and tear them down because of their love for the band.

Reply
Jess Jolly
10/20/2021 04:14:57 pm

I saw the same thing - the community welcomes newcomers and through their shared interests, they really come to find new friends. I even saw someone send a fellow content creator a Harry Styles-themed gift that had clearly cost them hundreds of dollars and countless hours. It was genuinely heart-warming to see their friendship in action.

I also had a similar experience when I was younger - feeling somewhat ashamed of my fangirling. I almost wonder if I would still be obsessed with those bands today, if I had the community these fans have, and the friendships they've forged.

Reply
Lily Barwick
10/29/2021 06:42:48 pm

As a new comer into this community it is something that I didn't think people where still up in arms about, but here we are. The sheer number of videos and people to talk to is something that I didn't expect.

Taylor Hendrix
10/28/2021 01:33:48 pm

I can honestly say that I was one of the boyband obsessed girls throughout my middle school and high school years. One of my emails was "metrostationgrl97," and not a lot of people even knew who Metro Station was. There was good things and bad things about no one knowing who the band was. In my eyes, at the time, a good thing was there wasn't a lot of competition for their attention because I was one of the only people who really KNEW them. A bad thing was I had no friends to share in my love for Trace Cyrus. Social media has made a HUGE difference in this game because now strangers from all over can connect in their shared interests for boybands. I also really admire the way their shared interests can form such a strong bond, even though the band has all gone their separate ways. They can bond in the trauma of being called crazy and embrace it. I love that.

Reply
Carolyn Shields
10/30/2021 01:24:59 pm

I think the rise of the internet has aided a lot in giving girlfans a space to express their love for their interests where they can be free, for the most part, from the judgmental gaze of others. As you said, these obsessions can feel embarrassing and something that need to be hidden from others, but the vastness of social media has created perfect little niche communities for people who share common interests.

Reply
Savonne Dennis
10/31/2021 06:27:27 pm

The sense of community is a powerful one. For many of these young girls, they are scared of how the rest of the world depicts them. Especially starting at a young age, parents and boys don't understand because of age and gender. Girls having fandoms create something that can be in media or pop culture that fangirls can come together and obsess over. Everything from fanfiction to Directioners, deserve love from all because it's different and isn't judgmental.

Reply
Taylor Hendrix
10/22/2021 05:32:16 am

As the other commenters have mentioned, I have also seen lots of One Direction videos. Dr. Insenga's evaluation of the relationships between the "girlfans," is correct. I think that it is important to note the mixture of fans who choose to show their own faces in the videos, and fans who do not. It is also important to note that either way the relationships are not affected. If you are a "girlfan," that is really all that matters to that community. I admire their willingness to accept anyone into their group, but it also makes me nervous. The majority of these fans range from teenagers to young adults. Since they do accept anyone that stans One Direction, it would be easy to infiltrate with devious intentions. I worry about their safety. If I can join the community by just watching and commenting on One Direction videos, anyone can.

On another note, I would have loved to be a part of this community. I attended my first concert at the age of 8, and have been going to them ever since. I got a t-shirt from every concert that I attended, and would wear said t-shirts to school the next day to show off my new merchandise. No one complimented me. I did not have social media to turn towards when I needed a supportive friend. These fans do. Dr. Insenga touched on the relationships between fans, but, honestly, the power they have between them is almost electric. They support each other when it is needed, and they still have time to come up with ways that will make members of the former boyband smile. They accomplish all of this and still have time to have a life outside of this. I admire them because of this.

Reply
Kenya Fields
10/25/2021 09:44:25 am

It is interesting that you mention how these girls still manage to have a life outside of the fandom as well. After watching videos upon videos, I think it might be the opposite. What I mean by this is that some fans would say that their "real" life is what they do inside the fandom and everything outside of that is just what they do to get by. They truly are able to be themselves within this community whereas in every day "real" life, they are not understood. Would you agree that there is definite conflict there?

Reply
Taylor Hendrix
10/29/2021 04:41:32 am

That is a great point! There is a definite conflict. When I mentioned "real" life, I was meaning the life that involves their parents, school, and friends (in person and not online). However, the fans probably do not consider that to be their "real" lives because they may feel that they are not being themselves, as you said in your post. I never thought about it that way! What is real to them is when they are comfortable in their environment, which most of the time, is the fandom that they believe to be true.

Carolyn Shields
10/30/2021 12:55:47 pm

I think it's interesting that you bring up this distinction, because in my experience at least, the online life and "real" life (or the life in which adolescents are physically present) are not two separate entities, but the fan community actually becomes a space for girlfans to share their "real" lives with one another, despite irrelevance to the topic of interest. Often times areas of common interest are merely catalysts for friendships, and not always at the center of these friendships, which often remain long after their obsessions have died off.

Grace Holewinski
10/27/2021 09:24:23 am

You make an excellent point in mentioning the way some fans choose not to ever show their faces and only create content of Harry or the other One Direction boys. I do think it's nice that they are able to make this choice and still be accepted into the "girlfan" community. But like you said that can be concerning as well simply because that account could be anyone. It's interesting how I never would have thought about that as a teenager but now, even in my early twenties, it's something I worry about not only for myself but for all of the younger people who spend most of their free time online. I do agree with you that they create an incredibly supportive community and have a life outside of it, but I think Kenya made a great point as well that despite their lives off of the internet they may feel that their "real lives" where they can be their truest self is online.

Reply
Lily Barwick
10/29/2021 06:40:50 pm

I agree with girlfan. At first I was confused about what was wrong with being a fan girl. I am one (not a 1D though). I can see the negative connotation, but its something they like. the world is so different to how it was back then so I do and don't see the issue with girlfan/fangirl.

Lily Barwick
10/29/2021 06:38:37 pm

This was such a fun read. I was never a One Director but Harry's new albums made me look more into the band. These was only 50% about the music, but the rest was the boys and the community that it created. Even years after the band separated fans are still here and being created. Their impact is timeless when it comes to how people see what they have done. These fans stayed because of what this band meant to them all those years ago.

Reply
Carolyn Shields
10/30/2021 01:19:12 pm

I think drawing the line between "girlfans" and the fanbase surrounding sports is an important connection to make in considering the former. The actions of both are almost identical, and yet the responses to each of these communities are completely antithetical to one another. Equating the two provides a way in to understand for those who have always been skeptical or judgmental of fangirls, and demands the question why? Why have young girls always felt ashamed to admit they met their friends through a common interest in a band or musical artists while their dads strike up conversations with strangers in public solely because they are wearing a piece of merchandise for their favored sports team? Why are teen girls told they'll "grow out of it" when they express their love for their fandom, but when teen boys express their love for their sports team, they are asked if they plan to pursue an athletic career, and encouraged to aspire to play alongside their favorite players? Where did this double standard begin, and how can we bring it to an end?

Reply
Savonne Dennis
10/31/2021 06:18:35 pm

We’ve been calling women crazy for a long time, and for a long time it’s been political. The problem with the assumption that women are nuts isn’t just that it’s annoying; it’s that if we hear it enough, we start to doubt ourselves. We start to assume that the problem is our reaction, rather than the upsetting event. Being seen as “crazy” undermines the judgement and relationships by completely discrediting our point of view of women.

Reply
Savonne Dennis
10/31/2021 06:12:21 pm

In our YA class, The tik tok video chunks are selling the idea of being a teenager and being young and free. I am sold on the concept of freedom and not having to worry or stress the challenges that come with adulthood for many young fan girls.These same young girls who's lives of the One Direction band changed when they split up and now they are dealing with troubles of finding themselves and their happiness. I understand that from a male perspective when a superstar veteran on our favorite team gets traded. It's hard to gender stereotype "crazy" when we all have our things that we really admire and change over because we can't adapt to a new transformation. It's hard to "grow up" when your just full of emotions.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
    Chief Curator
    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

    Dr. Steve Bickmore
    ​Creator and Curator

    Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

    Co-Edited Books

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Chris-lynch

    Blogs to Follow

    Ethical ELA
    nerdybookclub
    NCTE Blog
    yalsa.ala.org/blog/

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly