Why are female fans hysterical and male fans passionate?

Teenager girls and young women have been carrying the entertainment industry on their shoulders since decades. It was Beatles fans in the 70s, then came Elvis Presley, Justin Bieber, One Direction and now BTS. All of these artists owe their success to their fanbase. The fan base: that consists of teenage or young women who continuously support them and stream their music. Gathering around the arenas or studios, holding posters, pictures, banners and screaming, crying, shouting to get their favourite artists attention.

These young women have shaped the way we see and perceive stan culture in the popular entertainment industry. But still they are shoved around the corners because somehow they are "hysterical".

When fangirls scream and cry during concerts because they are so overwhelmed to see their favorite artists perform, they are hysterical. When they put up posters of their favorites on their room's walls, they are hysterical. When they wear the merchandise of their favorite artists or talk about them passionately like it's the most interesting thing on the planet, they are hysterical. You might argue that it is, in fact, insanity to love an actor or singer or any celebrity to this extent. But have you ever wondered who else does this and not get called hysterical at all? Yes. Men.

Our good old society adorns men with the term "passionate". Men are passionate about sports. They break television sets when their team loses matches. They run inside the cricket field to hug their favourite players and attack them if they lose. Recent example is the Euro cup 2020, which showed that they even dance naked in the streets when they are "passionate" about something. If they are not passionate about sports for some reason, then they are "geeky" or "nerdy". When they obsess over comic book characters and spend money on buying marvel or DC merchandise. When they start shouting or screaming at the cinema halls, watching a new Avengers movie, or even when they dress up like Spiderman, covered in full latex, while going to watch the new Spiderman movie, they are "geeky".

Photo Credit - PopCrush

The most significant thing in how we, as a society, see both types of fans is- the deep rooted sexism. When a girl puts up a poster of Shahrukh Khan in her room, she is somehow “crazy” or obsessed but if a boy does the same, he's just a fan. When a girl starts crying upon meeting her favourite celebrity, she is overreacting but if a boy cries when his team loses the match in IPL, it is because cricket is an emotional and passionate game. According to research, domestic violence increases by 70% in England whenever their national team loses a football match. So, are we absolutely sure that this is just "passion"? Because when you actually look into it, it seems more like a pure and blatant misogyny.

The artists, actors, bands that have a fanbase of fairly young women, tend to be named as “heartthrobs” or “sensation”. Hence, discrediting all their talent and hardwork and pushing forward the narrative of them being liked by girls and women because of their looks. This narrative of being liked by female fans only because these men are sexually attractive is not only entireky incorrect but also invalidates the complete existence of queer women who might be sexually attracted to men. Not to forget, these artists are seldom taken seriously. Like our favourite Robert Pattinson was never considered a good actor when he was acting in the Twilight movie series, which has a rather huge female fanbase all over the world. But then suddenly, he chose to do a dark, neo noir movie that is stereotyped for “serious viewers", and now he is considered as one of the best actors in the cinema industry.

It's time to credit these fans for what they bring to the table for popular culture, whether it's Harry Potter series or Marvel movies, whether it's Taylor Swift since 2003, or current rising pop star, Olivia Rodrigo, female fans play a huge role in building and destroying the careers of these people and their maintenance of their relevance in the popular entertainment industry and it's high time that the society and media stop discrediting them for the same, calling them hysterical or shaming them for being passionate about something all the while praising men for doing just the same.

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Yours Truly.