Studies show that teenage girls tend to feel more insecure than their male counterparts. To combat this feeling, many girls turn to fandoms to feel connected to others and meet people who share their interests. Consequently, a significant portion of fanart and fanfiction online is created by women, particularly teenage girls and young women. In fact, fanfiction actually originated with women in the Star Trek fandom (which is interesting since science fiction is a genre often thought to be dominated by male fans), and women today compose over 80% of fanfiction writers.
Another example of this double standard, of simultaneous enjoyment of art by male audiences and criticism of women for doing the same, is a band widely agreed to be one of the best of all time: the Beatles. In their early days, the Beatles were not taken seriously by critics, with their early fanbases being driven by teenage girls. Nowadays, these early teenage fans during the so-called “Beatlemania” are mocked now and regarded as insane. The same rock fans and old music critics who call modern pop music frivolous often celebrate the Beatles as an example of a band that was “actually good.” The irony is laughable. These early teenage female fans were among the first to recognize the talent of the Beatles and yet they get thrown under the bus, only for these hypocritical gatekeepers of taste to swoop in and use the Beatles as an example of why teen girls have no taste in music. Granted, not all of the early Beatles fans were teenage girls, but they were by far the most enthusiastic segment of their base and helped boost the fandom a great deal.
And the irony only continues. Despite the scorn teenage girls and young women receive for their taste, the industry actually needs them. In 2023, the Barbie movie made an estimated $1.45 billion at the box office, fueled largely by teenage girls and young women flocking in droves to see the movie. The Barbie movie was the highest grossing film of the year, yet some people (notably Jo Koy) still claim it was frivolous. Barbie isn’t the only example, either – Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour, two other important, female-driven cultural moments that were similarly objects of male ridicule, grossed nearly $10B combined for the U.S. economy alone, and uplifted many other countries’ economies too. Some world leaders even personally asked Swift to visit their countries, and a minor diplomatic crisis erupted in Southeast Asia when Singapore signed an exclusive deal with her. This proves that the harsh treatment of female fans is unjustifiable; if their spending power contributes so much to our culture and even our economy, surely their perspectives should be fully respected.
Moreover, I find the entire argument about older men being the arbiters of taste and girls having frivolous interets absurd. Art is subjective, so how is one interpretation more valid than the other? And besides, it’s not like men and boys don’t have “frivolous interests” either. The Fast and Furious movies arguably have no more substance than Barbie, yet were not ridiculed nearly as much. Why are golfing, season tickets, and gym equipment considered valid uses of money, while hair appointments, manicures, and art supplies are considered wasteful? Now, there is also nothing inherently wrong with “frivolous interests,” and the items I listed are not limited to any one gender, but the double standard for what is considered pointless is crazy
As always, the explanation for these tendencies circles back to misogyny. I am aware that the term is overused, but it is true in this case. Due to the historical representation of men as the most rational members of society (which is also why, historically, many rulers were men), they are considered to have better taste. A lot of music critics and commenters online do not even bother to hide their bias – they commend old all-male rock bands as examples of great artists while arguing that modern pop music has no substance, and very rarely recognize female artists despite the existence of great female rock artists like Stevie Nicks (who dealt with her fair share of sexism) and Joan Jett.
But not all hope is lost – if we refuse to subscribe to the notion that women and teenage girls’ interests are inherently less important, we can make change and, maybe one day, a future generation of teenage girls will not have to face ridicule for their interests.
Sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10501005/
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1517268/
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/27/1221483930/girl-economy-taylor-swift-beyonce-barbie-2023
A Brief History of Media Fandom”. In Hellekson, Karen; Busse, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. (cited in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction)
