If you've been even slightly obsessed with any type of media: TV shows, movies, or musical artists, or if you've read Rainbow Rowell's 2013 novel of the same title, you've probably heard about the concept of or even labeled yourself as a "fangirl." Chances are, you've seen this term discussed in a negative light, one that focuses on the celebrity stalker horror stories, invasive wet-dream fictional literature based on real people, and, to reference another book, basically anything related to Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky. The world seems to assume that any person, specifically a teenage girl, that is passionate about a certain thing is a lonely, insanity-driven stalker that has no life outside of said thing, and is focused on the excitement that the people they love experience because of a lack of excitement in their own lives. Sure, some of this may be true for a small percentage of negatively newsworthy fans in the broad, broad world of fandoms, but the reality is that the majority of fangirls are talented young women that use their skills in art, writing, and many other platforms to express their love of the works of others, and to develop their own creative flair. The concept of being a "fangirl" has been around for a very long time, but has surged in popularity over the past decade due to Tumblr SuperWhoLock culture, and as of even later, due to the "stan" accounts that have nearly created their own language. The rotten apple fans and the horror stories these two outbreaks have generated have caused the casual and respectful fans to be scrutinized by the general non-fan public, with tabloid articles about legions of reckless young women disrespecting or even causing harm to those they idolized. However, the majority of fans are kind, respectful, and just want to find a place to show appreciation for the TV show, film series, band, or person they love. We at Twilight Collective were once major fangirls ourselves, and we will always have those memories of staying up until 3 A.M. at Alli's beach house writing our own novels based around our faves, creating our own art pieces and shrines to honor our heroes, and freaking out whenever a band or person we loved did anything big, or just liked one of our Instagram comments. Despite our fangirling days being far behind us, they are still considered quite recent in the world of online fandom, although, editor's note, we did come around before the advent of the term 'stan.' In our search for the history of indie rock fangirls, we stumbled upon a fandom veteran from the fan base around Franz Ferdinand, one of the bands we had once fangirled over as well. We found her contact info on a fanfiction website last edited in 2005, and neither of us thought we would get a response. If she responded, she would able to take us way back, all the way to the mid-noughties, when LiveJournal ruled the online fandom scene and bands knew most of their biggest supporters by name. As soon as she enthusiastically replied to our email, we knew we needed to hear her story and her opinions on what her beloved world of fandoms has become. When Schuyler Dade answered our Skype call, the first thing she told us was "hold on, I need to get more wine." Right off the bat, that told us we were in for a whirlwind of a story. Dade let us know how important fandom was to her as she discussed all of the women she came in contact with through online databases and message boards that told her about "all types of crazy fan drama from the 60s." "I met people from all around the world and all walks of life," she remarked. "I remember it beautifully." Schuyler was introduced to Franz Ferdinand during a very important and influential time in her life. "I was on my own for the first time in my own apartment, running around the eastern seaboard, and waiting after shows (for the band to come outside), because it was the first time I had freedom to do that." Like most of the people who identify as "fangirls," she was young, her independent life was just beginning, and the world was at her fingertips. The internet was still fairly new, especially fan-made sites, which made her new adventures even more meaningful. "I discovered Franz through their music video for their song 'The Dark of the Matinee,' which turned into my obsession with schoolboy uniforms, and learning the band member's personalities through magazine articles and TV shows, which were still very regional at the time." Consuming all of this real-life content established a "canon" of the band for Schuyler, and eventually led to her beginning to write what is known as "fanfiction." You've probably seen at least one fanficiton in your life. Famous fanfictions include My Immortal, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and even 50 Shades of Grey (which, editor's note, was a Twilight fanfiction based on a Muse song, by the way). A fanfiction is a piece of media written by fans to make certain people in the canon fall in love (ships), exaggerate or expand on events inside the canon (headcanons), make certain events happen that never happened in the canon (Alternate Universes, or AUs), bring themselves into the canon (Self Inserts), or even introduce their own characters (Original Character inserts) and plot-twists. Schuyler described fanfic as being built on a platform of "so big they'll never see it," which is pretty much reality for most fanfic authors of big-name fandoms. For a band as small as Franz Ferdinand was when they started out around 2004, however, that wasn't always the case. Dade told us of an fandom-wide scandal where their small community on LiveJournal titled "Slacken_Ties" (taken from a lyric from the earlier mentioned Matinee) was picked up by the British magazine NME, which published an article including quotes from members and even an example of one of their 'fics which depicted a romantic relationship between two members of the band. With other news outlets catching on, the news of Slacken_Ties and the fanfictions within it eventually reached the band themselves, who made a few witty comments directed at the group and declared themselves supporters of fanfiction. Any event like this, one that exposed a made-up fantasy world to the subject in reality, would be expected to belittle and embarrass a writer, but for a group as new, zany, and passionate as Slacken_Ties was, it only fueled the fire. Schuyler's face lit up as she began spilling the details of her own fan-fictions, her proudest work being about the band as vampires. "It was the first time I was writing something really ambitious with a bunch of parts to it, and I was really pushing myself." She also touched on the challenges writing fanfiction presented, especially socially. "In order to get your 'fic out there, you had to get good at talking to people who were different from you except in the one thing you love the most." She explained the tribulations of editing and beta-ing, which is when someone else reads over your work for you to point out any errors you may have missed. To the non-fangirl, it seems nerve wracking, but Schuyler stands by the fact that it gave her the confidence she needed to reach out to others and show off her writing. "Any time you write, it makes your writing better," she proudly stated. Wonderfully lengthy and detailed fan-fiction wasn't the only thing Dade was working on at this point in her life; She also ran a music blog where she wrote reviews, advertisements, and even some concert anecdotes. Sounds familiar? "There was this local band I liked and I wrote about seeing them, and I got an email from the manager!" she recalled excitedly. "In the article I made fun of the singer's outfit, and he was like, 'You right.'" As she was describing this, it was getting increasingly easy to see the similarities between what she did in the past and what we do now. It was interesting to see how her skill set from fan-fiction expanded into a professional, real skill rather than what people write off as "childish" and "immature." Although Slacken_Ties has been inactive since 2008, its influence reigns over much of current fan culture, especially in the indie and alternative rock scenes. When the Twilight Collective writers were but young fangirls, we looked up to the girls of Slacken_Ties as almost mythic beings of a time we would never get to inhabit. They did the impossible, and we were all trying to emulate it in some way or another. There's even a revival effort going on in some far off corners of the internet, where writers are attempting to emulate the style of Slacken_Ties with a few modern twists. No matter the circumstances, fandom will find a way to reinvent itself and update itself with the changing times and climate of the world, and subject matter, around it. Schuyler says that even though she doesn't write professionally now, writing fan-fic encouraged her to apply to college as a creative writing major. She also knows "so many people who are authors and journalists" from her fandom realm that "feel comfortable writing all kinds of stuff" because of fanfiction and communicating with others about their writing. She cited Slacken_Ties and the entirety of LiveJournal as "a place where you can sort of make a ton of work, and a formal way for people to look at it and evaluate it," a very similar description to any professional environment. "There's much more that I think I can do because of it." Along with important social and professional abilities, writing for fandoms also caused great developments in Schuyler's personal life. "I met my best friend (through fandom), and she's the coolest person I've ever known." She's still friends with said woman today, and she even was "in another girl's wedding!" Dade has great memories with her own experience with fandom, but also possesses constructive criticism about the way fandom or stan-dom operates today. "The idea (of fandoms) is that you can find other people who love what you love. Stan is a more 'solo' term, but fangirls have fandoms and fandoms are a community." She also noted that she had an account on Tumblr, but deleted it shortly after because of it's dangerous modern rhetoric. "It was all 'here's why this one person is the devil.'" With today's Twitter doxxing, fan wars, and constant hatred towards anyone with a differing opinion, that statement doesn't seem too out of reach. A specific example we touched upon was Ariana Grande, and the oodles of teenagers and young adults, primarily girls and women, that follow and worship her every step. "She has a personal style, one that says 'fragile' and 'take care of me', so it links back to the fans seeing her as one of them, a sixteen-year-old girl. It makes me think, 'Wait, she's a grown woman.'" Similar to the magazine articles about Franz Ferdinand, this up-close and personal view into a star's life that is Grande's Twitter provides a canon for fans to go crazy with. This mistaken intimacy, because NO ONE could truly know a person solely based off of their social media, could cause hostility when it comes to defending famous people against anonymous naysayers and haters online. "People behaving badly in the Franz fandom made me feel protective, and when people were shitty I wanted to stand up to them. The same is true with Ariana stans, the concept of 'you can't say or do that, they're special!'" Schuyler clarified that the fans with bad behavior in Franz forums actually made direct hateful comments, but in modern times, stans could jump on anyone for saying anything that could be perceived as even remotely negative towards their favorite person's work. Although fangirling itself has become more universal, accessible, and acceptable than it was during the reign of Slacken_Ties, the main message and the importance of fandoms remains the same: expressing love for the people we love in many different ways, shapes, and forms. To an onlooker from the outside, one that doesn't possess the full knowledge of fandom life, it could seem insane, irrational, one-sided, obsessive, and so much more. The reality is, unless you're heavily involved like Schuyler, to the point of creating bonds, being inspired to pursue a major, and becoming a bridesmaid, you can't make an accurate judgement of the behaviors of fangirls and the way fandoms operate. Most likely, your judgement will be inaccurate and disrespectful to the hours of work and passion that these young girls put into their own little worlds. Dade, as well as the two young aspiring journalists here at Twilight Collective, believe that being a fangirl can open a door filled with possibilities with professional writing, art, communications, and so much more. When executed properly, fandom gives all participants the adventure of a lifetime and a positive environment where their imaginations can go wild. I think we can all agree that this is something the world needs more of nowadays. * Thank you to Schuyler Dade for taking the time to talk to us through Skype! You can follow her on Twitter @schuylerloves.
2 Comments
Kittypickel123456 from tik tok
6/17/2019 02:58:11 pm
Hi
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Forrest
8/1/2019 05:09:45 pm
Great article, but I think you're lying if you two don't consider yourselves "insanity-driven." <3
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