Female Fandom Infantilization vs. #BTSARMY: How ARMY Overcame Tired Sexist Tropes (a thread) - ThreadSky

odiepurpleblerd.bsky.social • 37 days ago

Female Fandom Infantilization vs. #BTSARMY:
How ARMY Overcame Tired Sexist Tropes

(a thread)

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My favorite time of year is end of school, when ARMYs announce their new degrees in so many challenging fields.
They are so dope!

sharonblady.bsky.social•37 days ago

Great 🧵! We're also different because the intellectual component of BTS's work referencing Jung, Hesse, Murakami, LeGuin, and others resulted in a global academic subfield on BTS ranging from UN ESGs and literary studies, to economic soft power, psychology and mental health: BangTan Scholars. 💜📚

odiepurpleblerd.bsky.social•37 days ago

No matter your agree, if you are a woman and/or femme-presenting while liking something...you were likely always forced to contend with the belief that anything women and girls like is INHERENTELY stupid, lacking in seriousness, or automatically lacking value.

This behavior was and is exhausting.

odiepurpleblerd.bsky.social•37 days ago

In her 2023 article, "Is Fandom An Obsession Or Is That The Misogyny Talking?", Alicia Lansom shared the time her mother refused to let her 13-year-old sister go on a talk show to gush about her love of Leonardo DiCaprio.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/misogyny-towards-fandoms-fangirls

odiepurpleblerd.bsky.social•37 days ago

"I knew how they would make her look," said Lansom's mom. "I told them she was not obsessed with him, she was a normal teenager and her interest was the same as those who follow sports personalities."

Good on Lansom's mom for calling out the double-standard at a time when it was the norm. 👍🏾

odiepurpleblerd.bsky.social•37 days ago

Even now, much work continues to be done to upend backward thinking about female-led fandom and the assumption that the fans of groups like BTS are "perpetually twelve-year-old girls."

With that infantilization comes unwarranted dismissal of us as human beings and a disturbing lack of empathy.

odiepurpleblerd.bsky.social•37 days ago

While it is true that for years BTS ARMY has been the target of a lot of misogyny and disturbing double-standards over the years, and thinking back on it boils my blood.

But I also feel that ARMY deserves credit for refusing to let sexism and repeated attempts at infantilization get in our way.

odiepurpleblerd.bsky.social•37 days ago

Of course, when BTS really made a splash at the 2017 AMAs there were screams and cheers that were immediately compared to the excitement of Beatlemania.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3EglpAQqLlY

mkhope.bsky.social•37 days ago

📌

winyyy.army.social•37 days ago

📌

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