On Teenies and Change
So this is response to a post I read that I rather enjoyed, and I figured I'd get my comments together in one spot. I reccomend reading the original post before this, for the sake of clarity. Plus, there are some neat comments besides mine going on.
I'll wait.
There's a lot to this post, which I enjoyed reading and thinking about, both your original words and the comments.
I think there's different levels to this.
There's the level of your mom/co workers/spouse/grocery store clerk, the people who are predominantly outside of bandom and fandom, who probably won't read fanfic or make vids or icon posts/etc in their free time as a hobby.
These I think, are the people who generally wouldn't Get It*, even if they are perfectly supportive of you(specific and general). These are the people who think of the screaming, hysterical 'little' girls when popular music is brought up, who worry when the local news has a story about the 'rising Emo Death Cult!!!1!, oh noes'** which usually have clips of MCR's videos or concerts, or pictures in it, along with people talking about cutting themselves. These are the people who forget about how they felt about The Beatles, in their own time and can only see the personal space pushing, the hysteria of young girls, who look past how it's meaningful.
And then, on the other level, there are people in other fandoms, or in bandom. They do get liking something and having a very strong interest in it, whether thats simply watching marathons of the show/movie, reading the books, or fic/making vids/creating icons/ etc, or just going to a lot of concerts, as is usually the case for those interested in music fandoms. They understand the feeling. However, like in other fandoms, there are fans who make the others look bad by being invasive of the creator's (movie director, show producer, author, band members... ) boundaries.
There are a lot of words for such fans. Most are said like curses, though there is that joking 'i'm such a ____, lol' that goes with it, by the mature fans. Feral fen. Believers. Tinhats. Fangirl. Teenies.
These are the transgressors, and the perception is that they are the younger, less mature fans. Usually teenagers/people too young to drink legally in the US. Usually teenage girls.
It's the tinhatss who printed off explicit fanfic and gave it to X actor at that one con! or It's the teenies who shoved shipper signs at Y & Z band members and made them pose with it for a picture!*** Get the pitchforks!
Fellow fans who don't do such things get tetchy at those who do. And certain fandoms, bandom, and Pete Wentz's side of the pool, have bad reputations for be primarily made up of such problematic fans.
It is odd then, to navigate this terrain if one happens to be under the age of 20 and doesn't do any of those taboo things other fans have and will criticize.
It is even odder to have to navigate it while the band you like is reacting to all the media/cultural splooge out there that says that having an audience of primarily underage women, little girls is a sissy thing, not belonging in rock/what ever the hell label MCR is stuck with this week. Labels they themselves didn't come up with.
But then, there are certain sequences in Life on the Murder Scene****, MCR's dvd from 2005/2006, the source for most canon before 2006, that bode well for the situation of young girls who like going to rock concerts. Gerard identifies as a feminist, and its pretty clear that the rest of the band is on board with that direction for the band's philosophy.
The thing is, we the fans (tinhat or otherwise) and they, the subjects, none of us exist in a vacuum. Pete Wentz can and does blog right back at us. Frank and Leathermouth, which to me is his outlet for all the darker, nastier aspects of his psyche, he screams right back at us.
They have twitters and blogs and (unverified) ljs of their own, not to mention the plethora of MySpaces. They respond in interviews, saying that they do or don't look for/read our fanfic. They do or don't like how the teenies are acting.
Things computer savvy folk and teenage girls alike have in spades. Not to mention the computer savvy teenage girl who can hack anything in front of her. Overlap does happen.
The thing that most of us forget, is that teenies grow up. The screaming, sign holding, arm waving, hysterical 'little girl' is not a fixed state. They can get better, for values of 'not being creepy to the fannish subjects' or they can get worse. Like, having the financial resources to really seriously stalk Subject of Fannishness. But they aren't static.
The music sweeps into their heads, at a young age, and it doesn't go away. It's influence may ebb, but there will always be that spark of 'I can do anything, snarl right back at the monsters in that dark alley' somewhere.
Part of growing up is about making bad decisions, and doing things that make you cringe when you look back on it years later, like printing out someone else's explicit fanfic and throwing it in some famous person's face.
That is the strength, though. That change. The screaming, hysterical fangirl who couldn't possibly be much of a threat to anything but themselves!
Its such a person who has the potential for so much transformation though. The passion, and thinking that the songs may inspire, can lead to championing causes that resonate, or a quiet life that brings happiness and comfort to those around. Or anything else.
There are still major problems that the bad behavior that teenies partake in cause for the rest of us, but I'd rather not think that all hope for a 15 year old who has an interest in fandom is lost if she happens to be behind the 'personal boundaries' learning curve.
* Let us go with 'Your Mileage May Indeed Vary'.
** This is more common than one might think.
*** You'd think I joke, but Ryan Ross and Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco were the unlucky souls recently.
**** I can dig up actual quotes if you want me to.
~~
I'll wait.
There's a lot to this post, which I enjoyed reading and thinking about, both your original words and the comments.
I think there's different levels to this.
There's the level of your mom/co workers/spouse/grocery store clerk, the people who are predominantly outside of bandom and fandom, who probably won't read fanfic or make vids or icon posts/etc in their free time as a hobby.
These I think, are the people who generally wouldn't Get It*, even if they are perfectly supportive of you(specific and general). These are the people who think of the screaming, hysterical 'little' girls when popular music is brought up, who worry when the local news has a story about the 'rising Emo Death Cult!!!1!, oh noes'** which usually have clips of MCR's videos or concerts, or pictures in it, along with people talking about cutting themselves. These are the people who forget about how they felt about The Beatles, in their own time and can only see the personal space pushing, the hysteria of young girls, who look past how it's meaningful.
And then, on the other level, there are people in other fandoms, or in bandom. They do get liking something and having a very strong interest in it, whether thats simply watching marathons of the show/movie, reading the books, or fic/making vids/creating icons/ etc, or just going to a lot of concerts, as is usually the case for those interested in music fandoms. They understand the feeling. However, like in other fandoms, there are fans who make the others look bad by being invasive of the creator's (movie director, show producer, author, band members... ) boundaries.
There are a lot of words for such fans. Most are said like curses, though there is that joking 'i'm such a ____, lol' that goes with it, by the mature fans. Feral fen. Believers. Tinhats. Fangirl. Teenies.
These are the transgressors, and the perception is that they are the younger, less mature fans. Usually teenagers/people too young to drink legally in the US. Usually teenage girls.
It's the tinhatss who printed off explicit fanfic and gave it to X actor at that one con! or It's the teenies who shoved shipper signs at Y & Z band members and made them pose with it for a picture!*** Get the pitchforks!
Fellow fans who don't do such things get tetchy at those who do. And certain fandoms, bandom, and Pete Wentz's side of the pool, have bad reputations for be primarily made up of such problematic fans.
It is odd then, to navigate this terrain if one happens to be under the age of 20 and doesn't do any of those taboo things other fans have and will criticize.
It is even odder to have to navigate it while the band you like is reacting to all the media/cultural splooge out there that says that having an audience of primarily underage women, little girls is a sissy thing, not belonging in rock/what ever the hell label MCR is stuck with this week. Labels they themselves didn't come up with.
But then, there are certain sequences in Life on the Murder Scene****, MCR's dvd from 2005/2006, the source for most canon before 2006, that bode well for the situation of young girls who like going to rock concerts. Gerard identifies as a feminist, and its pretty clear that the rest of the band is on board with that direction for the band's philosophy.
The thing is, we the fans (tinhat or otherwise) and they, the subjects, none of us exist in a vacuum. Pete Wentz can and does blog right back at us. Frank and Leathermouth, which to me is his outlet for all the darker, nastier aspects of his psyche, he screams right back at us.
They have twitters and blogs and (unverified) ljs of their own, not to mention the plethora of MySpaces. They respond in interviews, saying that they do or don't look for/read our fanfic. They do or don't like how the teenies are acting.
Things computer savvy folk and teenage girls alike have in spades. Not to mention the computer savvy teenage girl who can hack anything in front of her. Overlap does happen.
The thing that most of us forget, is that teenies grow up. The screaming, sign holding, arm waving, hysterical 'little girl' is not a fixed state. They can get better, for values of 'not being creepy to the fannish subjects' or they can get worse. Like, having the financial resources to really seriously stalk Subject of Fannishness. But they aren't static.
The music sweeps into their heads, at a young age, and it doesn't go away. It's influence may ebb, but there will always be that spark of 'I can do anything, snarl right back at the monsters in that dark alley' somewhere.
Part of growing up is about making bad decisions, and doing things that make you cringe when you look back on it years later, like printing out someone else's explicit fanfic and throwing it in some famous person's face.
That is the strength, though. That change. The screaming, hysterical fangirl who couldn't possibly be much of a threat to anything but themselves!
Its such a person who has the potential for so much transformation though. The passion, and thinking that the songs may inspire, can lead to championing causes that resonate, or a quiet life that brings happiness and comfort to those around. Or anything else.
There are still major problems that the bad behavior that teenies partake in cause for the rest of us, but I'd rather not think that all hope for a 15 year old who has an interest in fandom is lost if she happens to be behind the 'personal boundaries' learning curve.
* Let us go with 'Your Mileage May Indeed Vary'.
** This is more common than one might think.
*** You'd think I joke, but Ryan Ross and Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco were the unlucky souls recently.
**** I can dig up actual quotes if you want me to.
~~