I've been a little bit sick since Sunday night. Not anything too serious, just one of those things where you don't have energy to do much besides nap, watch videos, and maybe do some reading. I got through the first hundred pages or so of The Folded Clock, which is a Serious Book, and good if occasionally a little bit odd; but I also spent some time consuming some, let's say, less "serious" media. Ok, basically I've been reading One Direction fan fiction and watching fan vids for the past three days. I'm not necessarily proud, but the title of this blog post is a misnomer, because I'm hardly ashamed, either. As a matter of fact, I would argue that there are a number of very good reasons why fandom and fan works (and I'm going to write specifically about 1D but this is true of lots of fandoms) are incredibly valuable and deserve a lot more respect than they popularly receive.
There's a misconception that, broadly speaking, the people in fandom are all obsessive teenage girls. This certainly isn't an accurate representation of people in fandom, generally, but even if it were, I don't think there would be anything wrong with that. We tend to flatten the lives of teenage girls, but what goes on, at least on Tumblr, is very complex, often very intelligent, and represents incredible expressions of compassion. When we're dismissive of the experiences and insights of young women, not only do we send the message that their interior lives lack value, but we also fail to learn from them. I'm truly only a passive observer on Tumblr, but even so, I have learned an unbelievable amount about all kinds of things, from gender and sexuality, to literary analysis, to history, to anatomy, to politics, and on and on. These Tumblr users are constantly supporting each other, questioning each other's ideas, complimenting and reblogging each other's selfies, negotiating and renegotiating and re-renegotiating their identities, critically evaluating the media they consume -- it's incredible. I wish I had had access to it when I was in high school, I probably would have been much happier and much more comfortable with myself. There is so much going on on Tumblr and in fandom, and when people discuss this activity as mindless teenage girl silliness, it collapses that world into something valueless, which I believe is a tremendous loss, and frankly quite disrespectful.
A big portion of the One Direction fandom call themselves "Larries," or people who ship Larry Stylinson -- that is, people who want Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson to be in (or be allowed to openly be in) a romantic relationship. I'll come back to how I feel about this ship, but before I do I'd like to discuss an issue I think it illuminates particularly well. I should say that many of the people I follow are homosexual, bisexual or pansexual, trans, nonbinary or gender nonconforming, and asexual or demisexual. In case this wasn't obvious, many of them don't see themselves represented in media. The idea that Harry and Louis are in a relationship is not inconceivable, but it's hardly definitive, yet in a lot of ways it's the closest thing to meaningful queer representation they have access to. Again, being dismissive of this ship, and of the fandom in general, is, I think, to devalue seeing your own experiences normalized, and, by extension, feeling that you're ok, accepted by society, and not some kind of immoral social deviant (not to put too fine a point on it). I'm not saying anything revolutionary, here -- this is nothing that the queer community hasn't been saying for a long time -- but, as someone who doesn't identify as queer, fandom has made me much more aware, in an almost visceral sense, of this problem.
So ok, let's talk about Larry Stylinson specifically, because I'm currently at the point where I believe in this 100%, and I have actually been getting a little bit emotional about it. I'm not going to link to a 45 minute Youtube video with highly detailed analysis of the evidence (although I'd be happy to if anyone's interested!), but trust me when I say that it's out there, and it is very convincing. (One other thing about the fans -- they are both unbelievably dedicated to this band (see: #WeWantNoControlAsASingle) and extremely good as finding and analyzing videos and photographs of the boys. I know this is not the most important thing they could be focusing their energy on, but I think respecting their passion and their talent, frankly, could go a long way to convincing some of them to get engaged in issues that are meaningful to a greater number of people.) What I (and the Larries) would contend is that Louis and Harry are in a romantic relationship, and have been forced by their management to separate in public to avoid speculation, and more generally, to avoid losing money from the fans who might jump ship (no pun intended). That would certainly say something negative about the music industry, but it's also damning about our attitudes towards queerness as a society -- not to mention that it can't be emotionally healthy for Louis and Harry. Getting involved in fandom has also made me aware of the pervasiveness of heteronormativity. In this case, for example, when One Direction gives interviews, they're often asked about their relationships with women (and when they were younger, how they felt about all the girls). It now strikes me as rather incredible that no interviewers wonder whether they might instead have relationships with men -- after all, it's not like we don't know, as a society, about the existence of same sex relationships. With respect to Louis and Harry specifically, though, it's so depressing to imagine being in love with someone, and not only being told explicitly that you can't interact with that person affectionately in public, but also being told implicitly that there's something wrong with your relationship and your feelings. I'm optimistic that, if Louis and Harry really are together, that they will be able to be open about their relationship, hopefully sooner rather than later (and there's some very shady evidence that suggests this is the case -- this fandom really appeals to my conspiracy-loving side). The fact, however, that they couldn't (and can't) is really heartbreaking, and is further evidence that we need to take these fanatical teenage girls seriously, because what they're saying is so much bigger than love for a band and their music.
Anyway, on a lighter note, here's one of my favorite 1D-related videos, enjoy!
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