Supporting your football team vs stanning your fav musician
Our culture accepts and glorifies an obsession with football (a mostly male interest) but ridicules liking kpop or Taylor Swift too much (mostly female interests).
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It’s football season! ⚽ Everyone’s either talking about, watching, or studiously ignoring the world cup — but everyone’s aware of it.
I have no special interest in football, but I watched the opening ceremony and a bit of the first match for a few specific reasons — but most of all because BTS’ Jungkook1 was performing.
This is my first time seeing just how involved people are with the world cup. Plans have been made around matches, it’s a great bonding experience, and thousands have actually flown into Doha, Qatar, to watch their favourite players and/or support their country.
However, I’ve also noticed something else — a distinct lack of disdain or disrespect for all these extremely-invested football fans.
No one’s calling them too obsessed because they’re flying to a different country to see the matches live. Or skipping work to watch the watch. Or cancelling/scheduling other appointments around their favourite matches. No one’s being labelled hysterical, cringe-worthy, desperate, or anything like that if they prioritise their interest in football (or the world cup, as it stands).
Those are some truly lovely double standards in our society.
A majority of the football fandom (yes, that is what it is) is made up of (adult) men. And we know that male interests have historically been placed on a pedestal, whereas women’s interests2 continue to be vilified and ridiculed (no matter the interest).
If you don’t think this is true, then please think about the language used to describe teen girls, young women, or even adult women and their obsessions with anything from kpop to romance novels. If obsession reads like a bad word in this sentence but not when I’m describing football, and the obsession men have with it — therein lies what I’m taking issue with.
Let’s explore the differences/similarities a bit more: Football fans vs Kpop fans (I’m using kpop since I’m a part of the fandom, and it’s one of the most ridiculed right now, but feel free to substitute with pop music, romance novels, women and literally any interest they have instead).
Football fans support teams and players (individually and as a team). This means they follow who’s playing for which team, who’s leaving a team, player injuries, controversies, coach changes, etc. The whole deal.
Kpop fans stan musicians (individuals or groups). This means they follow group members, know when they’re gonna release their next album/single, keep track of any injuries, controversies, changes, etc. The whole deal.
Why’s one considered ‘support’ and another ‘stanning’? Words don’t matter until the context we apply gives them meaning, and in this, it’s clear being a ‘stan’ is being weirdly obsessive.
Stan Twitter has been noted for its extremely fanatic culture and behavior. Vanity Fair highlighted American pop singers Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Korean groups like BTS as artists who have “extremely fanatic fanbases.”
Excuse me, are kpop fans, swifties, or arianators (and similar) the only ‘extreme fanatic fanbases’? Perhaps we need to add football fans, too because why else would they riot in multiple cities because they lost a match?
Once more:
Football fans watch matches almost religiously. Whether global (world cup) or region-specific (premier league, bundesliga), they’ll keep track of upcoming matches and make time watch them live. It’s not the same or worth watching it later (but we’ll defs watch replays of the best goals, some killer defending, etc. — highlight reels)
Kpop fans listen to their faves’ music almost religiously. They’re day on release day, counting down the minutes until
kickoffrelease. They keep track of upcoming releases and make time to watch them live. It’s not the same or worth watching it later (but we’ll defs watch replays of the best moments, some killer shots, etc. — fancams)
I could sit and compare the two for ages. We’ve got photo cards? So do football fans — and it’s great, cause why not! But who’s more likely to get ridiculed for spending money on a photocard — the kpop fan or the football one?
As usual, all this boils down to two words: sexism and misogyny.
If football had a dominantly female fanbase, we’d ridicule that too. As it is, women who are into male-dominated interests like football/any sport/any geeky activity that’s seemingly ‘for men’ have to do too much to justify they deserve to enjoy their interest.
It’d be really nice if, as you catch up on the matches and cheer for your country/team this world cup, you’d spare a thought to think about the double standards our society has and how we could improve them. I’m not asking you to discuss this during half-time, but I want you to be at least aware of the way you might dismiss or derogatorily describe women’s interests in other conversations.
If you’ve already wised up to this show of sexism, then it’s always helpful to stop others who might not even realise how they talk about this in casual conversation. This realisation, multiplied by many people, might eventually allow women to enjoy their interests without being judged too harshly by society.
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It’s no secret that I like BTS. It’s on my bio, and I’ve not shied away from talking about them (I’ve even mentioned my appreciation for them and their music in job interviews).
I’m aware this article has a gendered argument, but in this case, I’m referring to “manly” vs “girly” interests — the descriptors of which also need to be explored in more detail.
It's football season here in the States, too - a different kind of football, but the same crazy obsessiveness (there I said it!). My hubby likes K-Pop and dance music (me, not so much, I'm more into old style rock - he's much more progressive than I am!) and can't stand spectator sports - it's one of the reasons I married him. ;) I'm not into spectator sports either, but American football is especially mystifying to me. During my first semester of college, my roommate forced me to go to my one and only football game. This was what I got out of it: A bunch of guys chase after another guy who's carrying a ball and they all pile up on him; then they all get up and chase ANOTHER guy until he gets buried in the other guys; once in a while the guy being chased manages to throw the ball to someone else or even into one of the goals for a touchdown. The only thing I liked about the game was halftime, when the marching band came out to do a show - they were pretty awesome! But I could not understand football at all and still can't.
The "big" football game is the Superbowl, when most of America is glued to their tellies to watch - a few years back, the cable station Animal Planet came up the idea of airing something called the "Puppy Bowl," which consists of a bunch of puppies chasing each other around a fake football stadium and playing with toys (or sleeping - these are baby dogs, after all!). Cute as all heck - THAT I can get into. :)
As a woman who loves both sports and pop culture, I don't know why I never thought about it this way before. However, you're right. Fandom is definitely perceived differently depending on if it has a primarily male or female base, and it is maddening in a lot of ways.