See? That wasn’t so hard. Though this:
is still just asserting what it should be trying to demonstrate.
B-, could do better.
Meh. I’ll make it up on the mid-term. 
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I wonder just how weird and scary it is to be in a band like 1D with all that energy directed at you?
I remember watching a bit of footage from inside an empty theatre where the camera started by the stage and headed up the aisle and out into the foyer. As the point of view moved, so the background noise gradually swelled. It was the sound of thousands of fans pounding on the doors and walls in unison and chanting, “We want the Rollers!” The sense of pent up energy was amazing and scary.
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Yes, the article starts by comparing One Directioners with Top Gear fans. That’s because of the coincidence of both announcements occurring on the same day. But then it goes on to broaden the comparison to professional sports. Anyone here who is basing their argument on the comparison with Top Gear only didn’t really read the article, let alone think about it as a whole piece.
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I didn’t like the first straw man OR the second straw man. Crying over sports teams is just as obnoxious and pointless as crying over a boy band.
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I personally find the crazy sports fans to be even more ridiculous, personally, and I doubt I’m alone in that. Because teenagers are emotionally immature, so their reactions make sense, to a degree.
Regarding the Top Gear comparison - I didn’t see any of the same reactions that the author is talking about, but I guess if you dig into Top Gear forums you’ll find them there. Most of the stuff I saw round the more general internets (Twitter and the like) was just “Aww man, that sucks. I liked him on Top Gear.” And while I agree that sexism absolutely is part of it, I also think that a part of it is that 1D fans are all over Twitter. They’re a huge target. I also think ageism plays a big part as well - we mock teenage boys for getting overly emotional about video games, too.
Personally, I had about the same reaction to Zayn leaving as I did Clarkson getting fired. “It’s a shame, they were entertaining”. But I’m a bit more ambivalent about Clarkson - while I will miss him on Top Gear, he’s also undeniably a gigantic asshole, so I can’t really complain too much. My kids (well, and wife) LOOOOOVE One Direction, but they’re too young (6 and 3) to fall into the demographic where they even really understand what it means for him to leave the band. As long as they stay together long enough for my son to see them in concert next summer, there won’t be any problem in my household (though I did have to console my wife a little bit).
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You missed their biggest point though… Most people don’t care about either of these events. I only recently learned that One Direction wasn’t a Christian Rock band (and was merely New Kids On The Block version 16), and I only know Top Gear is a British show about cars; so neither of these events matter one bit to me. People getting upset about either of these events are equally silly to me. Granted, if I had a daughter of that age, I might pretend to care more than if I had a gear head friend.
Also, I’m old, I don’t understand the obsessions of young people, and can’t really sympathize. If they act silly about something, I will probably laugh at it (regardless of gender). I’m guessing most people over 30 are in the same camp.
“Hah ha, kids these days”
[quote]Graham Chapman: I think all righthtinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired.
All: Yes, yes…
Graham Chapman: I’m certainly not! And I’m sick and tired of being told that I am.[/quote]
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One small quibble–Top Gear was a show about arguments and cheap jokes that happened to have cars as well. (More powaah!)
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I agree with some of the sentiments expressed in these quotes, but isn’t it also kinda the point about intersectionality? 1D fans are taking slag from multiple directions: those who don’t like the music, those who don’t like (or understand) young people, and those who have biases against women.
That sounds like a good debate for another time. On this topic, though, it’s easy to understand why people might not find the culture 1D promotes to be completely sympathetic.
From Wiki:
Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph, in an article on One Direction’s success in North America, notes that Americans had left a gap in the market and it took the prominence of Justin Bieber to demonstrate that there still was a market for “clean cut, wholesome, whiter-than-white, middle class parent friendly pop: cute boys advocating puppy love. And what could be better than one cute boy, if not five?”
Whoa, lot to unpack there. To me, I have a tough time distinguishing 1D from Barbie Pink™ products marketed to traditional stereotypes of what some people girls should aspire to.
To be sure, there have have been academic defenses like the OP article just as there have been feminist critiques of 1D.
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What an awful comment. You didn’t respond to ANYTHING that they said, you just attacked them and said they are clueless because of an assumption you made about their gender.
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Twitter saw mocking of one direction because they are the prototypical can sing and do nothing else bunch of idiots. But it mocked top gear etc far more and the top gear fans were viciously attacked but nobody seemed to care about the one direction fans.
Also comparing essentially nice non threatening pretty personality vacuums with favourite characters/public people who you know have personalities is quite different. Its also nothing like sports. I’m no fan of sports or boy bands (but I am of music) in general but I know (and so should the writer) that the way people interact with them is vastly different. People overreact to both but the type of engagement is wildly different.
Also if you want to know everything wrong with all the imitation beatlemania you just have to go back to the original and listen to a live recording, then you’ll realise why the Beatles stopped playing live, it was insane.
Nobody mocks the fans of the hunger Games despite originally and likely now being predominantly teenage girls. Often it’s the thing itself people knock not the fans.
Although the one direction fans were nothing compared to the Take That fans back in the 90s. That seemed more like mass hysteria and I was a young teenager at the time.
Then again sometimes people are arses.
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The question is why people mock others at all.
Oh puhlease! Shall I fetch the fainting couch? You can’t seriously be suggesting this surprised person is making either a good point or here to argue in good faith?
Yes. I think you are the person here acting in bad faith.
You know, this is really a petty response. Someone wrote something similar after I rejoined BB several months ago. What the snide little jerk didn’t know was that I continued to read my daily BB for over three years, but I never signed in due to time constraints (or general laziness, I forget). I ended up creating a new account (same email, though) because it was easier than hunting down my old password and login info.
I often enjoyed reading the pithy and enlightening comments by the readers. I find the majority of readers who comment to be open-minded and articulate. However, sometimes it seems as if some narcissist just has to show how clever he/she thinks he/she is by ripping into another reader’s opinion rather than furthering a discussion and then try to frame their own opinions as truths.
I don’t agree with this portion of @Surprised’s comments:
But you lost me at your snarky little hello.
Sports has at least got a chance of having some greater cultural or political significance, whether it does or not. Boy bands and the like are cynically designed to appeal to the interests of developing minds. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but your kids shouldn’t be this invested much like they shouldn’t only eat candy. Treats are fine, limits are necessary.
oops wrong thing
they’ll live.
@Thebarton_Gamer supports the premise forwarded by the OP. That doesn’t seem petty, or in bad faith, or out of character.
If you want to debate the premise, please proceed!
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