Stereotypes are not a new concept, in fact, they have existed since the beginning of time. Almost every single person on this earth has to suffer through some stereotype or another, whether it be about their body, voice, culture, religion, interests, race and even their zodiac sign.
To an extent, I understand the human tendency to do so, it makes the unfamiliar seem familiar and also allows one to navigate certain situations depending on those stereotypes.
But at the same time, when certain areas start to impose these stereotypes on a person or group of people, it becomes a problem.
This is especially true in case of interests that young girls, yes girls, more than anyone might have.
I’ve noticed and gone through it myself, where interests I might have had been dismissed as not ‘good enough‘ and trashy. Some times it becomes more of an instinctual habit to hide these interests from people in real life since you don’t want that barrage of teasing and jokes being made on you simply for liking something.
A recent article on South Korean band BTS has only brought this point to the forefront and made me think why exactly is it so incredibly easy to dismiss the interests of young girls, while those of young boys and more are allowed to be serious and something to be proud of.
What Happened With The BTS Article?
Deadline, an entertainment website from the USA, posted an article on 26th July talking about the new upcoming single from the musical group BTS.
BTS, for the unknown, stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan or Beyond the Scene and is a seven-membered group consisting of Jin, Suga J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, Jungkook.
The recent news is that their new single would be released on 21st August on Korean and international streaming sites.
This track follows after BTS’ February album Map of the Soul and is going to be their first English track as a group.
The members have done individual and sub-unit English tracks, but they were not counted as official BTS discography since they didn’t feature all the members.
There has already been much hype about this track since BTS have been informing fans or ARMYs (the fandom name) of how this is the first time they are creating an album made entirely by the band.
They’ve even hosted live streams on YouTube and other platforms explaining what each member is doing and how they are going about creating the album.
In the Deadline article by Bruce Haring, the piece started with a few lines that have now been edited out after much backlash from the fans.
First thing is that the Korean/Hangul line at the very start doesn’t seem to make sense. The thing that offended fans a lot was the phrase ‘little girls‘.
BTS is known for their extremely diverse fanbase that ranges from as young as children aged 8 or below to people over 60 or 70 in age.
Men, women, children and seniors, are all fans of the band regardless of anything. So it was only rightful that ARMYs would not like the constant stereotyping of the whole fandom to be seen as ‘little girls‘.
People rightfully called out this phrase and also the media’s constant reiteration that BTS has mostly young female fans.
One user even pointed out that the romanisation of the Korean words used was not correct.
Several people also raised the point that there is nothing wrong with young girls liking BTS and they should not be reduced to something negative or to be mocked.
BTS Fans Are Not Just Little Girls
BTS fans have for long now been rallying against this stereotype and often have challenges or trend stuff on social media specifically highlighting their age, gender, profession and more.
In a recent survey by online ticketing marketplace Vivid Seats for BTS’ 2019 Love Yourself: Speak Yourself tour they found that the fandom had become quite diverse in just an year.
While the fandom is still majorly female, in 2018 almost 50% of BTS fans were females between 18-24 in age, that changed in 2019 when it lowered to 39% with the 24-35 age group increasing in number from 16% to 27%.
This number was for those searching for a ticket to a BTS concert on the ticketing website.
As per reports, in 2018, Korean Gallup, a South Korean company specializing in market research and opinion polls had taken an Idol Preference survey.
Jimin from BTS ranked 2nd on the list for the most popular idol among boys in the 10-year-old age group.
He was the only male idol to place in the top 5 of this list and he even ranked 5th place in the list for idols picked by men in their 20s.
An Instyle report had talked about the growing interest of BTS among women who were in their 30s, 40s, 50s and so on.
They mentioned a Facebook group called Bangtan Moms & Noonas that has more than 500 members all comprising of people from 20 years old to those in their 60s.
57-year-old Nan Paturzo who started the group stated that “I tell my husband this all the time — BTS makes me happy. I enjoy what they say in their music. I believe in their sincerity. It’s so reassuring to have that presence in my life.”
What Is Wrong With Little Girls?
As diverse as the fandom is, their anger at this phrase was correct, it is high time that the negative connotation to young girls and their interests be removed.
It is, in fact, these young girls who first notice many things that eventually become mainstream successes and even contribute quite a lot to the various industries.
Not just in BTS, but any other so-called ‘boy band‘ or pop culture item is instantly disregarded if it has a largely younger audience.
They are only given respect and regard once the older and often male audience set their sights on them and deem them as good enough to be liked.
Dodai Stewart, the over 35-year-old deputy editor on the Metro desk at The New York Times very well said that “I think women don’t get credit for a lot of things.” She further explained that “A lot of things that women like are considered low brow. Things that are multi-million dollar industries are often not taken seriously because women are the driving force behind them. Something like football is a male-dominated, American pastime that if you really think about it, it’s silly, it’s just a game. But it drives millions of dollars, there’s a segment for it on the evening news every day. Somehow other things that women are interested in don’t necessarily earn the same kind of space or respect.”
Whether you take BTS, Twilight, One Direction or even Beatles, who were dismissed early in their career for having largely female fans with the term ‘Beatlemania‘ getting extremely popular, they all get a bad rep for having female fans who are usually considered young in age.
There is nothing essentially wrong with a band or thing having young female fans and it should not be used as a way to mock or downplay their interest.
Image Credits: Google Images
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This post is tagged under: BTS Fans, BTS little girls, BTS deadline article, BTS fan demographic, Beatlemania, Instyle report, Facebook group, Bangtan Moms & Noonas, little girls, following, male, female, breakup, Deadline article by Bruce Haring, Deadline article, Bruce Haring
Reading this, I just got upset. You cannot say that ALL of ARMYs around the world are “little girls” FYI, I am 25 years old, so my little girl stage is long gone. I have loved BTS forever and I will not allow you to pick on them. You mess with ARMY, you mess with BTS and vise versa.