It’s time to quit the boy band bashing and let us girls have some fun.
Danielle Filan Lagos recounts her first love and why a few tears and high-pitched screams are all part of growing up.

I knew what my married name was going to be before my first kiss. Heck, before I even met the boy. It was going to be Danielle Filan. That’s right, me and the oh-so-dreamy lead singer of Westlife, Shane Filan, and I were going to be blissfully happy together – he just didn’t know it. How did I prove my undying 10-yearold love to him? By buying his CDs and every magazine that his pretty little face graced as well as screaming front row at his concert, where I am sure we made eye contact for about 1.23 seconds (hi Shane, remember me?).

A quick poll around the Cleo office saw that I was not alone. While the obvious names of Nick (“Omigod, he was so cute and those eyes!”) and Justin (“I was taken by the double denim look which he rocked way back when. No shame.”) came up a lot, not to mention Harry, Liam and Zayn, even 80s groups like Wham! and A-ha came up in our nostalgic fest of childhood crushes.

But where am I going with this common tale of fan-girl devotion? I am getting to the point that young girls have and always will go cray-cray over boy bands and male musicians. Fact. But there is more reasoning behind the rowdiness than meets the eye – and it’s not just because of the boys’ perfectly swept hairdos.

British music writer Jude Rogers presents the documentary titled Mad About the Boy, which explores the importance of female fandom and “how it helps girls explore their imaginations, express their sexual selves, and gain identity and community away from their elders”. Pretty deep, huh?

Dr Amrit Kaur, clinical psychologist at Kidztherapy (kidztherapy.co.nz), explains that the importance is down to timing.

“Teen fandom tends to arise around the same time that girls develop sexually,” says Dr Kaur.

“Some writers have suggested that a pop concert provides a platform for sexual expression that is safe. Because the pop star is an idolised figure whom they are unlikely to actually meet, the chances of an actual sexual encounter are low enough to make the expression safe.”

Think back to the 1940s, when Frank Sinatra had a loyal following of admiring women. Then came Elvis Presley and The Beatles, who were also some of the first acts to rouse hordes of female fans into a tearstreaked and screaming frenzy – and it scared the bejesus out of most of society.

“While female fandom has historically raised some alarm bells, it is not very far off from the behaviour we know and accept of fans in afootball stadium,” elaborates Dr Kaur.

“While there may be more tears than one would see at a pitch, female fandom allows girls to attach themselves to a reified pop figure much like many attach themselves and their identity to a sports team. Perhaps the draw of this is also much like that of rooting for a particular team; being a fan allows a teen to be part of a community of peers and supporters, and allows them to experiment with different identities and explore different sides of themselves.”

So what’s with all the constant Bieber bashing and 1D dissing? Can the older generation not remember the tears, tanties and hysteria when The Backstreet Boys (not that long ago) or The Rolling Stones (a little bit longer ago) went on tour and came on the TV? It’s the same reaction the Biebs and the boys from One Direction received when they touched down on our shores last year.

“[A] theory is that screaming is a form of shared excitement – a way of signalling that the individual has been sexually excited and to share in that collective excitement and be part of a community,” says Dr Kaur. “The tears may simply be the result of strong emotions, whether it is of excitement, happiness, or a sense of being one with other fans.”

And let’s get some perspective, people: the lyrics are harmless and, in fact, quite endearing. Phrases like “You’re perfect to me”, “You look so perfect standing there” and “You’re my perfect girl” (I’m sensing a ‘perfect’ pattern here) are what any girl wants to hear: clean, harmless and complimentary words.

So while you may be tempted to laugh at the tween crying as she waits in line to possibly touch anything of Harry Styles, remember that this girl hysteria has been around for as long as, well, boy bands themselves. We lived through it, our mums lived through it, even our grannies did. And we all turned out alright, didn’t we?

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