Teenage Girls Made the Beatles

Words by Eva Lau Johnston

Within conversations about music and its fans, I’ve noticed a recurring reluctance to support artists who have achieved pop-star status. Many are driven by a fear of being elementary, especially in an era that prides uniqueness as a social currency. People also don’t want to be affiliated with fanbases because of their association with younger, more alternative, or most frequently, teenage girls. Popular musicians like Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Chappell Roan are often avoided by young men and those seeking an esoteric listening profile, yet this only undermines female interests. These fanbases are received as simple, which is a direct consequence of the continuous dismissal of female cultural participation. It has reached a point where people are ashamed to listen to certain artists out of fear of being emasculated due to the target audience and most visible fans. The fear of being associated with femininity prevents many from challenging misogyny, thus allowing it to thrive in the supposedly safe spaces found within the creative industries. This unfortunate and saddening experience of female artistry and fandom has allowed popular music to be considered rudimentary, which is yet another way to subdue and undermine female voices. By denying the importance of female fanbases and their power to create community and some of the biggest bands of all time, as women and as other social minorities, we pose less of a threat to the status quo and current political order.

This issue plagues artists, their fans, and journalists alike, which demonstrates the widespread nature of this problem within creative sectors - despite its ethos of individual expression. In this article, I highlight the diminishing role of women in popularising music, primarily focusing on fan culture. I believe that the illusion of simplicity projected onto popular music is a symptom of the over-policing of female interests which has allowed an anti-feminist culture war to thrive even in the twenty-first century. No matter how progressive we think we are, there is a universal tendency to resent art, music, and movies associated with young women. This is incessantly detrimental to feminism and public perception of women.

Firstly, it is imperative to understand why there exists a distinctive ‘female fan’. Like most cultural domains, music is a gendered industry. Even films concerning music have perpetuated a particular trope about different types of female fans. For example, Almost Famous depicts the glamour of groupie culture without considering the exploitation of young women by older, celebrated male artists. Whether the political deviants of groups like Bikini Kill or through Groupie culture, the female experience in the music world is understood as an extension of their male counterparts or how they rebel against the typically masculine focus of music. The intricacies of female fan culture are condensed into having two motives: hysterical admiration or lustful attraction, whereas male fans are likely to be viewed as having more complex links and interactions with fan culture. This oversimplification of the female fan is born out of an us and them mentality crafted by overt masculinity. The male fan is perceived as part of high culture at the expense of taking women seriously. Neither female artists nor female fans have an ounce of the credibility so wilfully given to male musicians and their aficionados. This is detrimental to the public perception of fan culture and the female participation in anything public, since, according to Helen Davies in her essay ‘All Rock and Roll is Homosocial: The Representation of Women in the British Rock Music Press,’ ‘in the eyes of the serious music world, credibility is the most important factor in determining the value of a performer or piece of music.’ Stefanie Rhein, in ‘“Being a Fan is More than That”: Fan-Specific Involvement with Music,’ highlights that whilst female credibility is rooted in ‘attractiveness and sexuality,’ it is the artistry, creativity, and impact of a male artist that allows him to be deemed credible. Perhaps the female fan is also demonised for her publicity. By stepping outside of the traditional, domesticated role, girls and women who publicly devote themselves to an artist are seen as exponentially more crass and deviant than their male counterparts. Rhein identifies this as an issue of visibility or perceived visibility since ‘this stereotype is probably based on the more strongly perceived fandom of girls than that of boys because girls perhaps display their randomness more openly in public.’ However, this demonstrates the consistent push to diminish and subdue any form of female presence seen as threatening by the male voice of authority. By protesting the harsh boundaries of the public and private spheres, fan culture becomes a revolutionary act that creates more spaces for female dissent.

There is a cultural tendency to link mainstream music with women, specifically young girls and teenagers. Burdened by societal levies on age and femininity, teenage girls are a scarily undermined social sector. As both women and popular music are deemed simple, female fans are positioned as the appropriate counterpart. One of the most culturally significant bands of the modern era, The Beatles, is a prime example of this undervaluation. The Beatles were fandom-less, unknown and non-credible until teenage girls started paying attention to their art. Their global and historical success began in fan clubs, the same groups that have been socially undermined and dismissed. Davies endeavours to understand ‘why women can never fulfil’ any form of credibility in the music world (or in any sphere for that matter), and why ‘women attempting to present themselves as intelligent are regarded as pretentious.’ This Sisyphean battle is yet another social example of female oppression that has extended to policing our musical tastes, likes and interests. Davies criticises those like Steven Wells who pushed the narrative that female fans can either be of the hysterical, almost obsessive type or ‘motivated by sexual attractions and are not sufficiently intellectual to understand them’. Wells wrote for NME that, ‘the teenybopper…is in love. The groupie wants to fuck her idols.’ Either lovesick or lustful, infantilised or sexualised, the female fan cannot escape a predisposed narrative imposed upon her.

It is not just any male artist who is associated with credibility, but a heterosexual one. Those with stereotypically gay audiences have also been subject to the same credibility gap, as proven by musician Chappell Roan. Her identity is palpable within her music, thus allowing her fan base to find community and collectivity. However, her artistry is usually avoided by heterosexual young men aiming to distance themselves from any ounce of femininity or homosexuality. Perhaps this reflects the lack of confidence many young men feel in their masculinity, a social crisis that is deepening the toxicity of manhood and its dangerous impact on women.

Discrediting female fans pushes a narrative in which they exist as simplified versions of their male counterparts, or, as Davies puts it, 'trivialised and ridiculed.’ This is reflected in the linguistics of the female fanbase, which Daniel Cavicchi explores in his essay ‘Fandom Before ‘Fan’: Shaping the History of Enthusiastic Audiences.’ Often, cultural movements and popular support are seen as a ‘hysteria,’ which finds its etymology in ‘hystera,’ the Greek word for uterus. This word has also been used to describe female insanity originating in the womb. The historical narrative of female irrationality is used to tarnish female support. Davies’ suggestion that insinuating female interest in music cannot be genuine but an obsession further denigrates their ‘perceived intellectualism’ and proves a systemic agenda that views women as inferior.

This totalised lack of female credibility only serves to perpetuate female simplicity and undermines many social and political efforts. It is crucial to recognise that we are fighting a culture war against a rising tide of subtly subconscious misogyny, even present in TikTok trends and online jargon. The ‘I’m just a girl’ trend, for example, unknowingly authorises the cultural and social subjugation of women. By examining the idea of female fanbases as a case study, we can demonstrate how culturally and socially widespread this phenomenon is. The cultural divide between male and female fandoms allows the persistence of a gendered culture war that only undermines the presence of women in public spheres.