Crazy About One Direction

More often than not, we can all remember a time when we held a certain fascination for a celebrity, whether it be innocent admiration, a crush, or a full-blown obsession. In recent years, the boy band One Direction has grabbed attention for its huge and crazy fandom that is reminiscent of the fan girl days of Beatlemania. In 2013, Channel 4, a British television broadcasting company went behind the scenes to understand the fans of One Direction, producing a controversial documentary that reveals just how invested these adolescent girls are in their parasocial relationships (see clip below).

When viewing the documentary, consistent trends emerged that both aligned and contrasted Rachel Karniol’s 2001 study on adolescent females. First off, the most prevalent trend among the fans was the fantasies they each had for a future relationship with a member of a band or the conviction they had for how well they believed they knew their idol. This hints at the core of Karniol’s hypotheses, as well as some of her findings – that adolescents often seek feminine idols, which One Direction would most definitely be. While Karniol examines the ways in which this is used as a safety approach for adolescents, who may not be ready to fully confront their sexual desire, the documentary suggests that these girls are in no way scared of the possibility of fulfilling relationships with members of One Direction.

In the video, one girl described her fantasy with Harry Styles, saying, “I really want him to be my husband. I just wanna spend my life with him. I'm 14 unfortunately and Harry is 19. He'd get put in jail. I'd join him in jail, I'd go in jail just to be with him to be honest." 

Additionally, the documentary uses many of the girls’ bedrooms as the backdrops for filming. In every room examined, posters and memorabilia decorate (more often cover) the walls. Karnoil would suggest that these posters could be facilitating a false relationship for each of these girls with their One Direction idols. In many ways, these girls could feel like they know the band because in a sense, they are regularly interacting with them and carrying on a fantasized relationship. This was something Karnoil examines when she considers the varying investment girls have in their idols based on how much time they spend talking to their images “hanging posters expresses a social function and that subsequently, the number of posters of their idol that girls hang would correlate with the amount of time they spend talking to their idol” (Karniol, 2001). Testing this hypothesis, she found a significant correlation, which can be applied to the Directioners. For example the below picture of Natasha’s room shows her deep investment in covering her walls with One Direction posters, which may only be furthering her fantasized relationship with them, and thus creating a false idea of closeness and an imagined relationship.

In contrast to Karniol, however, though One Direction overall boasts a pretty feminine appearance, this does not diminish fans’ romantic fantasies with them. Again, in reference to posters, she presents a third theory that girls with non-feminine idols who hang posters are more likely to become excited when thinking about their idols, are more likely to be jealous of their idol’s real-life relationships and are more likely to want a relationship with their idol (Karniol, 2001). Though her evidence showed that these trends were true among participants, observing One Direction fans shows that these factors do not play the same role. Many express the jealousy they have for the real-life girlfriends of the band members as well as the action they take to try and interfere with them. One fan referenced the time Harry Styles was dating Taylor Swift, claiming she was blocked from the country singer’s social media accounts for sending death threats. 

When observing the fandom and parasocial relationships that many of these young girls have with One Direction, it becomes clear that social media is taking parasocial relationships to the next level. As we discussed in class, these relationships can have both negative and positive life implications, however, the video tends to focus more on the negative aspects that surround this crazy fandom. Therefore, while One Direction fans undoubtedly represent very extreme forms of fandom and idolization, they do provide a usual and interesting case for the fetishizing of feminine male media stars, showcasing a real-life application of Karniol’s study.


References:

Crazy About One Direction [Television broadcast]. (2013, August 15). Channel 4.

Karniol, R. (2001). Adolescent females’ idolization of male media stars as transition into sexuality. Sex Roles, 44(1/2), 61-77.