So I'm a huge fangirl. It's really no secret. I love Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Firefly, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, wizard rock, Chamelion Circuit, etc etc. Half the people I follow on Twitter I follow because I'm a fangirl. It is one of my dreams to meet Melissa Anelli because I'm such a huge fan. But I've just been thinking lately, how strange fangirling is. I mean...it's not really for things, but for actual people, it has kind of hit me how weird it is. I freely fangirl the Vlogbrothers, wizard rockers, YouTubers, authors...(well, actually, mostly just Jo and John and sometimes Maureen Johnson.) I wonder how they feel about being fangirled? Because obviously they're people, even if they don't really seem like it on the interwebs sometimes. Maybe they're used to it and it's not strange at all anymore. I don't know. But I was just thinking about that yesterday, when the new Chamelion Circuit songs came out and Taekia and I started fangirling Alex and Charlie (well, Alex for her part, Charlie on mine. XD) and then we started talking about Edplant and...yeah. I just kind of thought, "I wonder how they feel about being fangirled." And I had no idea what to write about today, so this is what I'm writing about. XD
Another strange thing about fangirling. A week or so ago Michael Aranda commented on one of my videos. Needless to say, I freaked out. I squee'd and my hands were shaking and I just stared at the computer screen thinking, "Holy shit, Michael Aranda commented on one of MY videos!"I wasn't even subscribed to him before this, (sorry, Michael) but here I was fangirling as if one of my hero's had just said "Hi" to me. All because he's a fairly well known YouTuber. It kind of blows my mind, but even still, every time I see the email that YouTube sent me (because I refuse to delete it) my stomach jolts forward excitedly.
The whole fan culture is kind of strange to me, actually. Which is really funny, because it is such a huge part of my life. Basically every moment of the day is somehow related to me being a fangirl. Whether it's through writing (which I only do because of Miss JK Rowling) or working (which I do so much of so I can go to LeakyCon), or HPA'ing (obvious why this is fangirl-y), spending time online or just hanging out with Kayla (where we spend most of our time fangirling). I guess when I say the fan culture is strange, I think I mostly mean the fan culture of being fans of people, rather than things. Like being fans of sports or movies or books or whatever isn't strange. It's the people thing. Like, instead of saying "OMG I LOVE JOHN GREEN'S BOOKS!!!!!!" I would say "OMG I LOVE JOHN GREEN!!1!!!1" Even though I have never actually met him or interacted with him. (Though both of those statements are true)
(...I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot in this blog. Maybe I need to start planning these out better.)
It wasn't until honestly, Michael Aranda's comment and my reaction that I started feeling strange. I don't feel strange when I fangirl Charlie McDonell or John Green...but I do still feel weird that I squee'd over Michael Aranda. Famous people - even just Internet Famous people - have strange effects on me, and on our society. I mean, there's a reason why tabloids exist. Our culture is obsessed with celebrity (which is the point I've really been trying to get across here) and I'm not even really sure why. Sure, they're glamorous and some of them have the most amazing jobs ever (I mean, come on, who DOESN'T want to be able to make movies for a living? REALLY.) but then some of them are completely pointless. *cough* Reality TV stars *cough* I really hate reality TV - it's obviously fake - but then when the "stars" of the TV shows get famous and "important" in our society, it annoys me. They haven't DONE anything to be famous. They just put themselves on a TV show to try to win money. Whoooooooo. At least by fangirling Mike Lombardo, I'm essentially fangirling his music (or at least, just as much as I am the man himself). But when someone fangirls Snooki (who I only know exists thanks to the Vlogbrothers) what are they fangirling, exactly?
Just something to think about.
No comments:
Post a Comment