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What's with all the Justin Bieber-bashing, universe? So, the kid's baby-faced and has a high voice and is attractive to fourteen year old girls.
What, exactly, is wrong with that?
All I'm seeing is a fear of and condemnation of young girls' desire. Bad, bad girls! Manifesting - and sharing - your desires! Causing ruckus! Being impolite! Bad girls.
Ok, granted, that was a Miranda Devine article - what else did you *expect*? But it's a blown-up version of the finger-pointing and disapproval evident across the whole media coverage of the Justin ruckus. (For those not in the know, a free JB concert in Sydney was cancelled when the crowd of teens and preteens got out of control - waiting up all night for the star to appear, those with mobile phones were excited by a false twitter rumour that JB had arrived in Sydney early, and the crowd surged, injuring several. The concert was cancelled, and the crowd moved to the Sunrise studio. Efforts seem to have been made to cancel that show as well, but JB insisted on performing one song for his fans. The media then go to town on the hilarity/depravity of these teenage girls and their desire for the effeminate singer and his not-especially-meaningful lyrics.)
Meanwhile, my facebook feed is flooded with guys joining groups with titles like "don't worry Justin Bieber, I used to sing like you - then I turned four". Groups calling to vote him out of their gender, and asking God to exchange Kurt Cobain (dead, manly musician) for Justin Bieber (live, insufficiently manly musician).
Amusingly, all the guys I know who are joining these groups are either:
1. Gay
2. Not especially macho
3. Socially awkward
or
4. All of the above.
So what have we here? On the one hand, adults and the media are uncomfortable with teenage (and pre-teenage) girls manifesting desire (be it sexual or otherwise - believe it or not, a seven-year-old COULD idolise a singer and manifest her desire in ways which are imitative of older girls without *actually* wanting him in the pants - and yet the media persist in acting as if Bieber's pre-teen fans are some weird two-headed breed of predatory sexualised babies). Accordingly, adults, the media, and older teens react by mocking and/or damning the girls in question. This is not new news! It's the Edward Cullen Underpants Conundrum, with a slightly younger target market.
So what, universe? Crowds of (young) women want to look at a man? (Young) women behave in uncouth ways when satisfying their desire for said man? (Young) women make fools of themselves trying to touch this man? (Young) women make this man into an object of their desire, more about fulfilling a need of theirs than any innate quality he has?
SO WHAT? Nothing men haven't been doing to all women for centuries. Millenia.
And on the other hand, we have a group of men - many older than Bieber, some probably his age-peers - slandering him and emasculating him. Now, I don't know if Bieber is known for particularly gender-transgressive behaviour: it's possible he is, I've never seen him perform, but it certainly hasn't featured in the media coverage. Yet the male reaction seems to be trying, violently, to police gender performance.
Whose gender performance, exactly?
Is it Bieber's?
It could be.
But I think it's actually about Bieber's fans. These "febrile, hyperventilating girls" who dare to manifest their desire, and who dare to desire an insufficiently masculine object. I think this outbreak of man-rage on Facebook (and probably other places, too) is part of male desire to shame these girls for not desiring/affirming... well, them. And, if my friends feed is anything to go by, it's not coming from macho men. It's coming from men who themselves aren't achieving an ideal masculine gender performance. It's coming from shy men, gawky men, flamboyant men, gay men: men who are used to not receiving heaps of social approval and accolades for their manliness, and they're lashing out at Bieber because Bieber's fans are too young to have internalised the same codes of masculinity as they have.
Those who feel more secure in themselves resort to mocking the mysterious ways of attraction which lead girls to desire Bieber. Which is really no better.
All this makes me want to buy a Justin Bieber album. Or maybe relive my childhood and lay hands on a Hanson album.
What, exactly, is wrong with that?
All I'm seeing is a fear of and condemnation of young girls' desire. Bad, bad girls! Manifesting - and sharing - your desires! Causing ruckus! Being impolite! Bad girls.
Ok, granted, that was a Miranda Devine article - what else did you *expect*? But it's a blown-up version of the finger-pointing and disapproval evident across the whole media coverage of the Justin ruckus. (For those not in the know, a free JB concert in Sydney was cancelled when the crowd of teens and preteens got out of control - waiting up all night for the star to appear, those with mobile phones were excited by a false twitter rumour that JB had arrived in Sydney early, and the crowd surged, injuring several. The concert was cancelled, and the crowd moved to the Sunrise studio. Efforts seem to have been made to cancel that show as well, but JB insisted on performing one song for his fans. The media then go to town on the hilarity/depravity of these teenage girls and their desire for the effeminate singer and his not-especially-meaningful lyrics.)
Meanwhile, my facebook feed is flooded with guys joining groups with titles like "don't worry Justin Bieber, I used to sing like you - then I turned four". Groups calling to vote him out of their gender, and asking God to exchange Kurt Cobain (dead, manly musician) for Justin Bieber (live, insufficiently manly musician).
Amusingly, all the guys I know who are joining these groups are either:
1. Gay
2. Not especially macho
3. Socially awkward
or
4. All of the above.
So what have we here? On the one hand, adults and the media are uncomfortable with teenage (and pre-teenage) girls manifesting desire (be it sexual or otherwise - believe it or not, a seven-year-old COULD idolise a singer and manifest her desire in ways which are imitative of older girls without *actually* wanting him in the pants - and yet the media persist in acting as if Bieber's pre-teen fans are some weird two-headed breed of predatory sexualised babies). Accordingly, adults, the media, and older teens react by mocking and/or damning the girls in question. This is not new news! It's the Edward Cullen Underpants Conundrum, with a slightly younger target market.
So what, universe? Crowds of (young) women want to look at a man? (Young) women behave in uncouth ways when satisfying their desire for said man? (Young) women make fools of themselves trying to touch this man? (Young) women make this man into an object of their desire, more about fulfilling a need of theirs than any innate quality he has?
SO WHAT? Nothing men haven't been doing to all women for centuries. Millenia.
And on the other hand, we have a group of men - many older than Bieber, some probably his age-peers - slandering him and emasculating him. Now, I don't know if Bieber is known for particularly gender-transgressive behaviour: it's possible he is, I've never seen him perform, but it certainly hasn't featured in the media coverage. Yet the male reaction seems to be trying, violently, to police gender performance.
Whose gender performance, exactly?
Is it Bieber's?
It could be.
But I think it's actually about Bieber's fans. These "febrile, hyperventilating girls" who dare to manifest their desire, and who dare to desire an insufficiently masculine object. I think this outbreak of man-rage on Facebook (and probably other places, too) is part of male desire to shame these girls for not desiring/affirming... well, them. And, if my friends feed is anything to go by, it's not coming from macho men. It's coming from men who themselves aren't achieving an ideal masculine gender performance. It's coming from shy men, gawky men, flamboyant men, gay men: men who are used to not receiving heaps of social approval and accolades for their manliness, and they're lashing out at Bieber because Bieber's fans are too young to have internalised the same codes of masculinity as they have.
Those who feel more secure in themselves resort to mocking the mysterious ways of attraction which lead girls to desire Bieber. Which is really no better.
All this makes me want to buy a Justin Bieber album. Or maybe relive my childhood and lay hands on a Hanson album.