On Fandoms, Age, and Gender: The Politics of “ Putting Away Childish Things”
Weighing in on yet another round of “fan spaces are youth spaces” (aka “go home and knit, old lady” or “You’re old enough to be my/someone’s mom! gross!” )
There’s a whole set of interests and behaviors that you might become interested in as you grow from child to adolescent to young adult and take greater interest in the wider world.
You might like horses, or dolls. Or building models. You might play soccer, or follow baseball every summer and learn about box scores. You might follow the college football draft, or love a pop band. You might deeply admire a rock band and learn to play the guitar. You might love superheroes and see all their movies. You might love space opera and collect paperback books. Maybe you collect trading cards of your favorite team players – or movie moments. You probably get t-shirts and posters of teams, or media outlets. You might get deeply into a social or political cause.
Those are all expressions of interest in the world, all with associated social aspects, many with associated creative actions.
And then you get older. And here’s the thing about that list. The things on that list that are “for boys?” Are also “for men.” But the things on that list that are “for girls” or “for nerds?” Are only “for children.”
Adult men wear brightly colored team clothing and paint their faces without shame. They join fantasy football leagues and hang out online. They follow Phish (or continuously talk about how they did when that was a thing). They spend vast sums on tickets to bowl games. They get excited all over the internet about Geddy Lee’s greatest hits. They spend long afternoons on the golf course, playing very bad golf.
No one tells them to grow up
An adult woman who turns a childhood dollhouse into a beautiful scale model of a real Victorian home is “eccentric.” An adult man who builds a vast HO train layout in his basement is a “train enthusiast.” An adult woman who displays her favorite Bryer horses is “odd,” an adult man with a shelf of signed baseballs is “a collector” or even “an investor.”
Adult women making fanart of attractive movie stars is “creepy,’ while adult men decorating their garages with calendar art of scantily-clad very-young women is “just what guys do.”
Interests and hobbies that were feminine and are taken up by men become acceptable. When The Beatles were greeted with mobs of fainting teen girls, they were a “boy band.” When young men discovered them, they became Serious Musicians.
Over and over, across fields of interest, things that girls like are “toys and games and childish” and should be left behind by adults, while things that boys like are “hobbies and sports” that are lifetime pastimes. And acceptable “hobbies” for adult women? Most are things that could be coded as household chores, but generations of women have worked to turn into enjoyable pastimes: knitting, sewing, quilting. Home decor. Baking. Many adult women (myself included) enjoy doing those things in their free time and have elevated them to art forms. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re rooted in utility, while “men’s hobbies” are, by and large, rooted in leisure.
Look around you and follow the pattern. And then, before you ask “Why are adult women in fan spaces,” maybe ask “why do I feel like adult women don’t get to have fun?”
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