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Swoon: Fangirls, Their Idols and the Counterculture of Female Lust – From Byron to the Beatles
Swoon is a prehistory of the fangirl. From the Byromaniacs of Regency London to the screamers of Beatlemania, it revisits six defining moments in book, film and music history through the eyes of the girls and women who gave birth to pop culture as we know it today.
Far from passive consumers, these women were tastemakers, visionaries and cultural disruptors. Their obsessions shaped literary canons, built Hollywood icons and turned musicians into messiahs – long before social media came along. But with power came panic, especially when female fans and male stars were involved. Fandom became a moral and cultural battleground. What was at stake was women's right to want things they weren't supposed to want, feel things they weren't supposed to feel and express all these things loudly, shamelessly and in public.
Far from passive consumers, these women were tastemakers, visionaries and cultural disruptors. Their obsessions shaped literary canons, built Hollywood icons and turned musicians into messiahs – long before social media came along. But with power came panic, especially when female fans and male stars were involved. Fandom became a moral and cultural battleground. What was at stake was women's right to want things they weren't supposed to want, feel things they weren't supposed to feel and express all these things loudly, shamelessly and in public.
- GenresNonfictionMusic
385 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 17, 2025
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June 18, 2026ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE / ON THE WAY TO GLOBAL BEATLES DAY #1
BEATLEMANIA #8/?
As Wille Dixon once sang 'the men don't know, but the little girls understand'.
With a Little Help from Their Friends: The Beatles Changed the World. But Who Changed Theirs?, Stuart Maconie
In a world that required women to sit down and shut up [...]; a world where female desire existed almost completely in relation to needs, rules or expectations of men, in their small way, [...] every fan letter was an insurrection.
O que têm em comum Lord Byron, Franz Lizst, Rudolfo Valentino, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Prestley e os Beatles? Talento, beleza, sex-appeal, é certo, e a perfeita consciência do poder de um público maioritariamente feminino. Não sou eu quem o diz, mas Bea Martinez-Gatell que, em Swoon, se propõe analisar o fenómeno de contracultura levado a cabo pelas fãs (mulheres) que, desde o século XIX se vêm a organizar para demonstrar a sua admiração, fazer saber os seus desejos e apoiar os artistas com cuja obra se identificam.
Porque não se pense que se trata de mera atração sexual, de devaneios fantasistas e sonhos de grandeza: estas mulheres são, efetivamente, atraídas por estes homens (a dimensão do estudo de Martinez-Gatell restringe a análise a seis momentos culturais liderados por homens, mas isso não exclui, de todo, a admiração das mulheres por outras mulheres artistas), mas acabam fascinadas, e parafraseio, não pelo que eles são, mas pelo que eles representam. De Byron aos Beatles, as fãs identificam-se com inúmeras possibilidade de liberdade, independência e autodeterminação que estes lhes abrem, permitindo-lhes imaginar diferentes futuros, experimentar diferentes identidades, sair dos moldes tradicionais e questionar hierarquias de poder.
Assim se explica que o reino dos admiradores se divida (ainda hoje) em duas classes distintas: a selecta minoria masculina — culta, pragmática e elitista; e a feminina — aquela maioria delirante, histérica e crédula que eleva estes homens à categoria de ídolos pop; visão que atinge o seu pico com o fenómeno da Beatlemania, mas que nasce com a "mania" original, circa 1880, a Byronmania, numa altura em que são as mulheres de classe média as principais adquirentes de literatura e as primeiras a fazer soar o radar masculino:
[....]reading meant thinking and feeling. These were two very dangerous things for a woman to be doing.
[...]
Unlike male reading, which spoke to the intellect, female reading was thought to connect directly with the body. Female readers were said to 'crave', 'devour' and 'consume' books. Their reading was often described in physical terms: lolling on sofas or luxuriating in bed.
A Byronmania, portanto, está intrinsecamente ligada ao desejo (e à expressão do desejo) feminimo. Como tal, é diretamente visada pela censura. De ora em diante, o imaginário das fãs ficará irremediavelmente associado à imagética do exagero: sempre que as mulheres se juntam, a reunião dá lugar a gritos, guinchos, danças frenéticas. E, contido nelas, o potencial da revolução — a Revolução Francesa, afinal, começou com a marcha de 6000 mulheres armadas e descontentes, rumo a Versailles. Todavia, tanto quanto qualquer fã, essas mulheres não estavam fora de controlo: elas controlavam, por uma derradeira vez, o seu destino. A história, no entanto, tem dois pesos e duas medidas:
When women swooned, it was a physical response to his [Lizst] sexual magnetism. When men did the same thing, it was a testament to his virtuosic genius.
Proposta dentro de proposta, Martinez-Gatell vai urdindo uma trama que interliga fãs e artistas, mas, sobretudo, mulheres e cultura. Percorrendo os fenómenos culturais associados a Byron, Lizst, Valentino, Sinatra, Elvis e Beatles, a autora percorre seis momentos culturais diferentes, cada qual associado a um cataclismo social: do Movimento Sufragista de século XIX à Segunda Onda do Feminismo de 1960, as fãs permitiram-se construir pontes (que eram, na realidade, reuniões, salões, conspirações e mecenatos femininos) com que abrir passagem ao futuro:
Nineteenth-century Europe had seen a shattering of class boundaries and traditional power structures: both men and women were now suddenly competing with each other for cultural authority in the power vacuum that followed. Many historians have argued that this embryonic struggle for cultural power, which was first visible in music and salon culture, was one of the earliest stirrings of what would become the women's movement of the late nineteenth century.
Ousando sair de casa, aproximar-se destes homens, exprimir os seus desejos e sonhar diferentes futuros, as mulheres que liam, à revelia, O Corsário; as que ousavam sentar-se em primeira fila para escutar Liebesträume; as que se escondiam na escuridão do cinema para se deliciar com o Sheik; as que se escapuliam para espreitar os olhos azuis de Frankie; as que não descolavam o olhar da ilharga do Rei ou, finalmente, as que desmaiavam à mera visão dos Fab Four, foram pioneiras nos processos de emancipação e da arte de fazer artistas.
Cartas, clubes de fãs, fanzines, deslocações colectivas, redes de
sociabilidade — todos apontam para uma consciência bastante clara de que, enquanto fãs, estas mulheres não eram meras espectadoras, mas participantes ativas na produção cultural:
If you really want to know who the fifth Beatle was, it was those ecstatic teenage girls — the single biggest reason those four boys had arrived at this moment — now screaming along, intent on joining in with the show.
Numa altura em que a autonomia sexual e social feminina começava a fazer ferver ânimos, estas mulheres (e adolescentes) ousaram reinvindicar espaço público, desafiar expectativas familiares, expressar a sua vontade: fosse ela o desejo sexual, a fantasia amorosa, a determinação de género, a vontade política ou a simples paixão artística. O paradoxo é fascinante: aquelas fãs que começavam por, de facto, procurar estes homens, acabavam por encontrar outras mulheres; aquelas que partiam à procura de romance, acabavam por construir comunidades; as que procuravam ídolos, acabavam por ganhar voz própria.
Estas mulheres não apenas admiravam estes homens, elas reviam-se nos seus papéis e intuíam que seria apenas alimentando estes fenómenos que teriam a sua emancipação:
When Byromania and Lisztomania kicked off, or thousands of young women lined up outside the Paramount to see Frankie Sinatra and later the Beatles, they were far from passive consumers.
Their fan letters, fan clubs and expressions of adoration and support were actively shaping both their heroes' careers and the future of book, music and movie culture. Their emotional investment was a form of labour that was unacknowledged and unpaid but essential to the mythology and commercial success of their idols. Not to mention their belief in their own work. This was a relationship that had always been reciprocal.
Das adolescentes que escreviam cartas a Byron, até às mães que levavam as filhas a concertos dos Beatles, são inúmeras as mulheres que se tornaram escritoras, atrizes, cantoras de direito próprio. Empoderando os artistas, estas mulheres empoderavam o seu próprio futuro.
There are countless stories of Beatles fans who were inspired to pick up pens, guitars, paintbrushes, cameras and laptops. Fan letters became music journalism. Fan clubs became careers. Teen crushes became futures.
Mais do que isso, cada um destes homens tinha perfeita consciência do poder das suas fãs. Byron negava-o publicamente, mas era devotado à correspondência feminina (também era um tarado que usava essas cartas à laia de Tinder, mas isso é outra discussão); Lizst dedicava filas VIP exclusivas para as suas admiradoras e patronas; Valentino, que começara a dançar num bar (oferecendo sessões privadas cujos limites não temos forma de afiançar), nunca se envergonhou de assumir a regência feminina da sua vida; Sinatra soube, no momento em que perdeu as suas fãs, que teria de se reiventar ou desaparecer; Elvis mantinha um harém escabroso que lhe garantia a primazia entre os mitos patriarcais (que, efetivamente, mereciam ser melhor explorados em Swoon), e os Beatles foram ao ponto de reconhecer nas suas letras e nos seus atos, pela primeira vez na história da música, o poderio das fãs na construção da sua carreira.
Depois disto tudo, Swoon só peca por terminar demasiado cedo, acusamdo um distanciamento temporal que lhe confere objetividade, mas que também lhe concede um certo espaço à romantização da fangirl. Nesse sentido, a forma como hoje experienciamos o fenómeno dos superfãs (herdeiros, sem dúvida, dos Beatlemaniacs) teria oferecido um contraste interessante entre o século das revoluções de género e o anódino século XXI. Uma ponte que ligasse os Swifties, os ARMY, os fandoms digitais e as comunidades online à história da contracultura da fangirl seria inestimável. Mas, mesmo sem isso, Swoon podia facilmente ter o dobro do seu tamanho sem esgotar o tema e sem aborrecer — sobretudo, porque a voz da autora é forte o suficiente para assumir a devoção cultural que partilha, sem cair no exagero e na parcialidade.
De todas as formas, a partir do momento em que as mulheres deitaram mãos aos livros e puseram o pé fora de casa sem o aval dos homens, nasceu a contracultura das fãs.
E dentro dela, os Beatles não representam apenas mais um caso de estudo; representam o momento em que a força cultural das fãs se torna impossível de ignorar: agência, identidade, voz coletiva são indissociavéis da Beatlemania. E hoje, escolhamos ou não fazer esperas à porta dos nossos músicos de eleição, tenhamos ou não coragem para confrontar os nossos escritores preferidos em busca de um autógrafo; cada fã é herdeira da intrepidez destas jovens mulheres. Elas estão entre as responsáveis pela liberdade com que cada uma de nós goza do privilégio de entrar num estádio a abarrotar para um concerto lendário, ou pela fortuna de, numa livraria, podermos pegar com um sorriso naquele livro arriscado que fala de desejo feminino.
De cada vez que desfalecemos à visão de alguém que admiramos, ou investimos esforços a desconstruir esse fenómeno, é uma espécie de culto que prestamos a estas mulheres. E agora temos a liberdade de gritar a plenos pulmões ou apenas nos deleitarmos em privado, arriscando uma ou duas palavras (semi)públicas sobre as nossas obsessões... Como Martinez-Gatell, escolho reconhecer que a distância entre a fã e a especialista, entre a colecionadora de posters e a académica rodeada de primeiras edições, pode ser muito menor do que gostamos de admitir.
Honestly, I'm not sure there's much difference between a professor of fan studies who displays her collection of Twilight books and posters in her office and a Byron scholar who writes with a bust of his subject on his desk and treasures his complete twelve-volume collection of Byron's Letters and Journals — but maybe that's just me.
BEATLEMANIA #8/?
As Wille Dixon once sang 'the men don't know, but the little girls understand'.
With a Little Help from Their Friends: The Beatles Changed the World. But Who Changed Theirs?, Stuart Maconie
In a world that required women to sit down and shut up [...]; a world where female desire existed almost completely in relation to needs, rules or expectations of men, in their small way, [...] every fan letter was an insurrection.
O que têm em comum Lord Byron, Franz Lizst, Rudolfo Valentino, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Prestley e os Beatles? Talento, beleza, sex-appeal, é certo, e a perfeita consciência do poder de um público maioritariamente feminino. Não sou eu quem o diz, mas Bea Martinez-Gatell que, em Swoon, se propõe analisar o fenómeno de contracultura levado a cabo pelas fãs (mulheres) que, desde o século XIX se vêm a organizar para demonstrar a sua admiração, fazer saber os seus desejos e apoiar os artistas com cuja obra se identificam.
Porque não se pense que se trata de mera atração sexual, de devaneios fantasistas e sonhos de grandeza: estas mulheres são, efetivamente, atraídas por estes homens (a dimensão do estudo de Martinez-Gatell restringe a análise a seis momentos culturais liderados por homens, mas isso não exclui, de todo, a admiração das mulheres por outras mulheres artistas), mas acabam fascinadas, e parafraseio, não pelo que eles são, mas pelo que eles representam. De Byron aos Beatles, as fãs identificam-se com inúmeras possibilidade de liberdade, independência e autodeterminação que estes lhes abrem, permitindo-lhes imaginar diferentes futuros, experimentar diferentes identidades, sair dos moldes tradicionais e questionar hierarquias de poder.
Assim se explica que o reino dos admiradores se divida (ainda hoje) em duas classes distintas: a selecta minoria masculina — culta, pragmática e elitista; e a feminina — aquela maioria delirante, histérica e crédula que eleva estes homens à categoria de ídolos pop; visão que atinge o seu pico com o fenómeno da Beatlemania, mas que nasce com a "mania" original, circa 1880, a Byronmania, numa altura em que são as mulheres de classe média as principais adquirentes de literatura e as primeiras a fazer soar o radar masculino:
[....]reading meant thinking and feeling. These were two very dangerous things for a woman to be doing.
[...]
Unlike male reading, which spoke to the intellect, female reading was thought to connect directly with the body. Female readers were said to 'crave', 'devour' and 'consume' books. Their reading was often described in physical terms: lolling on sofas or luxuriating in bed.
A Byronmania, portanto, está intrinsecamente ligada ao desejo (e à expressão do desejo) feminimo. Como tal, é diretamente visada pela censura. De ora em diante, o imaginário das fãs ficará irremediavelmente associado à imagética do exagero: sempre que as mulheres se juntam, a reunião dá lugar a gritos, guinchos, danças frenéticas. E, contido nelas, o potencial da revolução — a Revolução Francesa, afinal, começou com a marcha de 6000 mulheres armadas e descontentes, rumo a Versailles. Todavia, tanto quanto qualquer fã, essas mulheres não estavam fora de controlo: elas controlavam, por uma derradeira vez, o seu destino. A história, no entanto, tem dois pesos e duas medidas:
When women swooned, it was a physical response to his [Lizst] sexual magnetism. When men did the same thing, it was a testament to his virtuosic genius.
Proposta dentro de proposta, Martinez-Gatell vai urdindo uma trama que interliga fãs e artistas, mas, sobretudo, mulheres e cultura. Percorrendo os fenómenos culturais associados a Byron, Lizst, Valentino, Sinatra, Elvis e Beatles, a autora percorre seis momentos culturais diferentes, cada qual associado a um cataclismo social: do Movimento Sufragista de século XIX à Segunda Onda do Feminismo de 1960, as fãs permitiram-se construir pontes (que eram, na realidade, reuniões, salões, conspirações e mecenatos femininos) com que abrir passagem ao futuro:
Nineteenth-century Europe had seen a shattering of class boundaries and traditional power structures: both men and women were now suddenly competing with each other for cultural authority in the power vacuum that followed. Many historians have argued that this embryonic struggle for cultural power, which was first visible in music and salon culture, was one of the earliest stirrings of what would become the women's movement of the late nineteenth century.
Ousando sair de casa, aproximar-se destes homens, exprimir os seus desejos e sonhar diferentes futuros, as mulheres que liam, à revelia, O Corsário; as que ousavam sentar-se em primeira fila para escutar Liebesträume; as que se escondiam na escuridão do cinema para se deliciar com o Sheik; as que se escapuliam para espreitar os olhos azuis de Frankie; as que não descolavam o olhar da ilharga do Rei ou, finalmente, as que desmaiavam à mera visão dos Fab Four, foram pioneiras nos processos de emancipação e da arte de fazer artistas.
Cartas, clubes de fãs, fanzines, deslocações colectivas, redes de
sociabilidade — todos apontam para uma consciência bastante clara de que, enquanto fãs, estas mulheres não eram meras espectadoras, mas participantes ativas na produção cultural:
If you really want to know who the fifth Beatle was, it was those ecstatic teenage girls — the single biggest reason those four boys had arrived at this moment — now screaming along, intent on joining in with the show.
Numa altura em que a autonomia sexual e social feminina começava a fazer ferver ânimos, estas mulheres (e adolescentes) ousaram reinvindicar espaço público, desafiar expectativas familiares, expressar a sua vontade: fosse ela o desejo sexual, a fantasia amorosa, a determinação de género, a vontade política ou a simples paixão artística. O paradoxo é fascinante: aquelas fãs que começavam por, de facto, procurar estes homens, acabavam por encontrar outras mulheres; aquelas que partiam à procura de romance, acabavam por construir comunidades; as que procuravam ídolos, acabavam por ganhar voz própria.
Estas mulheres não apenas admiravam estes homens, elas reviam-se nos seus papéis e intuíam que seria apenas alimentando estes fenómenos que teriam a sua emancipação:
When Byromania and Lisztomania kicked off, or thousands of young women lined up outside the Paramount to see Frankie Sinatra and later the Beatles, they were far from passive consumers.
Their fan letters, fan clubs and expressions of adoration and support were actively shaping both their heroes' careers and the future of book, music and movie culture. Their emotional investment was a form of labour that was unacknowledged and unpaid but essential to the mythology and commercial success of their idols. Not to mention their belief in their own work. This was a relationship that had always been reciprocal.
Das adolescentes que escreviam cartas a Byron, até às mães que levavam as filhas a concertos dos Beatles, são inúmeras as mulheres que se tornaram escritoras, atrizes, cantoras de direito próprio. Empoderando os artistas, estas mulheres empoderavam o seu próprio futuro.
There are countless stories of Beatles fans who were inspired to pick up pens, guitars, paintbrushes, cameras and laptops. Fan letters became music journalism. Fan clubs became careers. Teen crushes became futures.
Mais do que isso, cada um destes homens tinha perfeita consciência do poder das suas fãs. Byron negava-o publicamente, mas era devotado à correspondência feminina (também era um tarado que usava essas cartas à laia de Tinder, mas isso é outra discussão); Lizst dedicava filas VIP exclusivas para as suas admiradoras e patronas; Valentino, que começara a dançar num bar (oferecendo sessões privadas cujos limites não temos forma de afiançar), nunca se envergonhou de assumir a regência feminina da sua vida; Sinatra soube, no momento em que perdeu as suas fãs, que teria de se reiventar ou desaparecer; Elvis mantinha um harém escabroso que lhe garantia a primazia entre os mitos patriarcais (que, efetivamente, mereciam ser melhor explorados em Swoon), e os Beatles foram ao ponto de reconhecer nas suas letras e nos seus atos, pela primeira vez na história da música, o poderio das fãs na construção da sua carreira.
Depois disto tudo, Swoon só peca por terminar demasiado cedo, acusamdo um distanciamento temporal que lhe confere objetividade, mas que também lhe concede um certo espaço à romantização da fangirl. Nesse sentido, a forma como hoje experienciamos o fenómeno dos superfãs (herdeiros, sem dúvida, dos Beatlemaniacs) teria oferecido um contraste interessante entre o século das revoluções de género e o anódino século XXI. Uma ponte que ligasse os Swifties, os ARMY, os fandoms digitais e as comunidades online à história da contracultura da fangirl seria inestimável. Mas, mesmo sem isso, Swoon podia facilmente ter o dobro do seu tamanho sem esgotar o tema e sem aborrecer — sobretudo, porque a voz da autora é forte o suficiente para assumir a devoção cultural que partilha, sem cair no exagero e na parcialidade.
De todas as formas, a partir do momento em que as mulheres deitaram mãos aos livros e puseram o pé fora de casa sem o aval dos homens, nasceu a contracultura das fãs.
E dentro dela, os Beatles não representam apenas mais um caso de estudo; representam o momento em que a força cultural das fãs se torna impossível de ignorar: agência, identidade, voz coletiva são indissociavéis da Beatlemania. E hoje, escolhamos ou não fazer esperas à porta dos nossos músicos de eleição, tenhamos ou não coragem para confrontar os nossos escritores preferidos em busca de um autógrafo; cada fã é herdeira da intrepidez destas jovens mulheres. Elas estão entre as responsáveis pela liberdade com que cada uma de nós goza do privilégio de entrar num estádio a abarrotar para um concerto lendário, ou pela fortuna de, numa livraria, podermos pegar com um sorriso naquele livro arriscado que fala de desejo feminino.
De cada vez que desfalecemos à visão de alguém que admiramos, ou investimos esforços a desconstruir esse fenómeno, é uma espécie de culto que prestamos a estas mulheres. E agora temos a liberdade de gritar a plenos pulmões ou apenas nos deleitarmos em privado, arriscando uma ou duas palavras (semi)públicas sobre as nossas obsessões... Como Martinez-Gatell, escolho reconhecer que a distância entre a fã e a especialista, entre a colecionadora de posters e a académica rodeada de primeiras edições, pode ser muito menor do que gostamos de admitir.
Honestly, I'm not sure there's much difference between a professor of fan studies who displays her collection of Twilight books and posters in her office and a Byron scholar who writes with a bust of his subject on his desk and treasures his complete twelve-volume collection of Byron's Letters and Journals — but maybe that's just me.
May 26, 2026
A very well-written and engaging romp through the history of fan girls from Byron to the Beatles. Although it’s a fairly obvious route through said history, I think it makes a strong case for bringing attention to fangirl studies as a discipline.
It’s not a history book for someone wanting to learn about the rise of any of the stars mentioned - there are probably hundreds of biographies of that. Instead, it’s an interesting look at the fans and the audiences AROUND these massive names, how they reacted to their celebrity crushes, and how the stars reacted back to them. I liked how previous characters (particularly Byron) kept returning in cross-comparison to more modern stars like Elvis, and how the characters chosen often linked together in the ways they created their star personalities and united their fans. It was a really well-considered approach with a strong narrative style that made it an enjoyable read, more immersive than the dry academic criticism I might have expected.
I do wish that there had been a little more breadcrumbing of the argument and nuance of fangirl culture throughout, maybe linking back to that more academic history and really hammering home the ways media and criticism has berated and belittled the fangirl across the years. There was a bit of this, and it was very artfully woven in, but, until the afterword, I didn’t really get the sense that a lot of the points were hammered home as hard as they could have been. I would also have loved to have seen some more niche characters, particularly on a more global scale. But perhaps that’s a whole other book!
Overall, a very enjoyable and concise look at 200 years’ of fangirls that I would say is a valuable addition to a lot of feminist discourse. Just a shame that it does tend to repeat itself a fair amount without adding too much more nuance than what it sets out in the intro and conclusion.
It’s not a history book for someone wanting to learn about the rise of any of the stars mentioned - there are probably hundreds of biographies of that. Instead, it’s an interesting look at the fans and the audiences AROUND these massive names, how they reacted to their celebrity crushes, and how the stars reacted back to them. I liked how previous characters (particularly Byron) kept returning in cross-comparison to more modern stars like Elvis, and how the characters chosen often linked together in the ways they created their star personalities and united their fans. It was a really well-considered approach with a strong narrative style that made it an enjoyable read, more immersive than the dry academic criticism I might have expected.
I do wish that there had been a little more breadcrumbing of the argument and nuance of fangirl culture throughout, maybe linking back to that more academic history and really hammering home the ways media and criticism has berated and belittled the fangirl across the years. There was a bit of this, and it was very artfully woven in, but, until the afterword, I didn’t really get the sense that a lot of the points were hammered home as hard as they could have been. I would also have loved to have seen some more niche characters, particularly on a more global scale. But perhaps that’s a whole other book!
Overall, a very enjoyable and concise look at 200 years’ of fangirls that I would say is a valuable addition to a lot of feminist discourse. Just a shame that it does tend to repeat itself a fair amount without adding too much more nuance than what it sets out in the intro and conclusion.
October 22, 2025
Lockets full of pubic hair, footprints in the snow stored in freezers, onions up sleeves to ensure authentic tears as you swoon… fangirls are pretty unstable. Or are they?
DNF at 68%
Let’s get one thing straight, the first third of this book - a history of the fangirl from Byron to Liszt to Valentino - I was enthralled. The re-centring of these cultural icons’ stories (literary, musical, film) on their female fanbases was really interesting and insightful. The strength here lies in the clear analysis of why these figures spoke so strongly to young women in the specific eras, and why (and how) the male contingent of fans has been sidelined or rebranded in more ‘serious’ tones. But by section 4 on Sinatra it was stating to feel a bit ‘rinse repeat’ with marginally different contexts, and by the time it got to Elvis in the fifth case study I was bored - so I missed this and The Beatles, as it stops there, not bringing us up to date in the 21st century. I then read the conclusion.
Was my eventual disinterest because it is repetitive and I had grasped the points already? Byron set off the Stan culture snowball, its embrace and the parallel destain / patronising dismissal is deeply entrenched in the socio-political issues of the time etc…the rest is largely self explanatory if you know a bit about the time periods of the other celebrities.
Or was it because I related to it less and less? Despite their unifying threads, my own fangirling is probably much more aligned with Byronmania than Beatlemania - even in the deepest darkest depths of my tween obsession with the Backstreet Boys I was never going to be standing outside a hotel or screaming at a concert.
I’m sure for those who have experienced that sort of fangirling urge, or those who claim to truly not understand the fact that fangirls are not all inane and trivial (yet can somehow entertain the idea male football fans aren’t all Neanderthal thugs 🙃) it will be enjoyable or enlightening in its totality. Personally it could have streamlined the case studies and then been enhanced by reflecting more on either; how these historical patterns continue in the present, on the line between the maligned embracing of community/passion and the genuinely concerning behaviour of the parasocial, the impact of the internet, or the blurring of the gendered fan distinction with the rise of male dominated fan spaces also deemed low-brow or childish by many.
DNF at 68%
Let’s get one thing straight, the first third of this book - a history of the fangirl from Byron to Liszt to Valentino - I was enthralled. The re-centring of these cultural icons’ stories (literary, musical, film) on their female fanbases was really interesting and insightful. The strength here lies in the clear analysis of why these figures spoke so strongly to young women in the specific eras, and why (and how) the male contingent of fans has been sidelined or rebranded in more ‘serious’ tones. But by section 4 on Sinatra it was stating to feel a bit ‘rinse repeat’ with marginally different contexts, and by the time it got to Elvis in the fifth case study I was bored - so I missed this and The Beatles, as it stops there, not bringing us up to date in the 21st century. I then read the conclusion.
Was my eventual disinterest because it is repetitive and I had grasped the points already? Byron set off the Stan culture snowball, its embrace and the parallel destain / patronising dismissal is deeply entrenched in the socio-political issues of the time etc…the rest is largely self explanatory if you know a bit about the time periods of the other celebrities.
Or was it because I related to it less and less? Despite their unifying threads, my own fangirling is probably much more aligned with Byronmania than Beatlemania - even in the deepest darkest depths of my tween obsession with the Backstreet Boys I was never going to be standing outside a hotel or screaming at a concert.
I’m sure for those who have experienced that sort of fangirling urge, or those who claim to truly not understand the fact that fangirls are not all inane and trivial (yet can somehow entertain the idea male football fans aren’t all Neanderthal thugs 🙃) it will be enjoyable or enlightening in its totality. Personally it could have streamlined the case studies and then been enhanced by reflecting more on either; how these historical patterns continue in the present, on the line between the maligned embracing of community/passion and the genuinely concerning behaviour of the parasocial, the impact of the internet, or the blurring of the gendered fan distinction with the rise of male dominated fan spaces also deemed low-brow or childish by many.
February 26, 2026
Loved this. It’s such a gleeful look and fandom and fangirls in particular. There’s so much feminism in this; it really is about women finding their place in the world and how fandom interacts with that. It’s a delight. I could say that it’s quite heteronormative but, actually, I don’t think it’d be possible to do this in another way. I also think a chapter on Madonna and how girls reacted to her early in her career would’ve been interesting. Otherwise, fabulous!
December 24, 2025
Such a delightful and entertaining read! I enjoyed reading this book as well as looking up all the references mentioned like The Sheik, Rhapsody in Pew, and Fran Sinatra and Elvis’s performance. I couldn’t help but swoon over Frankie, Elvis, and the Beatles while reading this.
March 22, 2026
Interesting but a bit repetitive book about the history of fangirls and fan obsessives
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