Saturday, November 23, 2013

Teenagers, Tributes, and Fangirls

Speaking of Catching Fire, here's a good  post by a teen blogger about age prejudice and fangirling. Geekiness is becoming more socially acceptable because geeks own the internet and the internet is the world. In the Internet Age, fandom is an important source of identity. Yet fans, especially the young female ones, are often accused of liking a show for the sake of a hot male actor. Yes, shipping and character crushes are a huge part of any fandom. But any true fangirl goes deeper than that.
A fangirl is someone who knows a well constructed universe when she sees one. She calls out cliches. She anticipates plot twists three episodes in advance. She learns more about theme and character development from fan forums than any college professor could teach her in a year. She knows the jargon. She effortlessly slips between acronyms and everyday speech. She can fit a profound statement into 140 characters or less. She's genre savvy with a razor sharp wit. And if she feels like bashing her own fandom, beware, because she has the uncanny ability to speak sincerely while coating her words in a thick layer of sarcasm.
There's no shame in being a fangirl and even less in being a teenager.
Be proud of who you are.

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