Part 2: Fangirl Behaviors, and the Psychology Behind Them

Over the course of the eleven years I've been operating This is NOT Greatest Site, I've spent perhaps too much time thinking about the phenomenon of fandom. Of course, fandom is something every fan thinks about, at least from time to time –
So enough theorizing. What is it that Japanese fangirls actually do that's so annoying, and more importantly, why do they do it? Let's get inside their heads and attempt to find out.

Behavior # 1: Kakegoe and the Use of Pet Names

One immediately obvious characteristic of the Japanese fangirl phenomenon is the use of cutesy nicknames. Despite the fact that Japanese society is extremely status-conscious and social etiquette mandates strict rules surrounding formality in forms of address, fangirls love to speak about the idols they worship using pet names. I already wrote a lot about Japanese name suffixes in this article, so I won't go into it too deeply here – but basically, if these fangirls were ever to meet their idols in real life, they'd be socially obligated to call the guys by their last names, plus the respectful name suffix -san. In Japan, calling someone by a nickname is a very intimate gesture. It's not done between strangers or people who just met each other. For a fan to call a rocker by a nickname to his face would usually come across as disrespectful if not rude.

So if they wouldn't call the guys by their nicknames if they met them for real, why do the fangirls insist on calling the guys by their nicknames when talking about them behind their backs? Answer: because it's a way of pretending intimacy where none actually exists. Fangirls like to imagine being close enough to their idols that calling them by nicknames wouldn't be rude.

I see something diminutive and fan-fictiony about it, too. Despite the clear attraction fangirls feel toward their idols, many fangirls also seem to be threatened by male sexuality (see Behavior #8 for more info). Remember, fangirls create their own reality. Calling a grown-ass man by a stupid nickname is one way of emasculating him just enough so that he seems approachable, more like an anime character, someone who could fit more easily into a fangirl fantasy worlds. To call the man by his proper name is to admit the distance between you and him, to admit you don't know him and can't control him as you wish you could.

Ultimately, the names fans use to refer to their idols reflect the kind of relationship they have to their own fandom. When I suggest that to call Mr. Sakurai “Acchan” at this point in his life is a stupid affectation, Buck-Tick fangirls often get unreasonably angry at me – and that's so telling, isn't it? What's it to them if I think “Acchan” is a stupid nickname? Why should they care about my opinion? Yet they do care, which suggests to me that some small part of them is secretly embarrassed about it.

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Kakegoe is when Japanese fans call the names of their favorite band member at a concert in between songs. In fact, kakegoe is a very old tradition that dates back to the early days of Kabuki theater...and who am I to spit on a tradition dating back 400 years? But the striking element of kakegoe at Japanese concerts is that fangirls rarely call for the band members using their own natural, normal voices. Instead, they usually affect artificially high pitched cutesy voices – the higher the better. You could argue they do it because they know that higher pitches carry farther, but I think there's something deeper at work, too.

As I already mentioned, the current prevailing ideal of Japanese womanhood is for a woman who's basically still a girl – innocent, naive, perky, kawaii. Actually, it's pretty clear that a lot of Japanese men are still more interested in slinky sirens than in kawaii catgirls, but if you believe mass media, to be a kawaii catgirl is the only way to be sexy these days. It's why anime heroines squeak like mice when they speak, and why Japanese public machines, from trains to escalators to ATMs, speak in high-pitched female tones – there's a perception that the higher a lady's voice is, the sexier it is. It's bizarre, frankly – I thought everyone knew already that the sexiest type of female voice is the dark, breathy, husky voice of the lounge singer – but I guess there must be at least five dudes in Japan who are turned on by shrill screeching, otherwise how could it have become a thing in the first place?

In any case, I'm sure this is the explanation for the Cry of the Fangirl. They might be average overweight middle-aged women in real life, but hidden in a dark hall, no one can see their faces, and through those high-pitched shrieks, they get to imagine they're still adorable nubile virgins. In addition, it's a way for them to assert dominance over other fangirls – the one who screams the loudest is the Alpha Fan! Not only that, but it's a way for them to demand the band members' attention, which, after all, is what they crave the most. And yet another function of kakegoe – it's a place where they can try out even stupider nicknames than the fangirls around them. The fangirl who screams “Attsun!” or “Acchi!” instead of “Acchan” has shown herself to be ahead of the curve, and thus, she's clearly the most kawaii of all.

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>>On to Behavior #2: Desperate Attention Seeking>>
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