Behavior #4: Extreme Touchiness

Another hallmark of fangirls is their tendency to become wildly angry and upset over extremely trivial matters. Throwaway remarks that an average person might not even notice become cause for fangirl feuding. Insults are perceived everywhere. A lot of the time, this is no different than teenage cyber-bullying, since a lot of it happens in internet fan communities, rather than in real life. Therefore, I assume the psychological basis is mostly the same as the basis for teen cyber-bullying: insecurity (putting down others to make oneself feel stronger), loneliness (bullying is a form of attention-seeking), and jealousy – fans are usually targeted for bullying due to having attracted attention for some reason, and the goal of the bullying is to break down people who are perceived as having higher status.

Common reasons why fangirls may be perceived as having “higher status” and therefore in need of bullying:

- The fangirl is perceived to have some sort of personal connection (no matter how tenuous) with one of the band members or their associates

- The fangirl is perceived to have received the favor (no matter how trivial) of one of the band members or their associates

- The fangirl has become well-known within the fan community

- The fangirl is younger and/or more conventionally physically attractive than other fangirls

It's not politically correct to say so, but the physical attractiveness factor is a huge one. The more conventionally attractive a fangirl is, the more she'll be targeted for bullying, because the other fangirls are both jealous of her beauty and terrified that one of the band members might feel attracted to her.

The psychological harm caused by this type of bullying can be severe. Even if you're not a fangirl yourself, being the target of fangirl bullying is annoying and stressful, but for members of fan communities, it's much worse. Fangirl communities tend to readily believe rumors, even if the rumors are obviously baseless. A fangirl who becomes the target of a smear campaign (usually over social media) can find herself suddenly ostracized by former friends, and in extreme cases, disinvited from fan parties and events. For a fangirl who spends most of her free time and money attending shows, being socially ostracized by the fan community can completely ruin her social life.

A real-life example: a Japanese Buck-Tick fan acquaintance of ours enjoyed making handmade goods to give as gifts to her friends at concerts. She made various items such as mirrors and tissue cases decorated with black lace and sequins and the logos of Schaft and The Mortal. Though she did it entirely for fun and would never have dreamed of selling the items, she soon became the target of harassment by a group of fans on Twitter, who accused her of somehow harming the bands by using their logos without authorization. She was so upset by the harassment that she cut off contact with her former fan friends, since the anonymity afforded by Twitter meant she couldn't quite be sure who was behind the bullying. She also very nearly stopped going to concerts, just because she didn't want to have to meet the people who harassed her face to face. She believes she was singled out due to other fangirls being jealous of her public Twitter friendship with our fellow blogger Gunmar-san. I might add that all of the people involved in this incident were over age 40 at the time of its occurrence Think that's a bit too old to be behaving like you're twelve? Well then, you're clearly not thinking like a fangirl.

Another real-life example: the internet fangirls who found out that Imai was selling Buck-Tick charity goods to non B-T fans through his sister-in-law's bar, and accused Imai of pocketing the cash rather than donating it to charity as promised. You can read Imai's response to that incident HERE. Apparently, it's not just fangirls – not even band members are immune from this pettiness!

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