The Feeld Guide to Hero Worship

Fandoms are not just teams of enthusiasts—they are global movements which inform trends, unite millions, and have huge influence. Despite this, hero worship as a concept has long been used as a way to minimize and reduce the passions of young women and femmes, from Beatlemania to Swifties and beyond, with stereotypes of hysterical, obsessive fans persisting in popular media. Young fans are demonized and patronized in turn, and have been for decades. But there’s power in such fervor, and it’s a power which can’t be easily dismissed.

What does it mean to be a fan?

Anyone can be a fan, but fandom as a term implies a specific level of devotion and community. Defined both as “An interpretive community consisting of dedicated followers of any cultural phenomenon,” and “An interconnected social network of such subcultural communities,” fandoms are not just groups of people who enjoy something, but collectives with their own terms, rituals, forums, and lore (and even literature too, in the form of fan fiction). To be united in fandom is to be part of something which transcends barriers, language, and countries; a sense of belonging and community in a world that can feel increasingly fractured. And as the former definition’s use of “interpretive” suggests, fandom is not just about passively consuming an artistic product, but about engaging with it in a way that is always evolving—making it your own, even as you’re participating in something larger than yourself.

A brief history of fandom

Picture the scene: you’re finally watching your favorite musician perform, famous hands artfully dancing over piano keys. Around you, hordes of other fans swoon and scream. One fan has removed her stocking, and flings them onto the gleaming piano lid. When a string snaps and flies into the audience those on either side of you lunge forward, attempting to grab it so that they might turn it into a bracelet. By the end of the concert the piano will be battered, and everyone will be exhausted. The year is 1844, and you’re in a salon in Paris, watching Franz Liszt. In other words, you’ve got Lisztomania—the term invented by German poet Heinrich Heine, who described this feverish fandom as a “veritable insanity.” Particularly devoted fans would even steal the dregs of his coffee and his cigarette stubs as keepsakes.

The 1960s notably brought another type of mania, this time Beatlemania, described as an “ecstatic, female-led fan culture,” where crowds of young women would follow the Beatles wherever they went, across the globe. Even before this, 1940s America witnessed the trend for “bobby-soxers”—teenage fans of Frank Sinatra who wore short white socks and often spotted bow-ties like Sinatra himself. One account describes a fan who sat through eight days of performances, of Sinatra receiving thousands of daily letters. The next decade—to give just one more example—came screaming Elvis Presley fans in the 1950s, with fans literally tearing their star’s clothes from his body. 

“What surprised me most when researching Fangirls is the imperishable nature of fandom,” says Hannah Ewens, author of Fangirls: Scenes From Modern Music Culture. She explained that the girls she had spoken to were expressing the same sort of sentiments as fans from decades, even centuries, past.  “I had expected that girls’ desires would have changed in more of a tangible way, but they hadn’t. Nineteenth-century girls admired Lord Byron’s emotional depth, looks, wild spirit, and persona in much the same way as girls do with someone like Harry Styles—though their lives, and the freedoms afforded them, were completely different.”

Fandom and misogyny

“It is a frightening thing for a man to watch his women debase themselves,” said reporter Mac Reynolds in 1957. Girls who “screamed, and quivered, and shut their eyes and reached out their hands to him as for salvation.” Accounts of these early days of fandom can feel almost religious in the feats performed by young femmes, hysterically propelled by the power of their belief. Windows are smashed; teenage girls refuse to eat, drink or leave shows, until they are bodily removed by attendants. The “hypnotic quality” of Sinatra’s voice is seen through the lens of its worrying effect on “susceptible young women,” rather than the outlandish concept that these young women might be, say, simply enjoying the songs.

“Historically there’s definitely been a longstanding sense to both the public and critics that male fandom is about appreciation, and feminised fandom is about emotional response,” explains Ewens. “Football fans are an obvious example of where men are very emotional, but it’s not coded as hysterical.” 

The role of fantasy also plays a part. “Girls learn about their sexuality and play out how it will feel to have a boyfriend or girlfriend through early crushes on musicians,” Ewens explains. “But boys and men do that too—they imagine themselves as musicians, or the type of guy that gets girls, in much the same way.” 

Is the tide turning? “There have been a few books out about fangirls, including mine,” says Ewens. “People are now more concerned by the obsessiveness of Stans and stan culture”—an obsessive fan, the term taken from the song “Stan” by Eminem—“which sort of transcends gender and nationality, thanks to TikTok, social media, K-Pop and lots of other factors.”

Fandom as a force

With the internet came many more ways to hero worship, faster, easier, and to connect with others across the globe. LiveJournal and Tumblr were early platforms, instrumental in collecting the writing about heroes as well as bringing people together, while MySpace broke down the barriers between artists and their listeners, creating a greater sense of intimacy. Tumblr in particular became a way for marginalized members within a fandom to organize, such as with the creation of Rainbow Direction, a campaign for greater recognition of LGBTQ Directioners, and the establishing of safe spaces for these fans.

Major social media platforms today such as X, Instagram, and TikTok are places for fans to find each other, share media, communicate, and to create together as a digital community.

This can go beyond uniting members in hero worship: fandoms can also be sites of political organising and mobilization. During the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, K-Pop superstar band BTS—who have the biggest fandom of any music act, with about 90 million followers worldwide— donated $1 million dollars to BLM, which was quickly matched and then surpassed by loyal fans. These same fans also flooded racist hashtags such as #AllLivesMatter with K-pop fan videos. Such huge, coordinated global networks can make fandoms formidable allies (or enemies) when it comes to a cause.

As the world becomes ever more globalized, the cultural power of fandom can only increase. Though they’ve historically been dismissed and underestimated, these communities and networks have enormous collective power and potential: passion and togetherness are important currencies in a world that feels more divided by the day.