zanopticon:
As usual, talking to my lady of pop @catiedisabato has clarified my thinking on the...
As usual, talking to my lady of pop @catiedisabato has clarified my thinking on the issue, so I’d like to submit something to the canon of reasons that girls love boybands: because they’re one of the few groups of men who end up getting held to the standards for women about sex– or a version of them, anyway.
Boybands are expected to be charming above all else: absolutely always attractive and available. They are allowed to flirt with sexiness but not to talk directly about sex. They have to make you fall in love with them and at the same time make you understand that they will never fall in love with you, and you shouldn’t be hurt by that. They perform their own desirability as an occupation. Girls see themselves in that as much as they see themselves as an object of that desire in the lyrics, I think. This idea that everyone has to love you in order for you to do what you want to do in the world.
Thinking about this again this week. Desirability as in: needing to be so conscious of vibes and how you move your body and what you wear, in order to cultivate and grow your desirability. A slow and delicate gardening of your own body, and the extensions of your body (mostly Twitter and Instagram for me).
