Heidiroo

In Defense of One Direction and the Young Girls Who Love Them

I am not a tween. I’m not even in my 20’s anymore. I am 31 and I have a bone to pick with people who pick on One Direction and hold them up as the poster boys for everything wrong with music today and in the process insult young girls. My insides sometimes verge on that of a teeny bopper, but I am rock and roll at heart. I grew up listening to everything from the Rolling Stones and the Doors, courtesy of my father, to Madonna and Michael Jackson. I have worked in the music industry and Green Day has been my favorite band for almost 2 decades. I have seen them go from a highly successful criticized band for signing to a major label, to a band that was hardly paid attention to, to one of the most respected bands in rock. None of this is to prove I have “credibility” or to show I am cool. “Cool” is my least favorite thing on the planet, but my favorite thing on the planet is realness and that is what ties Green Day and 1D together for me. Real in very different ways, but genuine and true to who they are. And that is why I can and do love them both.

You can say 1D was manufactured, but that is not what I see. They were 5 young boys from very humble beginnings who were pursuing what they wanted to do and got put into a group which turned into something inexplicably magical. No, the process for them was not touring in a dingy van for years on end or practicing in a garage, but we are also not in 1994. That is not the music world we live in today and that does not mean they work any less hard than any other band out there today.

Really none of this is here nor there. My biggest problem with much of the criticism I hear is it is rooted in misogyny, with a touch of homophobia. The most common criticisms I hear in one form or another are that One Direction cater to teenage girls (which apparently is insulting?) and they are less than manly because they possess the traditionally feminine characteristics of vulnerability and kindness. What these criticisms say is that anything having to do with girls, women or feminine traits are less than. To top it off most of these criticisms come from people who have never been a teenage girl, let alone a teenage girl in this day and age where they are constantly bombarded by images on the streets and in stores and on tv shows and in movies and magazines with subtle pushes from every angle telling them they are not enough. Not pretty enough, not passive enough, not thin enough, not everything enough and every single one of those signals are mixed. I imagine when 5 down to earth, genuinely nice young boys make them laugh and dance everyday, teach them that to be yourself is the best way to be, and tells them that they are enough, it - GASP! - makes them happy. It might even give them a little of their self-esteem back. It gives them something positive in their life. And if you have a problem with that, you have your own insecurities to deal with. Be proud girls. XO