Mike Dean’s Offensive BTS Tweets Spark Conversations About Misogyny And Fangirl Culture
What began as a series of tweets made in anger has become a hot topic, sparking conversations about musicality and xenophobia as well as misogyny and fangirl culture.
American producer Mike Dean recently apologized to BTS, explaining why he wrote his ill-received tweets.
In addition to questioning BTS’s contributions as songwriters, Mike Dean directly provoked BTS’s fandom, implying that ARMYs have yet to “grow up.”
Both BTS’s fans and BigHit Music producer Docskim have tweeted back at Mike Dean to defend BTS’s talent and share their own thoughts.
As a keyboardist/producer and fan of hip hop, I’m inspired by @therealmikedean. He’s one of the legends.
BTS are my little brothers and amazingly talented guys.
Just disappointed that someone I look up to said those things.
Hard to explain..
But definitely not okay.
— Docskim (@docskim_) April 5, 2022
Now ARMYs, many of whom are adult women, are speaking out on behalf of BTS’s predominantly female fanbase, discussing misogyny as well as prevailing stereotypes about fangirl culture. For instance, some fans believe male artists with large female fanbases are taken less seriously by other male artists, critics, and the general public.
Because it literally only happens to celebrities that are mainly loved by women, I suggest you educate yourself on these themes if you are interested
— Luthien (@yeontanwanna_be) April 5, 2022
It is also sad how you dismiss women who listen to BTS as children who have no taste in music. Maybe if instead of just a cursory google search you actually took time to discover their music you would understand why they inspire the fandom that they do.
— Purplerayon (@purplerayon) April 5, 2022
I’m here because I’m tired of grown ass men looking down on a talented and successful group just because their fans are mainly women. This is all down to misogyny (and sometimes racism since they’re Asian), this wouldn’t happen if their fans were males
— Luthien (@yeontanwanna_be) April 5, 2022
they’re just seven guys . find another target pls. i get most men enjoy irritating women n bts have a large female fan base, but it’s so lame to purposely rile fans and then complain abt how annoying the fans are. just leave us alone. was this really that fun to u?
— 🇺🇦 (@jeonichka) April 5, 2022
Historically, fans of boybands have been stereotyped as obsessive teenage girls with no taste for–or true knowledge of–“real” music. This harmful stereotype negatively affects both the artist and their fans. It also fails to reflect the true demographics of BTS’s fandom.
the reason why a lot of men hate on bts is because the fan base is seen as predominately teenage girls and they won’t let teenage girls have an interest in ANYTHING especially something that they consider to stereotypically feminine (like makeup boybands etc)
— fraz (@yoonqli) April 5, 2022
It’s absolutely crazy and funny how Armys are supposedly insane teenage girls yet no other artist sales match BTS’ lmao. Children sure have money
— Namjoon’s baby girl (@Norjoonie) April 5, 2022
ARMY is a diverse fandom made up of varying ages, genders, beliefs, and races — just to name a few. According to the 2020 ARMY Census, which surveyed over 400,000 ARMYs around the globe, fans under the age of 18 only made up half of BTS’s total fanbase. Fans aged 18-29 accounted for 42.59% percent of the fandom while 7.1% of surveyed fans were aged 30+.
As for gender, fans identifying as male made up 11.3% or 45,001 votes.
Here’s a visual. Allegiant Stadium, the venue for BTS’s upcoming PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LAS VEGAS shows has a capacity of 65,000. If every male ARMY surveyed in the census attended BTS’s show, the majority of these seats would be filled.
What are your thoughts?
