STAFF EDITORIAL

Staff ed: the implications of word choice

The Globe examines the differences in word choice when describing women’s topics of interest.

ELLA CUNEO | EDITOR IN CHIEF

Southern Methodist University fans cheer at a football game.

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The morning after the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, city workers were left to board up shattered shop windows, sweep broken glass and repair street signs. The night before, the predominantly male crowd flipped cars, destroyed the awning of the Ritz-Carlton hotel and brought traffic lights down in an all-night rally to celebrate the win.

Our cultural ethos determines these men to be passionate. Dedicated. Celebrating. In the media, while predominantly male fan bases are seen as overly passionate, those that are mostly female are often described as ‘hysterical.’

The term ‘hysteria’ originates from the Greek term ‘hystera,’ meaning uterus. The oldest record of hysteria dates back to 1900 B.C. recorded on an Egyptian medical papyrus. The Egyptians diagnosed women with hysteria when they believed their uterus was no longer in its original position. The ancient Greeks furthered this definition to include anytime a woman could not bear children. Between the fifth and thirteenth centuries, with the increasing influence of Christianity in the Latin West, people began to believe that hysteria was the satanic possession of a woman. Now, we consider hysterical, or hysteria, to mean being affected by uncontrollable or extreme emotion. images depicting male sports fans screaming and cheering. When searching “hysterical fans,” images and articles of women yelling and crying came up. There was no overlap between the two searches.

Ultimately the perception of the fans comes back to the larger idea of how we value men and women, and the things they tend to favor. There is a double standard about emotional responses to things people like. Women are often viewed as crazy for being passionate about the things they enjoy. Men are thought of as dedicated.

The media’s portrayal of women’s interests tend to give things with large female fan bases a negative connotation. They are thought of to be “uncool,” or too stereotypical to be well-liked. As the message about female fans continues to be spread, more young people are exposed to this line of thinking and are pushed away from things they may have grown to enjoy.

The description of emotions in relation to gender is frequently how society deems its worth. One particular example of this is in the literary genre of women’s fiction and romance. Often given a distasteful reputation, romance novels give way to a variety of emotional characters.

Twentieth century author Virginia Woolf

In March, 2011, thousands of fans gathered outside The Hard Days Night Hotel Liverpool to catch a glimpse of pop star Justin Bieber. The article reminiscing on the 10-year anniversary of the incident was titled: “Justin Bieber’s ‘Plea’ to ‘Hysterical’ Fans who Waited Outside Liverpool Hotel in 2011,” reported by ECHO. It describes how police officers were required to keep the crowds of teenage girls “under control” but no damage was caused.

Alternatively, “Eagles Fans Celebrate Super Bowl Victory by Attempting to Destroy the City They Love,” was the title of the article reported by the Daily Beast. They described their fans as “overzealous” and “passionate,” and the title discusses their love for their city.

The media coverage of both incidents paints the fans in very different ways. The younger female fans were reported to be experiencing ‘mania’ and out of their minds with emotions while adult male sports fans, who caused far more destruction, were described as simply being excited. Both fan bases are driven by their excitement and emotions of the situation, yet only the predominantly female group seems to be shamed.

When conducting research for this article, we investigated online the term “passionate fans” and obtained thousands of articles and

said, “[…] the values of women differ very often from the values which have been made by the other sex; […]. Yet it is the masculine values that prevail. […]This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room.”

Woolf identifies society’s main problem with the romance genre: it deals with women’s feelings.

Lauren Cameron studied the societal impact on the romance genre in her article titled; The Romance Publishing Industry and Its Reputation, in which she examines the justification of the negative reputation of the romance genre. She conducted interviews with three Facebook romance book club groups, totaling 14,730 members, with 74 members choosing to participate in the interviews. Of the 74 people who responded, only 13% said they received strictly positive reactions when they said they read romance.

Cameron also comments on the comparison of literature genres, she writes: “Crime is a typically male dominated genre and is heralded as one of the best in fiction. However, it follows a formula, it contains adult content, and is a

“Romance is not for everyone, just like any other genre. However, no other genre is continuously mocked by those that do not read it.” -Lauren Cameron

best-selling genre, just as romance is. The only differences between these genres is that one is targeted towards men, whereas the other is targeted towards women. If crime can be lauded as a highbrow fiction genre, how can we classify all romance as lowbrow?”

The dislike for topics popular with women are not based on anything other than internalized misogyny.

The fourth best-selling fiction author of all time is romance author Danielle Steel. She is the best-selling living fiction author and has written 190 books, yet this is still not enough to elevate the genre.

Outside of literature, the popular 2010s boyband One Direction is the only group to have debuted at number one in the United States for its first four albums. They sold out four worldwide tours and, despite the unprecedented success, were never nominated for a Grammy Award.

The similarities between these subjects are slim minus their overwhelmingly female fanbase. There is no reason they shouldn’t be given the credit and praise they deserve.

As a society, we need to begin to recognize the due we give to things people enjoy. While you may not personally like something, there is no reason to discredit or shame the people who do. Additionally, we have to speak carefully and understand the implications of our words. If we continue to label women as “hysterical” when they are having an emotional response over something they enjoy, society will only continue to invalidate those subjects.