Fangirl vs fanboy redux

Back in 2008 I conducted a poll on my old journal, kateorman, in which (amongst other questions) I asked respondents to briefly define the terms "fangirl" and "fanboy". I referred to the poll's results in my essay in "Chicks Dig Time Lords". I screened the answers so that people could answer privately. Now, having removed all usernames to make the answers anonymous, I'd like to present them in more detail.

First, a summary. 336 people participated in the poll, about 80% of them identifying as female. Out of those, 216 people answered the question "In a few words, what does the term 'fangirl' mean to you?"

For most respondents (161/216 = 74.5%), a "fangirl" is a female fan who is very enthusiastic, or too enthusiastic. Answers used negative words like "excitable", "obsessive", " "over-zealous", " over-enthusiast", and even "rabid", but also more positive words like "devoted", "dedicated", and "loyal".

Many answers mentioned "squeeing" – that is, squealing with excitement, often over an attractive actor. Even when enthusiasm wasn't an ingredient in the definition, sex and romance were often mentioned, and were seen as being more important to the fangirl than (for example) the plot.

Many found the term insulting, or conversely used it as an insult to describe fans they found annoying.

For a large minority of respondents (33/120 = 27.5%), the term just meant "female fan".

(Fanboys were defined in very similar ways – as being very or too enthusiastic – though many answers described fanboys as being less interested in sex and romance, and more interested in, for example, continuity and details.)

If someone asked the same question today, five years later, they didn't get a very different set of answers.

( The anonymised answers )

Strange Shelf

Off on writing retreat next week - see y'all in a few days.

Manus Island

With the Australia federal election hurtling horribly towards us on 7 September, my writing retreat thing looming, and literally scores of links in my "refugees" folder as the major parties battle over this key issue, I'm just going to post what I think is the single most important news in recent weeks: the allegations of assault, sexual assault, gang rape, and torture at the detention facility at Manus Island.

Manus Whistleblower: a transcript of SBS's 23 July Dateline interview with a former senior manager at the facility, Rod St George.

Guard claims rapes, attacks on detainees unpunished: from the SMH, 26 July.

The guard also alleged that the British private security firm in charge of the centre, G4S, was exploiting local labour. G4S has so far benefitted from over $80 million in contracts from the Australian government.

Australia is also paying PNG's notorious paramilitary Mobile Squad ("a byword for police brutality") to help secure the facility. To paraphrase Chris Hedge's criticism of the US justice system, asylum seekers in the community are worth nothing to these businesses, but thousands when they're locked away where voters can't see or hear them.

While squabbles continue over who else makes the money out of this nice little earner, the full facility cannot be completed according to schedule. Meanwhile, challenges to the facility's legality look set to go ahead in both Australia and Papua New Guinea.

To conclude, here's an opinion piece arguing that the "get tough" policies of both government and opposition don't work because asylum seekers are not Wirtschaftsemigranten ("economic migrants", as the Nazis called fleeing Jews, and Bob Carr called refugees) looking for a lush life in Australia - but in search of anywhere they will not be persecuted, tortured, or killed.