Mike Dean’s Offensive BTS Tweets Spark Conversations About Misogyny And Fangirl Culture

“This wouldn’t happen if their fans were male.”

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.

BTS concert | Rosa Tae/YouTube

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.

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.

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.

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+.

2020 BTS ARMY Census | BTS ARMY Census

As for gender, fans identifying as male made up 11.3% or 45,001 votes.

2020 BTS ARMY Census | BTS ARMY Census

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.

A Garth Brooks concert at Allegiant Stadium | Las Vegas Weekly

What are your thoughts?

BTS in concert | BigHit Music/Facebook
Source: BTS ARMY Census

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