Music Groupies: The Stigma of Female Fandom

Groupies are a type of music fan who have long been denigrated, ‘othered’ and stigmatised in popular media and culture. This paper argues that the stigmatisation of groupies is rooted in their transgression of gender... [ view full abstract ]

Groupies are a type of music fan who have long been denigrated, ‘othered’ and stigmatised in popular media and culture. This paper argues that the stigmatisation of groupies is rooted in their transgression of gender norms. Simply put, they are ‘othered’ because the world of rock is a man’s world (e.g. Davies 2001). A number of mechanisms are explored that construct and reinforce the female gendering of music groupies. Firstly, the popular and music media played a significant role in gendering, stereotyping and stigmatising groupies right from the emergence of the label. Secondly, the notions of ‘credibility’ and ‘authenticity’ which are central to serious music journalism, are constructed in a way to exclude, discredit and invalidate the role of women in rock. Finally, the intertwining of femininity with fandom, as it is in groupiedom, serves to magnify cultural assumptions about femininity. A key contribution is therefore, an extension to Cusack, Jack and Kavanagh’s (2003) framework of the types of norms transgression which results in the stigmatisation of fans, through the inclusion of ‘gender norms’ in addition to (1) the appropriateness of the object of their fandom, and (2) the manner in which fans consume this object.