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Abstract: Like other fangirls, fans of former boyband One Direction ("Directioners") have often been represented in media discourse as obsessive and hysterical, with fan behaviour interpreted as longing for heterosexual intimacy with band members. Subverting this heteronormative framing, a group of Directioners known as "Larries" have built a sub-fandom around imagining a relationship ("ship") between two of the band members, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. Representation of the Larry fandom has gone beyond pathologizing fangirls to framing their shipping practice in terms of "fake news." The conspiracy theory panic around Larries misses the complex ways that subtext and queer reading are mobilized within the fandom to invoke feelings of queer intimacy and belonging. Drawing on a digital ethnography conducted on Twitter with Larries, we argue that these fans engage in queer reading strategies to explicitly imagine and interrupt dominant heterosexual narratives, and thus queer the figure of the fangirl.
Keywords: digital ethnography, fandom, intimacy, pop culture, queer theory
Introduction: Fangirls and Fake News
Fans of boybands continue to be depicted in popular culture as hormonally out of control, heterosexually desiring, and obsessive about the objects of their fandom (Kapurch 2016; Mrozek 2016). However, a network within the Directioner fandom, referred to as Larries, trouble this neat heteronormative understanding of fangirls. The Larry fandom believes that two of the One Direction members, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles, were once-or still are-in a relationship together. This ship is referred to by the portmanteau Larry Stylinson, or simply, Larry. Portrayals of Larries in the media have been understood largely in terms of the hysterical fangirl trope (Proctor 2016). However, in recent times Larry shipping practices have taken on a new framing, with media describing Larries as "truthers" or "conspirators" (Romano 2016: n.p.; Romanoff 2018: n.p.). As a 2018 article on Australian pop culture website Junkee argued, Larries should be a concern to everyone since they are symptomatic of a "post-truth" world (Carvan 2018: n.p.). Comparing the Larries to conspiracy theorists who believe Sandy Hook was a hoax, and that Illuminati and a flat earth are real, Tabitha Carvan of Junkee writes,
In just the same way that political motivations drive mainstream conspiracy theories, celebrity conspiracy theories morph chimerically to adapt to fans' narrative needs, You want your...