Fangirls, Listen Up...

[plotbunnytiff]

This is just a little sidenote about the Piano Squall fangirls. Mike had an effect on everyone, and frankly, by Saturday night almost every girl in the club had a bit of a crush on him. This is perfectly understandable. When it comes to certain people, I myself am a fangirl, so I understand what it's like to be excited about meeting a celebrity or someone you really admire.

What I do not understand or condone is when fangirls (or boys for that matter) take things just a little too far and cross the line from "fan" to "stalker". There were several people who traveled great distances (like Ohio and Boston) just to come to this concert. I was happy to have them there, I think it was awesome that they came from so far away to support us. After the concert they bought posters and snacks, and made donations to the charities, which was nice.

They also showered Mike with gifts that they had been saving since Christmas and the like just to give to him. Oh kay...a gift is cool. People do it all the time. Piles of them are even acceptable. But trying to get the poor man back to the dressing room so he could change out of costume and grab his suitcase was made more difficult than necessary because they spent so long crowded around him. He asked Laurel to watch his stuff for him just so he could escape to change unencumbered.

During the post concert Q&A, one of the fangirls asked if he was still single. He said that he just got a new girlfriend who was a concert pianist, and there was a chorus of broken hearted sighs. So when he asked Laurel, who was just helping with the concert, to watch his things, the fangirls did descend upon her as soon as he was gone and flat out interrogated her, asking if she was his new girlfriend. That was fucking rude.

Trying to get him out the door so we could get him to his train was like trying to escort Paul McCartney through a crowded mall. We tried to be subtle. "Hey Mike, we have to be heading to the train soon..." We tried to be tactful. "Thank you all for coming, but we have to get going now..." Nothing was getting through to them, they were more than happy to stay were they were, asking questions, giggling insipidly, and ignoring the fact that he was trying to leave. Finally, security started dimming lights, and we took that as a final chance to dash to the parking lot.

No such luck, the legion doggedly nipped at our heels, following us all the way to Samwise's car. A couple of them even made comments about her bumper stickers. Jesus H. Christ! We were really afraid that they were going to follow us to the damn train station. A few of them asked him if he could come have dinner with them, but he declined, saying that we needed the time to get to the train. Which we did, but he shouldn't have to go there.

This morning I was informed that the fans on his forums wrote some unkind things about the club, saying we were keeping him under lock and key effectively because he declined to meet them for lunch or dinner that weekend. True, we asked him to come to dinner with the club on the night before the concert. He could have chosen to eat with his fans instead (in fact, they asked him first) and he chose not to. Why? Because they are fucking scary. After the first rehearsal we said "Hey, we're all meeting up for lunch tomorrow before the afternoon rehearsal, would you like to go with us?" He could have declined, but he was eager to go. Why? Because he enjoyed hanging out with us.

We're fans too, but we know when and when not to cross lines, and instead of treating him like a fucking idol, we treated him like Mike. That's why when he saw that a number of his fans were staying in the same hotel, he didn't approach them in the lobby or say hello. He called us instead. They didn't even recognize him out of costume.  

In effect, those bitter, snippy little forum fangirls can kiss my big black ass. If you want to hang out with him, try putting your tongues back in your mouths, retracting your claws, treat him like a human being, and calm the fuck down. So sayeth the bear.

Comments

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh...ditto. So sayeth the chibi.