The Missing Fans: Female Headbangers in Daily Practice

• Main Authors: Lu, Yi Shuan, 呂逸瑄
• Other Authors: Wang, Su Mei
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/83aemn

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 新聞研究所 === 102 === The research depicts the habits of Taiwan female headbangers under the context of globalization. In contrast to former metal music researches, this research focuses on the female metal fan culture. Through several observations in metal concerts and subcultural stores, 20 sets of FTF interview data, and the personal experience of the author (who is herself a female headbanger), this research shows that besides the top-down influence from macro-culture, fan culture is more of a bottom-up phenomenon. A fan’s performance reflects her daily life experience, and different performances of different individuals form a pattern that could be understood as culture. Culture and daily experience are reciprocally interrelated. This research begins with an enumerative description of Taiwan female headbangers’ apparent clothing, makeup, and fan rituals; then discuss the tactics by which they survive in a strongly masculine culture. Gender was long an neglected factor in metal culture. Discussions have seldom touched upon the problem of gender, and focused almost exclusively on the issue of power. While power is the core of metal culture, these previous studies nonetheless manifest a male-centric undertone that excludes the issue of female gender as a category meriting criticism from their discussion. Women accessing metal culture therefore face conflicts both amongst themselves and from others. They eventually divide into two camps: some of them become “the hot” and the others “the cool”, performing different rituals in their daily lives. With vague identification women could hardly get from the original culture, Taiwan female headbangers have taken a step ahead, started to create their own meaning of culture, and rewrite the female image in metal culture.