Fanatical Fans

So I am about to date myself.  When I was younger I was a HUGE fan of the Coreys, those of you my age will know of whom I speak.  I had Lost Boys and Dream a Little Dream on VHS and would watch all the time, we lived in a rural area so we went to town only a couple times a month and I would pick up Teen Beat and stare at their pictures imagining what they must be like. But that being said I don't think I was like fangirls of today.  My every moment and thought was not consumed by the celebrity crush I had. I didn't cry or rage at the thought of them having a girlfriend.

So I began to wonder what had changed. First I looked at my own current obsession Norman Reedus and his fans.  I realized that I am currently basically cyber stalking this poor man, following him on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram. Spendig entirely too much time scouring the internet for images, gifs and memes . Pinning things on Pinterest, tweeting things about and to him( as if he is reading them). But for the sake of research(yeah right) I spent some extra time this week watching Youtube videos and reading comments on all the feeds.

I found a new type of fan one I call FANactical.  The fan who I find seems to think they are truly connecting with this person confusing the person with the character or blending them into one being. They write things like "I LOVE YOU" "We are destined to be together" or "we should ....insert any sexual thing you can possibly think of".  I wondered about this intimacy these fans feel with the subject of their fanaticism and I realized that in this age of social media there is a level of contact that there has never been before.  You can do exactly like I did this week ..spend hours watching interview clip and find pictures and follow these people on every kind of media there is. 

And this is how you end up feeling , like maybe just maybe they are speaking to you.  I should say that a fangirl/boy is defined as

A rabid breed of human female who is obesessed with either a fictional character or an actor. Similar to the breed of fanboy. Fangirls congregate at conventions and livejournal. Have been known to glomp, grope, and tackle when encountering said obesessions.

Hugh Jackman: 'ello.
Fangirl: SQUEEEEEE! *immediately attaches to Jackman's leg*
Jackman: Security!

No I don't know if I would consider myself a fangirl but I would possibly consider groping Norman.  I don't think I would SQUEEEE but I will let you know when I meet him next year;)

I should also say that a lot of celebrities(actor and writers) are granting us fan access to them that to me at least seem unprecedented. Karen Marie Moning has her get together where she hangs out with us, Christine Feehan does the same and I can't forget Eric Etebari letting us totally take advantage of him:)

 And the always wonderful Phil Gigante who not only gave us eargasms but also was such a sport in New Orleans.