I did film a video of me talking about this but I decided not to edit and upload it, partially because the lighting wasn't great and also because I wanted to ensure that my opinion wasn't just all over the place. As you will have definitely heard, as it's been all over Twitter and the major news channels, Zayn Malik has decided to leave One Direction. This isn't at all uncommon in pop bands, I mean you could trace this right back to The Beatles (all four members left at different points until deciding to split), Justin Timberlake left 'N Sync, Beyonce left Destiny's Child, Robbie Williams left Take That.. y'know it's not anything new. I just feel that some of the responses to Zayn Malik leaving is completely unreasonable.
Obviously, fans of One Direction are pretty upset but the majority of them do want the best for Zayn, and if that means him leaving the group, that's something they've accepted. I need to really emphasize that it's only a tiny tiny minority who are self-harming and committing suicide over Zayn leaving, obviously that's terrible and it shouldn't come to that, but I don't like how so many people are condemning an entire fandom made up of millions of people based on a few extremist fans.
Furthermore, I've heard far too many people comparing Zayn leaving to 150 people dying in a plane crash. Obviously it's terrible that people died in a plane crash, but is it fair to criticise fans of a pop group, most of whom are probably under the age of 18, for not solely talking about the plane crash? Don't get me wrong here, but people generally have the capacity to think about more than one thing at once so it's not like these kids have so much of a one track mind to the point where they can no longer care about 150 people dying. Y'know unless they're sadists and they enjoy hearing that people have died and are suffering, but funnily enough I don't think many sadists are into What Makes You Beautiful or Live While We're Young - but hey, I won't judge an entire population of sadists based on a small minority. Y'know why I won't do that? Because that's exactly what a bunch of the people criticising directioners are doing, and I know I'm better than that.
Continuing on from that point, maybe you don't feel any sort of connection to celebrities like musicians, writers, YouTubers and the sort, but these fans evidently do so that's why it's absolutely fine for them to be upset about a member leaving. These 150 people on the plane didn't have a connection to the fans of One Direction prior to the crash so whilst they'll obviously be sad about 150 deaths, they're probably going to have more to say on the issue of someone who they felt a genuine connection to. These mostly under-18 fans aren't going to have much to say on the issue of a plane crash besides from 'that's terrible, I hope their family are okay' whereas if you've grown up with a band and grown attached to the members and you know a lot about them, you're obviously going to have a lot more to say because to a certain degree, you know them.
On top of this, I think the reaction by many on Twitter stating that 'this isn't a big deal' and 'the fans are being irrational' is unfair and is evident of a complete lack of empathy. It may not be a big deal to you but just because something doesn't affect you doesn't in any way, shape or form give you the right to invalidate someone else's feelings. It doesn't take a lot to put yourself in someone else's shoes and imagine how you might feel if someone from your favourite band, who was possibly even your favourite member, has left and you may not see any new content from them again. If you can't empathise with them even a little bit, that makes you the worse person. Also, is it completely irrational? Zayn's clearly having some sort of mental issues at the moment, I don't want to assume what they might be, but he's clearly having a tough time and is it at all surprising? Since the formation of One Direction, Zayn has faced constant Islamaphobia and has been accused of plotting jihad, as well as being accused of being a bad Muslim and basically being criticised for not being like the other members of the group. This bullying is enough to make anyone ill, and the fact that he put up with it for so long shows a lot of courage, as well as the fact that he's now deciding to step down which is courageous because it's hard to tell yourself you need help and you need to stop allowing yourself to be treated that way.
In addition, as my lovely friend
Antoinette said on Instagram, attacks on One Direction based on the fanbase being young girls is an attack on women and you're not giving them any sort of basic respect just because they don't listen to bands like the The Beatles, and whilst we're on that subject, The Beatles are my favourite band and I've done a hell of a lot of research on them, but you know what doesn't take a lot of research to figure out? The fact that The Beatles' fandom were
young girls. I won't deny there were a lot of males listening to them, but come on you have no right to be so pretentious on the matter when the fandoms are actually very similar, they're just from different eras. In fact, I would say Beatlemaniacs were even crazier than Directioners - let's not forget that there was one Beatlemaniac who physically tried to mail herself to The Beatles. So whilst you're being pretentious and criticising a young girl for not listening to the same music you do, do a little bit of research so you can come to the realisation that their fandoms aren't so different.
One final point (I promise), I don't really agree with the idolisation of celebrities in general because they are people and I don't think that degree of obsession is healthy for the celebrity or the obsessor. I mean Zayn has said he's left the group to try and be a normal 22 year old, which is practically impossible when you're being idolised into perfection so you feel you can't make mistakes or do what other 22 year olds do. At the end of the day, you don't have to like One Direction, but you have to accept that there are people who do like them and they have a right to be sad about this - don't invalidate their feelings just because you lack the ability to empathise.
How are you feeling about Zayn leaving One Direction?
