Julia Armfield’s “Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax” turns the idea of the obsessive teenaged fangirl on its head; instead of lusting after boy bands, the girls in this story obsessively and savagely follow an all-female band. By doing so, Armfield essentially gives power to the women in her story, letting them take full control over themselves by allowing them to lose control.
With the rise of the boy band, so came the rise of the so-called “crazed” female fans — the ones who cry over the members, who camp out for hours to get tickets to concerts, and even the ones who try to sneak into hotels to meet them. These types of fans are clearly seen in Armfield’s story, but the fact that they behave this way over a female band is what makes the story intriguing. As a whole, teenage female fans have been and are still often mocked for their dedication to musicians — specifically the conventionally attractive male ones. Older people, often men, look down on these girls because they believe the girls only care about the bands because of their looks.
However, this is not the case with the band in “Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax.” Their looks are never mentioned, “and yet every night, the feeling is clear: a rushing, wild euphoria. You’ll kill us if you send us away.” (88) To the fans of this band, the music is important: “They make music about yearning, about hunger.” (92). In other words, they make music about the experience of young women. It is clear in several points throughout the story that the band and their fans are still judged by those involved in the music industry, but those voices are drowned out by the women finding their own voices. “The call, the drag, the ache, the yearn, the need, whatever you want to call it” allows them to unleash their emotions and desires and to be as savage as they want — even though it goes against what is expected of young women. By unleashing the feral violence seen throughout the story, women are able to drown out those who try to dismiss them.
I also found it interesting that the band members and the fans were all females; in my opinion, it definitely added to the strangeness of the story, especially considering that it wasn’t even the looks of the band members that attracted the fans, just the music.
I agree that it was strange that females were crazing over the band who was all females. It is something that is not seen a lot in today’s world, so it is very interesting to see her write about that!
I like and agree with what you said about how the music is the main culprit in the people’s obsession with this particular band. It really adds to how music seriously affects people and why they listen to it. In this case, the finding of the fan’s voices, as you mentioned.
At first, through description of the band and the fans, I thought it was a male band. However, it was definitely not the case! I love how Julia Armfield gave the power to the women, and the men that were introduced were later killed or injured.
Having young women grow fanatic over an all-female band was definitely interesting and gave the story another layer. It reminds me of when Carmen Maria Machado spoke about “Inventory.’ She said that we don’t usually see women as “the last one standing” during an apocalypse. It’s great female authors are trying to flip the scripts.