The traditional "fan-idol" relationship mostly follows the desire model of "boyfriend and girlfriend" under the heterosexual framework, but what about the "mom powder" group? Did they become "mom fans" because "I want to be your mother"? In a study conducted by Xu Jing, associate professor of the School of Journalism and New Media at Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Meng Fuxing, a graduate student, they found that the star-chasing behavior of "mother fans" has a wonderful echo with the "mother's job" in reality, and they call the daily life of "mother fans" around idols "digital upbringing".
The Paper conducted an interview with Xu Jing, and the following is Xu Jing's dictation.
Xu Jing Courtesy of the interviewee
The problem construction of "mother powder"
I am Xu Jing, a teacher at the School of Journalism and New Media at Xi'an Jiaotong University. My professional background in reading is more complicated, I have studied sociology, I have studied literary and artistic theory, and now I am in communication. I am concerned about how the media presents the "gender" in the social structure, how the gender perspective is reflected in the media product, fan culture is a good entry point, many people may feel that this is a niche field of subculture, but it is in a very specific, trivial relationship, I have insight into some interesting issues.
The preliminary observations for my study began in 2019, and the formal survey was conducted between September 2020 and June 2021, using web ethnography, data collection and cross-analysis of the material from the "mom powder" group through participatory observations and semi-structured interviews.
My 28 subjects (including two men) came from a fan base of multiple celebrities, including the Korean boy band BTS, The Times Youth League, Wang Yibo, Zheng Yunlong, Ayunga, etc., all between the ages of 19 and 45. The respondents of this study mainly lived in Cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xi'an and Guangzhou; their main businesses were also different, including college students and graduate students from colleges and universities, university teachers, civil servants, professional and technical personnel, and some of them were middle-level and senior managers of enterprises. Their daily life as mother fans is mainly in the online fan community of the idols they are fans, checking the latest consultations of idols, or responding to the "big fans" to mobilize punch cards, anti-black, and participate in various digital star-chasing practices that increase traffic.
In terms of income, some of the respondents do not have independent economic ability, but still use part of the daily living expenses for stable star-chasing consumption; the other part has a stable or even better income level in society. The money spent by "mother fans" is 6% to 13% of their income, but some "mother fans" say that the money they spend on idols is difficult to measure in this way: some people say that they often have large amounts of the same expenditure, and they will not spend if they are not the same amount of idols. In short, the "mother powder" group in this study is mainly female, with diverse ages and occupations, certain economic ability, and a certain number of years of star chasing.
I personally have both a fan and a researcher, so I'm both an insider and an outsider. I hope that in the process of academic research, I can always maintain the independence of scholars and be as objective as possible. I did not do this research to "justify" the fan base, I prefer to try to show the diversity within the fan group - any community condensation has its own story, my original intention is to strip away the "group", for example: there are various types of fans within the fan group, what is the difference between the mother fan group and other types of fan groups? What they are doing, thinking, and why they live online like this, this is what digital media practice research does, which contains the rich emotions, demands, and desires of practitioners. After observing the online community for a while, I realized that the "mom powder" group is an identity referent that can and should be further explored and explained. The process of forming such an identity has a certain echo and correlation with the mother's work, which is the result of a kind of "inquiry" in the sense of Aldousse.
The comedy "Idol Waiter" full of harmonic melodies and rice circle remarks
The two characteristics of "mom powder"
One of the characteristics of "mom powder" is that they do not have a projection of carnal desires on the stars they like. They found the identity of "mom powder" in searching for and defining an emotional pattern that is difficult to define with a heterosexual framework. Therefore, "de-sexualization" has also become the most important difference between mom fans and other types of fans.
However, from the interviewees, we can see that the identity of mom fans is not set in stone, and they will also have different emotions from the past because of the sexy appearance of idols occasionally displayed or the hegemonic masculinity, when the boundaries between "mom powder" and "girlfriend powder" are not so clear. One interviewee said that the star he liked before has always felt the cuteness and innocence of a young child. As a result, one day he changed into a completely new look, completely different from before, and was shaped into a sexy, sexual tension. She said, "In an instant, the mother's love deteriorated." But many people stressed to me that for mom fans, "maternal love deterioration" can only be a moment, aiming at this image of him, this physical state, and then soon returning to the state of de-sexualization of the mother.
In the talk show, Wang Mian played and sang a story about the girls in the rice circle.
Therefore, mom powder is not a clear and stable identity type, but a dynamic process of change of relationship. Fans have subjectivity, and they selectively construct the identity of the idol in front of the person and their own perception. Strong identity mobility and inclusiveness are caused by the direct appropriation of the mother's signifier by "mother fans".
"Mom powder" recognition of maternal position
There was a male mom fan in my interview, and he said that the reason why I think I can be a mom fan is because my mom loves me in this way, then I think my feelings for idols are also like this, then I can position myself as her mom fan. I had no other appeal to her, I wanted to see her feel happy and then selfless, and I didn't expect her to respond to me. Then he asked a classic rhetorical question, "Do you think anyone on the Internet would be someone else's dad?" Yes, why are the star-chasing men and women on the Internet, whether young or slightly older, why do the first relatives to borrow the title "mother" when they want to describe a kind of de-gendered, de-desired care and care, such a selfless emotion? Because in our historical context, the family order within East Asia and the gender order of the maternal profession that it represents have become the main ideological resources for the mother's fan exercise. What the male fan said about not wanting to be a "father" is a rejection of simulating and playing the role of father in East Asian families.
After becoming mom fans, they were called by the "motherhood" - and also began to use the traditional motherhood ideology to demand, restrain and regulate fan behavior. For example, I will also hope that the son will become a dragon and the woman will become a phoenix. One of the people I interviewed mentioned very clearly, because she herself has a three- or four-year-old child, she said that her attitude towards idols is the same as that of children, first of all, I hope that he is healthy and safe, but also hopes that he will have a good development in his future studies and career - when you use a "concept" or title to call yourself, you will unconsciously begin to use the traditional "mother" role to demand yourself.
Mom fans are particularly concerned about the idol's business ability, professionalism, self-motivation, related discourse power and social status. For idols to fall in love and make mistakes, mom fans are more tolerant, but they agree that when idols show that they do not work hard enough in their careers, their love will be greatly reduced. In terms of the idol "Jackie Chan", the real motherhood and the virtual motherhood have reached a subtle connection.
On the one hand, it is a high degree of recognition of the mother's work, on the other hand, it is constantly practicing the "traditional mother-child relationship" and getting a response, which is the self-identification process of the mother powder. They also create a sense of gain through consumption, connecting with their idols. My interviewees told me, "The more I buy, the more I might be able to help him." The brand will feel that the idol fan has strong spending power, so it will give him more and more advanced endorsements. Of course, in the end, it is the logic of this set of commercial profitability that determines and shapes the relationship between capital, platforms, stars and fans at present.
Under the current policy of rice circle rectification, traffic artists especially need to prove that their fan base is safe, high-quality, and does not need to be governed. Therefore, the "mother fan" of a certain idol calls herself "doctor and second child mother" (Note: per capita doctorate, the image of a middle-class female fan with a second son), which is produced and manufactured in this context.
"Mom fan" tries to transcend the old framework and define a new type of fan idol relationship, which is a group of women who break free from some old framework in the process of their own digital behavior practice, and want to define themselves with a new thing. Although this defined behavior is also difficult to escape, and there is no way to get rid of the constraints of the entertainment industry system, it is at least a step forward at the level of gender order. Don't say that girls chasing stars are all brainless, they are all girlfriend fans, in fact, this is not the case. Our emotional relationships are multifaceted, and we are trying to find newer gender or desire relationships to interact with our own emotional appeals.
People's Vision Infographic
【Dialogue】
The Paper: This kind of "digital parenting" looks far easier than the motherhood in the real world, will it seem that the motherhood in reality is too light and fluttering to use such terms?
Xu Jing: From my personal point of view, digital parenting is also labor, because it also pays time and money, as well as emotional interaction and contribution. I personally would like to define it as a positive development in the theory of motherhood. Of course, I may have some idealism about this issue.
Even when I was doing the so-called digital parenting, I also imagined that I would do such a construction: is it also an effort to depict the new progress of the motherhood, and to help break the relationship between the "motherhood and the natural binding of women"? At least at the theoretical level, perhaps a shake-up to the old power structure. Of course, the nurturing of reality takes more labor and emotion, and includes more complex social relations and order.
The Paper: By studying the "virtual motherhood" of this kind of mother fan, you also want to try to deconstruct the concept of "motherhood" in reality?
Xu Jing: Yes, this at least shows that "motherhood is not a kind of nature", and it does not necessarily correspond to the act of procreation, it proves that motherhood is a construction of social relations. "Mom powder" is not a biological mother, but through this digital exercise, whether it is spending money or energy investment, it can resonate with the traditional sense of motherhood.
I called this phenomenon "digital parenting", in fact I just wanted to discuss whether it would be a new development of the motherhood. After the emergence of this kind of alternative emotion, is there a possibility that in the future, women who want to experience or enter the mother's work really do not need to be connected by procreation.
The Paper: Is there any correlation between your subjects' fertility intentions and their status as mothers?
Xu Jing: Of the 28 people I interviewed, 22 were unmarried and childless, and 11 of them clearly stated that they did not have much desire and demand for marriage and childbearing. Of course, there are also people who tell you this now, and in a few years she may get married and have children. But at least in the process of repeated maternal exercises such as "mother powder", she believes that the temporary nurturing emotions and their derivative labor, labor sense of gain have been satisfied, the mother powder exercise may only be one of the forms of digital parenting in the future, when it is more widely accepted and recognized by the whole society, perhaps a woman, whether to perform the mother's job, how to perform the mother's job, will become a kind of exercise that can be easily converted in the "family space based on blood" and "virtual platform with emotion as the benchmark".