Defending Tom Hiddleston Fangirls From Intellectual Snobs

I admit it - in the past I have been guilty of having a go at Tom Hiddleston’s fangirls.  The whole “chasing him down the street and getting the after-show signings cancelled” thing was quite embarrassing, for example, and I did complain at the time.  It made us all look bad, quite frankly.

However, for once, I actually feel the need to DEFEND the Hiddleston fangirls.

Last night, Coriolanus was broadcast live in cinemas across the world as part of NT Live.  This means a lot more people got the chance to watch it, which is brilliant.  I went to see the play at the Donmar Warehouse last week and loved it – great performances, impressive but simple staging, and surprisingly moving.

The problem came when I logged on to Tumblr today, as it often does, and saw a few posts from people complaining about the same things.  Things like:

“Oh my god, during the shower scene the fangirls were giggling and squealing”

“That scene was NOT erotic, but the Hiddleston fangirls were so embarrassing”

“The kiss between Coriolanus and Aufidius was not supposed to be sexy but the fangirls are fixated on it”

“It’s so annoying for people like me who just wanted to see the play and love Shakespeare”

They’re all variations on the same complaints made when the tickets went on sale last year:

“I just wanted to watch some quality actors perform Shakespeare, but the seats have all gone to fangirls!”

The problem with all of this is it implies the fangirls are not capable of enjoying a play like Coriolanus, and are not deserving of the chance to see it.  It is intellectual snobbery of the highest order, and incredibly insulting to boot.

Okay, first of all – the shower scene.  No, watching a man wash blood from his wounds and cry in agony is clearly not sexy.  However, let’s not be shy  – Tom Hiddleston is.  I know when my friend and I saw the play in the Donmar, we turned to each other and exclaimed “HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT MAN” (or words to that effect). 

Appreciating physical beauty does not mean you can’t appreciate anything else.  And my word is Tom Hiddleston beautiful.    Yes, perhaps the fangirls did react to the shower scene with giggling and general flailing of limbs.  When I saw the play there was only one fangirl who was visibly having a moment in the stalls, but obviously there’s a different atmosphere in a cinema than in a West End theatre.

And let’s not forget, the shower scene was specifically added to this production.  I am sure the intention with this was not to get people’s motors going.  But do you honestly believe that nobody in the entire production team realised casting a handsome, physically fit actor and getting him half naked and showering on stage would have an effect on certain members of the audience?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as guilty of showing off my education as much as any other intellectual snob.  However I’m not going to pretend I’m some pious gentlewoman whose ability to appreciate hot actors gets switched off when I enter the theatre.

It’s the same with the, quite frankly, OBVIOUS homoeroticism in this production of Coriolanus.  Again, I am sure the intention was not to get fangirls writing Coriolanus/Aufidius slash fic and “shipping” them in fanvideos across YouTube (though that will surely happen).  But really, the fangirls are not the only people to notice this aspect of the play – broadsheet theatre critics have picked up on it too.  Hell, there are dead deafblind people who probably picked up on it.  Director Josie Rourke and the actors she cast knew exactly what they were doing, don’t doubt that for a second.

The fact is, the people making these complaints are clearly under the impression the Hiddleston fangirls aren’t as deserving of their seats as they are.  They’re like those men at sci-fi conventions who seem to think the young women present aren’t really sci-fans, not like them, and unless they’re willing to put on a skimpy Wonder Woman costume what’s the point anyway?

Who cares if many of the seats went to fangirls?  Why is that a bad thing?  These are people who actively paid out their money to go to a little theatre and watch one of Shakespeare’s more difficult plays – that’s fantastic!  How do you know none of those girls went out the next day and bought the Complete Works of Shakespeare?  How do you know it didn’t affect them more than just firing up their loins?

Yes, perhaps hearing them giggling and squealing in the cinema last night was annoying.  When I went to see August, Osage County the other night, a group of middle aged women chatted their way through the opening scenes and took selfies mid-way through the movie.  Annoying. To the extreme. I get it.  But I don’t know if you noticed, Coriolanus is one hell of dark play.  I’m sure nobody was giggling and squealing by the final scene.

Obviously, invading an actor’s personal space is appalling, as is being rude to the staff at the Donmar, and behaviour like that can’t be accepted.  But getting a bit hot under the collar when Tom Hiddleston takes his shirt off isn’t quite the same thing, and it doesn’t mean the rest of the play went over anybody’s head.  It may have temporarily annoyed you, but life is annoying.  Suck it up.

I had never read or seen Coriolanus before I bought my tickets last year.  I went because I wanted to see Tom Hiddleston and Mark Gatiss act together, in a good production in a good theatre.  The fact is, I got to see a Shakespearean play I had no previous knowledge of AND I got to see Tom Hiddleston take his shirt off.  If you think it’s impossible to celebrate both of those things, you’re not really the sort of person I want to sit in a darkened room with.