A few weeks ago I came across a widely circulated Tumblr post asking when “the Beatles start[ed] to be remembered as rock legends rather than a silly boy band teenaged girls liked?” Someone had answered “when men decided they liked them.” The post gave me flashbacks of eighth grade when I was head over heels in love with the Disney-spawned Jonas Brothers. Thirteen year-old me wanted nothing more than to spend every second talking about Nick Jonas (the curly haired one), but I tried to restrain myself because the Jonas Brothers were, at least in my social circles, not cool. It’s not that my peers liked Nirvana or the Doors. They were listening to Ke$ha and Nickelback, not exactly known for their musical depth. So why was I so embarrassed to like the Jonas Brothers?

The criticism of boy bands, Maura Johnston argues, “come[s] from people who consider themselves fans of ‘authentic’ music,” presumably those who believe that the sparkling pop of said groups is musically inferior to, as Johnston calls them, ‘Real Artists.' However, she hints that in “dig[ging] deeper” one sees that “the music isn’t being assessed as much as the groups’ target audience.”

So what’s the main difference between other bands made up of males and One Direction? One Direction’s audience is mainly teenage girls, which means they are considered inferior to bands who have an equal part, or majority, of male fans. Chris Richards of the Washington Post explains that “the American media has often characterized the din of young female fans gathered in the presence of a pop idol as ‘hysteria.’” Hysteria is a gendered term, not only because it is applied almost exclusively to women and girls but also because it actually comes from the Latin word hystericus, meaning womb. Harris O’Malley writes, “when women are too emotional, we say they are being irrational.” Likewise, when young women are passionate about something, they are called hysterical even though, as Rachel Simmons points out in The Curse of the Good Girl, “when men cry at a sports event, it’s very similar” to the phenomenon that occurs at One Direction concerts, but is not mocked in the same way since “the sporting event sanctions that behavior.” Because grown men enjoy them, sports are not delegitimized and I get New York Times updates sent to my phone during March Madness.

The sexualized nature of boy bands is a paradox. Their faces are used to sell innocence: lunchboxes, backpacks, kids’ watches; but they undeniably draw much of their audience by attracting young women and girls. An attraction that, of course, is somewhat sexual. It’s an attraction that can serve as a bridge between the crushes of elementary school and a more mature and more sexual attraction, as many girls become interested in boy bands during a transitional part of their lives. The balance also differs from band to band. The Jonas Brothers wore purity rings and took strict vows (because of their faith and/or relationship with Disney) not to have sex before marriage. But the highlight of the Thanksgiving Day concert I attended in 2008 was when Joe Jonas ceremoniously removed his jacket to reveal a tight white tank top. They were desexualized in all respects except for one: they were marketed as objects of sexual desire. Other bands like One Direction are less focused on having a perfectly spotless image, but they’re still often infantilized by their marketing strategies. Sony documents recently leaked by Wikileaks revealed One Direction member, Harry Styles, has been marketed as “adorably ‘slow,’” an adjective which is disturbing, even more so when one remembers that he has also been marketed as having had several relationships with much older women at a very young age.

But Styles also presents another side of boy bands. Rolling Stone called Styles a “new paradigm of manhood. A pin-up boy. A feminist icon,” and the ‘Boy Who Matters’ in the newly female-dominated world of pop music. Why? Because Styles is “unprecedented, to say the least.” In a recent Vogue article about gender fluidity in fashion, Harry was mentioned alongside Justin Bieber for wearing women’s jeans, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With shoulder length hair, which he sometimes braids and sometimes wraps in a rose-printed headband, Styles does pirouettes onstage and on the football field. He frequently uses feminine mannerisms, mimes pregnancy, and asks fans how big his breasts are. He has worn nail polish, a tiara, a tutu, women’s shorts and has called himself a mermaid.

That Styles plays with gender expectations so blatantly and remains the most famous of the One Direction boys is significant. Unlike their predecessors, One Direction owes their fame not to industry parents or crafty record labels, but to social media and a corps of dedicated fans who almost singlehandedly made them an international musical sensation. This unique relationship suggests that One Direction was chosen not in spite of their blatant homoeroticism, and their almost-edgy image, but because of it. For me, as a young woman, much of my interest in the band comes from the lines they cross. While surely not all fans are progressive, One Direction is a marker of a new generation: for whom racism is an important discussion, gender lines can be crossed, and sexuality is allowed to be complicated.