I’ve always thought the teen girl obsession over male musicians, all the way back to Elvis and the Beatles, was mainly a kind of socially acceptable way for them to channel their lust. Sure, they enjoyed the music, but my friends covered their rooms with posters of “hot” boy bands in the 90s and 00s and certainly spent a LOT of time talking about said hotness amongst themselves, lol. Elvis wasn’t supposed to show the lower half of his body dancing on TV, but there were screaming hordes of girls who didn’t mind his alleged “indecency,” which certainly worried some of their parents.

Meanwhile, it was and still is considered fine and normal for boys to openly talk about jerking off to Playboy or whatever (now hardcore porn instead), rate women on scales, and joke about trying to bang as many girls as they can, especially from the 60s/sexual revolution onward, while girls were still slut-shamed for every breath they took. Girls could revert back to the 50s and say such-and-such male celebrity was “dreamy” and not get shamed for it. Male-driven media and society wasn’t ready for them to admit much else.