"Fangirl" Connotation

As the first post to this blog, I didn't know what to cover. A simple introduction didn't seem right, nor did just jumping into a certain Nintendo news article. Then it came to me, it is something I noticed a little while back. That is, the different connotations between the words; fangirl, and fanboy.I have noticed in the past, that 'fanboy', and 'fangirl', don't bring up the same image for people, despite the only differences in the words are they refer to opposite genders.

I once talked a female video game fan online, and she said that she doesn't refer to her self as a fangirl, but instead a female fanboy. To me, this seemed redundant, and out right strange to me. I always called my self a fangirl when it came to the topic of video games, and I expressed my puzzlement towards calling herself a female fanboy. She told me the reason why she didn't call herself a fangirl was what people indemnity thought about the word fangirl.

It's simple, people idea of fangirls are that they are more devoted to emotional and romantic aspects of their fandom, that they are deemed 'obsessive' with their love of a certain fictional character: it is commonly used in a derogatory sense to describe a girl's obsession with something, most commonly an anime character or a teen idol. It never seems to carry the same meaning as a fanboy, while not always positive, has the meaning of a passionate fan usually

You don't believe me, look how people define "fanboy", and how they define "fangirl" on UrbanDictionary.com. Not too similar, eh?

Maybe in the end it doesn't matter what you call yourself 'cause a fan is a fan is a fan.