'I am here, in gold sequined pants, with three 40-something kindred spirits at a casino in Connecticut to scream, groove, and probably shed tears of pure ecstasy at a Harry Styles concert,' says one Vogue writer.
With singles like “What Makes You Beautiful,” “the proposition of One Direction was always that they were in celebration of girls and women,” Kaitlyn Tiffany, author of, explains. As a solo artist with female-worshipping songs like “She,” “Woman,” “Adore You,” and “Boyfriends”—plus comments about how female fans are the driving force of his popularity—“he’s really taken the subtext of that band and made it the primary text of his solo career,” she adds.
Then there is the unavoidable fact that Styles has a history of dating elder women, including his current girlfriend, director , a 38-year-old mother of two children. “It says that a 28-year-old could still look at a woman near her 40s and think,by Aaron M. Glazer and Zoe Fraade-Blanar, “true fandom rarely persists on its own.” The communal experience of Styles adoration is a near-daily source of joy for me and a growing number of mutually obsessed friends who joke about the relentless charms of Styles content, from magazine covers, shoots, and film trailers toand custom Gucci concert looks.
In a recent conversation with a group of mom friends in their 40s, she found that almost all have obsessions akin to her own with Styles but trained on the likes of Nick Cave or Machine Gun Kelly. “The one who doesn’t have a muse said that she wants to find one because she feels like she’s missing out on something, and I had to say that she is,” Liberty says. “It’s a form of escapism, sure, but it can also bring you out of the darkest of holes when you need it most.
Cataudella regularly connects with fellow Harries through a private Facebook group for fans, even meeting up with members at concerts around the world. “We all know exactly how we feel, and we’re not judging each other for it,” she says. “We’re in the town square giggling together.”