One Direction is a boyband that is very near and dear to my heart.

I remember the first few days One Direction infection began spreading. Little 6th grade me stood around a circle with all of my girl friends and talked about who everyone’s favorite member was.

At the time I didn’t know enough about the five-piece to have a favorite, but after spending hours on YouTube watching all their music videos, video diaries and interviews, I too was afflicted with One Direction Infection.

And fortunately for me, there is no vaccine for that.

No amount of time could get me to stop loving those five goofy guys as much as I did when 11-year-old me would stay up all night to watch their videos and read atrocious One Direction fanfiction.

Now that I am older and wiser and enough time has passed since One Direction came to an end, I realize how much better One Direction deserved.

One Direction was an incredibly talented group of young men who could sing, write songs and give incredibly entertaining performances.

They were iconic, influential and had a hold on pop culture like no other. Their success has not been replicated though many boy bands that came after them have tried.

Though they were incredibly successful, the general public did not respect them and that infuriates me.

I think the main reasons why they were not respected as artists is because they released pop music and their fandom was mostly made up of young girls.

The way the general public treats any artist with a majority female fanbase shows how little respect society has for women and their tastes. It’s pretentious and sexist and makes people less willing to respect others for their music taste.

It’s something that we have been unlearning, and I’m happy about that. We shouldn’t live in a world that limits us or makes us feel ashamed for liking a certain artist, band or whatever based on ridiculous ideas about gender and what good music taste is.

And fun fact: The Beatles were technically a boyband. Just like One Direction, they had a mainly female fanbase who swooned over them. Critics and men did not understand the hype and did not recognize The Beatles’ talent until more recent times.

I have a strong feeling that thirty years into the future, the same thing will happen with One Direction. And I will be happy that 11-year-old me recognized their talent early on and didn’t let the world make her feel like she should be ashamed of her music taste.

Kyara Morales-Rodriguez is a junior English major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].