I Am ARMY: We don’t need permission

edited by Wallea Eaglehawk, Michelle Bùi Hoàng & M. Anastasia Kinderman

Social sciences / Fandom / BTS & ARMY

I Am ARMY: We don't need permission is a study of fandom, of identity, and the potential of mass social power in the name of self-love. For as long as fandoms are devalued, there will be a need for books such as this. A greater understanding and appreciation of ARMY is needed. This book shows that to know ARMY, to see them and hold space for all their complexities, is to know the world.

Within these pages you will find experiences ranging from the mundane of daily life to the extremes of sorrow, from small moments of joy to existential philosophising on identity. There are ten stories of how BTS has changed, shaped, inspired, disrupted and saved lives of ARMY from around the world. Ten different experiences of the same phenomenon. Ten different ways ARMY have not sought permission to be themselves, oftentimes the journey being just that–one of discovering, through BTS, that we do not need permission at all.

We don’t need permission to be ARMY. We don’t need permission to find joy with BTS. We don’t need permission to express our desires, hopes and dreams. We don’t need permission to work together to show our love for music, for art, for one another. We don’t need permission to explore and express who we are. We don’t need permission to live life on our own terms. And, if BTS have taught us anything, we definitely don’t need permission to love ourselves, even in our darkest hour, even on our darkest of days.