#and don't mention how fandom perpetuates shitty stereotypes

[ridl]

Something i rlly dislike abt Ganyu's characterization in fandom is how ppl see her being read as a stupid weak stereotype, and they just retaliate with another stereotype but from the other end of a spectrum.

She can be strong, competent, knowledgable and have very important role in the Liyue Qixing for years, but also be kind, humble, avoiding conflicts and NOT always knowing everything. those are not mutually exclusive!!! Yes she's old, no that doesn't mean she's now perfectly confident, knows everything and is good at everything. She's not some untouchable, divine being, better than everyone else. Stop removing humanity from her, when that's the whole point of her identity!!!

When i see overly confident, dominant, bitchy, smug, flirty Ganyu i start throwing rocks bc that's not Ganyu, begone impostor.

I just want Ganyu to be actually herself. Not a submissive secretary caricature. Not a dommy mommy caricature. JUST Ganyu, with all her complexity, strengths and weaknesses.

It's like treating Ganyu's personality as inherently weak and boring, so in the act of "justice for women" ppl just remove it and replace with a caricature of a strong woman. It's driving me insane when those "women defenders" are just slandering them, without even thinking abt it. If someone thinks a woman being quiet, kind, humble, avoiding conflict etc. is inherently "misogynistic" and needs those traits to be completely removed and replaced, then they just hate women

[asherinn]

yesterday's Different Anon - ugh, I didn't even remember that the caricature was a direct response to another fan's art. All I recall is the shame I always feel when I see strong body hair used derisively. Fwiw, I think the argument of "don't always draw Strilondes as white, considering they're also often angsty and the focus of the story" could be a good one. I'm glad fandom is changing that trend. But they ruined their point by a. being gleefully cruel b. placing the blame on POC headcanons.

yeah, one of the really cool things about homestuck is how you can have multiple headcanons for what a character looks like. I’m totally on board with pushing for more variety, in that sense!

it’s just that… we can do that without being shitty and toxic to each other - like caricaturing teens’ art or parodying fic with these exaggerated descriptions of big scary “ooga booga man” (direct quote from twitter) jake, when actual "bnfs” fics will have like. a single line in 30k words that mentions jake’s skin is darker.

it’s strange because I do agree with some of what’s being said, in the sense that there are these harmful stereotypes in media that should be avoided.

but then it’s only brought up irt dirkjake, when the same bigger/darker skinned person shipped with smaller/light skinned person is common with so many other ships in the fandom? well. there’s a wider fandom trend of pretending that dirkjake bnfs are straight women fetishizing mlm relationships, when the reality is that they’re a group of trans people and wlw. so when it’s in that context it starts to feel like this isn’t being brought up in good faith.

anyway. if you want to know if someone’s perpetuating racist stereotypes look at how they draw and write other characters of colour, instead of just going “their jake is hairy and has muscles” and calling it a day.