#characters can be as sexist as you like

[adragonsfriend]

Need everyone to understand that saying “the SW timeline always turns out worse if Anakin doesn’t have Luke and Leia as kids” makes the future of the galaxy contingent on Padmé’s willingness to have sex with Anakin (not even to mention Anakin’s willingness to have sex with Padme or overall readiness to raise children)

To suppose that this is a good or normal idea is to suppose that either (a) Padmé falling for/being attracted to Anakin is an inevitability—not true—or worse (b) she needs to be willing to give up her sexual autonomy for the sake of the universe.

Frankly if you give a shit about the reproductive rights of anyone, especially anyone with a uterus, (including anyone who has one and would prefer not to), the idea that anyone needs or deserves to have kids—let alone biological kids with a specific person of their choosing—is one you need to remove from your head immediately and with prejudice.

But y’know it’s fiction so also do whatever I guess, I’m not your parent. Food for fucking thought

[999999999inadream]

toby fox needs to add like a bit of narration in deltarune abt kris like "they themmed they/themily down the stheirs" cus i cant go on seeing them constantly get he/himmed in yt comment sections

[francy-sketches]

rhaenyra could say 'I wish I was a man with dick and balls' and hotd twitter would still be like 'umm she just means she wants freedom and respect but otherwise she is a FEMININE WOMAN stop making her into a man you weirdos'

[creativity-deficient]

This may be an unpopular opinion but I honestly don’t think the female characters of this show are as poorly written as a lot of this fandom make them out to be. I actually think a lot of them have very enjoyable and distinct personalities; Wendy, Bebe, Heidi, Henrietta, Nichole, Sharon, Sheila, Liane, Carol, etc.

I think the problem mostly lies within them being EXTREMELY underutilized in comparison to the male characters, and as someone who adores and values the show’s female cast I do think this is something the show can improve on more. At the end of the day the show focuses less on them because the show isn’t about them, its about the boys, but I don’t see why that has to mean we can’t get more on them too. I think a lot of criticisms I see, like how most of the episodes involving them focus more on sexism (not necessarily a bad thing, but) rather than them as characters, or directly involve the boys somehow, are valid.

Still though, reducing their characters to being nothing but “Bebe wannabes” is doing so many of them such a disservice tbh

[maybeamiles]

Thinking about trans Zoro angst...

Trans Zoro who comes out at such an early age that none of his peers know he was born a girl- and he wants to keep it that way.

Trans Zoro who hears Kuina's speech about puberty and weakness and womanhood and challenges it, partially because he wants to prove her wrong, but partially because she reminded him of what's going to happen to him in a few years, and maybe he wants to prove that he's different from her, that he's not going to become a weak woman.

Trans Zoro who sees Kuina die and promises that he'll be strong for her.

Trans Zoro who grows up learning that women are weak and fragile and never gets a chance to see those ideas disproved.

Trans Zoro who is taught that men don't cry. That men are strong. That men don't die to silly things like falling down the stairs. That men must protect the women they love even at the cost at their own health.

Trans Zoro growing up terrified of what might happen if anyone found out he was trans. Terrified of losing his place in the dojo. Terrified of being seen only as a weak woman.

Trans Zoro who tells Chopper that "real men don't cry" because he doesn't cry and he's a real man. The fact he doesn't cry proves it.

Trans Zoro whose dysphoria hits harder every time he loses a fight.

Trans Zoro who overcompensates for his dysphoria by falling into the patterns of toxic masculinity he was raised with. Who tries to be the kind of man his sexist teachers would be proud of.

Trans Zoro who refuses medical treatment because he doesn't want anyone else to look at his body.

Trans Zoro who is "found out" after his fight with Mihawk.

Trans Zoro who is shocked to discover that nobody sees him as weak because he was born a woman. Who only needs to shout "I'm a man" to go back to being seen as one.

Trans Zoro who learned that men have to be strong, but is slowly learning that it's okay for them to be weak too.

Trans Zoro who is learning that he can be whatever kind of man he wants, his teachers be dammned.

[problemswithbooks]

BNHA Ch. 429

So, I guess Toga is dead, and people are losing it.

I get why people liked her--she was actually queer, being pan/bisexual. She was representation for them and that's rare in shonen manga. But here's the thing--she was bad representation at best and insulting at worst. Nor do I think she was made queer because Hori really wanted to represent a queer girl. Himiko was always the author's poorly hidden fetish--she just was. She liked girls as much as boys because Hori wanted to draw a girl touching sexually on another girl. You can see this in how he draws her and Ochako in solo pics together.

I mean, people seem to understand this when it comes to Momo and her outfit being overly sexual or that both Himiko and Hagakure's Quirks either leave them naked or they have to be naked to use them. These are excuses to draw girls in a sexual manner. Himiko being into other girls is the same thing and that's the kindest interpretation.

Given how Himiko acts and her Quirk being heavily coded sexual desire, and therefore her use of it against someone unwilling being sexual assault, it could just being playing into harmful stereotypes of predatory gays.

As a queer person myself I just found Toga insulting. She was designed to be overly sexual and give the male author a female character that he could draw being suggestive with his other female characters. When he did flesh out her character, her backstory was eventually the trope/fear of straight people, that gay people will be so overcome with their lust that they end up sexually assaulting them.

In the end Ochako accepts this part of Toga and says she'll giver her blood forever, but as much as a lot of readers took that that as some deep lesbian confession, for me it really fell flat. Hori never really gave any of the main kids time to actually learn about their villain or show how that changed their minds toward them. Shoto only works because Touya is his brother (even though he admits he barely remembers him). But Ochako goes from not thinking of Toga at all pre-first war, to one thought about her during her speech, to suddenly caring about her so much she--given how Toga's quirk is coded, is willing to essentially fulfill Toga's kink for the rest of their lives.

It's weird and it comes out of nowhere. It's made even stranger because Toga doesn't actually change or show remorse for anything she did, which included personally hunting and murdering people before she joined the LOV. None of the death and destruction she is also partially responsible for is brought up either, something that Ochako was rightfully upset about during the first war when less people and property had been destroyed. Ochako just accepts everything about her suddenly and her past serious crimes are forgotten so they can cuddle and cry.

Am I shocked Toga died--a little. I didn't think Hori would have the guts to kill off a young girl character, especially one that he clearly got a lot of joy drawing in sexy poses. But at the same time, once he killed off Shigaraki and ended Touya's story with his slow death, I'm not surprised he went the same route with Toga.

This isn't Naruto--Hori isn't really kind to characters that do something wrong, especially if they don't try and change. Enji, Bakugo, Hawks, and Aoyama all sort of got punished for what they did. Enji is the worst off, being permanently crippled, missing an arm and burned everywhere. Bakugo's hand is damaged, his heart weaker, plus he feels bad that Izuku lost his Quirk so they can't compete the same way he wanted them to. Aoyama, despite doing way less wrong and even helping his class during the forest raid, still leaves school because he doesn't feel he earned being there yet. Hawks lost his Quirk and even though him running the HPSC could be seen as good for him, Hawks always wanted a break, but now he has one of the most time consuming and stressful jobs out there.

So, if this is what characters who actively did good things and even changed and fought to be better get, what would characters who never changed and never did anything positive for anyone but their friends/themselves get?

Before the last Arc started, when so many people said the LoV were 100% going to be redeemed I had doubts and always thought it wouldn't make sense with how the story presented redemption or treated other non-LoV villains in the past. That if the main LoV did get some happy ending where they were bffs with the main cast it would clash with how other characters had been treated.

That doesn't mean that I think how Shigaraki, Toga, and Touya ended up in the manga was well done. I think their endings fit far better then a last minute redemption would have, but at the same time you can feel how rushed everything has been since the end of the first war arc. Hori was done with this story months if not years ago, yet he was contractually obligated to finish it. Because of that I think he left out as much as possible. As much as I think he's written some pretty obsessive stuff, particularly towards women, I can't really fully blame him cutting corners or the story being shit at the end.

We know Manga authors, particularly those that work with Jump are treated like shit. That they suffer incredibly long hours at times not even getting to go home for days. We've gotten messages for Hori saying he's sick quite a few times. On top of that, weekly story telling is not a great way to tell a cohesive narrative. Ideas probably change week to week or at least month to month and you can't go back and change the last chapter no matter how much you need or want to. Then you remember he also gave a lot of ideas to the people who made the movies, which would also change his plans for how he wanted the main story to go.

The story is bad--it has been for a while, but I think a lot of people put their hopes on their favorite characters getting a happy ending, even when there were signs that probably wasn't going to be the case. I know how much it sucks when a character you love gets a shitty ending (Stain was my fav, but he got an absolute dogshit ending) but at least, knowing what I know about the industry I can't really blame Hori the way I see some other people doing. Criticize it, sure, but saying Hori hates his readers or is horrible writer isn't true. BNHA was popular for a reason--he's great with characters and the beginning of the story had some great pacing. We'll never know, but I wouldn't be surprised if BNHA could have been amazing if Hori had been treated better and the story hadn't needed a chapter every week.

If anything BNHA has taught me how much a story suffers when authors/artists are treated like crap and forced to work past burnout.

[killerpancakeburger]

This whole website is like "[Male character] and feminism cannot coexist in my mind" and I'm just like. Seems like a Skill Issue.

[glitter-stained]

Oh and btw fanon =/= fanfic

[ichayalovesyou]

I want to once again thank SNW and Jess Bush for making Christine Chapel a whole complex and interesting human being and upgrading her wildly from being kinda creepy toward Spock and otherwise sidelined to being this kickass Klingon War veteran ambitious nurse whose WAY too good for the VSA with a seriously self-defeating aversion to vulnerability/intimate relationships. Like, daaaamn girl! You want a side of complicated with that nuanced?! 😂

[two-sides-samecoin]

okay i absolutely hate the thinking that some people (ronancers) have of ‘why are you not shipping this w|w ship because of steve who is a man why are you depending a man’s feelings on a w|w ship’ maybe it’s because regardless of your gender or your sexuality screwing over and betraying a friend is exactly that! it has NOTHING to do with sexuality or gender! SCREWING OVER A FRIEND IS SCREWING OVER A FRIEND REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU IDENTIFY AS!!

[garnetislovegarnetislife]

[yaoiadderall]

the feminism leaving people's bodies when they find a female character annoying

[un-pearable]

i get it. i really do. i know jay is sexist. especially in s1. but it’s so obviously an intentional choice that the writers know is a bad thing to be. they were trying to do a sokka. obviously it didn’t work but authorial intent does still matter

[armed-saphire]

me when Jacob appreciation turns into "Emma was a bitch for leaving him"

[witchqueenvisenya]

I think the people saying that daemon being violent in war or a stupid tourney and in defense of rhaenyra's honour means he's a red flag and rhaenyra should have seen it coming when he chokes her and when he further abuses her in season 2 are being really obtuse and are flattening daemon as a character just like these fucking idiot sacks who are writing the script because I hate to break it to you but daemon's violence is only seen as exceptional because he's such a famous figure in life and death. everything about him is sensationalised to the point of irrationality and it is a HUGE failure that the script seems to buy this and in fact cast it in an altogether different light. it's not as if violence and maleness walk hand in hand in asoiaf, right? right?? you all need to buy some of that complexity you stan the greens for <3

[msnihilist]

Here's my take that the Ben 10 fandom isn't ready for: "fixing" Ben's love interests by shipping them with each other doesn't make them automatically more nuanced/interesting as female characters, you just see heterosexual relationships as demeaning and lesbian relationships as inherently more pure.