#corpo!npval by glory my beloved

[wanderingaldecaldo]

Two Vals, Two Years of Fem V Friday

107 weeks ago, which is just over two years, I made the first Fem V Friday post. I didn't expect it to take off. As a fic smut writer in rarepair hell, I ran a tiny blog. I had barely started taking VP, if you could call it that. I've talked before about bootcamping my MacBook Pro; I did unspeakable things to that poor machine.

I'm """old""". I know I'm older than some of your parents, a fact which inflicts serious psychic anguish at times. I didn't grow up with women as playable characters in video games, or with women as video game characters at all, really. I never got into Lara Croft because I believed she was created for the male gaze, something I could never get past, though I absolutely understand why so many women love her! A woman as the playable hero of the story! At last, someone on the screen who looks like me! Kinda! (Side note: I recently learned from a huge Lara fan that the creator was unhappy with how she became sexualized, and that makes me feel better. Maybe I'll finally give it a try.)

It wasn't until Bioware that I finally got to play the badass women of young Wash's dreams. Given the option, I haven't played a male character since. This past Pride I wrote about my complicated relationship with gender, and having the ability to play as a female character — especially ones that allowed me to express my butch side — is key to my journey.

107 weeks ago, the week that Masc v Monday began, I made a comment or tagged something about being sad there wasn't such a thing for fem Vs. At the time, my dash was full of masc Vs because of who I followed: people who posted male OCs. I was still new to tumblr and hadn't met all of my friends whose Vs wives you see me regularly reblog. So many of the fem Vs who crossed my dash looked like more of the same sexualized characters created for the male gaze. I wanted the ones out there who looked like my own Val; fem Vs who looked like real women.

That following Friday, August 12, I started the tag at someone else's suggestion. I thanked him genuinely for it whenever he commented on the post or reblogged it or however the interaction occurred.

107 weeks ago, I posted Val, and many people responded. Many people reblogged and added on their fem Vs, while others posted separately. I was overwhelmed. I never expected the response I received.

107 weeks later, I still love Fridays. I love seeing all of your fem Vs in all shapes and forms, because I will never get over seeing this representation. I will never tire of seeing all the different female characters that people make.

This is why I made the first Fem V Friday post. I love Fridays, y'all.