#fandom sexism

[ferocioustrout]

(person who physically cannot care about a character unless theyre hot and can be shipped yaoi style voice) no you don’t understand it’s not that I don’t like women it’s just that all of them in every piece of media are horribly written mary sues who are evil and bad. not my epic male blorbo who I ship with some guy he interacted with once and has every superpower, committed war crimes, and had 3 lines though. he’s awesome and well written and if you really think about it he’s the best character in the series

[theflashjaygarrick]

After thinking about the comic fandom's prioritisation of white male characters I feel like it's a self fulfilling cycle.

Mainstream discourse around superhero comics is all about how white male centric the genre is. The general consensus in fandom is that women don't like female characters because they are badly written and 2-dimensional in most nerd franchises.

And if you go in with that mindset you'll fairly assume that the characters who have the best runs and most interesting stories are the white men. And if you look at fandom spaces and people are waxing poetic about characters like Jason Todd and Tim Drake and acknowledging that characters like Babs, Steph and Cass exist this only will reinforce this perception. So the person getting into batfam go and ask for the best stories about the Batboys or read summaries about their arcs, only seeing these women as background characters in male characters stories.

But the thing is that isn't strictly. I mean I 100% agree that comics are sexist and racist but that doesn't mean that there aren't phenomenal and iconic runs starring and entering female characters (including queer women, disabled women, and WOC). Cassandra Cain and Kate Kane probably have two of the best character bibles out of the entire batfamily in the form of Batgirl 2000 and Batwoman: Elegy. Selina and Babs both have more well received story lines/runs than Jason Todd does.

Great stories with nuanced female characters exist but the assumption they don't means that people don't look for them. So instead they draw upon stories with the Batboys (minus Luke Fox, JPV and often Duke) in their fan art and fan fiction and discussions and accidentally obscure the stories of female characters in the batman mythos even more.

And the cycle continues.

[venux777]

‘annabeth chase bashing’ ‘matchmaker piper mclean’ ‘cinnamon roll hazel levesque’

[divorce-quartet-memes]

pov i'm trying to read mcyt fanfiction

[rey-jake-therapist]

People say they want more flawed female characters but they can't even handle TROP Galadriel.

If it had been a male character who had behaved like Galadriel did in season 1, rude and bossy, people would call him "broody" and "tormented". He would be everyone's favorite "baby girl".

But Galadriel gets to be called a b*tch.

[justanisabelakinnie]

"We need more strong, fleshed out, well-developed female characters of color!" you bitches couldn't even handle the Madrigal women.

[violet-moonstone]

If I had a nickel for every time I was in a fandom in which a woman of colour was either disliked or dismissed for having a crush on or being romantically involved with a someone who is shipped with another (white) character—I would have way more than two nickels, and it’s ridiculous that this keeps happening.

[q--uee--n]

It doesn't quite sit well with me when parts of the fandom act as though they don't understand why, exactly, people become so hyper-defensive/are so hyper-sensitive when people bring up Mel being manipulative. It's because this trait has been weaponized to demean and disparage her at the expense of acknowledging any other nuance/facet about her character, and this also often goes hand-in-hand with ignoring the faults of other characters as to emphasize hers. The fact that Mel is a Black woman can not be put aside as a definitive factor as to why and how she's perceived the way she is—by both the fandom and the writers of the show. I would even argue that one of the show's original sins is a lack of understanding of the real-world intersections between race, class, and colonialism.

In regards to both Mel and Ambessa, this lack of understanding is evident in the writing. Writing that ignores the real-world implications of the Medardas and their social position relative to whiteness, which is one informed by socioeconomic and sociocultural disparities as a result of racism and misogyny. Yes, I understand it's a high fantasy show where things like racism don't exist, so to speak, but Arcane, like all media, is informed by the state of affairs of the world we live in. With classism—classism, which Black people are disproportionately victims of—being a core theme of the show (ostensibly), it's disingenuous to disregard the, from a Doylist perspective, haphazard nature of Mel's function in the narrative as a wealthy Black woman in a classist society juxtaposed against poor, oppressed white main characters (this also applies to Ambessa as a warmonger).

With that said, and harkening back to the beginning of this post, even if you're not bringing attention to Mel's flaws and complexities to demonize her, you have to acknowledge them in the context of her as a Black female character being written with little understanding of intersectionality and how they've been weaponized against her, which are the reasons people—specifically Black woman fans such as myself—are compelled to defend her (or even pretend these flaws don't exist. After all, it's never been a problem in fandom when non-black and male characters' flaws are erased/diminished. It can't suddenly become one now). It's easy to say Mel is a multi-faceted, three-dimensional character, thus, that's why downplaying her flaws is a disservice to her charcter, and this isn't an unreasonable point. However, it's harder to admit that the reason people point out these flaws is not always in the service of acknowledging her complexities but instead in the service of demonizing her due to internalized/unknown biases against Black women. In the end, no one has to like a character. No one even has to defend a character they don't like on principle. No one has to not be annoyed at the sanitization of a multidimensional character. But if those things are being done without an acknowledgement of how the perception of that character is mired by racism and misogyny—knowing or unknowing, from the writers on down—then maybe it's time to address some oversights or unpack some internalized biases before wondering why people feel the need to defend that character.

[silvermoon424]

Can we all please start using the phrase "fandom husbandry" from now on, thanks

[sarafangirlart]

I can only name 3 instances of this and the character getting sidelined in all of them is black (gee wonder why…)

[yourhighness6]

It's funny to me when people insist that "ATLA was really feminist" as if there wasn't really only one feminist message which was the very generic "girls can fight too" spiel that every 2000s show had going on whenever they briefly tried to jump on the feminism bandwagon or whatever

[kittydoremi]

Still crazy to me how people blame the "tarnishing of the Sonic franchise" and all of 06's flaws on Princess Elise. Really?

The character who did nothing wrong. Who went through alot of grief and trauma. is selfless and kind. Who has a character arc shown throughout the story and had a sweet bond with Sonic. She gets the blame for all of 06's flaws and the downfall of Sonic dogpiled onto her.

At most you could say her role in 06's story could've been handled better. But to use her as a scapegoat for all of 06's flaws and the sole reason for the downfall of the franchise is ridiculous.

Tbh alot of Princess Elise hate from the Sonic fandom seems to be driven by sexism imo, with people saying she's useless and blaming her for being kidnapped, calling her a selfish bitch, and calling her a zoophile and necrophiliac for a fairytale kiss :/

[elenorasweet]

Fanfic about "The Batfamily" that leaves out Cass, who has been legally Bruce's daughter longer than Damian has existed: oops i forgot i guess i just don't know much about her

Drawing of "The Robins" that doesn't include Stephanie, who WAS a Robin: lol okay but you don't count as a Robin if you didn't spend long enough in the role obviously

Fanart featuring "90s Young Justice" that leaves out Cassie, Greta or Cissie: yeah but like they were never as close as the others plus they're boring to me

I fucking see you and I see what all of these things have in common.

[azurecanary]

The people on Reddit need to shut the fuck up about K Tanaka actually

[foulfirerebel]

Had a whole rant planned about Gravity Falls and the fandom having horrible double standards, but wanted to express it in brief. So here goes.

"We want more women and girl characters who make mistakes!"

You guys couldn't even handle Mabel Pines.

[ferocioustrout]

THIS POST IS NOT FOR TERFS. TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN. WHEN I TALK ABOUT WOMENS ISSUES I AM TALKING ABOUT ALL WOMEN.

male character in fandom: is a grown man with a fully formed brain, abusive, committed mass murder, kicks puppies, violently racist, etc

fandom: guys don’t be mean to him it’s because of his trauma! he’s actually a really interesting and nuanced character if you think about it and— (90 paragraph essay on how much they love him)

female character in fandom: is a teenage girl, makes mistakes, is slightly rude sometimes, acts like a realistic portrayal of someone with trauma

fandom: ohhh she’s such a bitch I actually hope she dies. I’m going to write her as a disgusting person who abuses everyone around her so my male blorbo can have a sadboi moment and completely ignore everything else about her!!! misogyny? what are you talking about lol?