#favourite fictional women poll

[balkanradfem]

No matter who wins, all of these are universally beloved and adored, and it is not easy to choose. 30% of you have already decided that all of these are winners, and I support you. For the rest of you, choose wisely and good luck to your blorbina!

[pensivespacepirate]

Im devastated over a Tumblr poll. AGAIN

[positivelyruined]

fav female character tag game 🌷🌙

let’s be honest, my friends, women always need more appreciation. every type of them. so, in this tag game, I am going to stick with that theme and share some love of my favorite female characters of all time.

Rules: Make a poll of your top four favorite characters of all time and see who is the favorite amongst your followers!

tagged by the loveliest @briarroses 💖💖💖 Thank you! Tags are so encouraging!

soft tag: @briarroses (back at ya! next four favorites) @shadowqueenjude @sonics-atelier @teddyhoneybear @kateprincessofbluewhales @praetorqueenreyna @sonics-atelier and @tamlindair

[liesmyth]

@pontipines tagged me to make a poll of [some of] my favourite fictional women! With YOUR help we can choose

tagging anyone who sees this and wants to do it!!!

[centrally-unplanned]

Saw this really cool post of a 1982 "SF" (Science fiction but in Japan that included things like anime, manga, tokusatsu, etc at the time) magazine that did a survey of active fan groups/circles at the time - ~woo, precious data! Lets see what we got:

Love to see a good gender breakdown - as is often the case in these things, while it is of course majority men the number of women participating is very strong. You do notice the age imbalance there - many women in their teens and college-aged, but it drops off quickly. I suspect that this is primarily because this survey is right in the middle of the first wave of the "pop SF boom", where more approachable works like Gundam and new manga subgenres were rapidly growing the community. So the older cadre was more heavily men, while the new group is more balanced. However, this is the early 1980's - it might just be that when a woman graduates college she was expected to marry and "settle down" still, inhibiting participation in these kinds of groups. I think it is primarily the former, Japan had pretty rapidly changed in the 1970's and female creative types were commonplace by then, but I won't pretend the latter players no role.

The writing on this page just contextualizes the piece, not much to report, though it does note that "3 people replied 'other' for gender...as a joke!" Sure, jan!

Anyway, on to page 2, what is our poll question of the day...

ロリコンについてどう思いますか? What do you think about lolicon?

....*siiiiiighs* guys I didn't, I didn't look at the second page before typing this up! I just wanted to report the gender data! This just happens to me, I swear -_-

But I can't back out now I guess:

It actually splits the question by gender - men are asked "are you a lolicon" while women are asked "what do you think of guys who are lolicon" - sexists, way to erase the female lolicon. Not actually joking there, it is a quite a thing due to its overlap with rape and dubcon fetishes - but I won't pretend I have expertise on the prevalence of that in 1982 Japan's SF community, even if it you see it today. Anyway, most men are not lolicons (the tallest line), though others fall on a spectrum from interested to "graduated", certainly a choice of words one could make.

Funnily a good dozen say they are called that by others, but not themselves - I believe that is related to the vague line between loli & shoujo aesthetics at the time. Which is important to emphasize, as I always do on this topic - sometimes the word lolicon just means "youthful" or "cute", sometimes it means like high schoolers, and sometimes it means real-deal underage stuff, and you won't know without context.

Meanwhile two women label lolicon men as "cute!", good for those two living their truth, while others are broadly tolerant but have Opinions. Which is fun, because the rest of the page is people sharing said opinions, sorted into "good" or "bad"! Some choice ones:

★ It's a symptom of modern civilization’s sick parts, but also an inevitable phenomenon. It’s better than having a rabbit or cat complex. Don’t lay hands on young girls. Lolicon must remain platonic. (♂/19/)

You see this theme a bit, "symptom of modernity", the new sexual fetishes are a product of a changing world. Certainly up for debate, but also very "in vogue" for the 80's & 90's to worry about that sort of declinist narrative. Then again, guy is a catgirl and bunnygirl hater, not sure we should listen to their shit taste.

On the flip side you get the "natural way of things" types, of which this is my favourite:

★ There’s nothing abnormal about having a dream involving an uncontrollable urge towards pre-teens. Even Romeo and Juliet would have made Romeo a lolicon given Juliet’s age (14), but people don’t think of it that way. Only at that age can girls love and respect men without ulterior motives. (♂/19/)

That last line, you are telling me so much about you with that one!! You can see how this is discourse, right? Like if one side says you are a "symptom of modernity" you ofc respond with "this is how all guys are" and with callbacks to traditional culture.

The "bad" side has a lot of ruthless condemnation, with more than one call for the lolicons to simply die or labelling them worthless scum. The magazine's writers do try to keep the tone breezy but I do think this topic being actually contentious in the community pokes through here. Though this serious one really did undercut herself a bit at the end:

★ I can understand why one person of the same gender might feel admiration or affection for a child or young girl, but for a man to only be able to love much younger women? That’s a mental illness! If they aren’t willing to fix themselves, they might as well die. They’re enemies of women. It's not going to turn out like Nabokov's Lolita. (♀/20s/)

I mean they did also kill jesus Humbert Humbert in Lolita. that was a pretty significant thing that happened. like i understand where you’re coming from here but they very much did kill the Lolita guy.

There is an editorial at the end, and it echoes something one of the comments also states; that the lolicon boom was seen as coming from "hard" SF fans, the people who did the really nerdy stuff. There is a word they use actually which is neat: 根暗/Nekura, meaning someone with a "gloomy root". It began seeing use as a slang for hyper-serious, boorish people in the late 1970's and became a fad to use in precisely 1982 - here is a live record of that! They associate "hard SF" fans with these sort of gloomy types who can't take a joke or appreciate hanging out with the buds at a bar, that kind of thing. From there, and here I am reading between the lines, these fans like a sort of "idealistically sterile" world, and lolicon as a preference (in comparison to Real Adult Women) flows naturally.

I mention this because astute readers might be going "oh, like otaku?" and that word was only just buzzing around at this time - it is typically dated to 1983. The editorial writers note that these nekura-types are nowadays proud of that fact, wearing it like an identity:

A: I’m not really sure why, I don’t fully understand the inner workings of the SF world, but it’s like, out there, hardcore SF fans are considered gloomy. Maybe that’s why there’s this connection to lolicon? B: But surprisingly, everyone’s actually pretty cheerful. In today’s world, the 'dark and gloomy tribe' is trendy. It’s like they’re enjoying calling themselves gloomy, almost as a fashion statement.

So yeah, I can totally see proto-otaku discourse going on at the edges here.

There is a third page but it continues in a similar vein. A bunch of mentions of Hideo Azuma, who I am growing increasingly convinced was more of a lodestone for the lolicon boom than is currently appreciated - he is the ur-reference everyone makes. More discussion of girls in sailor uniforms as a gateway drug, yeah yeah, "is fine as long as its fiction", of course of course, one of the magazine editors remarking he wants "a wife for practical uses but a daughter as a pet" yeah okay we can call it we're done here, no more survey data anyway.

Not the topic I expected to find, but still this is really valuable "primary source data" - you can't trust the literary class fully on these things, having first hand quotes from community members on otaku culture in the era is always valuable.

Sorry if you got tricked into reading this - in my defense I did too!

[yevrosima-the-third]

tagged by @unmitigated-garbage-fire to make a poll of my favuorite fictional women, which I'll gladly do

Tagging: @parlerenfleurs @mayfriend @metacarpus @gwenllian-in-the-abbey and whoever else wants to do it, feel free to say I tagged you

[shirleyjacksonism]

tagging @nellslions @gabriestat @creaturecannibal @lovelaceisntdead @elcctra @nsewell @whiterthanafishsthroat @brigittefitzgerald @andreacantillos @shirleyjacksons @magicoleanders @thefinalpaperheart @elizabugz @c-dollanganger @lightsinthemist @persephonesque @prairietrashdotcom @goticoamericano @waitingroomphoebebridgers @seawilde @marywshelleys @cryptidlark @childofchryses if you haven't already done this, and anyone who wants to ♡

[lilbittymonster]

Favourite Fictional Women Poll

I got tagged by @tallbluelady to do this so let's go!

Tagging @crackinglamb @nidstiniens @fantasmagoriam @snotsloth @emahriel

[glowing-blue-feathermage]

Tagged by @jazzmckay !

✨ celebrating fictional women! ✨

Rules: make a poll of your favourite female characters (no limits - as many or as little as you want) and see which your followers like the most!

Tagging @winebearcat , @sulky-valkyrie , @only-slightly-terrified , @dismalzelenka , @simper-fi , @storybookhawke

[tieflingkisser]

Tagged by: @brother-genitivi

Rules: Make a poll of your favourite female characters (no limits - as many or as little as you want) and see which your followers like the most!

Tagging: @huntinthedwellin98 @kabrukisser @gaysebastianvael @indowolfgang @waterbearable @evilponds @prophecystorm @krarka @cielleduciel

[calimera62]

I've been tagged by @flo-nelja (thank you!) to make a poll about some of my favourite fictional women.

Tagging: @saemi-the-dreamer, @pingou7, @garnetrena, @belphegor1982 and whoever wants to do it!

[prairietrashdotcom]

@shirleyjacksonism tagged me to do a poll of my favourite fictional women thank you sm 💕

tagging: @pavelkaramazov @purgefluidz @summerflesh @cannibaldotcom @junkiespride @marquisdesadie @murdermgmt @cherubgore @laceandgore @stitchedgrave @julesmckenzie @manonwitchkiller @delilahbarrd and anyone who's interested im sorry if i forgot anyone my brain's basically just a paperweight nowadays💕

[besttropeveershowdown]

The Most Annoying Trope Showdown: Round 1, Poll 10

Really Royal Reveal

This occurs when a character who was previously thought to be relatively ordinary turns out to actually be descended from someone important and powerful, and therefore have access to that status themselves. Although this trope most commonly uses royalty, it can apply to any hereditary position of power in-universe. This trope applies when the character's true heritage was previously unknown to both the audience and the character themselves.

No propaganda was submitted.

Babies Ever After

Ending trope in which to show a couple is happy, it timeskips to them with children

Propaganda:

Trope voted most likely to be approved by the leader of the Mormon church. The most banal seeping of patriarchal standards into otherwise benign media. No matter what the characters have achieved, no matter what their lives have been like, getting married and reproducing must mean they're happy and their lives are fulfilled, right? Please don't ask about their friends or careers. Extra points for when the characters in question have never expressed a fondness for children or a desire for a family, which is often.

To be fair, my main ire is when it happens to like ALl of the cast but also like. Can we not equate having babies with something you need to be happy. That's already a mindset pushed way too damn much on women irl and I don't fucking want it in my fiction. Let me at least imagine some of my faves also woudl be happy without kids.

It's twee. It's aggressively heteronormative. And it invites terrible sequels about the next generation learning the exact same lessons their parents did but less interesting.

not always the worst but it can be annoying esp on a grand scale that everyone's happy ending is only the happiest with some babies

It's cowardice. It's getting scared of your own story and running back to the safe and easy option of nuclear families. Plus as someone who always knew I didn't want to be pregnant, seeing so many stories end this way just never sat right with me, also because I'm gay and these are almost always done by pairing off characters in neat straight relationships. I'm also going to acknowledge that a lot of my favourite media is fantasy/supernatural stuff, so it feels more ridiculous when it's set in a different world

[stromuprisahat]

Tagged by @lightsinthemist - thanks- to make a poll of my ten favourite fictional women, so:

Whoever wants to continue, just tag me to look.

*née (That's gonna haunt me till the end of my days.)

[lightsinthemist]

I was tagged by @maryblackwood to make a poll of my ten favourite fictional women

Tagging @camcorderrevival @stromuprisahat @the-mad-woman-in-the-attic @raph-fangirl @doctor-punkenstein @kdreader02 if you haven't already done this, or anyone who wants to do this <3