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royalcommunistthor · 2 days ago

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OK the capitalist clutches finally released me for the next 24hrs so

first of all. again. idk what fem coded means. every time i've had someone try to explain to me it made me want to die.

however, i think i might have an idea of why anyone would ever refer to thor as femcoded.

again, really wish we could outgrow 'feminine traits' & 'masculine traits' but sadly, it's always one step forward two steps back in this world.

pls take this with a massive dollop of salt, this is incredibly tongue-in-cheek and isn't meant to be seen as 'meta' or a correct interpretation or any such nonsense. i simply got nothing better to do with my weekend. it's fucking january innit.

thor, gender roles & subversion of gender expectations

thor is a difficult character in that way where he's expected to be hypermasculine but there's something in him that's a little off. certainly, he seems to embrace the part - he's built like brick shithouse, in a proud warrior culture he is THE WARRIOR, even among other god-like beings he's elevated as exceptionally powerful and proficient at killing. thor's arc, broadly speaking since all these characters have been done and re-done a million times over, is about learning the inherent value of life. thor will always enjoy a good fight but as he grows he no longer kills for killing's sake/vengeance/because he feels he's been slighted.

however, we also constantly get glimses that had another path ever been available to him perhaps he wouldn't have been a warrior at all. he is given the choice so rarely but when he DOES have a choice, his interests do seem to lie elsewhere.

when he thinks his banishment is permanent, he is for the first time in his life free to do what he likes and the first thing he does is prepare a meal for his friends.

(gif by @asgardodinsons)

i would go as far as to say that time and time again food/food preparation is indeed a symbol of thor's freedom. we have this character, that's so often read as the very definition of machismo, choosing to nourish those around him whenever he indeed can make choices of his own.

(gif by @sersi)

the first thing we see him do with an orphaned child is to feed her

(gif by @ sersi)

mjolnir & masculinity

now mjolnir being a symbol of manhood is hardly a new concept, it's been here from the very beginning starting with 'the hammer is my penis' jokes. but since it's 'external' it can also be revoked. and with it gone thor is...well, thor is free. in more ways than one.

as a footnote that's somewhat vaguely aligned with gender expectations i also wanted to mention that thor wears his heart on his sleeve - all his emotions always on the surface- which openly clashes with victorian & post-victorian anglo sensibilities* but i'll go into it later on.

thor and sexual violence

actually this point has already been elaborated on by @kimmsauce : link some years ago and honestly i don't have much to add.

the frequency with which thor is either exclicitly assaulted by female characters(usually through the use of magic) or threatened with sexual violence by men is STAGGERING.

and that's even without getting into the disparaging comments from friends and foes alike:

thor the pin up

comes in two flavours: sexy distress

and sexy non distress:

(eh i guess all bar one are like sexy semi distress whatever)

what i find interesting is that male characters appearing in various states of undress or having ridiculous unachievable bodies isn't exactly hard to come by, but in the vast majority of cases it's very clearly a power fantasy or wish fullfilment for the readers to insert themselves into bit like men's health but for nerds i guess.

with thor, however, it seems a little different, the gaze a little more objectifying, there's always something distinctly 'page 3 girl' about it.

conception and reception

you see, for all the trademark superhero machismo talk that thor is often dismissed into there's always been this elephant in the room. which room? the writing room, the fandom room, probably many other rooms.

the elephant being that thor is simply 'too girly' 'too pretty' not masculine enough in a way that the male reader can relate to/identify with or could use as wish fulfillment in some way.

(the above is a very fun article btw)

norse mythology scholars aside, this isn't the only instance of thor's ever fluctuating reception. and again, it's not always just the dudebros complaining. i do think it's funny that for all the talk about toxic masculinity and how it permeates 'normie fan spaces', how the endless tirades on how feminists are destroying everything make fan spaces deeply hostile to anyone who is not a cishet man, the same fans tend to have a better reception of him when he's unironically more masculine. 'soft masculinity' is welcome; thor is allowed to cook for his friends and learn from his mistakes but the second it verges into campness or *gasp* makes fun of/criticises fantasy principles of white masculinity 'mcu is ruining thor' and the pitchforks are at the ready.

there has been a lot of demand for thor to finally be given space to grieve and deal with the emotional consequences of events past. but he's allowed to do it as long as it's dignified heroic martyrdom. as long as it's pretty. whenever he's given the space to be ugly with it, for it to be messy and inconvenient, all of a sudden it's too icky.

you can absolutely tell that 'emasculation' is on the tip of everyone's tongue while reading through the discourse. diversity loss; fandom retvrnists can come in any form.

loki stans - lol where do i even begin with that one. i remember bitching to a friend (who was in fandom but not in this fandom at the time) years ago and we both pretty much went OMG THOR IS THE FEMALE CHARACTER in unison. it's so funny; the double standards- any of thor's misgivings are blown out of proportion to overshadow or erase loki's own, the skewing of the narrative and rampant misinterpreting of canon events to put loki in a better light or straight up stripping off key elements of thor's character journey and giving them to loki. if he doesn't grovel he's an abuser, if he approaches the world with an open-heart that's just genuine idiocy. he really can't win. where have i seen this before? oh yes every time i've stanned a woman and had to deal with the fanbases of a male character that happened to be the fandom darling.

(i think that trans readings of thor are very interesting too but i feel like that digresses somewhat from the 'femcoding' so maybe another day)

*) footnote for a footnote i guess. what i mean is, patriarchy and gender roles have of course existed for millenia. but the 'gender roles on steroids' we have very much inherited from the height of imperialism/industrial revolution and its direct influence on gender politics.

i wanted to thank @the-mjolnir-owner because raiding Nat's archive was ESSENTIAL and @shinysoroka because re-watching infinity war and talking shite with her last night really helped me formulate some of the talking points i've had brewing.

Sorry. I didn't mean anything bad with fem coded Thor ask.

No no don't worry, I know what you were trying to say because I think thor (and thor reception as a character) is very different to how male characters are usually portrayed in superhero type stuff but the way fandoms use fem coded really has me climbing the walls.

I'll answer your ask properly because I absolutely DO wanna talk about but I gotta go get ready for work!

#thor odinson #thor #mcu thor #marvel comics thor #thor ragnarok #thor 2011 #thor love and thunder #marvel comics #thor comics #gender roles #'fem coding'

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