Meme! One Question

[dunmurderin]

Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general.

Just one question, please, but it can (and perhaps should) have sub-parts.

Question can be as wacky as you want. Ask me about tv shows, characters, fanfic in general, fandom issues/meta, anything about any of my stories specifically. Whatever you want.

Fandoms I'm involved in/interested in are: Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe, Jem and the Holograms, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds, Human Target, Bioshock, Mass Effect, etc.

Comments

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Why do you think female fans tend to react as negatively as they do to female characters?

Ohhh this is blathery...part 1

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Ok Disclaimer Time: there will be generalizations below and since I'm talking from the perspective of a white, cis-gendered woman from the United States those generalizations will have big, semi-truck sized gaps in them. Please, bear with me 'cause this is gonna get rambly and convoluted.

I've been pondering this ever since this afternoon, except for the hour and fifty-seven minutes when I was watching the A-Team and having a nostalgia-gasm. My gut reaction is that part of the reason is that female fans are more likely to hold female characters (FCs) to a higher standard because we've been...conditioned? Taught? Led to believe? that women can't be heroes/fighters/warriors/etc. We've been taught that women are victims, that women have to be protected and be careful and that we can't go out and kick ass and take names.

I remember at seventeen trying to explain to one of my aunts why I loved the character of Hazel in "A Cat Who Walks Through Walls" -- my explanation included the fact that Hazel fought back against people. She carried a rat trap in her purse and wasn't afraid to threaten to torture/beat the crap out of an enemy if the need arose. My aunt wasn't very impressed with this reasoning in part because she's a bit of a pacifist but also because I wasn't making my point clear -- it wasn't so much that Hazel *was* violent, it was more that Hazel *could* be violent, that she could fight back against a man and be taken seriously as a threat. Outside of GI Joe, I wasn't used to seeing women as fighters. Female characters in most of the shows I watched were victims -- they were the ones hiring the A-Team or Magnum, P.I. or Simon and Simon, etc to help them save their family farm or find out who was trying to kill them or otherwise save the day. Even in Remmington Steele, where Laura Holt was a brilliant detective, she had to create a fictional man to be taken seriously -- and had to keep Pierce Brosnan's character around to play the role to preserve the lie. Hell, originally? The show was supposed to be about Laura hiding her fake boss but the network didn't think the show would work without a male lead. Yeah.

I'm trying to think of a show with female characters in a lead role in my childhood and I'm drawing a blank -- except for Rainbow Bright, My Little Pony (who apparently fought Satan himself so, yeah screw you GI Joe, you protect the world from terrorists and leave the BIG BAD to the Ponies) and Strawberry Shortcake. Oh! And Jem and the Holograms. Now, there's a show that passes the Bechdel test with flying colors -- Jerrica Benton runs Starlight Music, performs with the band, helps raise 12 foster daughters and has time to manage two identities. Awesome? Hell yes, but I didn't realize it until I was older because at the time I was watching and enjoying the show but characterizing it as 'girly' and therefore lacking (I was a sexist little brat at 13...).

Ohhh this is blathery...part 2

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

And I think *that's* a big part of why female fans give female characters a harder time than male characters -- we're led to believe that 'girly' = bad and 'manly' or 'boyish' = kick ass. Women do stupid, weak things like cry and get upset and you can't be a kick ass action hero if you cry, right? Or wear dresses, like, y'know, by choice and/or preference. Or know how to cook -- god, can we please, please PLEASE declare a moratorium on female characters who show off how 'strong' they are by being utterly helpless in a kitchen? Oh and you can't wear makeup AND know how to shoot a gun because the female brain can't store both types of information.

Of course, that gets into the screwed up ideas about what makes a person strong. I love the character of Garcia on Criminal Minds because she's a very smart woman who is very good at what she does (think Abby from NCIS only focusing on computers rather than forensics in general) but who loathes violence. She had a scene in a recent episode where she ran *to* a shooting victim and stayed with him because she'd been shot once and she didn't want the victim to be alone if he died. Considering that she didn't know where the shooter was and that she didn't have a gun or a phone with her? That was pretty damned brave.

Maybe another part of it is that fandom as we know it -- specifically the fanfic writing branch of media fandom -- grew out of male-dominated shows. Starsky and Hutch, Star Trek, Man from UNCLE, etc. Fandom was trained to look to the male characters who were always around and not to female characters who may have been in supporting roles or had only a brief role meant to further the plot?

Ohhh this is blathery...part 3 (links)

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

I was looking on metafandom to see if I could find any links to other folks talking about this and I found a few:

Some Links:

http://community.livejournal.com/fanficrants/7368324.html?format=light -- Being strong women =/= hating our vaginas

http://green-maia.livejournal.com/251588.html?format=light -- Feminism and Complex Female Characters

http://ladylunas.livejournal.com/7799.html?format=light -- Women, Fandom, and Female Characters

http://misscam.livejournal.com/363839.html?format=light -- On female character and fandom - with woes, icon maker wanted, flu worries and no to naked hiking

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

Are there people writing TMNT porn? (And which go-round of TMNT are you into?)

DV

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Well, I found a turtle slash community on LJ -- http://community.livejournal.com/turtleslash/ and I'm afraid to check Rule 34's site.

As for TMNT, I liked the original comics a lot and the first movie was cool; never saw much of the original cartoon series but I liked the 2007 movie a lot -- particularly the scene where Don is working tech support 'cause I've HAD those kind of calls!