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necessarian) wrote2018-01-01 06:49 pm
necessarian) wrote2018-01-01 06:49 pm
Entry tags:
[Archiving] On Female Characters
Originally posted: 21.8.'15
let’s talk about female characters. i’ve been in and around fandom for about ten years now, and so as a bit of a fandom elder i feel like it’s my responsibility to talk about issues like this. i’ve seen the way fandom treats female characters grow and mature, i’ve lived through the age of the shameless self insert, the reaction against the idealised “mary sue,” and the reaction against that, where fandom began to wonder, why can’t we have “overpowered” female characters? i’ve lived through the Strong Female Character, who needs to hide her emotions if she wants to be relevant, and i’ve lived to see that definition change, to encompass all types of strength, and to acknowledge that we don’t need to write our girls as strong for them to be valid. but there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in all ten years: the inevitable trend of fandom to tread all over female characters who “get in the way” of their m/m slash ships.
here’s the thing: it’s all very well and good to call yourself a feminist, but an integral part of being a female feminist is unlearning your own internalised misogyny and acknowledging the instinct to put down other women. yes, even fictional ones. if i go back through all the fic i’ve ever written, it’s not perfect. in my m/m fics where one or both characters had established canon female love interests, i’d never straight up ignore the female character’s role & impact, but my methods of writing her out of the picture were often dubious, and a lot of my female OCs were a bit… hmm. it’s a process of self-examination we all have to go through, and should only make us stronger, as authors and as people.
there’s another issue that at first may seem only superficially linked to this. i’m sure you’ve all heard people say something along the lines of, “why can’t a woman and a man just be friends?” this is a very good question, but it’s also something i’ve seen quite commonly used to dismiss m/f ships that people don’t like. i’ve had a lot of personal experience in several past fandoms with this. it doesn’t even being to scratch the surface of fandom and, in a broader sense, media’s problem with diversity, but the way people throw these ships by the wayside is, in the long run, trashing the female character. because there’s always another ship, another m/m ship that’ll be there, and there are always fans who’re going to ignore the woman’s role in the story but write it off as something progressive. you are not a feminist for shipping an m/m ship. this has been discussed better by others–the fact that shipping something non-heterosexual does not give you a free pass to call yourself an activist–so i won’t get into it here.
the thing is, this ties back into what i briefly mentioned above, about the idea of the “strong” female character. there’s this unrealistic standard that as soon as a female character in some canon experiences romantic feelings for a man, she’s no longer as “strong” a character. sure, in some particularly poor media this may be the case, that there’s a female character who’s plot is structured solely around her feelings for a male character, who never passes the bechdel test, who is no more than a flat love interest. but i’ve watched fandom turn on female characters with a lot of well-written, individual character development. the moment they experience feelings for a male character, they are somehow invalid. why is this? does it negate their strength?
look, we know that media has a problem with diversity, and that most of the canon we consume is aggressively heterosexual. but that’s what fandom is for–fandom is transformative, and we as authors have the power to change the landscape of a canon that we engage with. we have the power to create our own diverse media out of something that isn’t diverse. but feminism goes hand-in-hand with intersectionality, and you cannot have diversity at the expense of respect for female characters. you simply cannot. the other thing about fandom is that by definition, although sometimes unfortunately, we work with the media we’re presented with. we can change canon as much as we like, but when we are presented with female characters, even just a few, it is our responsibility to treat them with the utmost respect. and, yes, this especially means we cannot ignore female characters when we think they might “get in the way” of an m/m ship. if she has a romantic plot, then that is hers, and if she is well-written and multifaceted, not a caricature of what some crusty old dude thinks a woman is, then we must respect that. i’m not saying we should stop writing m/m ships–canon and your headcanon can exist side-by-side; there’s no need to step all over one in order to achieve the other, especially not when it means stepping all over a female character.
(you might also want to consider writing more f/f ships. just a hint. fandom’s complete negligence in practicing what it preaches when it comes to f/f ships is another essay entirely, so i’ll just leave this point here for now.)
so to finish, let’s say it one more time: acknowledging a female character’s canon romance with a male character does not negate the need for more diverse media, but in fandom, while there’s still a huge m/m bias in most circles, there needs to be a better culture of respect for female characters. because guess what? disrespecting a female character in your fic is not “exploring something safely in the medium of fiction,” it’s just misogynist. and young readers, who don’t know better, who haven’t seen fandom’s attitudes to female characters develop, will be influenced by your attitudes. heck, even more seasoned readers might be influenced by it. the point is, harmful and disrespectful attitudes to women are about more than just what happens in your fic. respecting fictional women is just as important as respecting real ones, in my book. there are real, dangerous consequences, and as a society, as the broader macrocosm of fandom culture, we’ve always called ourselves “progressive.” i will not allow us to lay claim to that word until we fix our attitude towards female characters, and i encourage you to join me in this. as a culture, let’s change this.
here’s the thing: it’s all very well and good to call yourself a feminist, but an integral part of being a female feminist is unlearning your own internalised misogyny and acknowledging the instinct to put down other women. yes, even fictional ones. if i go back through all the fic i’ve ever written, it’s not perfect. in my m/m fics where one or both characters had established canon female love interests, i’d never straight up ignore the female character’s role & impact, but my methods of writing her out of the picture were often dubious, and a lot of my female OCs were a bit… hmm. it’s a process of self-examination we all have to go through, and should only make us stronger, as authors and as people.
there’s another issue that at first may seem only superficially linked to this. i’m sure you’ve all heard people say something along the lines of, “why can’t a woman and a man just be friends?” this is a very good question, but it’s also something i’ve seen quite commonly used to dismiss m/f ships that people don’t like. i’ve had a lot of personal experience in several past fandoms with this. it doesn’t even being to scratch the surface of fandom and, in a broader sense, media’s problem with diversity, but the way people throw these ships by the wayside is, in the long run, trashing the female character. because there’s always another ship, another m/m ship that’ll be there, and there are always fans who’re going to ignore the woman’s role in the story but write it off as something progressive. you are not a feminist for shipping an m/m ship. this has been discussed better by others–the fact that shipping something non-heterosexual does not give you a free pass to call yourself an activist–so i won’t get into it here.
the thing is, this ties back into what i briefly mentioned above, about the idea of the “strong” female character. there’s this unrealistic standard that as soon as a female character in some canon experiences romantic feelings for a man, she’s no longer as “strong” a character. sure, in some particularly poor media this may be the case, that there’s a female character who’s plot is structured solely around her feelings for a male character, who never passes the bechdel test, who is no more than a flat love interest. but i’ve watched fandom turn on female characters with a lot of well-written, individual character development. the moment they experience feelings for a male character, they are somehow invalid. why is this? does it negate their strength?
look, we know that media has a problem with diversity, and that most of the canon we consume is aggressively heterosexual. but that’s what fandom is for–fandom is transformative, and we as authors have the power to change the landscape of a canon that we engage with. we have the power to create our own diverse media out of something that isn’t diverse. but feminism goes hand-in-hand with intersectionality, and you cannot have diversity at the expense of respect for female characters. you simply cannot. the other thing about fandom is that by definition, although sometimes unfortunately, we work with the media we’re presented with. we can change canon as much as we like, but when we are presented with female characters, even just a few, it is our responsibility to treat them with the utmost respect. and, yes, this especially means we cannot ignore female characters when we think they might “get in the way” of an m/m ship. if she has a romantic plot, then that is hers, and if she is well-written and multifaceted, not a caricature of what some crusty old dude thinks a woman is, then we must respect that. i’m not saying we should stop writing m/m ships–canon and your headcanon can exist side-by-side; there’s no need to step all over one in order to achieve the other, especially not when it means stepping all over a female character.
(you might also want to consider writing more f/f ships. just a hint. fandom’s complete negligence in practicing what it preaches when it comes to f/f ships is another essay entirely, so i’ll just leave this point here for now.)
so to finish, let’s say it one more time: acknowledging a female character’s canon romance with a male character does not negate the need for more diverse media, but in fandom, while there’s still a huge m/m bias in most circles, there needs to be a better culture of respect for female characters. because guess what? disrespecting a female character in your fic is not “exploring something safely in the medium of fiction,” it’s just misogynist. and young readers, who don’t know better, who haven’t seen fandom’s attitudes to female characters develop, will be influenced by your attitudes. heck, even more seasoned readers might be influenced by it. the point is, harmful and disrespectful attitudes to women are about more than just what happens in your fic. respecting fictional women is just as important as respecting real ones, in my book. there are real, dangerous consequences, and as a society, as the broader macrocosm of fandom culture, we’ve always called ourselves “progressive.” i will not allow us to lay claim to that word until we fix our attitude towards female characters, and i encourage you to join me in this. as a culture, let’s change this.