Character Meme!

[bluemage55]

From ceciliaj, pocochina and gryfndor_godess

Name me a character! I will tell you:
* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character
* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Comments

[bluemage55]

Willow is adorable! She's got major issues (thanks absentee parents/life on the Hellmouth!) and sometimes she's really, really bad, but I can't help but want to cuddle her any time she's sad. Her selfishness might annoy me at times, but her cute geekiness and the perverted sexiness under the fluffy exterior makes me love her. So if there's one word to sum her up for me, it's moe.

My OT3 is Buffy/Willow/Xander, and I also ship her individually with both, though differently. Buffy/Willow is about how they balance each other, how Willow yearns for the importance and destiny in Buffy and how Buffy yearns for the (relative) normality and freedom from obligation in Willow. Willow/Xander is about the love and comfort between two people who have known each other forever and will always be there for each other. I also ship Willow/Tara for its pure sweetness, and I shed manly tears when Tara died. Willow/Amy is my foe yay pairing for Willow.

This might be cheating, but I also consider Xander to be Willow's non-romantic OTP. It's hard for anyone else to come close to being her platonic life partner. I guess it doesn't matter whether they get involved romantically, or just remain best friends; either way, the fact is that they're soul twins and will be together in the end, whether as lovers or not.

My unpopular opinion about Willow is that despite the "Gay now!'s", she's actually bisexual. Though she clings to being lesbian as a label and critical aspect of her identity, it's pretty clear that she's truly been in love with guys in the past (Xander, Oz), and continues to find guys attractive after developing a relationship with Tara ("Oh, come on, [Giles] is kinda sexy.", "It's a good thing I realized I was gay, otherwise, hey, you, me and formal wear...").

I wish Willow would have had a sexy moment with Buffy. It wouldn't matter if it was an alternate version or Vamp!Willow, or if it was under magically-induced circumstances, I'd just like to have seen Buffy and Willow kiss (okay fine, it would also be nice if they played with each other a little ;D).

[gryfndor_godess]

My unpopular opinion about Willow is that despite the "Gay now!'s", she's actually bisexual.

That is totally my unpopular opinion, too! In real life I would never presume to tell someone she was bi if she identified as lesbian, but as Willow is a TV character, I feel perfectly justified in rolling my eyes and/or gnashing my teeth about it. I really dislike how the writers tried to retcon her sexuality (and ignored her legitimate love for Oz and Xander) instead of exploring the equally interesting bi aspects of sexuality. And if I were bi, I'd be offended that my sexuality had been dismissed. Well, actually I'm still kind of offended.

[bluemage55]

In real life I would never presume to tell someone she was bi if she identified as lesbian.

This might be politically incorrect, but I certainly would if it was supported by the facts. I mean, if a man who has has sex with men insists that he is undeniably straight, wouldn't you at least question whether he understands the meaning of the term?

And if I were bi, I'd be offended that my sexuality had been dismissed. Well, actually I'm still kind of offended.

Indeed.

Edit: formatting

[red_satin_doll]

This might be politically incorrect, but I certainly would if it was supported by the facts.

But there are other factors here: for some women "lesbian" is a much a political identification as anything else (although I think that's more a '70's thing?). but there is also the fact that women seem to come out later in life than men - or at least according to a gay male friend of mine, most men in his experience know their orientation pretty early on, while with women it's different. I've know women who have come out in their teens, I did in my 20's, (and up to that time I honestly had been attracted to a couple of men and believed that I was going to marry a man because that's what one did. I even dated one or two) and I've known women who didn't come out until they were in their 60's and 70's. And it's not necessarily "denial" - for some women, particularly in the past, they weren't even aware that lesbianism was an option. (And since women are supposed to "relate emotionally" to one another, it's easy to write off one's feelings as "friendship". Our current cultural definition of "gay/lesbian" presumes a sexual component, which may or may not exist.

And of course there are gay men who have come out at different ages, or who have married women because that's what was expected by society, etc etc. Are they bisexual? I don't deny anyone their identification - and in fact, as a lesbian I get tired of the binary, the assumption that there's "gay" or "straight" and little in between. I see a wider range of sexual orientation - I suppose you could call a bell curve.

But what I'm trying to say (long story longer) is that having sex with someone of the opposite sex, or even being married or in a long-term relationship, is not, to me, the sole criteria of one's sexual orientation or identification. (Similarly, in the trans community a person may look like and perform for the world one gender role, but feel themselves to be the opposite gender inside. Society will go with what it sees, and nothing else matters, as long as there's a neat little label.)

that said, i agree with gryfndor_godess that an exploration of Willow's bisexuality on the show would have been fascinating, and something that I still think is much needed in our movies and tv shows today; but that was never going to happen on BtVS, unfortunately.