Re: Reply pt. 1fearedeyepatchAugust 29 2011, 21:16:42 UTC
They look the same to me, especially when you see them both wearing things that bare their shoulders and upper arms. Maybe it's not the same but it looks it an awful lot to me. Yes, male models suffer from eating issues too, and the entire model culture is unhealthy. Honestly, acting can be such too, for men and women, but there's a double standard
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Why Warrior Women: In some ways, you answered the question yourself by pointing out how heavily represented warriors are in our society. I'm attracted to warrior women characters because warrior characters ARE so prevalent in our society, and women are so horribly, horribly underrepresented in the genre. The idea that women can be warriors is a rare one in our society, and one that's still laughed at and deemed 'unrealistic' by supposedly objective people.
Additionally, the image of women in battle is very visually attractive for me. When I see artwork or read imagery of a woman in armor, or in the middle of a battle, or firing a fully-automatic rifle, it strikes me as beautiful on a visceral level. It's not really sexual, but everything thrums when I see it. The contrast between soft lines and hard lines, between beauty and muck and blood, is a symbol of SUCH power and inner strength to me
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Re: Reply pt. 2fearedeyepatchAugust 29 2011, 18:55:51 UTC
Alright, so here's the thing about warrior and then also assassin characters: They kill. I don't like the idealization of most warrior characters for this very reason. I don't actually care that much about an assassins motivation in that they make their living killing other people. Every death of a human being is a tragedy, and most literature on warriors and assassins does not acknowledge this. I do agree there's a lot to be examined for the reasons why they kill and why they're willing to die, but how many times does that happen in a meaningful way? It does, and it can, but on general I find it very hard to find sympathy for these sorts of characters
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Re: Reply pt. 2fearedeyepatchAugust 29 2011, 21:47:40 UTC
... My favorite characters: Leonard McCoy from Star Trek. He's a doctor and does not kill, he saves people lives. He's my favorite character of all time. Simon Tam from Firefly, also a doctor. Willow from Buffy has killed once, and it just about destroyed her. Mistoffelees as I have written him has killed someone once, and it was by accident in one story out of many I have written for him, excepting perhaps Star Verse but even then he was only ever in one battle scene against something other than droids. Sonya Vlask has never killed anyone as far as I know, not even in the line of duty. I'm curious what of my fanfiction you've actually been reading if you think all my characters kill. My favorites tend to be the doctors, the scientists, the actors, and such. Yes, there are plenty of warriors within my fiction, but they tend to be either guilt wracked or not the main focus. Macavity is a rather large exception to this for a few different reasons, but in many verses I've written even he does not kill. Many of my favorite novels are
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I’m going to weigh in with my two cents on the idea of “Warrior women” especially in literature. The problem I find with the idea of warrior women is that at its heart it says that women have to fulfill the same roles as men to be strong and effective in a given story. It doesn’t click in my head. I’ve always been of the belief that women don't have to parallel what is popular for male characters in order to be effective, popular, and strong in a given story/culture. Men and Women are designed differently, and have complementary strengths as well as some parallel ones. There isn’t any defined “place” for women or men, but they’re not the same thing. Everyone is unique and has unique strengths, but a woman doesn’t have to be a warrior or even act without masculine influence in order to be strong and empowered
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There are so many examples throughout literature where you find strong and powerful women who are often strong within the bounds of their culture and time period. Of course there are many times you don't find this, but the number is somewhat astounding considering how often one hears about how sexist the past was.
Victor Hugo has some amazing female characters, and Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice is a great example of a woman from her time period who stood up within her boundaries for herself.
What's always bothered me is you're right, different generations have different ideas, but historical fiction and the like tends to use the current standards on all characters.
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Additionally, the image of women in battle is very visually attractive for me. When I see artwork or read imagery of a woman in armor, or in the middle of a battle, or firing a fully-automatic rifle, it strikes me as beautiful on a visceral level. It's not really sexual, but everything thrums when I see it. The contrast between soft lines and hard lines, between beauty and muck and blood, is a symbol of SUCH power and inner strength to me ( ... )
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Victor Hugo has some amazing female characters, and Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice is a great example of a woman from her time period who stood up within her boundaries for herself.
What's always bothered me is you're right, different generations have different ideas, but historical fiction and the like tends to use the current standards on all characters.
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