Genderbends and Nyotalia
[This post was inspired by the post regarding all of the Seychelles hate and some of the discussion that went on in there about Nyotalia/genderbends of the characters.]
First and foremost, let’s get my opinion on the character genderbends out of the way: I don’t like them. It’s not even a matter of liking some more than others, or the male genderbends over the female genderbends. I just flat out do not care for the Nyotalia storyline (such as there is one) or its characters.
Obviously, this is an unpopular opinion in fandom. I can even understand why. A part of me wants to be absolutely delighted that there are more female characters to work with within the Nyotalia universe because, well, female characters are awesome.
But I can’t.
There are a few reasons for this, of course.
First and foremost, there are very little differences between the genderbends and their canon counterparts. Sure, we have been told that there are some differences between the genderbends and normal canon, but when you look at what is portrayed in fandom not many people incorporate those differences. Instead, what you get is male!England, with all of his likes, dislikes, and personality traits, in a female body.
Which, you know, could work. Except that’s just a sex swap. Mentally, the fem!England portrayed in fanworks is just male!England. She doesn’t reflect the way women are treated in society, she doesn’t have any real traits that are uniquely her, and in the end she’s just another way for fandom to focus on the same male characters while dragging in fans eager to see more female characters.
This leads me to my second complaint about the genderbends. I dislike seeing the same male characters get even more attention just because they have female parts when there are perfectly fine canon female characters who are under appreciated as it is. I dislike seeing awesome canon female characters get turned into male characters and then receive more attention as males.
Seriously, what’s wrong with the female characters we already have in canon? In fanworks they are portrayed no differently than their male genderbends, so why not focus on them as they are in canon rather than turn them into males? It bothers me to see the precious few female characters we have in canon erased like that and to see them preferred as males, as though that somehow makes them better.
Of course, that isn’t to say there aren’t problems with turning the male characters female.
I understand that slash is the predominate pairing preference in fan works and that het is scarce. Yet I find it problematic when fans turn one person in a slash pairing into a female, as though they are bothered by the slash pairing. I get wanting to explore the dynamic of those two characters where one of them is a female, but if all you are changing is the physical equipment of one of the characters you might as well not even have bothered.
That isn’t to say there aren’t fans who switch the genders of both characters in a slash pairing. I’ve seen plenty of fem!Sweden and fem!Finland works-well, plenty as in a handful-floating around the fandom and, well, perhaps here is where I find myself being torn on the issue of genderbends. Because, when it comes down to it, femslash works are even harder to find than het in this fandom and anything that allows more femslash seems like a good thing.
But then I come back to the fact that few fans seem to change the female genderbends from their male counterparts in terms of their personality, and how this is still feels like we’re writing about male characters and I start to get annoyed again.
The concept of Hetalia genderbends is interesting enough in small doses. I will admit that I like the character designs, think they’re cute, and don’t mind looking at fan art of them every now and then (male and female genderbends both).
But when I have to sort through pages upon pages of Fem!Prussia just to find a picture of Male!Prussia, I start to get annoyed. The same happens when I go to look for Belarus pictures, though on a smaller scale. I fell in love with Hetalia for the canon characters. These AUs of the series are fun to consider in a ‘what if’ sort of thought, but after a point it starts to get frustrating when I see those AUs everywhere.
I’m all for people liking what they like, don’t get me wrong. And I’m not saying that you can’t like Nyotalia (especially since there are times I want to like it, too).
But I do think a good point was raised in the last post, a point about how there are times it feels like the genderbends are shoved down your throat. There are some days it feels as though I’m going through the fandom, minding my own business, and then all of a sudden there is genderbend fan works coming in from all directions when all I want is to read/focus on the canon-based fan works.
Which, all right, fair enough. I’ll acknowledge that me wanting to see only canon-based fan works is likely an entitled viewpoint and I’ll own up to that.
However, just as people are allowed to rant or vent about how they are sick of seeing “XY paired together,” I feel that people like me who are tired of seeing Nyotalia are allowed to vent, too. But when we do vent or make comments about not liking Nyotalia and the genderbends, there are always those fans who throw out unfounded accusations about us or make unnecessarily harsh judgments simply because of a difference of opinion.
I will acknowledge that there are quite a few fans that hate Nyotalia just because it gets in the way of their slash pairings somehow or because they dislike female characters all across the board. That sort of viewpoint is a problematic one that should be called out. Yet I think at some point a dislike of Nyotalia becomes brushed aside as misogyny when there are legitimate reasons for that dislike.
And it’s at that point, I think, that the feeling of having it shoved down our throats comes in. Because when you can’t even dislike something just because that something happens to pertains to female character without getting cries of misogyny, well…
That’s when I think there starts to exist a problem.
First and foremost, let’s get my opinion on the character genderbends out of the way: I don’t like them. It’s not even a matter of liking some more than others, or the male genderbends over the female genderbends. I just flat out do not care for the Nyotalia storyline (such as there is one) or its characters.
Obviously, this is an unpopular opinion in fandom. I can even understand why. A part of me wants to be absolutely delighted that there are more female characters to work with within the Nyotalia universe because, well, female characters are awesome.
But I can’t.
There are a few reasons for this, of course.
First and foremost, there are very little differences between the genderbends and their canon counterparts. Sure, we have been told that there are some differences between the genderbends and normal canon, but when you look at what is portrayed in fandom not many people incorporate those differences. Instead, what you get is male!England, with all of his likes, dislikes, and personality traits, in a female body.
Which, you know, could work. Except that’s just a sex swap. Mentally, the fem!England portrayed in fanworks is just male!England. She doesn’t reflect the way women are treated in society, she doesn’t have any real traits that are uniquely her, and in the end she’s just another way for fandom to focus on the same male characters while dragging in fans eager to see more female characters.
This leads me to my second complaint about the genderbends. I dislike seeing the same male characters get even more attention just because they have female parts when there are perfectly fine canon female characters who are under appreciated as it is. I dislike seeing awesome canon female characters get turned into male characters and then receive more attention as males.
Seriously, what’s wrong with the female characters we already have in canon? In fanworks they are portrayed no differently than their male genderbends, so why not focus on them as they are in canon rather than turn them into males? It bothers me to see the precious few female characters we have in canon erased like that and to see them preferred as males, as though that somehow makes them better.
Of course, that isn’t to say there aren’t problems with turning the male characters female.
I understand that slash is the predominate pairing preference in fan works and that het is scarce. Yet I find it problematic when fans turn one person in a slash pairing into a female, as though they are bothered by the slash pairing. I get wanting to explore the dynamic of those two characters where one of them is a female, but if all you are changing is the physical equipment of one of the characters you might as well not even have bothered.
That isn’t to say there aren’t fans who switch the genders of both characters in a slash pairing. I’ve seen plenty of fem!Sweden and fem!Finland works-well, plenty as in a handful-floating around the fandom and, well, perhaps here is where I find myself being torn on the issue of genderbends. Because, when it comes down to it, femslash works are even harder to find than het in this fandom and anything that allows more femslash seems like a good thing.
But then I come back to the fact that few fans seem to change the female genderbends from their male counterparts in terms of their personality, and how this is still feels like we’re writing about male characters and I start to get annoyed again.
The concept of Hetalia genderbends is interesting enough in small doses. I will admit that I like the character designs, think they’re cute, and don’t mind looking at fan art of them every now and then (male and female genderbends both).
But when I have to sort through pages upon pages of Fem!Prussia just to find a picture of Male!Prussia, I start to get annoyed. The same happens when I go to look for Belarus pictures, though on a smaller scale. I fell in love with Hetalia for the canon characters. These AUs of the series are fun to consider in a ‘what if’ sort of thought, but after a point it starts to get frustrating when I see those AUs everywhere.
I’m all for people liking what they like, don’t get me wrong. And I’m not saying that you can’t like Nyotalia (especially since there are times I want to like it, too).
But I do think a good point was raised in the last post, a point about how there are times it feels like the genderbends are shoved down your throat. There are some days it feels as though I’m going through the fandom, minding my own business, and then all of a sudden there is genderbend fan works coming in from all directions when all I want is to read/focus on the canon-based fan works.
Which, all right, fair enough. I’ll acknowledge that me wanting to see only canon-based fan works is likely an entitled viewpoint and I’ll own up to that.
However, just as people are allowed to rant or vent about how they are sick of seeing “XY paired together,” I feel that people like me who are tired of seeing Nyotalia are allowed to vent, too. But when we do vent or make comments about not liking Nyotalia and the genderbends, there are always those fans who throw out unfounded accusations about us or make unnecessarily harsh judgments simply because of a difference of opinion.
I will acknowledge that there are quite a few fans that hate Nyotalia just because it gets in the way of their slash pairings somehow or because they dislike female characters all across the board. That sort of viewpoint is a problematic one that should be called out. Yet I think at some point a dislike of Nyotalia becomes brushed aside as misogyny when there are legitimate reasons for that dislike.
And it’s at that point, I think, that the feeling of having it shoved down our throats comes in. Because when you can’t even dislike something just because that something happens to pertains to female character without getting cries of misogyny, well…
That’s when I think there starts to exist a problem.