Gee, I'd love women if they didn't all suck!
Hi! This is a canned response. If I linked you back here instead of responding to you, I want to assure you that this is not about you! You totally have the right to a new and exciting response from me! You deserve it, you are worth it! The fact that I have heard something just like what you said a thousand times before and am completely over it doesn't mean I have the right to take it out on you, especially since you clearly think it is new and fresh and specific to your situation. I'm sorry about that. I hate to burst your bubble and rain upon your parade at the same time. It isn't about you, it's me! Besides, if you make me, I'll probably just say pretty much this exact thing anyway.
"I love female characters, really, seriously, I totally do! There just aren't any in my fandom worth writing about, you know?"
First off: yes, you have a point! It's more likely than not that, no matter what movie or TV show or book you're talking about, there's a male slant to the writing-- regardless of the gender of the actual writers, there is a tendency to think that the audience is male, since the nature of the patriarchy is that white straight young male = neutral and everything else is biased, so they write for that version of "neutral". You are correct: a lot of female characters are written badly! They are not given consistent or realistic motivations, or they're only given romantic plotlines where they pine or plot or fight with another female character over some guy, or they're forgotten for a long time and only brought back in when the story is having some kind of mandatory attendance event. A lot of the time, they are put in embarrassing situations like having to get rescued, or being wrong about everything, ever, or getting themselves killed. And they rarely, or never, get to have enough agency that they take the lead on anything or have any kind of shining moment of awesome. That does make it difficult to give a rat's ass, I understand!
BUT.
Look at your friends list. Are there fic writers on it?
Look at the comms you hang out in. Are there contributing fic writers there?
Look at yourself. Are you a fic writer?
If the answer to any of these three questions is "yes", then congratulations! You have all the tools necessary to fix the problem you are complaining about! Fic writers, by our very definition, subvert and transform the source material. We fix things! As I've said in the past, what we generally choose to fix is the lack of sex-having between two characters that we perceive to have amazing UST, but nevertheless, this is what we do. It is the whole point of fic: we take stuff and change it!
Fanfic is, in fact, the most amazing hobby in the whole wide world because of that very transformational aspect. We lay hands upon the canon and we bend it to our will! Canonically straight characters become gay, or bi, or trans, or omnisexual! Characters on shows that have never had a supernatural bent can still grow wings or fight zombies! Characters with no children can get pregnant! (Even if they're men! Maybe especially if they're men!) Contemporary characters can live in the Regency era! Characters from one show can interact with characters from another show! Hated characters can be rehabilitated, or killed! Beloved woobies can be elevated, or subjected to further torture!
And hey, amazing thing, female characters can be improved and made sympathetic and awesome! Male characters can be genderflipped, Starbuck-style! Female characters that are only mentioned by name and never shown can be introduced and used! Entirely new female characters can be created!*
*But, you say, MARY SUE. To which I say BULLSHIT. If you mean Mary Sue as in "poorly written", then don't write like a dumbass fourth grader and you'll be fine. If you mean Mary Sue as in "woman who is wish-fulfillment/insert for the writer", then don't write like a dumbass fourth grader, and also check to make sure you're not applying a different standard for female characters than for male characters because holy cow, the number of canonical male characters who fit that standard is just flippin' amazing.
In short, here is my beef with your logic: fanfic is capable of taking bigger and wackier leaps with the source material than merely writing a female character like a sympathetic human being. The only things standing in the way of you having a female character to call your own are the following:
1) Lack of imagination.
2) Poor writing ability.
3) Your priorities are elsewhere.
I have no problem with you having any of those problems. I sympathize with and understand all of them! They are FINE! There are worse things in the world, believe me. You're not going to get the stink-eye from me for saying "I don't think I'm a good enough writer to make up a female character who doesn't suck." I will probably just feel bad for you! Or, if you say "Look, I could probably spend some time rehabilitating this female character into someone I'd actually like to hang out with, but my priority right now is to spend some time coming up with a good reason for these two guys to have sex, because they are hot!" I will also understand that! We all have our priorities, and sexytimes in fic is a big priority in fandom. I have so totally been there!
Just don't, don't, do NOT give me the old saw about how the show isn't giving you enough to work with on female characters, because, given the context of the wacky creative power of fic, that just sounds silly. All you're really saying is that you don't think you can write it, or that you don't want to. So just save us all a lot of time, and say that, instead.
Here endeth the canned response! If you'd like to leave a message, press REPLY below. If you'd like to return to the original discussion, hit the BACK button on your browser. If you'd like to punch me in the face, hit the X button in the top right-hand corner of the tab or window in question [ETA: or left-hand corner, if you use a Mac!] to shut the browser and go outside for a walk. You'll feel better, I promise.
Crosspost from Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. Comments are disabled on LJ because LJ hates privacy, but you can comment on Dreamwidth. (Yes, even if you don't have a DW account!)
"I love female characters, really, seriously, I totally do! There just aren't any in my fandom worth writing about, you know?"
First off: yes, you have a point! It's more likely than not that, no matter what movie or TV show or book you're talking about, there's a male slant to the writing-- regardless of the gender of the actual writers, there is a tendency to think that the audience is male, since the nature of the patriarchy is that white straight young male = neutral and everything else is biased, so they write for that version of "neutral". You are correct: a lot of female characters are written badly! They are not given consistent or realistic motivations, or they're only given romantic plotlines where they pine or plot or fight with another female character over some guy, or they're forgotten for a long time and only brought back in when the story is having some kind of mandatory attendance event. A lot of the time, they are put in embarrassing situations like having to get rescued, or being wrong about everything, ever, or getting themselves killed. And they rarely, or never, get to have enough agency that they take the lead on anything or have any kind of shining moment of awesome. That does make it difficult to give a rat's ass, I understand!
BUT.
Look at your friends list. Are there fic writers on it?
Look at the comms you hang out in. Are there contributing fic writers there?
Look at yourself. Are you a fic writer?
If the answer to any of these three questions is "yes", then congratulations! You have all the tools necessary to fix the problem you are complaining about! Fic writers, by our very definition, subvert and transform the source material. We fix things! As I've said in the past, what we generally choose to fix is the lack of sex-having between two characters that we perceive to have amazing UST, but nevertheless, this is what we do. It is the whole point of fic: we take stuff and change it!
Fanfic is, in fact, the most amazing hobby in the whole wide world because of that very transformational aspect. We lay hands upon the canon and we bend it to our will! Canonically straight characters become gay, or bi, or trans, or omnisexual! Characters on shows that have never had a supernatural bent can still grow wings or fight zombies! Characters with no children can get pregnant! (Even if they're men! Maybe especially if they're men!) Contemporary characters can live in the Regency era! Characters from one show can interact with characters from another show! Hated characters can be rehabilitated, or killed! Beloved woobies can be elevated, or subjected to further torture!
And hey, amazing thing, female characters can be improved and made sympathetic and awesome! Male characters can be genderflipped, Starbuck-style! Female characters that are only mentioned by name and never shown can be introduced and used! Entirely new female characters can be created!*
*But, you say, MARY SUE. To which I say BULLSHIT. If you mean Mary Sue as in "poorly written", then don't write like a dumbass fourth grader and you'll be fine. If you mean Mary Sue as in "woman who is wish-fulfillment/insert for the writer", then don't write like a dumbass fourth grader, and also check to make sure you're not applying a different standard for female characters than for male characters because holy cow, the number of canonical male characters who fit that standard is just flippin' amazing.
In short, here is my beef with your logic: fanfic is capable of taking bigger and wackier leaps with the source material than merely writing a female character like a sympathetic human being. The only things standing in the way of you having a female character to call your own are the following:
1) Lack of imagination.
2) Poor writing ability.
3) Your priorities are elsewhere.
I have no problem with you having any of those problems. I sympathize with and understand all of them! They are FINE! There are worse things in the world, believe me. You're not going to get the stink-eye from me for saying "I don't think I'm a good enough writer to make up a female character who doesn't suck." I will probably just feel bad for you! Or, if you say "Look, I could probably spend some time rehabilitating this female character into someone I'd actually like to hang out with, but my priority right now is to spend some time coming up with a good reason for these two guys to have sex, because they are hot!" I will also understand that! We all have our priorities, and sexytimes in fic is a big priority in fandom. I have so totally been there!
Just don't, don't, do NOT give me the old saw about how the show isn't giving you enough to work with on female characters, because, given the context of the wacky creative power of fic, that just sounds silly. All you're really saying is that you don't think you can write it, or that you don't want to. So just save us all a lot of time, and say that, instead.
Here endeth the canned response! If you'd like to leave a message, press REPLY below. If you'd like to return to the original discussion, hit the BACK button on your browser. If you'd like to punch me in the face, hit the X button in the top right-hand corner of the tab or window in question [ETA: or left-hand corner, if you use a Mac!] to shut the browser and go outside for a walk. You'll feel better, I promise.
Crosspost from Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. Comments are disabled on LJ because LJ hates privacy, but you can comment on Dreamwidth. (Yes, even if you don't have a DW account!)