Strong women?
I was reading a post about Uhura's part on Star Trek and it touched some issues I pretty much have with all fandoms.
I think sometimes with the so called feminism people really wants to portray women as 'strong' on a twisted way, purging emotions and at the same time creating a series of double standards. Suddenly it's okay for a man to have emotional archs (Or be treated like sexual objects *cof*shirtless*cof*), but it's totally sexism when it's women. I think strips a woman of vulnerability, compassion, any form of love (Being for a child, a man, a woman) is in a way sexist as well. It's this manufactured, unreal, forced, version of what a woman should be.
So I quote the non Star Trek parts:
I know I am failing at Internet Feminism 101 here, but not every death of a female character is fridging, and not every love interest is "reduced" to being "nothing but" a love interest.
Absolutely there are hideous things done to female characters who exist solely to be catalysts for changes in male characters. But there's a lot of knee-jerk reactions these days that I don't think are supported by this particular text.
Look, I know that as women, we look for strong female characters. And we are upset when we don't get them. But I also think there is a lot of gender bias towards rejecting storylines we see as "stereotypically" female stories such as anything involving romantic love, and dismissing emotion-driven stories as not strong. And I think that's throwing the baby out with the bath water. I just don't see the ability to express love and compassion as any less strong as the ability to take or throw a punch. YMMV.
I want to marry this post (If you want to read it all, just ask me and I link it) and I wonder if my flist agree at some extent. I think people who knows me just knows I am not chauvinist. I don't cook because my grandmother say it was a women's thing to do, i took boxing lessons, I don't want to have kids, I am not particular crazy about getting married and I am not overly sappy on real life. I am not conventional, at the same time I don't find someone who wants all those things conformists.
I ship like crazy, yeah... so maybe this is why my views may be biased on love. But it's because I value heart no matter if you're a woman or a man and I think it's very brave to open up and love and accept being loved (Something I don't particularly do easily. In fact I still can't bring myself to accept I once was vulnerable because of the resident). So when the characters get emotional archs, no matter if it's about being lovers, or parents, or whatever, I applaud. This is why I loved Spock's arch about accepting feelings no matter if it was towards his mother or Uhura, Sawyer's road that culminate on jumping off a chopper because of love, Mark's storyline of growth because he finally found someone that loved him enough and made him realize his worth. I like to think that the same qualities of this storyline applies to women as well and it makes them strong, rather than weak.
Any different views on this matters?
I think sometimes with the so called feminism people really wants to portray women as 'strong' on a twisted way, purging emotions and at the same time creating a series of double standards. Suddenly it's okay for a man to have emotional archs (Or be treated like sexual objects *cof*shirtless*cof*), but it's totally sexism when it's women. I think strips a woman of vulnerability, compassion, any form of love (Being for a child, a man, a woman) is in a way sexist as well. It's this manufactured, unreal, forced, version of what a woman should be.
So I quote the non Star Trek parts:
I know I am failing at Internet Feminism 101 here, but not every death of a female character is fridging, and not every love interest is "reduced" to being "nothing but" a love interest.
Absolutely there are hideous things done to female characters who exist solely to be catalysts for changes in male characters. But there's a lot of knee-jerk reactions these days that I don't think are supported by this particular text.
Look, I know that as women, we look for strong female characters. And we are upset when we don't get them. But I also think there is a lot of gender bias towards rejecting storylines we see as "stereotypically" female stories such as anything involving romantic love, and dismissing emotion-driven stories as not strong. And I think that's throwing the baby out with the bath water. I just don't see the ability to express love and compassion as any less strong as the ability to take or throw a punch. YMMV.
I want to marry this post (If you want to read it all, just ask me and I link it) and I wonder if my flist agree at some extent. I think people who knows me just knows I am not chauvinist. I don't cook because my grandmother say it was a women's thing to do, i took boxing lessons, I don't want to have kids, I am not particular crazy about getting married and I am not overly sappy on real life. I am not conventional, at the same time I don't find someone who wants all those things conformists.
I ship like crazy, yeah... so maybe this is why my views may be biased on love. But it's because I value heart no matter if you're a woman or a man and I think it's very brave to open up and love and accept being loved (Something I don't particularly do easily. In fact I still can't bring myself to accept I once was vulnerable because of the resident). So when the characters get emotional archs, no matter if it's about being lovers, or parents, or whatever, I applaud. This is why I loved Spock's arch about accepting feelings no matter if it was towards his mother or Uhura, Sawyer's road that culminate on jumping off a chopper because of love, Mark's storyline of growth because he finally found someone that loved him enough and made him realize his worth. I like to think that the same qualities of this storyline applies to women as well and it makes them strong, rather than weak.
Any different views on this matters?