Double standards regarding female heroesboot_the_grimeJanuary 5 2011, 00:59:03 UTC
I loved your post, particularly the points about the double standards regarding female characters. I hope you don't mind if I copy paste my answer from Buffyforums.
This is something that I could call "protagonist burden" or "hero burden"... and even more precisely, "female protagonist burden" or "female hero burden". Notice that people tend to be much harsher to female characters and hold them to a much higher standard than men? Flawed heroines are rarer in fiction, and tend to elicit much more controversy and love/hate reactions. Male characters that are flawed and morally ambiguous will usually get almost universally embraced for being 'so cool', while female characters will get a lot more bashing and character-hate for the same things. See, for instance, Battlestar Galactica fandom reactions to Kara Thrace or Laura Roslin and Saul Tigh
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This is something that I could call "protagonist burden" or "hero burden"... and even more precisely, "female protagonist burden" or "female hero burden". Notice that people tend to be much harsher to female characters and hold them to a much higher standard than men? Flawed heroines are rarer in fiction, and tend to elicit much more controversy and love/hate reactions. Male characters that are flawed and morally ambiguous will usually get almost universally embraced for being 'so cool', while female characters will get a lot more bashing and character-hate for the same things. See, for instance, Battlestar Galactica fandom reactions to Kara Thrace or Laura Roslin and Saul Tigh ( ... )
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Also:
"Buffy lost all credibility as a heroine when she started sleeping with monsters"
Didn't that start in Surprise? With Angel? Talk about double standards.
she's not the funny and bubbly teenage heroine of season 1!
Yes. I feel almost like people expect her not to mature, which strikes me as missing the point in a big way.
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That was exactly my answer to that comment (which you'll get to see coming from the moralistic early seasons fans a lot).
But then I usually get a reply that it's not the same thing, because Angel had a soul, so he wasn't the same guy, etc.
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