"Female nations are rare" headcanon

[kecen]

I just read a kink meme fill. It was an interesting topic, I liked it until...

I read an offhand remark in the fill that female nations were rare, implying that almost all of the nations were male.

WTF.

Just because Himaruya couldn't draw girls when he created Hetalia doesn't mean female nation-tans are rare! In real life, too, most countries have

Comments

[parron]

I'm just waiting for the wank if Himaruya does make Africa or South America mostly female. "Why are all the third world nations girls!? That's sexist! Himaruya hates women!" Let's face it, it's going to happen.

Agreeing with most of the comments, by the way. Most of the canon nations are male. That is a fact, and it's stupid to try and say X Non-Canon Country is female because of genetics and population. Countries like Brazil and Botswana and India are like Schrödinger's cat nations-they can be either male or female and there's no way of knowing in Hetalia's canon until Himaruya draws them. So there's no use worrying about it until then, and until then we can say whatever we want in fanworks until it's proven wrong. Or right. Or dead, or alive.This also includes saying things like "females are rare" or "females outnumber males;" if every other nation in Hetalia's universe turns out to be a girl, that could be the case! Either can be taken and run with in fanworks, because there's no way to prove either statement wrong until canon

[arachnes_web]

Actually I blame my feminist theory background (in part) on my desire to see countries like India and Brazil as female, just for the potential parallel between the political power of women in the past few decades and the rise of these countries as NICs (newly industrialized countries).

But I do agree, some people will say that about Himaruya, forgetting or ignoring his stated reasons for making so many of the main characters male. *sigh*

[parron]

If you look at it like that, though, then doesn't making countries like Belgium (under Spanish/Dutch/French powers most of her life) and Hungary (Ottoman/HRE/Austria) "girls" make sense? It's kind of unpleasant, but historically speaking, the only role of a woman WAS to be subservient? Not that I think there's any sort of deep logic like that at play with Hetalia-of course there isn't-but clamoring for imperial countries to be women to make kick ass women characters is missing the point. Both an unpleasant historical one, and the much more important point of "dude, have you SEEN the girl characters in this series?" Hungary's the obvious one, but they're all pretty kick-ass IMO. A woman doesn't have to be an empire or the strongest military power in the world or whatever to be awesome.

[arachnes_web]

I wish he would write more Vietnam...first she was under Chinese domination and then was a French colony...but then she kicked France's ass and then she went toe-to-toe with America and won. (But I also want Himaruya to mention the fact that Liechtenstein is still technically at war with Prussia.)

Part of me thinks India must be a woman, because only a women would be sane enough to declare the Cold War stupid and nothing more than a "who's cock is bigger, America's or Russia's" contest and go off and create the non-aligned movement. But of course, that's me giving into gender stereotypes XD

[duosangel02]

I really don't see a problem with this because it's another person's headcanon. It's not an idea I would add to my own but I can't fault someone else for thinking like this. If you run across headcanon that you don't agree with then just ignore it.

I feel your pain about having to bail on the fanfic because of this though. It always sucks to run into something that makes you not like a fanfic anymore.

[tachyphrasia]

i'm callin' belarus

[anonymous]

"And implying they are rare also implies women are this precious resource that men have to fight over..."

what.