I'll ramble, and I'll rant, and I'll blow your house down
You know what really winds me up? People reading fic so they can gloat over a woman not getting the guy because (OMG!) he turns out to fancy Sirius or Draco or whoever. And other assorted instances of misogyny and sexism in fandom - of which I've seen plenty recently, both in fic and in people's behaviour. It really disturbs me the way some fandomers seem to despise female characters purely because they're not male.
This kind of behaviour also gives self-righteous wankers people ammunition when they feel like insulting fandom as a whole by referring to us in derogatory, misogynistic terms. The behaviour of a few idiots tars us all with the same brush, and this really pisses me off (not to mention the fact that it ignores the presence of men in fandom).
I do not like bitchiness. Some of my female friends can be bitchy; plenty are not. Quite a few of my male friends are bitchy, while some are not. Bitchiness is not a particularly female trait in my experience (I could tell plenty of tales about the times I've tried to mediate between allegedly adult male friends who had fallen out).
But the stereotype persists. And when we write our female characters as whiny or needy or flirty or bitchy, with no interesting traits and no self-respect; when they have no function in the story except to either get with the boys or watch while the boys get with one another; when we portray them merely as victims: we perpetuate that stereotype.
I suspect a lot of us see the results of this kind of stereotyping all the time in our everyday lives. I live in a pretty damn enlightened society, and I know I do.
So please, if you're female and writing a female character, think about what you're doing. Give her the same respect that you give to your male characters. Give her the respect that you want for yourself. I don't care if you're writing het, slash, femslash or gen - it makes no difference. Just don't give the sexists any more ammo.
Sorry, I'm probably not making much sense. Also, this is not what I intended to write when I opened the update page, but clearly I needed to vent.
This kind of behaviour also gives self-righteous wankers people ammunition when they feel like insulting fandom as a whole by referring to us in derogatory, misogynistic terms. The behaviour of a few idiots tars us all with the same brush, and this really pisses me off (not to mention the fact that it ignores the presence of men in fandom).
I do not like bitchiness. Some of my female friends can be bitchy; plenty are not. Quite a few of my male friends are bitchy, while some are not. Bitchiness is not a particularly female trait in my experience (I could tell plenty of tales about the times I've tried to mediate between allegedly adult male friends who had fallen out).
But the stereotype persists. And when we write our female characters as whiny or needy or flirty or bitchy, with no interesting traits and no self-respect; when they have no function in the story except to either get with the boys or watch while the boys get with one another; when we portray them merely as victims: we perpetuate that stereotype.
I suspect a lot of us see the results of this kind of stereotyping all the time in our everyday lives. I live in a pretty damn enlightened society, and I know I do.
So please, if you're female and writing a female character, think about what you're doing. Give her the same respect that you give to your male characters. Give her the respect that you want for yourself. I don't care if you're writing het, slash, femslash or gen - it makes no difference. Just don't give the sexists any more ammo.
Sorry, I'm probably not making much sense. Also, this is not what I intended to write when I opened the update page, but clearly I needed to vent.