with my rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly, i'm so deep

[walkingshadow]

smallbeer is asking how would you define "manpain" in a fannish context? for the ultimate purpose of creating a Fanlore entry.

Based on responses in the comments, I have made a flowchart to help us out! Click the thumbnail for the full-size version.

How To Tell If Your Pain is ~Manpain~

Comments

[sockkpuppett]

*right click*
*save*

Excellent! :)

[walkingshadow]

*g* Thanks!

[dessert_first]

Oh, your icon!! *loves Gene Kelly beyond all reason*

[meinnim]

I love this so much.

One crystalline tear at a time / only during sweeps week. Ha! Such manpain.

[walkingshadow]

:D

Dean Winchester? Check! Leroy Jethro Gibbs? Check!

[leksa]

Hee. Also: hee. And: hee.

[walkingshadow]

Heh, that was pretty much how I felt the entire time I was making it.

[marinarusalka]

No, I am a costumed superhero.

Hee. It's funny because it's true.

[elspethdixon]

Hey, some superheroes don't have manpain. Okay, most of them are women or Steve Rogers or the Marvel Adventures version of a character, but they exist!

[marinarusalka]

Yeah, there are a few superheroes whose superheroing isn't the result of their manpainful trauma. I think they exist mainly to throw the rest into ever more stark (hah!) contrast.

[elspethdixon]

It's one thing I like about Jan and therefore hate about Ult-Wasp -- 616!Jan decided that it would be awesome to be a superhero, so she made her boyfriend give her powers, which she then proceeded to have no angst whatsoever about at any point in canon (granted, she got a lot of spillover from Hank's issues, but they're not Jan's issues and she doesn't wallow over them. Instead, she tells him she's not going to let him treat her that way and walks out).

Contrast that to Rogue, who is one of my favorite X-Men, but who can do the manpain wallow to rival the best of them, despite being a woman ("No one can ever touch me! Woe! Which means I can't ever have a relationship! Because it's not like there are a laundry list of really obvious ways to have sex without skin-on-skin contact! My pain is a deep and martyrlike one!!!!").

[chrismm]

Here from smallbeer's LJ, and I just needed to say: That is the best flow chart ever. Even better than the XKCD flow chart about understanding flow charts (http://xkcd.com/518/), which was previously the high water mark, in my opinion, anyway. :D

[peoppenheimer]

I loved the tech support flowchart, but missed the flowchart flowchart. Thanks for the meta!

[walkingshadow]

Wow, I never dreamed I would ever be mentioned in the same breath as XKCD. That is high praise indeed! Actually, I bet all flowcharts would benefit from terminating in "let's go drink."

[chrismm]

I bet all flowcharts would benefit from terminating in "let's go drink."

Very true. Although I'm also fond of the termination: "Listen. I hate you."

:D Too many years in retail when I was young, and computer/network support in the intervening years, I suppose.