The following may come off as bitchy and unreasonable, but it's my journal and I can post what I want. I'm not cutting it for the same reason. This is not directed at anyone on my flist in particular, and I don't mean to offend any of you (except for you over there -points and laughs-).
Some of you may have noticed that I'm getting more twitchy in relation to fandom of late. The reason for this is that I'm changing my outlooks on life, have been over the last few years, and fandom is not changing with me, and I'm suffering separation anxiety of sorts. My problem with fandom is that I'm tired of men, but I don't know how to get rid of them. Wow, that came out really '70s feminist, which is good and bad. I'm not a man-hater. I can and do relate to male characters. It's not that I want to get rid of men in fandom all together. I just want to read more about women, for a change.
I find it very frustrating that the part of fandom that I participate in is written by women and for women and about men. Yes, you can blame canon. The women on sci fi and fantasy shows tend to be less detailed, more inconsistent, and somewhat overshadowed a lot of the time. However, I've been noticing more and more that shows respond at least somewhat to fanish demands. TPTB what to give us what we want, because then we'll keep watching. I don't think that fandom wants more strong women. They don't.
Case point, Andromeda: the cast has an equal number of men and women, with a range of personalities. The women are generally as well written as the men. Basically the entire fandom concentrates on one male character. Except for a little het (which is still about that male character, really). All women are resoundingly ignored.
Case point, Ginny Weasley is a slut.
Then there's the whole issue of Mary Sues. Now I know I've rallied against them in the past (though more the sueification of canon characters), and I still don't like a lot of the bad writing that often goes with them, but the more I think about it, the more I'm in favour of them in principle. If for no other reason than it adds women to male driven canon or fanon. Shooting them down is beginning to seem more like attacking women than bad characters.
I remember reading a female fan commenting of Supernatural that she liked her shows to be a "sausage fest," and thinking, "Wow... freedom of opinion and all... but how can any woman say that?" I avoid more male populated areas of the 'Net like boards, but there seems to be this alarming patriarchal slant to even woman-dominated LJ.
I haven't talked about this a lot before because it makes me look like such a hypocrite. I mean, I look over my own sad few stories, and it's Aragorn and Denethor, Holmes and Watson, Jack and Stephen, Captain Jack Harkness, Commodore James Norrington, Bors and Lancelot, Logan's POV on Marie, and a OFC's POV on Dean and Sam. The last perhaps being the more woman-centric of the lot, and the most recent. And even if I changed that, I don't write much fiction. I'm lousy at meta. I watch shows like Hercules: TLJ and Supernatural, which are pretty much entirely about men. I'm not about to start a super awesome website like![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monkeycrackmary's Girl-Wonder.org (which is great to read and always makes me feel somewhat better, but isn't really about one of my fandoms). So it's not like I'm making a huge contribution to the feminist revolution here.
Put up or shut up, right?
The option of just deciding not to read things that are going to piss me off, and leaving fandom (though not LJ, of course) altogether, is beginning to seem like a good one. It seems like quitting, but I'm not sure what else to do.
It's just that keep hearing V -- of all people -- saying, "The truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country," and it won't let me be.
Posting this publicly, because it'll be fair warning for any poor shmuck who stumbles in.
Some of you may have noticed that I'm getting more twitchy in relation to fandom of late. The reason for this is that I'm changing my outlooks on life, have been over the last few years, and fandom is not changing with me, and I'm suffering separation anxiety of sorts. My problem with fandom is that I'm tired of men, but I don't know how to get rid of them. Wow, that came out really '70s feminist, which is good and bad. I'm not a man-hater. I can and do relate to male characters. It's not that I want to get rid of men in fandom all together. I just want to read more about women, for a change.
I find it very frustrating that the part of fandom that I participate in is written by women and for women and about men. Yes, you can blame canon. The women on sci fi and fantasy shows tend to be less detailed, more inconsistent, and somewhat overshadowed a lot of the time. However, I've been noticing more and more that shows respond at least somewhat to fanish demands. TPTB what to give us what we want, because then we'll keep watching. I don't think that fandom wants more strong women. They don't.
Case point, Andromeda: the cast has an equal number of men and women, with a range of personalities. The women are generally as well written as the men. Basically the entire fandom concentrates on one male character. Except for a little het (which is still about that male character, really). All women are resoundingly ignored.
Case point, Ginny Weasley is a slut.
Then there's the whole issue of Mary Sues. Now I know I've rallied against them in the past (though more the sueification of canon characters), and I still don't like a lot of the bad writing that often goes with them, but the more I think about it, the more I'm in favour of them in principle. If for no other reason than it adds women to male driven canon or fanon. Shooting them down is beginning to seem more like attacking women than bad characters.
I remember reading a female fan commenting of Supernatural that she liked her shows to be a "sausage fest," and thinking, "Wow... freedom of opinion and all... but how can any woman say that?" I avoid more male populated areas of the 'Net like boards, but there seems to be this alarming patriarchal slant to even woman-dominated LJ.
I haven't talked about this a lot before because it makes me look like such a hypocrite. I mean, I look over my own sad few stories, and it's Aragorn and Denethor, Holmes and Watson, Jack and Stephen, Captain Jack Harkness, Commodore James Norrington, Bors and Lancelot, Logan's POV on Marie, and a OFC's POV on Dean and Sam. The last perhaps being the more woman-centric of the lot, and the most recent. And even if I changed that, I don't write much fiction. I'm lousy at meta. I watch shows like Hercules: TLJ and Supernatural, which are pretty much entirely about men. I'm not about to start a super awesome website like
monkeycrackmary's Girl-Wonder.org (which is great to read and always makes me feel somewhat better, but isn't really about one of my fandoms). So it's not like I'm making a huge contribution to the feminist revolution here.Put up or shut up, right?
The option of just deciding not to read things that are going to piss me off, and leaving fandom (though not LJ, of course) altogether, is beginning to seem like a good one. It seems like quitting, but I'm not sure what else to do.
It's just that keep hearing V -- of all people -- saying, "The truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country," and it won't let me be.
Posting this publicly, because it'll be fair warning for any poor shmuck who stumbles in.
