[ SECRET POST #336 ]

[degrees.livejournal.com]

⌈ Secret Post #336 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Out again, Christmas shopping/making a buttload of cookies! You know what to do!

Last day to submit for next week!

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #048.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, [ 1 ] not!secret, [ 1 ] not!fandom, [ 1 ] repeat.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Saturday, December 7th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

OP of 37

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

I've made so many replies to this that I'm really sick of verifying my humanity.

They do not all exemplify the Yamato to a T, but they are a TYPE that is rooted in the Yamato. I never said these women were weak. I find them to be similar, cliched, and boring. Can I repeat that? I NEVER SAID THEY WERE WEAK. I wish people would stop putting words in my mouth! I NEVER SAID THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH BEING FEMININE.

I'm SAYING that THEY'RE ALL THE SAME and they're BORING. Ergh.

Re: OP of 37

[(Anonymous)]

Because bitchy badass fighter chicks aren't a dime a dozen at all.

Re: OP of 37

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

And not being the epitome of femininity automatically means you're a bitch, of course.

Re: OP of 37

[thano.livejournal.com]

Does that statement make warrior women less common? No. Implied argument has fallacious and tangential logic, preez try again.

Face it, you don't want a girly healer because they remind you too much of the YN stereotype (they are pretty terrible ruts to be stuck in, stereotypes: they make everything a million times less fun, and allowing yourself to be bothered by that has to get demoralizing), and we don't mind because we like their character more than the stereotype they may or may not represent. =/

I know where you're coming from. Heck, I like Shion myself for the very same reason you cited. But even Shion displays a touch of YN, by your definition -- happy cook, mild, mothering personality. Is she a YN? Hell no. =3 Really, sans the Strife, I would say she had a very Aerith-type personality, and look at how much flack you caught for her. Funny old world, yeah? I know you've gotten a ton of advice to be careful with your wording the next time around, so I just want to say good luck with what you're doing now!

Re: OP of 37

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

...I think you just nailed it for me. -.-;;

Ah, but Shion has such good angst. I do love the angst. It's hard to beat her angst, it really is.

Re: OP of 37

[fuyu]

No, you didn't say that, but that's the message that came through, if the number of people who came away with that impression is any indication. You never said they were boring or similar or cliched in the secret - the keywords you circled brought across a pretty strong feeling that you were criticizing them for being weak ("obeying" is a pretty strong weakness word in this context, especially), not samey or boring.

You put a lot of emphasis on the negativity of the yamato nadeshiko and, given only that and the images and "these women are the reason I write slash", the logical connection, reading the secret, is that you're calling them all yamato nadeshiko despite few of them qualifying and a lot of them cheerfully marching in the opposite direction.

It's really annoying to have your point misunderstood and I sympathize, but can you see how we could have gotten the wrong message? If you'd wanted to tell us you just find them similar and boring, well, it would have helped a lot if you'd said they were similar and boring instead of harping on the yamato nadeshiko and then not demonstrating how your train of thought followed from that.

(Also, given that, are there ANY women in Japanese media you don't find boring? In my experience, if all of those examples are boring and rooted in the yamato, then, well... have you ever found one that ISN'T?)

Re: OP of 37

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right. My point was totally obscured. I did a shitty job trying to get my message accross.

I actually kind of like the cutesy genki girl - Yuffie, Rikku, whatever. I know it's totally hypocritical to condemn one stereotype and like another, but... I don't know, they seem like more fun in general.

Re: OP of 37

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

Also, avoiding stereotypes altogether is also a very good thing. Original characterization FTW!

Re: OP of 37

[fuyu]

I've always been very fond of the genki girls myself. :) It's only recently I've begun to really appreciate the particular strengths and general character type of the very feminine staff-wielding girl, but I've loved Yuffie and Rikku since always. (Yuffie is still one of my top favorites from FF7.)

Avoiding stereotypes = yes! I actually think a couple of those girls you listed do that to some extent (mainly Yuna) but yes, it's always great when you can really buck the trend. When I'm making OCs, I AGONIZE about whether they're stereotypical. XD