[ SECRET POST #2881 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2881 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 076 secrets from Secret Submission Post #412.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Go Go actually reminded me of a friend of mine, both in looks and personality. I better go tell my friend to stop being such a stereotype.

[(Anonymous)]

You're trying too hard.

[(Anonymous)]

And you're not trying hard enough because I have no idea what you're trying to say.

[(Anonymous)]

I find this is a problem a lot of the times when it comes to a certain type of"tough/badass" female character. They get called "boys with boobs" or "walking stereotypes" or "try-hards," but the thing is, there are actually women out there like them. And people don't seem to realize that by saying, "this character doesn't truly represent women" and "this character isn't a real woman," they're saying that those real life women aren't Woman Enough. They're policing womanhood as much as anyone else.

It's like the criticisms around Starbuck when the BSG reboot first came out. There were people saying she was a sexist character because "women aren't like that. She was written by men who don't get how women really are; they just took a man and gave her female genitalia." But, thing is -- I know a lot of military women who are just like her. It's like, has it ever occurred to you that there isn't a single template for Woman?

[othellia]

There were people saying she was a sexist character because "women aren't like that.

Are you serious? I mean, I know you've got your basic problems of writers going "oh this is a ~female~ character, so obviously she needs to have a ~female~ subplot about getting pregnant/balancing work with home life/not being taken seriously by her comrades" before they write, but I didn't know people actually reverse-engineered it to go "this character doesn't have one of these overdone subplots so she's not a real ~female~ character." :\

[(Anonymous)]

DA I saw it too. Tough female characters are called "men with boobs" and people say the writers don't understand how a woman would be in that situation. Well, maybe *this* particular woman does! There's 3.5 billion of us, that's a fair bit of variation.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Yeah, I'm completely serious.

I wish I knew where to find the huge critique of BSG that was written by a female writer back in the day. It had one of the most ridiculous analyses of Starbuck I've ever seen (for example, the fact that she didn't immediately jump into bed with Apollo, the brother of her dead fiance (because obviously a REAL woman would have no hang-ups about that amiright), showed that she was the Madonna half of the Madonna/Whore dichotomy. Also, the fact that she had short hair and wore "masculine" clothing (the same clothing that every other person, male or female, was wearing on the ship) showed that she was just a "boy with boobs"). You can probably tell how upset it made me by the fact that I'm still talking about it today, and it was so many years ago that I have no clue how to track it down. It's not the only time I've seen the attitude that writing women with "masculine" traits was a problem (there's been some semi-high-profile stuff about it in the past year or so, though fuck if I can remember the people who said it), but it was one of the worst.

[meishuu]

Unfortunately this is too common. To be honest I'm tired of it, so I try to ignore this type of criticism.

If someone uses the "men-with-boobs" line I just ignore them and think they are full of bullshit.

[(Anonymous)]

Female characters just can't win; it's sad.

Touch woman? "Man with boobs!"
Soft woman? "Weak woman setting feminism back 50 years!"
Competent woman? "Mary-sue!"
Assertive woman? "Bitch!"
Passive woman? "Boring character with no personality setting feminism back 50 years!"

[meishuu]

Well, I certainly don't want to read/watch passive characters (male or female) because I find them boring, but other than that, this is pretty much spot on. No matter how you write a female character, people are going to shit on her for the smallest things.

Nowadays I just enjoy my protagonist female characters, and fuck the haters.

[(Anonymous)]

This whole discussion reminds me of a "Strong Female Character" flowchart that made the rounds a few years back. It basically took about 70+ different female characters, boiled them down to a single trope and declared that there were no "strong female characters".

[(Anonymous)]

Wait, the "men with boobs" thing is an actual thing? I thought it was just something dudes said when they were getting self-righteous about straw feminists.

[meishuu]

Yeah, I have seen being used by "feminists", female and male fans. Apparently if you don't conform to femininity you're just a misogynist and trying to be a maaaaan.

[(Anonymous)]

Google 'Gynecomastia.'

[(Anonymous)]

The first time I came across the phrase, it was being used by a woman feminist.

[(Anonymous)]

+IA It's such a bullshit criticism because women like that do exist. Seems more like policing women, which is nothing surprising to be honest.