[ SECRET POST #3031 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3031 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Going to be a late day, so early secrets!

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 035 secrets from Secret Submission Post #433.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - 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

[fscom]

01. http://i.imgur.com/fyWFoHR.png

[(Anonymous)]

I take everything that happens to female main characters in fic much more personally than what happens to male main characters, so I totally understand.

[(Anonymous)]

Same and a lot of the flowery speech given to them [ 'her lips tasted like candy and cinnamon, her jewel bright eyes closed slowly in passion...'] weirds me out to be honest.

[praetorian_guard]

It's definitely harder for me to read fic with female characters. I'll usually only do it with trusted authors. I don't particularly care how male characters are portrayed, but I'm very sensitive to what happens to women.

[(Anonymous)]

Nothing to be ashamed of, OP. I think many people share that issue. I know I used to feel that way for a long time, and it's one of the reasons why I exclusively read slash for twenty years.

[(Anonymous)]

I never knew I had a sadistic streak until finding slash.

I used to HATE reading het because of all the non con and general awfulness (violence against women etc). It was so weird to me because on some level, I enjoyed the idea of BDSM, but I've never read a story where a MAN was on the receiving side but then I discovered slash and everything fell into place >:)

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a pretty prevalent feeling, OP.

For a long time I felt this way not only when it came to reading, but I also felt self-conscious writing female characters, be it fanfic or original. There's always so much more scrutiny when it comes to how female characters are percieved and judged.

[(Anonymous)]

I hang out on the fringes of a porny art community, and I've had it pointed out to me that my characters are less idealized than a lot of artists'.

And I think, yeah, that's the point. If I'm doing something sexy, I want the reader to be able to identify with it. And in real life, I'm attracted to more "average" humans, and I think that's common.

[(Anonymous)]

I could have written this secret.

[elaminator]

I've somehow avoided this and I'm not sure how because I'm definitely a self-conscious person. When I'm reading fic or looking at art I get so engrossed in the characters and the pairing and the romance, so I'm not thinking, "Wow, this character is so much better looking than me."

But when people complain about how 'unattractive' celebrities (or hot characters in general, they can be animated) are I do tend to think, "Wow, what would you think of me?!"

[fishnchips]

Yes but the real question is: Would it have killed you to center that picture properly? (Sorry bit it's just enough off center to really bug me.)

[(Anonymous)]

That's completely understandable.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I don't feel intimidated by the female characters per se, but I do feel kind of forced to identify with them. I think I love slash so much because I'm not forced to identify with either character.

[philstar22]

The thing for me is female stereotypes. I can only read female centric fics that don't rely on them, so those are few and far between. It bothers me less with men.

[nightscale]

I can't say this is how it works for me since I'll read het and femslash as readily as slash, but I get what you mean. (I am somewhat picker with my het these days though, which I do think has come from getting older and gaining a weariness for some tropes used for m/f couples).

I just wish they weren't so often...perfect

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a bit different. I can read het, but only when the woman is the main character or a more prominent character than her partner. Because I find that otherwise there's a HUGE tendency to write her as "perfect" -- to give her a few superficial flaws but instead have her be a huge wish fulfillment character of "the perfect girlfriend" -- beautiful, smart, badass, desired by everyone.

And I just don't identify with that at all.

For example, it really helped me to ship Steve/Peggy a lot more hardcore once I started watching Agent Carter and Peggy was more in focus.

[(Anonymous)]

Really interesting from a psychological perspective that so many women need to distance themselves from the characters, men never have that problem. I think it has to be about more than poorly written female characters, they can't all be badly written.
I do think that for so long female characters have been written by male writers as an 'other' and have catered to the male gaze.

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty much the same here. I think it comes down to there being so few female characters in media I feel like I can relate to in any way at all, so it's easier for me to get outside of my gender and just fantasize about m/m relationships where I don't end up feeling inferior to some idealized, perfect/skinny/successful/beautiful media heroine I'm supposed to relate to but totally can't. (And you know, in real life, I've had a totally fine happy het relationship with a guy for over a decade. So it's not that. It's just my own personal issues with my own self acceptance and how it relates to other women in media. I just prefer m/m slash because I can leave all that baggage behind. And I'm okay with that.)

Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

Image: a crown, and the words “KEEP CALM AND READ SLASH FANFICTION”

Text: I only read m/m fics. It’s pathetic to admit but feel self-conscious when female characters are involved. The girls are always beautiful and it brings me down because I can’t help comparing myself to them.

[(Anonymous)]

idg why this is a secret? I only read m/m, it's no big deal.

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't submit this so I'm wondering why my feels are here. LOL

[(Anonymous)]

I READ M/M CUZ IT'S HOT.

[(Anonymous)]

PRECISELY THIS.

I read both het and slash, but when I read het with a really attractive female character (which is most times, given the casting of most shows and movies), I can't help thinking "wow, yeah, this is hot...and it'll never happen to me, becuase fucking look at me." When I read slash, that sort of comparison doesn't really happen. If I'm really invested in a pairing (het or slash), it's a lot less of a problem, but it's still there. Even when I'm watching a show, and am really invested in a female character, I find myself getting suuuuper jealous of her sometimes. It's sad.

uhm

[(Anonymous)]

Slash fans hate the femnale characters because they are jealous and don't want their fave hot beautiful guy to love them. News at 11!

Y'all are fetishizing gay men in that you don't really support gay relationships, you just self insert yourself in a male character and you think it's less threatening when you fave loves and gets porny with another man than if he fucked the woman whose only fault is being 'too beautiful'. A gay relationship is not equal to a heterosexual one to you, gay men are just used to placate your insecurities about fictional women who you think have a better romantic life than you.

The comments 'I can't relate to the female characters' are hypocrisy at best. I read slash female fans getting butthurt and entlitled when gay men hate slash fanfictions written by women because they can't relate to the characters and relationships you write.

[(Anonymous)]

You and everyone else in every fandom ever.