To me, part of the problem appears to be that a worryingly large number of fans appear to think that a 'strong, self-actualized woman' means one who is a bossy, casually physically abusive, misandrist uberbitch with anger management issues who nobody in their right mind would want to talk to, let alone spend any time with. Just check out the number of supposedly fiercely independent OFCs who act exactly like this and yet are praised by all comers, as well as by their authors, for being strong, independent women. Um, no. There's more than one kind of strength, and there's a big difference between being a strong person and being a bully.
Incidentally, I'm really getting sick of fans casually assuming that friendly, optimistic characters (of either gender, though the girls come in for far more flak than the boys do) are automatically idiots or doormats or both simply because they're friendly and generally inclined to look on the bright side. As if fandom didn't have enough antisocial walking wangst factories as it is!
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To me, part of the problem appears to be that a worryingly large number of fans appear to think that a 'strong, self-actualized woman' means one who is a bossy, casually physically abusive, misandrist uberbitch with anger management issues who nobody in their right mind would want to talk to, let alone spend any time with. Just check out the number of supposedly fiercely independent OFCs who act exactly like this and yet are praised by all comers, as well as by their authors, for being strong, independent women. Um, no. There's more than one kind of strength, and there's a big difference between being a strong person and being a bully.
Incidentally, I'm really getting sick of fans casually assuming that friendly, optimistic characters (of either gender, though the girls come in for far more flak than the boys do) are automatically idiots or doormats or both simply because they're friendly and generally inclined to look on the bright side. As if fandom didn't have enough antisocial walking wangst factories as it is!