[ SECRET POST #2007 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2007 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 111 secrets from Secret Submission Post #287.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - text secret ], [ 1 - empty image ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

15. http://i.imgur.com/0hWb9.jpg

[cherrycoloured.livejournal.com]

Prentiss ♥♥ Good for you!

[natural_blue_26.livejournal.com]

IKR? :DDD

[writerserenyty]

I'm glad you figured that out and looked into why you were doing that! Not a lot of people in fandom do that, so it's good that you did what you did.

And Pepper and Natasha are amazing <3

[(Anonymous)]

I kind of have mixed feelings about this.

It's good you're giving female characters a chance now. I struggled with the same thing and eventually got over it (it was Azumanga Daioh that did it for me), but you also shouldn't feel like you have to love every single female character ever or you're a gender traitor (which is an attitude I've noticed a lot among certain groups of fans). It's OK to not like things, characters included, even if those characters are female.

Does this make sense at all? I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a free country, you can like and dislike whoever you want, and don't let a certain obnoxious subgroup make you feel so bad about it that you feel like you have to pretend otherwise.

[intrigueing.livejournal.com]

Seconded. People are people, and it's perfectly natural for you to not like some people, and therefore not like some characters, whether they are female or not. Acting like you're obliged to like characters just for being female is quite dehumamizing and sexist.

However, it doesn't hurt to check yourself for a moment before declaring your hate to think about whether you hate a female character just because she's female. (And the same thing can be said for a male character, or a POC character, or an unattractive character, etc, if you have a habit of unfairly hating them).

[unicornherds]

I agree, but didn't really get that feel from the secret. I read it more as "I used to hate all ladies on sight, now I take them for what they are and realize some of them are made of awesome."

But you're right - people are allowed to have opinions and not every single female character is going to be awesome, and it's totally okay to dislike someone for genuine reasons.

[(Anonymous)]

No, no, no. It's not okay for women to dislike female characters because "it's a free country". It's okay because female characters are usually written by men who give them terrible motivations, awful personalities and ugly costumes that even runway models wouldn't wear.

[(Anonymous)]

the fact that this even needs to be said makes me shake my head.

[intrigueing.livejournal.com]

Well, good for you for realizing you were hating female characters unfairly and being able to get yourself to stop doing it. Unfortunately, there's a lot of unconscious conditioning in the media to a) make women feel its natural to hate and resent other women, and b) make people dislike female characters reflexively due to assuming all female characters will fall into the mold of the boring/irritating/flat female character stereotypes (I've seen this a few times with Natasha from the Avengers -- people assume beforehand she'll be token or eye-candy and therefore don't pay attention to her and miss the fact that she was absolutely vital to the movie's events. Not saying that someone is automatically wrong if they dislike Natasha for other reasons, but thinking she wasn't a big part of the plot means you definitely weren't paying attention).

Unfortunate and nasty, but understandable as long as you realize what you're doing and catch yourself.

[(Anonymous)]

Great selection of female characters. Emily and Natasha have very much been a part of my learning to reappreciate female characters and feel more okay about being female.

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's just easier for me, a female, to suspend my disbelief with male characters than with female ones. When you can't suspend your disbelief, you're not immersed, so you're more critical and more likely to dislike a character. Imo that's why I like more dudes than ladies. No internalised misogyny, etc.

Good for you though.

[littlestbirds]

This makes me really happy, because when I see women with so much internalized misogyny, about their bodies, about other women's achievements, I feel really powerless to change their minds.
I feel like these attitudes are probably formed so early in life that it's hard for people to recognize them, and I'm not very persuasive at the best of times. Maybe OP is talking more about her attitudes toward media, and not a general lack of female-positivity though, I guess it's not clear...

Same here

[(Anonymous)]

Same here, OP. For a long time I wouldn't give almost any femchar a chance, ESPECIALLY if she was a love interest to one of the guys I shipped together. Not to say that I never liked any female character, but that the ones I liked always had to be either super badass (though not in a cliche way) or eccentric as hell. I'm glad I noticed this 'cause now, a few years after I noticed how misogynistic I was being, I'm able to appreciate female characters more, even ones considered "normal" to my usual standards.

Also: I LOVE THE WOMEN YOU MENTIONED. I fell in complete love with Prentiss the first moment I laid eyes on her (though I love Garcia more <3). Speaking of Criminal Minds, I would have hated JJ's character "Before", but now I can honestly say that I sort of like her, and she's the kind of character that would have irritated the hell out of me in the old days. She's not my favorite, but I don't flinch whenever she opens her mouth, which is a real step forward for me.

I still fall in love with male characters more quickly than I do female characters (usually), I still tend to enjoy stories written from a guy's POV more, and still prefer slash to het/femmeslash, and I don't think that won't ever chance. But, it has a lot more to do with my own preferences and less to do with any discrimination/misogyny on my part, which is a huge improvement all around.

[(Anonymous)]

That's wonderful, OP. You admire some really amazing characters, too. I love every person on the Criminal Minds cast almost completely equally, tbh, but because we were deprived Emily for a while (and because we will again, though I loved that finale), I'm definitely protective. And Natasha was badass in Avengers. You have great taste, and it's big of you to admit how you were before.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sort of the opposite. I always favor female characters (which doesn't mean I all of them, my most hated character is a girl), but it's a bit harder for me to like men (unless they're the dorky type, I love dorks).
I really don't like it when I see other women hating on female characters just because, and it's good that you're past that attitude.

[castorochiaro]

Rock on, OP! It really scares me how many girls think they can't possibly be misogynist if they're girls, or are misogynist without even realizing it at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Question to all:

Is it misogynistic for me to hate Pepper Potts simply because I loathe Gwyneth Paltrow? I mean, I can see how Pepper should be awesome, but because I hate the woman who plays her so much I dislike the character too. Fandom has conditioned me to feel that any automatic hatred of a female character is most likely some kind of misogyny, so I'm struggling here.

[dreamwidthcansuckmytits]

major props to you figuring that out
& also being honest about it.

idk I feel like a lot of people who will 99% of time hate female characters come up with the dumbest excuses.Just be real and then

y'll get it. WHOO!

[(Anonymous)]

Good secret!

I have a confession: I have an original character, very strong, female, I sometimes write about. She's kickass. (I'm also female.)

Since I've been getting into male-slash fandom, I've been finding myself with fleeting thoughts about how female characters are a bit boring. And it sounds rather like what a lot of slashers say about female characters, nothing toxic or hateful, just ...disinterest & a discomfort & a distancing from one's own female body.

And then I have to re-acclimatise, re-identify myself in female-positive contexts before I get rid of that thought.

/csb

[dentedsky]

Me too TBH. Black Widow is awesome. Good for us \o/

[(Anonymous)]

The same thing happened to me. I couple of years ago, I realized how hateful and unfair I was to nearly every female character out there (not all of them, but most of them). I went back to some of the characters I hated so much to give them an objective chance and I approach every new thing that I watch by thinking of them all as characters, not male characters or female characters. Now, some of those characters I still don't like because of how they were written or acted, but some of them I've completely fallen in love with. And I'm so happy I was able to do that. Shows/movies/etc. have gotten so much more enjoyable once I stopped automatically thinking the worst of female characters.

And Pepper and Natasha are awesome. I don't know how the other one is though.

[hornpile]

I just find this secret amusing for the line "I thought mean things about them". Mean thoughts, eh? how could you!

[ariakas]

I was the opposite way, for a really long time. I'd judge male characters for being anything less than perfect, sterling examples of masculinity. Female characters could be afraid, have weaknesses, etc., but that's okay because they were women. Men should be better! Stronger!

...And then I realized how ridiculously sexist that was. Against both genders.

This is such a good story I'm worried it's fake

[(Anonymous)]

it's so rare for people to realize their own shortcomings, even me.
But if it is real, awesome.