[ SECRET POST #2663 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2663 ⌋

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

01.


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02.
[Stardust]


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03. [posted twice]


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04.
[Elementary]


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05.
[El Goonish Shive]


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06.


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07. http://i62.tinypic.com/29cxt2a.jpg
[Hadaka Shitsuji, censored porn]


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08. http://i.imgur.com/XGwxaCR.jpg
[cosplay; no sex but definitely nsfw]


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09.


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10.


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11.


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12. [ns]


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13.


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14.



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15.


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16.
[Art by: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Lets-Sing-Together-338248375]


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17. [SPOILERS for Soul Eater]



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18. [SPOILERS for captain america: the winter soldier]
[WARNING for rape]



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19. [WARNING for suicide]



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20. [WARNING for incest, possible non-con]

















Notes:

Late at work again, sorry. Should be back to normal by next week!

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #380.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Fridging, and how not to do it

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty sure that's the definition of "fridging" but tbh, like most tropes, I don't think it's inherently bad. In a story, practically everything happens for the development of the protagonist, and death, more particularly, death of a female character, shouldn't be treated any different. It's just a "bad" trope because it's overdone, especially in stories that are sexist for more than one.

I'd recommend making sure your story passes the Bechdel test - make the female interact with other female characters not about men, and even have more developed female characters that don't die. Having female presence definitely, I think, reduces the sexist criticism of the "fridging" trope.

Maybe you could also have the female character in question have her own goals, have her directly affect the plot or at least some outcome in her own life, even if she does die. Try not to make her a "placeholder" female character. Give her personality, flaws, strengths, and so on. Develop her as though she isn't going to die.

Then, have the protagonist think about her more than himself. That seems obvious, but I think some of the "fridging" complaints are when male characters take a tragedy and make it all about them and their own feelings. Who else is affected by the female character's death? Etc.

But ultimately? Just write the story how you like. I think it's impossible to write a story that doesn't fall for some trope or other, and that's okay. To me, fridging isn't about the act itself but more about a trend, tied with a real societal problem. So if you feel confident that your writing isn't sexist, and you aren't sexist, just do what you like. Haters will hate, and most people probably have never heard of the trope in the first place.

Re: Fridging, and how not to do it

[feotakahari]

"Then, have the protagonist think about her more than himself. That seems obvious, but I think some of the 'fridging' complaints are when male characters take a tragedy and make it all about them and their own feelings. Who else is affected by the female character's death? Etc."

To be honest, I think this is actually the biggest issue--when the death or suffering of a female character is approached ENTIRELY in terms of her love interest's loss. Give him some affection for her as a character, not as a possession or an appendage, and you'll have avoided the worst of it.

Re: Fridging, and how not to do it

[a_potato]

Yeah, I've definitely been focused on doing that, but I'm not sure that it's enough. I worry that I ought to just take another route entirely.

Re: Fridging, and how not to do it

[feotakahari]

Hmm . . . It seems like you don't want to use a friend. Would a mentor do? Someone older and wiser whom the protagonist looked up to?

Re: Fridging, and how not to do it

[a_potato]

I was thinking of doing that. But as it stands, his mentors are female, so I still find myself running into the same problem, ha!

Honestly, I'm realizing that I probably just need to stop thinking so hard.

DA

[(Anonymous)]

I never quite understood how it's possible to make one's reaction to someone else's death not mostly about their own feelings. You can't do anything for the dead person and their feelings. The natural course of mourning is really about working through your own pain and your feelings about losing someone. That's real life, and I don't think fiction should ever imply that it's bad to make mourning all about your feelings just because a disproportionate amount of it is done by men at the expense of women.

Re: DA

[feotakahari]

Well, the logical extreme of it is when a female character gets raped, and the narrative is all over her boyfriend's angst at this happening to his girlfriend, but doesn't really bother with HER angst at what's been done to her. I think the way deaths of girlfriends are written can feel similar--like the girlfriend doesn't matter in and of herself, she only matters as a girlfriend, and as something the boyfriend has lost.

Re: Fridging, and how not to do it

[a_potato]

The story's got a fair amount of female characters, and the Bechdel test is passed and then some. The only instance I can think of that involves two women talking about a man concerns what to do with him (at that point, my main protagonist has run off in his madness and the individuals in his group are trying to a) figure out what's going on with him and b) develop a plan for tracking him down/bringing him in).

What you've suggested has been my approach. I've thought of ways to flesh her out and to strengthen her ties to the community. But I can't help but worry that that won't be enough. I also have a part of me that now wants her to live, and wants to kill someone else who's close to him, instead. But the problem there is that he's...mostly close to women, and my sense of his character is such that it wouldn't feel right to genderswap any of them.

(I should add that, if anyone is killed, he absolutely is going to feel for them as them. Much of what he goes through after his descent revolves around him struggling to feel outside of himself. I've thought of the moments where he can conceptualize what has happened as not being about him as being the most poignant and the most revealing when it comes to his madness. Part of why he is crazy is because he has lost true empathy).

In any case, it really is less about him (apart from it driving him mad) and more about what it means for the world overall and for the characters who have to stop what's happening. That has the feel of just shifting things, however. I wonder if it might just be better for me to think of some other way for him to lose it.