Thanks for reading! I agree with pretty much everything you have to say in your first two paragraphs.
And I don't think a story has to have "strong" female characters (where the value of "strong" is empowerment of the ass-kicking variety); one can write a feminist story where a woman is at the mercy of patriarchal men, as long as I get a sense from the author that she doesn't consider that to be a good thing. I got the opposite from Twilight.
[winces] Whoops. I probably should have used a word other than "strong" because, yeah, I get tired of the "supercilious badass action girl" trope that "strong" tends to be joined with, too. I do believe what especially American media needs is a greater variety of female characters. Plus, character weaknesses are interesting, so long as the character isn't considered weak/selfish/stupid/whatever because she's a woman, you know?
From all the interviews I've read with Meyer I don't think she gets that, to be honest. Her defense of her work seems to be not much more than, "Feminists just hate moms!" and ... blech.
The question of what to do with canon female characters in slash fanfic is also a fun one, because I don't think that fic authors get to dodge that one, even if what one is writing is solely for the purpose of turning yourself/others on. (The out of, "well, the female characters aren't well-written" isn't an excuse either.)
Yeah, I tend to like the female characters in a story. (Actually, the only pairing-I-like-because-I-hate-one-half-of-the-pairing-in-canon is a female/female couple.) I don't know if I've done totally stellar at integrating the canon females into slash stories although I do try my best and it is something I think about a lot.
I'm equally annoyed by the female half of the canon couple being "Oh my boyfriend's gay now? Yay, I will dance at his gay wedding!" as I am by her suddenly becoming a relentless homophobic caricature.
I haven't seen much of that, but [laughs!]. I do think there's a sad tendency for fanfic communities, when told not to do something, go 180. I remember in one community where I used to write fanfic, after the community started to integrate the "no Mary Sues" direction, a lot of people started creating fictional characters that were good at NOTHING. It was very bizarre.
For me, feminist fanfic, slash or otherwise, has to take the idea of the radical notion that women are people and apply it.
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Date: 2009-01-04 06:50 pm (UTC)And I don't think a story has to have "strong" female characters (where the value of "strong" is empowerment of the ass-kicking variety); one can write a feminist story where a woman is at the mercy of patriarchal men, as long as I get a sense from the author that she doesn't consider that to be a good thing. I got the opposite from Twilight.
[winces] Whoops. I probably should have used a word other than "strong" because, yeah, I get tired of the "supercilious badass action girl" trope that "strong" tends to be joined with, too. I do believe what especially American media needs is a greater variety of female characters. Plus, character weaknesses are interesting, so long as the character isn't considered weak/selfish/stupid/whatever because she's a woman, you know?
From all the interviews I've read with Meyer I don't think she gets that, to be honest. Her defense of her work seems to be not much more than, "Feminists just hate moms!" and ... blech.
The question of what to do with canon female characters in slash fanfic is also a fun one, because I don't think that fic authors get to dodge that one, even if what one is writing is solely for the purpose of turning yourself/others on. (The out of, "well, the female characters aren't well-written" isn't an excuse either.)
Yeah, I tend to like the female characters in a story. (Actually, the only pairing-I-like-because-I-hate-one-half-of-the-pairing-in-canon is a female/female couple.) I don't know if I've done totally stellar at integrating the canon females into slash stories although I do try my best and it is something I think about a lot.
I'm equally annoyed by the female half of the canon couple being "Oh my boyfriend's gay now? Yay, I will dance at his gay wedding!" as I am by her suddenly becoming a relentless homophobic caricature.
I haven't seen much of that, but [laughs!]. I do think there's a sad tendency for fanfic communities, when told not to do something, go 180. I remember in one community where I used to write fanfic, after the community started to integrate the "no Mary Sues" direction, a lot of people started creating fictional characters that were good at NOTHING. It was very bizarre.
For me, feminist fanfic, slash or otherwise, has to take the idea of the radical notion that women are people and apply it.
Actually, wait, that goes for all fiction.
Absolutely.