Feminist Fic Rant?
May. 10th, 2011 03:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fantastic_jackieBadfic. WHY do I keep reading?
Maybe it’s the burning question that sticks in my mind. So many people can’t be wrong, right? What am I missing? How can badfic garner so many reviews while brilliantly written stories can be ignored and completely overlooked?
WHY????
Today’s Rant Brought to You By: Women slapping men in fic.
Last night, I was reading a badfic. – It’s a couple years old in an undisclosed fandom. – I knew it was bad, but I kept reading. (Side Note: Why are the authors usually review hoarders, too? The authors’ notes will often start with, "I only got XX reviews for the last chapter, and I want/need more if you want me to continue." Secretly? -It's not really secret since I read fic in secret anyway.- I'm rooting that no one reviews so it dies right then along with my morbid curiosity.) Sure, there are different interests out there, and I'm not arguing that I'm some grand decider of what's good and what's not.
But when the supposed-to-be-composed female character started slapping the living daylights out of the written-to-be-LITERALLY-emotionally-retarded male character who sat there and took it expectantly, I became rather indignant. Then the chick, completely OOC, started wishing she could slap him some more in the next scene!
WHY is this acceptable behavior to so many people?
It’s not just badfic, either. It’s in published written works, TV shows, cartoons, Anime, movies, commercials, music videos… Why, for the love of all that is holy, does society seemingly believe it’s perfectly acceptable for a woman to strike a man???
If he’s abusing her or attempting to, THAT’S okay. If he said something especially foul, depending on the relationship and/or circumstance, it may be fine then as well. But then you have to think: Who would actually strike someone in that fashion? In reality, people are far more likely to push the person away, shake them, throw something, storm out. Even stand there in shocked silence. Actually hitting someone? It’s the first rule we all learned on the playground: no hitting. Slapping someone out of anger or hurt is a completely different, far more escalated reaction akin to throwing a punch. That action carries with it consequences that are NEVER observed in fic/books/shows, etc.
To top it all off, these pieces of fiction will often espouse the classic moral, “Violence isn’t the answer. Communication is the key.” – Except, apparently, when it’s a woman slapping a man. Because then the man will just take it like he's supposed to and apologize for getting her to that point.
Man-on-woman violence is never okay, to the extent that many internet forums have banned the word “rape” among others, and any mention of that word on LJ will often be followed by a righteously indignant poster worried about some unnamed person’s “trigger.”
I just don’t get it. Aren’t we supposed to want equality or something? How can hypocritical exceptions for woman-on-man violence exist if equality is the goal? If that’s what society is actually after, then it’s 180 degrees the opposite of equality.
---
Yeah. It seems random to you, but this has been bugging me for a REALLY long time. It's a good thing I haven't subjected y'all to the Dialogue and Body Language Rant in my mind... ;D
Maybe it’s the burning question that sticks in my mind. So many people can’t be wrong, right? What am I missing? How can badfic garner so many reviews while brilliantly written stories can be ignored and completely overlooked?
WHY????
Today’s Rant Brought to You By: Women slapping men in fic.
Last night, I was reading a badfic. – It’s a couple years old in an undisclosed fandom. – I knew it was bad, but I kept reading. (Side Note: Why are the authors usually review hoarders, too? The authors’ notes will often start with, "I only got XX reviews for the last chapter, and I want/need more if you want me to continue." Secretly? -It's not really secret since I read fic in secret anyway.- I'm rooting that no one reviews so it dies right then along with my morbid curiosity.) Sure, there are different interests out there, and I'm not arguing that I'm some grand decider of what's good and what's not.
But when the supposed-to-be-composed female character started slapping the living daylights out of the written-to-be-LITERALLY-emotionally-retarded male character who sat there and took it expectantly, I became rather indignant. Then the chick, completely OOC, started wishing she could slap him some more in the next scene!
WHY is this acceptable behavior to so many people?
It’s not just badfic, either. It’s in published written works, TV shows, cartoons, Anime, movies, commercials, music videos… Why, for the love of all that is holy, does society seemingly believe it’s perfectly acceptable for a woman to strike a man???
If he’s abusing her or attempting to, THAT’S okay. If he said something especially foul, depending on the relationship and/or circumstance, it may be fine then as well. But then you have to think: Who would actually strike someone in that fashion? In reality, people are far more likely to push the person away, shake them, throw something, storm out. Even stand there in shocked silence. Actually hitting someone? It’s the first rule we all learned on the playground: no hitting. Slapping someone out of anger or hurt is a completely different, far more escalated reaction akin to throwing a punch. That action carries with it consequences that are NEVER observed in fic/books/shows, etc.
To top it all off, these pieces of fiction will often espouse the classic moral, “Violence isn’t the answer. Communication is the key.” – Except, apparently, when it’s a woman slapping a man. Because then the man will just take it like he's supposed to and apologize for getting her to that point.
Man-on-woman violence is never okay, to the extent that many internet forums have banned the word “rape” among others, and any mention of that word on LJ will often be followed by a righteously indignant poster worried about some unnamed person’s “trigger.”
I just don’t get it. Aren’t we supposed to want equality or something? How can hypocritical exceptions for woman-on-man violence exist if equality is the goal? If that’s what society is actually after, then it’s 180 degrees the opposite of equality.
---
Yeah. It seems random to you, but this has been bugging me for a REALLY long time. It's a good thing I haven't subjected y'all to the Dialogue and Body Language Rant in my mind... ;D
