(no subject)

[demeter918]

There are plenty of slash writers who are very intolerant of het and het writers.

There. I said it.

I'm as much of a slash fan as the next person, but I absolutely abhor when certain slash fans start harping on the incompetancy of women, and ripping stereotypical characteristics apart in order to justify their own pairings and desires. I am very much a fan of women characters, whether cool or not. They can be a bossy know-it-all or be a devout pacifist; they're still awesome and they all have their own points.

Which gets me onto men. I absolutely adore seeing them kiss, suck, fuck, cuddle, gaze meaningfully, giggle, whatever. I love them whether they're sleeping with Lily, Hermione, Ginny, Draco, Ron, Seamus, Snape, Remus, Sriius, James, Dumbledore, Pansy, Padma, Hannah, Bloody Baron, Squid, anyone and everyone.

But being 'true' to slash does *not* mean you're automatically given the right to bash and laugh derisively at women. It absolutely does not mean certain women are eternal bitches and whores because certain men belong together. Ginny is not a screaming fangirl who's only in the path of Draco and Harry's true love. Just the same as Duo's not a 'faggot' who's in the way of Heero and Relena's true love.

Only immature (because you can be sixty and *still* immature or nine and more mature than the sixty year old) idiots will hate women because they think their devotion to slash can be proven better that way. Or that the world can exist without women, because, oh yes, men are better suited toward each other. It's even worse, since the slash community is comprised of mainly women (and girls), and the most virulent anti-women slashers are little girls who think they're open-minded, but are in reality, close-minded, prejudiced and in serious need of a wake-up call.

Harping on slash because of your own 'moral outrage' is homophobic trash and should be chucked out the window with all the other racist and prejudicial attitudes. Hating het because you love slash is the same thing as hating slash because you love het. It's all prejudice in one way or another.

There. I've had my fill for the day.

Next: Homophobia is bullshit

Comments

[simmysim.livejournal.com]

i agree whole heartedly-- that thought has been floating around the back of my mind for some time now, and i just haven't been able to put it into words.
most slash-writers don't have a clue how to write girls in their fanfics (which is hilarious), as most of the time, they've morphed the guys into girls, and the only area they have left over for the females is hysterical, screaming bi-otch.

i can't agree totally with: ...I absolutely adore seeing them kiss, suck, fuck, cuddle, gaze meaningfully, giggle, whatever. I love them whether they're sleeping with Lily, Hermione, Ginny, Draco, Ron, Seamus, Snape, Remus, [Sirius], James, Dumbledore, Pansy, Padma, Hannah, Bloody Baron, Squid, anyone and everyone. , just because the only reason i care about any form of internet fandom is because of slash. ^^; i can't sink my teeth into het, but i've never seen anything wrong or stupid with it. the idea is stupid bizarre.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

::quietly fangirls you::

[cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com]

*applause*

I just don't get it sometimes. Some people write slash. Some write het. Some even write both! Who cares either way? Read what you like, and don't read what you don't. Why complain? There's plenty of fic for everyone. Sigh. You are so smart.

[scuppernong.livejournal.com]

Fabulous post, Demeter, and oh so true.

*worships*

[lokechild.livejournal.com]

*rapes you* Amen, Demy-chan.

PS. Miss you.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Got here via lexin's friends page.

I used to say I disliked het. I still read more slash and gen than anything (often more gen to be honest) and have writen mostly slash with a smattering of femslash, het and gen.
My big objection to het was (is) the same as the reason that I'm moving away from reading slash in a lot of fandoms: the characters and what they say, do and feel don't relate to any real people I know (or how those people would be under the conditions of a particular fic's universe). What I used to find with het was that one or both out of a pairing failed to work to the point of throwing me out of a story, or if the characters worked then the sex did nothing for me.

I still think the thing to do is to look at what you dislike about something and then ask yourself if you could do better. If you can then write it, you might find that other people like your story for the same reasons you disliked the original.

Gina

[babydraco.livejournal.com]

My only problem with het is that so many of the female characters get twisted out of character when they're written in fan fic. How many Draco/Hermione fics have her completely losing her spine once she discovers she "loves" him?

I only find myself disliking a female character if she's not serving the story in any way and just there to make sure everyone knows the main male characters are Not Gay.

Since I identify with the woman during a love scene usually, I like the het couple to be a couple I can believe in. I cna't watch or read het sex unless I actually care about the pairing. I like Buffy/Spike, so if they wnated to do a whole episode of just Spuffy sex, I wouldn't mind. But if it were Buff/Riley I'd be in the bathroom throwing up.

[eleveninches.livejournal.com]

Haha. Was this directed at what I said? I don't hate het because of women, I dislike it because of its treatment of women. In case this has nothing to do what I wrote (my ego weeps), I agree whole-heartedly. I had a lot of problems with anime fandoms because the fangirls simply loathed the female characters, to the point where it was increasingly difficult to read fanfics. You pointed out Relena in my lj-- yeah, that's an absolutely perfect example. I mean, she was annoying and psychotic, but that's not why a lot of people disliked her; they thought she stood in the way of twu wuv between Heero and Duo, which we all know was a load of crap. Another series I think proves an interesting point is Gravitation. If Schuuichi was a girl, you know everyone would hate him, but since he was a boy the fangirls loved him to death. (Me? I wanted to kick him.)

When it comes to the HP fandom, IMHO, it's very difficult to find stories where the female characters behave realistically. Ginny is either pure and kind or fiesty with a heart of gold; Hermione tends to be written as someone who really, deep down, needs Harry's/Draco's/Ron's love to survive; Cho is often an evil bitch. (This is actually why I can't read fanfic R/Hr, despite it being my canon OTP.)

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

*laughs* This was written before I saw your post.

[eleveninches.livejournal.com]

Weiss Kreuz is another good example of female-hating. Sure, the female characters sucked, but often you'd hear people whining about so-and-so getting in the way of the yaoi rather than she was just plain annoying.

Re:

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

I actually liked the myriad of - admittedly sketchy characters - females. At least they kicked butt rather than sitting around looking pretty. *rubs hands together evilly*

Weiss Kreuz isn't the best anime, so that's to be expected, since the whole marketing is aimed at younger boys who will be impressed by their skills and how they have women around them in droves, and girls/women of all ages who lust after their 'prettiness' and perfection for slash/yaoi stories.

I tend to find those who hate female characters such as Amelia from Slayers or Shampoo from Ranma or Miaka from Fushigi Yuugi to be grasping at straws or simply making a lot of things up in order to give themselves reasons to hate female characters.

One oft-used reason for Amelia is the glomping of Zelgadis (oddly enough, in *this* case, it's the Lina/Zelgadis shippers who find Amelia intolerable) when throughout the series, she almost never actually glomped or even touched him without his permission. Etc. etc.